The Long-Awaited Vacation, Part Five

Wow ... I can't believe that our cruise was almost a month ago already and I've barely done any posts at all on it! Time management is simply not my strong suit these days I'm afraid but I guess the nice thing there is that maybe by the time I finish doing posts on warm and sunny places that Connecticut will finally be a warm and sunny place, too! One can only hope, huh?  Anyhow ... onward to the Bahamas!



I spent our first night on the ship sleeping quite well if I remember correctly and when we awoke on Monday morning, Barb peaked out of the cabin window and announced "we're here!"  I grabbed my camera and took the above shot of the sunrise. Not bad for a through-the-window shot!


I don't remember exactly what time we finally made it out to the open area of the Lido Deck but the view towards the Atlantis Resort wasn't exactly sunny and blue but it was working on it!


Matter of fact, it was a little shadowy in areas but that didn't stop the few people that were using the jogging track.


These guys looked like they were lined up for inspection along the rail on the starboard side of the ship!


Heck, if they were going to pose so nicely I just HAD to take another picture, right? 


From the port side of the ship I took some pictures of Nassau - that's Senor Frog's with the bright green awning.  It might have been a little early for anyone to be there drinking but then again - maybe not. After all, we were in the islands!


A view of Festival Place with just the bow of the yacht the Prince Abdul Aziz on the right. When the 482-foot  yacht was built in 1984 in the shipyard of Helsingor Vaerft in Denmark, it was the largest and most expensive yacht in the world. Named for his son by the original owner, the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, I believe it's presently owned by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. According to the locals, it had been docked there for a couple of weeks prior to our arrival. Personally I thought a new coat of paint might be in order but hey, what do I know? 



After Barb and I debarked the ship to check out the port, I had to take a shot of the view to the port side of the Carnival Glory as she sat docked in Nassau being that she looked so pretty sitting there - no new paint required at all!



But she wasn't exactly docked there all by her lonesome - we had company in the form of the Disney Magic who had pulled in while Barb and I were having breakfast.


Speaking of Barb, here she is welcoming you to the Bahamas! 


Not really having anything in particular planned in Nassau, from the Festival Place we managed to catch a taxi (van) over to the Atlantis Resort on nearby Paradise Island where we thought we might get some good photo ops. 


Barb stretched out in the giant chair for her picture -


- while I merely perched on the edge as I was afraid if I sat back too far I'd never be able to get out of the thing!  And yes, I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt - please don't tell anyone! 


After leaving about $20 each in one of the slot machines in the casino, we thought maybe we'd go check out Atlantis' famous marine area but we didn't get too far before we were told by a security person that unless we were guests of the resort or wanted to pay a rather high admission fee to walk around we could go no further.  We were, however, free to walk around outside on the walkway around the casino. 


I have to admit, it does have that whole "Paradise" look about it, huh? 


There were pretty waterfalls ...


... and private beach areas that we could only look at from afar! 



After walking around and thinking how huge everything was, we went back through the casino area where we passed a glass sculpture that looked like an angry redhead had posed as the model! 


We caught our taxi back over to the Festival Place and while walking around the small group of shops in search of postcards, we met up with Sandee & Zane along with Miss Bee & Sarge Charlie.  Zane took the below picture of us. I'm not quite sure what Barb was looking at - maybe the fan she had just bought? 

Finally finding some postcards at a small shop across the street, Barb and I got them written out and mailed at a conveniently located post office.  I believe it cost me $2.18 to mail four postcards and the one I sent to Jamie finally arrived here a week after I got home so almost two weeks after I had mailed it; Amanda got hers a day or two later what with it being further north to Massachusetts! Ah well, at least they arrived at some point even if it seemed as if they must have strapped them to the backs of dolphins to send them to the States!


We decided at that point that it was time to go back to the ship for lunch but before we re-boarded I asked Barb to take a quick picture.  I know it looks like I have a lump on my head but that would actually be my sunglasses perched up there! 


Following lunch, I took some more pictures of the area from the upper decks.  This is Hog Island Lighthouse which is located at the western end of Paradise Island (formerly Hog Island) and marks the northwest entrance to Nassau Harbor. Built in 1817 and still an active aid to navigation, Hog Island Light is the oldest and best known lighthouse in the Bahamas and the oldest surviving lighthouse in the West Indies. And because it was any sort of a lighthouse at all, I was thrilled! You'll find more pictures below of course!



Pretty soon it was time for everyone else to come back on board. 


While sitting out on my favorite deck - Deck 3 Starboard - and waiting for the ship to push off on our way to our next destination, Barb and I talked about how hard it must be to live in that house above! 


Pretty soon we had put out to sea and I was able to get more pictures of Hog Island Light.


I loved all the different colors of the water! 


As we were passing by the lighthouse, I noticed a pile of odd-shaped cement breakers and immediately thought about my trip out California in 2009 to meet Katherine in Santa Cruz where very similar odd-shaped cement "jacks" serve as the breakwater for the Santa Cruz lighthouse.  Thanks to Wayne, a blog reader who had emailed me, I remembered that they were called tetrapods and just looking at them brought a smile to my face as that jumbled pile in the water definitely brought back some very fond memories of a wonderful trip to Santa Cruz! 


Before long the Bahamas were behind us as we started towards our next port of Saint Thomas and an upcoming "Fun Day at Sea" as the ship calls it but for the moment I was quite content to be sitting in a deckchair in what turned out to be my favorite spot on the ship and just watch the water slide by ...