Vacation Day 3: The Bahamas

Here is the continued story about our recent family vacation on a cruise. . .

(4/16/12) Monday

I woke up around 7:00 a.m. this morning. We’re in Nassau, Bahamas! I jumped out of bed to go out on the balcony.

Do you see the hotel with the blue roof? That’s the hotel where Dad and Ben stayed when they came here on a missions trip!

After morning devotions, we all met up for breakfast at the Windjammer. I had delicious corned beef hash, an omelet, fresh fruit, yogurt, and a donut.

On our way back to our room, we stopped to examine a model of the Allure (the ship we were on.) It’s so realistic and detailed!

We freshened up, and then headed for sight-seeing on the island!

When we got off the ship, we could see the Atlantis resort. It’s amazing how much people pay to stay in that hotel.

The buildings in Nassau were all very colorful. This was the building at the pier we had to go through to enter the city.

Our first stop was the Nassau Straw Market. Dad and Ben shopped here for souvenirs on their last trip here.

The market here was really big and fairly crowded. The boys said that it has actually been remodeled since they were there, and that it was a lot more spacious now. I can hardly imagine what it was like before!

As we walked by all the stalls, I noticed that they were all relatively the same. We saw hundreds of T-shirts, carved wooden figures, woven straw bags, purses, and jewelry. I ended up bartering for a shell necklace and earring set as my souvenir.

Roma had quite a scare while we were at the straw market. She realized that she had her camera case in her purse, but her camera was nowhere to be found. Dad took her back through the market to try to find where she may have set it. My heart sank for her. I couldn’t imagine her finding it with so many people and so many items for sale there. I know the terrible feeling of misplacing something of great value!

We were all so delighted and breathed a prayer of thanks when she came back, camera in hand. She had set it down while she made a purchase, and the Bahamian lady at the stall held onto it for her. We’re very grateful for her honesty!

After finding the camera, we walked around more of the town. This is the government building in downtown Nassau. Can you recognize their ties to Britain, based on the picture on the front of the building?

When we stopped at a store to buy our favorite “Conchy Joe’s” Bahamian hot sauce, we heard a saxophone playing “Ancient of Days.” We discovered this man on the street, who started playing “Love Lifted Me” as we walked by. The boys decided to tip him because they loved his selection of music!

After a few hours, we walked back to the ship to get lunch. I found this picture humorous because it appears that the stroller is pushing itself. J My nephew, Little J, is behind the stroller helping it along!

I am still amazed at the size of the ship! It is truly a vessel of gigantic proportions!

At the Windjammer, I had a burger with potato salad, Waldorf salad, and French fries.

The desserts on the ship were irresistible! *Let me state for the record that I would NOT recommend taking any cues from our dietary choices on the ship! We all splurged this week, and we’re working hard to get back to a normal, healthy, and balanced diet now* But back to the raving: the fruit tart was one of the best I’ve ever eaten! The fruit was really fresh, and I loved the variety of colors!

We went back up to our rooms to digest and change to swimming attire. I never got tired of looking out at the water. The color was such a vivid, cerulean blue. Despite the fact that I live in a state surrounded by fresh water lakes, their color doesn’t even come close to that of the Caribbean Sea!

We went down to the pool decks and had our choice between about a dozen swimming pools! It was sunny, but windy, so most of the time we stayed in the hot tubs. We had to cut our swimming short to go back upstairs and prepare for the formal dinner that evening!

Aren’t these three the cutest little guys you’ve ever seen? They all looked so handsome in their suits!

We all dressed up in our finest for the Captain’s dinner. While we were gussied up, we had a family photo taken.

Our family photo taken by the studio on the ship.

At dinner, we kids had sparkling grape juice to toast our Grandparents’ 50 years of marriage!

Even though it was only the second night on the ship, our waiter Mr. K and his assistant Mrs. M already knew us all by name! They’re really nice. I enjoyed another sourdough roll as an appetizer.

My first course was a delicious lobster bisque. You’ll probably notice that I went for some of the exotic choices over the week. I tried to order things that I normally wouldn’t be able to eat anywhere else!

Next was my main course: roasted duck breast with black currant sauce, red cabbage, snow peas, and fried mashed potato sticks. It was scrumptious!

For dessert I enjoyed Chocolate Soufflé with Espresso Cream. It was good, even though I don’t normally like coffee.

I had a bit of a headache during dinner from the rocking of the boat. This was probably the roughest night in regards to waves and motion. But once I started moving around, I didn’t notice the rocking as much and didn’t feel seasick at all during the rest of the cruise.

We decided to attend the Captain’s Reception on the Royal Promenade. We had the opportunity to actually meet the Captain of the ship and have our photo taken with him!

He’s a really nice guy, and very friendly. He seems to really enjoy interacting with the passengers on the ship.

After meeting him, we enjoyed refreshments and live band music.

The boys had a little too much fun dancing to the Big Band style music! J They attracted quite an audience!

The Captain went up on the “bridge stage” to give a Welcome speech to all the guests. He introduced his Heads of Staff to everyone as well.

After an exciting day filled with activity, we retired to our staterooms. We had a short pow-wow to discuss what we wanted to do the next day. Our family needs some structure to our day, even on vacation. J We decided to make a bucket list of all the things we wanted to do and places we wanted to eat on the ship during the week.

Around 11:00 p.m., we all turned in. We were gently rocked to sleep by the movement of the boat. Tomorrow we will have a full day on the ship while we cruise to our next port of call!

Vacation Day 1: Traveling to Florida

Vacation Day 2: Boarding the Ship