For the kids’ second spring break, Adam got online and searched for cheap tickets we could buy with frequent flier miles — any destination in the world.  We ended up choosing Nassau, Bahamas.  It’s only a 2 hour flight from Atlanta with no time zone change — perfect for a quick 5-day getaway to enjoy some Slug Life.  Our plan is to park ourselves in beach chairs at a rental house and not move much.

We found a fantastic house right on the ocean through Airbnb.

03 April 2016, Sunday

The house was designed to take full advantage of the fantastic weather and gorgeous views.  Nearly every room opens up to the outdoors and a great deal of the living space is outside.

A rare shot of Adam relaxing.  This covered porch has a view of the ocean (as reflected in the bedroom windows) and we plan to spend most of our time sitting right here.

Our first day, we drove a rental car the 6 miles from our house to downtown Nassau to do some exploring and get our bearings.  We needed to find a grocery store to get provisions for the week, too.

Food on the island is really expensive.  For example, a gallon container of orange juice is $11.  (The Bahamian dollar is pegged to the US dollar so prices require no mental calculations.  Most businesses here accept US dollars, too.)  This being the case, restaurant food is outlandishly expensive ($15 for a basic hamburger) so we are eating almost all of our meals at the house.

Cruise ships docking in Nassau harbor.

Selling conch shells straight out of the ocean to tourists at the end of the ramp where people get off the cruise ships.  These are unbelievably cheap — $5 for a big one.

Back at our house, Isabella sending a “Life is Awesome” selfie to her friends.

The living room and kitchen as seen from Holden’s private sleeping balcony. This house has three bedrooms plus this balcony, so we all get a lot of privacy and space.

The house is right up against the water.  Waves slam the foundation of the building. The water is a little rough at certain times of the day but not too deep, so the kids are able to paddle around here.

Nothing says ‘fun’ quite like eating pizza in the Caribbean.

Enter/exit the water from the private boat launch at the side of the house.

Boat launch.

Holden and Josie swimming.  The ladder (off to the left) is another water access from the house.

Front yard.

View from the upper balconies.  You can see me (green dress) leaning over one of the lower balconies to keep an eye on the kids in the water.

04 April, Monday

This morning we drove out of Nassau to Jaws Beach.  It was the filming site for the final installment in the “Jaws” movie series, hence the name. We read that Jaws Beach is far enough away from the resort areas that it’s usually deserted and we did, indeed, have the place all to ourselves the whole time we were there.

The water is really shallow a very long way out.  We swam here for over an hour and at that point I started to worry about the SPF 50+ failing.  After seeing the Parade of Lobster People filing off the cruise ships yesterday I’m not taking unnecessary chances.  Wicked sunburn can ruin a vacation.  That extra 30 minutes of fun is not worth the risk.

Time to come out!

Holden and Josie trying to rinse sand off the flip-flops so they will be clean for the walk across the beach back to the car.  This is an impossible feat.

We headed back to the house because it was forecasted to rain all afternoon.  We arrived home as the first drops started to fall and it rained hard for more than three hours.  I fell asleep and missed most of the storm.  It stopped right around Wine Time.

We spent hours and hours sitting in our deck chairs today, which for Adam and me had been a big part of the plan.  Isabella and Josie, however, decided neither of them are truly cut out for Slug Life and need a more stimulating environment.  Isabella’s favorite vacation so far was Japan last summer, and Tokyo was her favorite portion of that trip.  She said, “I’m a city girl. I need the activity and excitement. Slug Life is not the life for me.”

05 April, Tuesday

Adam gets up early and enjoys the sunrise each morning.

Nassau has a zoo that specializes in birds, so of course this became a necessary destination for me.  I’m glad we went.  It’s quite small but is probably the best zoo I’ve ever been to as far as bird exhibits are concerned.  They have a lot of the birds wandering around free or sitting out on perches — no cages.  You have to be careful not to get bitten (and if you do it’s your own fault) but being able to interact with them made my day.  None of the following photos were taken with a zoom lens.

This black Australian swan swam over to inspect us.  Right after I snapped this picture, he jabbed his face over the rock wall with a nasty hiss and tried to bite Josie. We’ve had run-ins with mean white swans in the past and Josie was wondering if perhaps black swans had a better disposition.  Nope.  Swans are swans no matter the color.

