So, we are back, and that was the most AMAZING trip ever!! Here is a brief lowdown of what we did, because there was just so much that everyone would get bored and this entry would be huge. First we got to Nassau, and stayed at a resort there. I did get to fulfill my dream of swimming with dolphins the second day we were at Nassau! It was a blast. I was in the "Trainer for a Day" program, so I got to do all sorts of behind the scenes things like tour the lab, help prepare fish, see the brand new baby dolphin, and of course swim with them. Nathan got to watch and record the swimming part, but he got to go to have a massage while I was behind scenes. This wasn't the place we stayed at in Nassau, it was a little too expensive, but it was fun being there.
This is me with Jill, the bottlenose dolphin at Dolphin Cay Atlantis on Nassau.
Some of the Atlantis resort, that middle part is a suit that rents out for $25,000 a night! Won't be staying there soon:) But it is really a beautiful resort.
This is the view from our room at the Wyndham Resort, it was gorgeous. We stayed there the first two nights/three days.
Then we went by ferry to Eleuthera, a more rural island that is not very wide at all (2miles), but 100 miles long. It is where the British royal family has a beach home, though that was so full of security that we didn't see it at all. Our house that we rented was right on it's own private beach, and we rented a car from the caretaker of the house so that we could go explore different parts each day. We found a few favorite beaches, including Club Med Beach, Ten Bay Beach, and Twin Cove Beach besides our own beach. Each offered something different, above is a picture of me resting after getting sea sick from snorkeling(my motion sickness is triggered very easily apparently) at Ten Bay. This beach had more conch shells than you could shake a stick at, and clear, shallow water for a long ways out.
We had to go to da fish fry of course, where we had fresh Grouper fish and conch fritters, which are the little shellfish found in conch shells made into balls battered and fried, my favorite.
Nathan loved looking to see who was at beaches down the way from ours. He would check it out through the telescope, and we could see the few people around. It was the off season though in the Bahamas, so even "popular" beaches never had people. It was a perfect retreat for the two of us.
We opened a coconut! Though this one was going bad a little bit, and it wasn't as good to eat, but it was still neat to open it.
This is the right half of our beach, it goes up to the rocks that were impassable because they were "razor sharp". The part that juts out from the mainland is Twin Cove, where we took the glass bottomed kayak to one day. This was the beach that Nathan liked to see if there were people on with the telescope. We couldn't see many fish from the kayak, which was probably a good thing, because this area had more fish than any other, and even on the very last day of snorkeling we saw a 7' shark only about ten feet in front of us only 20yards off shore!! Let's just say I've never swam so fast in my entire life to get back to shore, and luckily it was on the very last day too.
This is Nathan snorkeling just off our shore, and I'm taking the picture from our porch. Just gorgeous water, and tons of fish! That is about how far we where when we saw the shark. There were also beautiful parrot fish, angelfish, and lots of others that I don't know the names too. I was really scared of snorkeling as I'm afraid of fish touching me, and really afraid of sharks. I would always hold Nathan's hand, and finally when I was feeling confident and let go of his hand was when we saw it.
This was our favorite beach, Club Med. We came back here four of our days. The sand was hard so we loved playing frisbee here as well. The water was really clear too. Nathan had a school of fish follow him in the water when he was snorkeling here one day. We also saw a 5' shark here when we were on shore. It was catching waves, so we followed for awhile, until it caught a wave and came up into water that was just under my knee, and his fins and everything was out of the water. I screamed, but I just scared him as much as he scared me. It was still a neat experience, and they aren't the dangerous kind around here. They are more interested in eating the abundant fish, and the water is clear so they wouldn't bite thinking you were a fish. Anyway, check out that sand and the sky! We loved that beach!
On another day a Club Med. These were our "beach friends". These dogs had collars, so we are sure they lived close, but they were there everyday, and they liked just walking along the beach with us, and we liked watching them play and chase crabs. They really knew what it meant to relax in the Bahamas, so we followed cue.
On our last night, all dressed up going out to dinner. This was the car that we rented. We think that it was a condemed car from Japan because of the Japanese bumpersticker on it, and it was British so the stearing was on the right side, and we had to drive on the left side of the street. Pretty interesting. We were just grateful that this car started each time, it had obvioulsly seen better days!
Greetings from the Bahamas! I think this picture will be our Christmas Card picture this year. Check out that sunset! This was at Governor's Harbor, on Eluethera, on our last night there. Governor's Harbor was the town that we stayed at, though on a private house on the beach on the Atlantic side. This was on the Caribbean side, which was calmer, but also more salty.
Conch fritters on our last night on Eluethera at the Buccanear Club. They were huge, and soooo good. I love those things!
Nathan utilizing the outside shower. He loved it and never used the inside one. This obviously shows just how private this place was.
All in all the best vacation ever, and we'll try to do it again as soon as we have enough Delta miles again. Thanks to my wonderful husband putting so much research and planning into our best, and much needed trip!
