the bahamas (aka heaven)

For our 5th anniversary the Husband and I decided to take a big trip, just the two of us. We're not awesome about going on dates, so it had really been a long time since we had spent much time one-on-one. He spent hours and hours researching, and finally landed on the Bahamas as our destination. So when the time came, we dropped our son off with Grandma, and headed off to the airport for our two-hour flight. I'm just going to interject that as long as we live on the East Coast, I see no reason to visit Hawaii! It's such a quick hop to the Caribbean, and no jet lag! It was awesome.

Weird, no?

We arrived in Freeport, on The Grand Bahama, and picked up our rental car. Looking back, renting a car was unnecessary, but we didn't know and we did have fun exploring a little bit! The landscape of the island was weird. They must burn off the vegetation, which results in these spikes of trees everywhere. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, since we both liked the all-inclusive nature of a cruise, but we weren't sure how we would end up feeling about being on a boat for long stretches. We got our reservations cheap on Hotwire, and it turned out they have a variety of rooms and they assign rooms based on how much you spent. So our first room was ok, but not the nicest. However, when the septic tank backed up into our bathroom after the first night (so gross!), we got an upgrade. Our new room was freshly remodeled, had a nicer bed and bedding, and it was 67 steps to the sand. Perfect. I forgot to take pictures of the rooms.

The weather was lovely the whole time we were there - they call it the Isle of Perpetual June for a reason! The highs were in the mid 70s and the lows in the 60s. The water was about 73 degrees, so it took a little getting used to during the day, but when we took long walks along the beach in the evenings, it felt warm lapping our feet as we strolled along. The resort had lots of activities to participate in, and a sports facility where you could check out snorkeling gear, kayaks, and even catamarans, after you took a quick sailing lesson. We frequented the sports facility quite a bit.

And now for a picture dump...

How do they get water to be that color? We should teach the eastern seaboard their tricks.

my husband's future boat

We took a long long long walk down the beach one evening, and this is the best self portrait of the trip.

There were beautiful mansions all along the beach. The Grand Bahama is home to John Travolta and Oprah, apparently.

It was so peaceful.

Sunset at the end of our walk. Well, at the end of our one-way walk - we still had to turn around and get back to the resort!

We did a dolphin encounter, and at the same facility, they had parrots.

Or are they macaws?

I was a little nervous.

But not my brave husband.

There were lizards everywhere.

And finally a dolphin!

They had two programs, the dolphin swim, which I couldn't do because I'm expecting, and the dolphin encounter, where you get to get in the water with the dolphins but you're standing on a platform instead of treading water. We each got a kiss from a dolphin, and we got to pet them.

I just liked this little boat house.

One day we went exploring and ended up driving down this little path to a beautiful beach.

There was shallow water between the beach and a sandbar, and we walked a ways down the beach looking for shells and just enjoying the surroundings.

Another self portrait.

The 14 week tummy shadow.

Sunrise on our last morning.

One last little step into the water.

The view of the beach from the building where our room was (our room faced the other way).

The sports facility - just to the right of the picture above. It was nice being so close to the fun!

It was a great getaway! It was so fun to just be the two of us again. I had forgotten what that felt like! And it was so nice to know that our sweet boy was as happy as could be with Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, the morning we flew back, my mom said she asked him, "Do you want to go see Mommy and Daddy today?" His reply, "No, thanks!" I don't think we'll wait another five years to take a little couple's trip again!