On the Grand Bahama Island, we got on a tour bus that took us all around and the driver told us about everything from how they build their houses there to who owns some of the houses on Millionaire's Row. One house was built in the shape of a piano and everyone guessed it was Liberace's, but he said it had belonged to Count Basee (I don't know how to spell that). He showed us John Travolta's house where his son died while they were there for Christmas vacation a couple of years ago. It is beautiful and the yard is very well kept, but he said they haven't been back since that happened.
Then he took us to the shopping area where they have the Straw Markets. It's like Flea Markets and you bargain with the shop keepers for things. We got some fun things there, including a corral and shell bracelet that I love, for $2! John bought a hand-woven straw hat for shade and he looks cute in it. We ate lunch at a Greek restaurant called Zorba's, of course! : ) Then we walked down to the beach, which was a couple of blocks away, but in the nearly 90 degree heat, it seemed like further. It really wasn't worth it when we got there, because there wasn't a lot of sand; mostly lava rocks and no shells at all. We bought a coconut that had the top cut off and sat and drank coconut milk. The coconut itself was like eating raw, slimy fish and I didn't like it at all! A Seagull near us had found one that someone had left and it really liked it. It left for a minute and some littler birds came over and started pecking at it and when the Seagull saw them, it hurried right back and shooed them away. It wasn't about to share!
The island wasn't as pretty as I had thought it would be. It wasn't as green and pretty, with lots of flowers like Florida is and there was trash along the roads. They had a hurricane in 2004 that had damaged their biggest hotel so badly, that it never reopened. A lot of the windows are boarded up and pieces of some of the corners were gone. It looks sad. The locals build their houses as they can afford to, so there are houses standing looking abandoned, but they are under construction. They just don't look like it.
The second night on the ship we had another terrific dinner (Cory said cruise ships are floating restaurants) and they are! There's not a lot to do on the ship if you don't want to swim or hot tub, besides eat and wait for the elevator. So, we went to the show again and it was a comedian named Steve Zimmerman. I had never heard of him either, but he was SO FUNNY!! He said he is going to be on the Tyler Perry show next year as the Brown's youngest brother.
.The water was much more calm that night. The first night, the ship had been swaying and it was hard to walk around. My stomach got so queezy I had to drink club soda to calm it down. I can see why people get sea sick. I'm glad we weren't in a storm! I slept much better, too. Then the next morning, it was up and out of our cabin by 7:30 am! Homeland Security took control of the ship before anyone was allowed to leave, so it's first thing in the morning. We ate breakfast outside and it wasn't too warm yet and it was beautiful. The sky and the ocean were just beautiful. We just loved it there.
We got to stand in a pretty long line to go through Customs and be cleared by Homeland Security. They examined our birth certificates, made sure we looked like the photos they took of us when we got on the ship and check the pics on our driver's licenses. Now if they could be that thorough along all the borders!
You guys look like you had so much fun!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, yeah. I know exactly what John was taking a picture of. The same thing I would have been. I love going on cruises. They are a lot of fun. You said you stayed in Kissamee, FL. We drove through there on our Florida trip. Glad you had a good time, except for the bed bugs.
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