The Bahamas

Here we go! I am going to break these posts up into sections so it is not so overwhelming and I will include lots of pictures cuz that's my favorite thing about blogs. Let me state my disclaimer, which is a bit negative so that the rest of the post can include only the fun stuff. Florida is definitely not Las Vegas and we were surprised at how not tourist-friendly we found almost everything. Made us appreciate home. :) Anyway, back to the good stuff. We flew into Fort Lauderdale arriving Monday morning around 6:30-7am (red eyes would be great if the seats were comfortable and we weren't cramped so we could sleep, alas no such luck). We planned on taking a shuttle or a bus or train to get to the port of Miami, but there was minimal info about any of these, only a spot to get a Taxi. We ended up calling the cruise line and getting on their shuttle which left at 10:30 so yes the first few hours of our vacation we sat in baggage claim. It was funny, and I am so glad Brady packed some peanut butter sandwiches for us to snack on or we would have been in trouble. Then we were off to start our cruise. We had a great time. The Bahamas is a beautiful place. However, again not great access to information. It was not quite what I expected. The humidity I loved and miss, but to put it plainly Hawaii is better. The beaches are equal in both places though. I loved the color of the water and the sand in the Bahamas. So a piece of advise, go to the Bahamas before Hawaii so you can work up. :) I will get to the good stuff now! (the pics)

Shuffle board anyone?

Our first stop was to Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. We went on a kayak trip in Lucayan National Park through a river lined with mangroves. There were places where there was a complete canopy. This was one of my favorite things we did. For one, I was better at steering than Brady, I eventually made him stop helping me because every time he would try we ended up in the trees, and two we ended the excursion here at one of the top5 beaches in the world, Gold Rock Beach. The pictures do not do it justice. This was the perfect beach. It was shallow so far out. The water was a bit cold at first but once used to it I could stay in there all day! This was our favorite day of the cruise.

Not all fun and games though; forget to re-apply sunscreen and you pay the price (at least if you are white)

I didn't let a super sunburn slow me down though. The next day in Nassau (the capital) we grabbed a map and made our way through the city to Fort Charlotte. It took probably almost 2hours being that the map was not very good and a lot of the streets did not go through all the way. We made it though and had ourselves a grand adventure. I love maps and finding my way so I really loved being lost and figuring out where to go. We also found a cathedral and art museum along the way. That was our attempt to be locals. The way back was much easier; we figured out where we made the wrong turn. We just walked down the street along the water. We stopped at a beach and this woman sold me a "circle of life" necklace. As she put it on she blessed me to have twins, a boy and a girl thus completing the circle of life. :) We will see if she is right. She gave Brady a lecture and told him it is time for him to stop messing around and have kids. It was funny. Bahamians really love family and lots of kids. It seemed like everyone we met either came from a big family or had one. Our guide the first day told us kids makes a happy home. Parents, is he right? We also went to Paradise Island and chilled at the beach. It was beautiful!

The third day we went to Great Stirrup Cay which is a small island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines. We snorkeled there and the water was pretty, but there was practically the entire boat on that one beach so it was pretty crowded. I will have to post underwater pictures once we get them back. Are you ready for Florida?!