During Richard's residency, he wasn't really allowed to take time off, so as soon as it ended, we planned to go on our first cruise to the Bahamas. His mom and sister, Amy and her two little boys came to watch the girls for a week while we flew down to Miami and set sail aboard a Norwegian Cruise Ship. It was so strange, yet relaxing to not have to worry about taking care of children for a whole week!
Leaving the Port in Miami:
One of the main reasons we wanted to try a cruise was for the food! Endless options at all times is right up our alley. It was all soooooo good, except for one night when I got brave and ordered leg of lamb. It was so nasty!!!! Never again. Luckily, we just headed down to the buffet after we left that restaurant and got ourselves some delicious dessert instead.
Our first stop was in Freeport. We cruised through the night and when we woke up and looked out our window, we were a little shocked to see a town right outside. We caught a taxi, with Bahama Mama as our driver, and headed to the market area in town. It's kind of a sad little island. It looks like it used to be pretty nice, but apparently a hurricane ruined a lot of buildings a few years ago and with America's bad economy, it just never recovered. There are lots of abandoned stores, restaurants, and hotels. We looked around the market for a while, then went down to the beach to swim in the clear blue water.
Gotta love the towel animals!
The next day might be my favorite. We went to the cruise lines private island. It was a cove with tons of beach chairs set up and that lovely clear blue water. It was super hot while we were there, so I just alternated from my lounge chair to a chair in the water while I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (excellent book, by the way). Richard snorkeled and explored the island. It was just such a relaxing and peaceful day.
We sailed on to Nassau the next day and had lots of fun there. After much debate of what to do, we decided on a taxi tour of the city, which was just ok. We did stop by the Atlantis hotel and it made me drool. It's gorgeous! After that, we made it back just in time to catch our snorkeling adventure boat. We rode out to a spot and they let us all off the boat to snorkel. We saw lots of fish and even a barracuda (yikes!). The fish weren't as tropical looking as the ones in Hawaii, but it could have just been our location there.
On the ride back, we got a little tour and they pointed out all of the gigantic mansions along the way. These ones belong to Oprah. That's right...she bought one and then bought the one next door as well. She probably just didn't want neighbors! And check out that boat out front!
We did a little souvenir shopping once we got back to the port. We went through this big tent market where everyone had their little booths set up. I don't know how they make any money because there were hundreds of booths and they were all selling the same stuff! Somehow we decided to buy a fan from this lady. We thought it would be the perfect gift for Ella. She finished stitching it and was nice enough to let me take a picture of her with it. She was very nice! When hurricane Irene hit a couple weeks later, I heard that this particular market got severely damaged and I immediately thought of this lady and hoped that she'd be able to recover her business quickly.
On the walk back to the ship, I bought a giant conch shell and Richard enjoyed a delicious coconut. Ah, the island life! We had so much fun just hanging out on the ship too. The pool was great, food was awesome, and I even got to get a spa treatment while I was there. This was just what we needed. A nice trip with just the two of us where we could relax and recharge!
And don't be sad that our girls didn't get to come. They had so much fun with Grandma Lari and Aunt Amy! Ruby especially loved having Landon around to play with.
Here's Annie with baby Crew. She enjoyed the playmat and bouncy seat as much as he did. She was very sad when I put it away after they left.
Amy and Lari were very brave and ventured out with all five kids in public! I love this picture. Everyone is happy and having a grand time, and then there's Ruby.
They went to the beach almost every afternoon .
And even got to go to the aquarium. The one by our house is awesome!
We are so glad that we have amazing family that is willing to come watch our kids so that we can go on a trip. The kids had a great time and we were all sad to see them go!
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