The best way to describe my free, childless, endless drinking, fun having, and music filled weekend in the Bahamas was absolutely awesome. As I mentioned before, I won a weekend trip to the Bahamas off the radio a couple of months ago. After several hours in the gym, shopping for summer, well Bahamian clothes, getting a passport, also getting ready for Christmas on December 16th, my husband and I leave for the Bahamas! My first evening at the Radisson Grand Lucayan Resort was just beautiful, well until my stomach started to growl. With all the excitement and getting ready honestly I hadn’t eaten anything the day before. So I get out of my winter clothes and into something cooler and we hear this band playing outside our room. There was a live Bahamian band playing Christmas music. There were; horns, drums, a tuba, and my favorite, a cow bell. Oh and some kind of cheese grater with a hair pick; seriously check out the pictures above, they sounded awesome! After listening, taking pictures and a little dancing on the balcony we went to grab a bite to eat. I’m not sure if it was because I was starving or what, but we get the buffet and I pile my plate up with this food that looked and sounded familiar; roast beef, macaroni with cheese, pasta salad, and baked chicken. However, they did not taste like Golden Corral. It was cooked with Bahamian spices so that kind of threw me off. I ate as much as I could at dinner, and visited a small convenient store for American snacks. With this being the first time ever leaving my kids and not to mention my youngest is diabetic. After the snacks and bottled water, I had to hook up my internet so I could talk to my kids and that is how I ended my night.
Day two I was up bright and early to watch the sunrise. I think even if I didn’t plan on getting up to watch the sun rise I probably would have been up anyway because that whole night I got up almost every hour. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve I was just waiting for when it was time to get up to open presents! After watching the sunrise we grabbed breakfast from Starbucks, something I was familiar with and we started our day. We went to the shops across the street from our gated resort and did some shopping. I don’t think I have ever been complimented and called “pretty girl” so much until I went to those shops over there. I will admit I fell for a couple of those “pretty girl” and “that looks beautiful on you” lines, and bought a few things. But after the fifth shop of “pretty girl” and “that looks beautiful on you” I realized these people just wanted me to buy their stuff, and would say or do anything to persuade me. Oh, and there was another line I fell for, “make me a happy lady and buy this” that was the other one they got me on! I luckily got out of there without spending all of my vacation money. They had a lot of nice places to shop once you got out of the open-air market area. After shopping we spent the rest of the afternoon on the resort enjoying French fries, drinks, and what was left of the sun. We ended the night at the glitziest restaurant on the resort; called China Beach, it was pretty nice. We finally ate Conch that we heard so much about it, and it was good, like a Calamari taste. Our waitress asked if we wanted some water and whether we wanted bottle or tap. I of course said bottle and she brings out this larger than I was expecting bottle of water and pours it for both of us. I am not sure why I would have expected the regular bottled water we had been getting; we were at a nice restaurant. But I most definitely did not expect that huge nice bottle of water. [Picture above] Overall the restaurant was really nice. After dinner we checked out the casino. I had never been to a casino before but I have to say it was not as fun as I was expecting. I did not find popping nickels in a machine fun.
Day three also began with watching the sunrise and it was so beautiful. We decided to go back to the buffet to try the breakfast. It was good; it still was prepared with Bahamian spices but the food was good. We went snorkeling on Sunday, but I have to tell you this so you can understand the high adrenaline I had, I do not know how to swim! When we signed up to go snorkeling we were told we were going to be in 4-6 feet of water. But the boat ride over it changed to 10-14 feet of water, my heart literally jumped out my throat and swam back home I was so scared! So, I’m there panicking giving my husband the evil eye because now I’m unclear on who said 4-6 feet, him or the snorkel guy! We get to our location, anchored the boat and now he’s passing out the equipment, my heart is pounding. My husband is trying to sooth, encourage me that I can do this and I need to learn how to swim any way. I had a life jacket and as long as I wrapped it around my chest I would be fine. Only because we paid for this, we were 2 miles out in the ocean and out of respect to the other people on the boat I did not lay him out! Hahaha! Instead I gear up, I pray to God and I jump! As you can see I didn’t drown, but it was so crazy, scary, and freaking cool! I swallowed a lot of salt water and it was gross, but the fish were so cool. I only stuck my head in the water and viewed the fish, which alone was awesome! I would look down and see they were so close to my legs and that was weird but again so cool. It was sad when the two hours were over because being out there in the water and swimming with the fish was way cooler than I was expecting. We spent the rest of the evening reminiscing on that wild experience. For dinner we had planned to go to a Bon Fire which served dinner and it had an open bar. It was nice; we got to hang out with some of the other winners and other people vacationing at the Bahamas. I am not sure if it was because I was starving but the food was great. We danced, socialized, played a few games, and had contests; it was a nice way to end the trip.