I brought a camera of my own on this trip.  I quit taking photos years ago because I was so busy managing kids and diaper bags, etc. that managing camera gear was just one thing too many. The kids are old enough now that I can start doing some photography of my own.  (Realistically, I could have done years ago but I’d gotten so used to Adam being the family photographer that it didn’t really occur to me that I could start taking pictures again, too.)  A bird zoo seems like a fitting place for me to start up again.  Maybe from now on our blog posts will finally include the occasional photo of Adam, if I manage to keep up with it.

Meerkat.

These two peacocks were having some sort of rivalry.  They were wandering around the zoo irritating each other.

The Bahamas are famous for their flamingos.  Like the peacocks, the flamingos are allowed to wander around wherever they want.

They will let people get very, very close but they don’t like to be touched.  Reaching out your hand will earn you a little warning nip.

An adult flamingo is around 5 feet tall (neck stretched out) with a 5 foot wing span.  They weigh only 8 pounds.

Peacock, coming through!

Humans in this area were all marveling over the flamingos, so the peacock did his best to get some attention, too.

Once he got it, he promptly folded up his tail and walked away.

Moluccan cockatoo.  This guy loved to whistle.  

Blue and Gold Macaw.

We went back to the Flamingo Pavilion for the March of the Flamingos.  The zookeeper tells them to march, about-face (turn around) and halt.  I didn’t know flamingos were trainable.

Near the end of the demonstration, the announcer asked all the kids in the audience to enter the ring and pose like flamingos alongside the birds. Adam: My favorite part of this is how Josie is completely embarrassed by her older siblings, but still a sport. See how she half heartedly lifts one leg?

Leave it to Josie to find the pigs!

This goat was trying to determine if I really had food in my hand or was just teasing before she made the effort of coming closer.  (I did have food.)

Feeding apple slices to Rainbow Lorikeets.

After the zoo, we went to The Green Parrot for lunch, as it seemed the proper choice for the theme of our day.  The restaurant is right by the docks where all the yacht people park.

Adam: Nassau marina – you can see the “Atlantis” complex of hotels, casinos, shopping & etc across the water on a separate cay. That is THE place to be if you’ve got big bucks to spend. 

Our plan was to go back to Nassau’s main shopping district after lunch to wander around and maybe get some ice cream, but after 40 minutes of circling through heavy traffic unable to find a parking spot, we gave up and went back to the house.  We’ll try Nassau again tomorrow morning.  Hopefully it won’t be quite so busy.

On the drive home we stopped to enjoy the view at a particularly pretty stretch of coastline.

The volcanic rock here is heavily covered by tiny snails.  I initially thought, “Hey, cool, this volcanic rock is crunchy!” and then realized the crunching was the sound of hundreds of tiny snails being obliterated by my feet.  I murdered so many snails just walking out to take a look. I felt like a monster. Once I realized what I was doing, I tried my best to minimize further damage but there was no avoiding it.

While everyone was sleeping or lazing about this afternoon, I took a quick swim in our backyard by myself.  It’s much more relaxing for me to swim without the kids because I don’t have to worry about them drowning or being bitten by some horrible sea creature.

Later on, Holden and Josie took a dip.  After they were done and drying off up on the balcony, Josie spotted a “huge fish” in the water and called everyone over.  It was a shark.  I just about wet my pants.  There it was, plain as day, a shark right next to the boat launch, dorsal fin skimming the surface just like in the movies.  It was only about 2 feet long, but still a shark.  I never thought I’d see one outside of a zoo aquarium.

For quite some time later all three kids sat here scanning the water for more ocean wildlife.

Josie outlasted them all.

06 April, Wednesday

We headed into Nassau fairly early this morning and still had a really hard time finding a parking space.  This town was not built with car traffic in mind.  We finally found a public parking garage and spent about an hour wandering around the tourist district.

Cruise ships docked. We’re under the impression most of the people in Nassau come in as pedestrians on these ships.

A little artists enclave down one of the side streets.  Each stall had a different artist; this one was a woodcarving booth.

A stop for ice cream on a balcony overlooking the town square.

One departing shot of the tourists in the town square before we head back to our house for our last day of relaxing by the ocean.  Our flight home to Atlanta leaves very early tomorrow morning.

We had a very relaxing time in Nassau.  Adam and I enjoyed it more than the kids did:  they would have liked if we’d done more activities.  The Bahamas do have an endless supply of activities and adventures, but be forewarned they all cost a fortune.

Until next time!