Cruise Part 2

When we woke on Friday, we were in the Bahamas. When we looked off the ship, we saw the bright aquas, turquoises, pinks, purples, oranges, and yellows of the shops and awnings and flags - it was enchanting and inviting and well, yes, magical!

We ate at another luxuriously extravagant buffet, and talked about what we wanted to do for the day. I had a desire to go into Nassau, the boys - not so much. I wanted to visit a beach and the boys were more in tune with that, so they went off to the arcade while I visited the Shore Excursions desk to learn more. The man there quickly and emphatically convinced me and the other two women in line that beaches in Bahamas (the ones here, within walking distance of the pier) were to be avoided. If we wanted to sign up for a bus ride to a safe beach located a distance away from the inner city, that would be OK - but that wasn't what I had in mind, so I decided I would go into the city near the pier to visit some shops, but we would postpone the beach activity until the next day at Castaway Cay.

I found the boys and told them they needed to come with me on shore for one hour so they could say they had been in the Bahamas. The deal was we would visit at least 3 shops, take at least 5 photographs, and buy at least one souvenir. We got off the boat and I turned around to take a picture of it (it was the first time we could actually see it as it was obscured by the buildings when we boarded in Florida) and Ty gleefully shouted "THAT'S ONE!!!"

His enthusiasm for new cultures overwhelmed me.

We went ashore, and were immediately bombarded with offers for taxi rides anywhere we wanted to go. We pushed past them with smiling "no, thank you"s and went into a craft market - right there at the pier! Wow, who wouldda thunk? I immediately found myself thinking "this is the Brownsville of the Bahamas." We visited several booths and looked at the things made from shells, the Christmas ornaments, the jewelry, and the food items. We went outside and took a couple of pictures ("that's TWO, Mom! And that's THREE!") and then went back inside to buy an ornament, and Ty bought a bowl and spoon made from a conch shell. Personally, not what I would have chosen, but he was totally enamored of it and said it would be his ice cream bowl from now on. Ben considered a dolphin trinket also made of conch, but decided to wait.

We went back on the street and looked at the crowds, felt the heat of the sun, looked at the crowd of eager "welcomers" we would have to make our way through to get into the town proper, and decided to turn around and go back to the ship. That was the only time, really, I wished for another adult to be travelling with us because I would have taken the boys back onboard and then explored the town - but I admit I wasn't quite up to doing it on my own.

So back onboard we went (though it was a slow process as Ben wanted to take dozens of pictures of the fish we could see along the pier, the water was unbelievably clear and beautiful shades of blue - even right here in what had to be an incredibly congested area) and we had pizza for lunch, the boys swam in the pool, and I read.

Wonderfully relaxing!