After a sad, sleepless night of packing and saying good bye to the Bahamas we left that Monday morning. I was happy to see the kids and really needed some sleep and water! That had to be the best and most definitely most needed mini vacation so far.
Day two I was up bright and early to watch the sunrise. I think even if I didn’t plan on getting up to watch the sun rise I probably would have been up anyway because that whole night I got up almost every hour. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve I was just waiting for when it was time to get up to open presents! After watching the sunrise we grabbed breakfast from Starbucks, something I was familiar with and we started our day. We went to the shops across the street from our gated resort and did some shopping. I don’t think I have ever been complimented and called “pretty girl” so much until I went to those shops over there. I will admit I fell for a couple of those “pretty girl” and “that looks beautiful on you” lines, and bought a few things. But after the fifth shop of “pretty girl” and “that looks beautiful on you” I realized these people just wanted me to buy their stuff, and would say or do anything to persuade me. Oh, and there was another line I fell for, “make me a happy lady and buy this” that was the other one they got me on! I luckily got out of there without spending all of my vacation money. They had a lot of nice places to shop once you got out of the open-air market area. After shopping we spent the rest of the afternoon on the resort enjoying French fries, drinks, and what was left of the sun. We ended the night at the glitziest restaurant on the resort; called China Beach, it was pretty nice. We finally ate Conch that we heard so much about it, and it was good, like a Calamari taste. Our waitress asked if we wanted some water and whether we wanted bottle or tap. I of course said bottle and she brings out this larger than I was expecting bottle of water and pours it for both of us. I am not sure why I would have expected the regular bottled water we had been getting; we were at a nice restaurant. But I most definitely did not expect that huge nice bottle of water. [Picture above] Overall the restaurant was really nice. After dinner we checked out the casino. I had never been to a casino before but I have to say it was not as fun as I was expecting. I did not find popping nickels in a machine fun.
Day three also began with watching the sunrise and it was so beautiful. We decided to go back to the buffet to try the breakfast. It was good; it still was prepared with Bahamian spices but the food was good. We went snorkeling on Sunday, but I have to tell you this so you can understand the high adrenaline I had, I do not know how to swim! When we signed up to go snorkeling we were told we were going to be in 4-6 feet of water. But the boat ride over it changed to 10-14 feet of water, my heart literally jumped out my throat and swam back home I was so scared! So, I’m there panicking giving my husband the evil eye because now I’m unclear on who said 4-6 feet, him or the snorkel guy! We get to our location, anchored the boat and now he’s passing out the equipment, my heart is pounding. My husband is trying to sooth, encourage me that I can do this and I need to learn how to swim any way. I had a life jacket and as long as I wrapped it around my chest I would be fine. Only because we paid for this, we were 2 miles out in the ocean and out of respect to the other people on the boat I did not lay him out! Hahaha! Instead I gear up, I pray to God and I jump! As you can see I didn’t drown, but it was so crazy, scary, and freaking cool! I swallowed a lot of salt water and it was gross, but the fish were so cool. I only stuck my head in the water and viewed the fish, which alone was awesome! I would look down and see they were so close to my legs and that was weird but again so cool. It was sad when the two hours were over because being out there in the water and swimming with the fish was way cooler than I was expecting. We spent the rest of the evening reminiscing on that wild experience. For dinner we had planned to go to a Bon Fire which served dinner and it had an open bar. It was nice; we got to hang out with some of the other winners and other people vacationing at the Bahamas. I am not sure if it was because I was starving but the food was great. We danced, socialized, played a few games, and had contests; it was a nice way to end the trip.
After a sad, sleepless night of packing and saying good bye to the Bahamas we left that Monday morning. I was happy to see the kids and really needed some sleep and water! That had to be the best and most definitely most needed mini vacation so far.