Crazy Vacation #3

Washington D.C., New York City, and now Freeport, Grand Bahama!!!  We are on a roll!  I feel like the luckiest sister ever because my older brother Carl comes to visit us and gives us a great excuse to go see all the sights.  The first trip in D.C. was filled with museums, National Landmarks, Memorials, and lots and lots of walking.  New York was jam packed with visiting the Statue of Liberty, checking out Time Square, catching a few Broadways, and other must see sights in that big city.  This vacation was another packed  adventure, but definitely different from the others.  There aren't many "sights" to see here, but sometimes a beachy getaway is just as rewarding:)

Carl flew in on Thursday afternoon and we let him unpack a little before heading to Port Lucaya, the touristy beach area.  After stopping at a few shops in the straw market, we went through one of the hotels to get to my favorite place to go hang out with Keido.  It's really the only place on the whole island, except for the golf courses, that has nice grass, or even real grass for that matter.  You walk out the door, across the nice grassy lawn, through the sand, and straight into the ocean.  It's great.  We played and swam until we were starving, and then headed back to the rib place next to our house for dinner.  It just so happens that we live next to the best ribs on the island.  The people are open from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. Really, it's just a canopy over a bunch of grills in the parking lot of the bar, but oh man can they make ribs!!

(Carl Sporting his Beach/Tourist Wear)

(The Hotel Lawn and Sailing Rental at the Beach)

On Friday morning, we woke up, packed up and headed down to the port again to pick up our rental car.  Rental places in the Bahamas are quite a bit different than the states.  The lady who I had talked to earlier pulled up in the little Neon that she had mentioned we could rent.  She got out and said, well, this one's busted, how about that gray one over there.  I looked down the line of three cars in the lot and saw this crappy looking bus thing.  In my mind I thought, "Heck yeah, it fits way more people."  Even though it was a real clunker, it definitely did the trick and allowed us to take a few extra friends along.  I was afraid that it would take all afternoon to write down all the scratches, dents, and missing panels, but in the Bahamas they don't seem to do that.  We just gave her the money, she handed us the keys, we signed a paper, and off we went.  I have to admit that I'd been thinking for days about how to drive on the left hand side of the road.  I had been trying to train my mind to know what to do.  It ended up being easier than I thought.  The only thing that I couldn't seem to get was that the blinker was on the other side of the steering wheel.  Every time I went to turn, I turned on the windshield wipers instead. Carl might as well have grown up in Europe, he was a real natural at driving the streets here. 

(Our Rental Beauty)

(Left Side Driving, Right Side Steering Wheel...AHHH!!)

We cruised in our new ride out to the "Absolutely Trespassing" area near Banana Bay.  Carl wanted to get out and test his snorkeling equipment, and Keido and I wanted to play in the sand.  We found some holes in the sand as we were walking down the beach and decided to dig down and see what lived in them.  As we spooned sand out of the first hole, all of a sudden a little white crab ran out of it and into the ocean.  Of course we wanted to do it again, however, the second one ended in a tragedy.  The little crab popped out and Carl tried to chase him down, as he was running after him, the wave washed in and when it washed back out, the crab was gone.  I had noticed it being just behind Carl when the water washed back out, so I told him to lift up his foot.  Poor little crab- Squished! His eyes just blew in the wind.  Carl tossed him back out into the water, and decided not to dig anymore up.  So, he spent the rest of the time at that beach checking things out under water.

(Definitely not the Most Effective Sign)

(Rest in Peace Little Crab)

After the Banana Bay beach, we took Carl back down to the Port to set off on a Scuba Dive excursion. We were kind of bummed because the Shark Dive people had canceled on us, however, the Reef Dive ended up being where the sharks were, so no loss there.  Carl said that he swam with six foot reef sharks. SCARY!  I can't wait to see those pictures when he gets them developed.

After picking him up, and filling our car with a few more Ross friends, we took off for Bahama John's for dinner.  We'd heard from a lot of friends that it was a great restaurant on a gorgeous beach, so since we had a rental car, we had to go.  I knew that it was about a thirty minute drive to get there, but this place was really out in the middle of nowhere.  We became more and more skeptical as we drove east through the woods.  But, when we got there, we immediately knew the drive had been worth it.  The place was exactly what you picture in your mind when you think of going to the Bahamas - forever white sandy beaches, a little hut to eat at, beach volleyball, and a place to whack open your own complimentary coconuts.  For dinner, quite a few of us tried the Cracked Conch, and all of us enjoyed our meals. Going to Bahama John's was the best thing we've done since moving here.

(The Best Place on the Island)

(Carl Cutting Open his Coconut)

(mmmm...Coconut!)

(The food was delicious, too bad the flies thought so too.)

(Keido with a Mouth Full of Fries)

(Boyd Showing off his Gigantic Muscles)

(After dinner we walked the beach picking up shells.  We brought them home and about an hour later, I saw this one moving across the floor.  We didn't realize we had relocated someone's home:)  Keido named this little Hermit Crab "Whatsup."  We let him roam for the night and returned him to the beach the next day.)

Saturday seemed to be just as eventful as Friday.  In the morning, we took Carl over to our friend Justin's place to meet up with another Scuba dive tour.  This time they went and checked out a shipwreck and a reef or two.  Carl told me later that when he was surfacing, all of a sudden he felt something tug on his hair.  His first thought was that it was the instructor trying to get his attention.  Then something tugged again, but harder.  Ouch!  Carl turned around and it was a fish eating at his hair.  I guess they call them the Bahama Chop and you have to look out for them or they will give you a hair cut.  Crazy.  

After he came back, we ate some lunch, talked and found out that Justin caught Malaria in Ghana and other random information, and then headed out spear fishing.  We decided to try out a new beach called "Princess Beach" which turned out to be awesome for little kids to play at, but not so awesome for spear fishing.  The water was shallow enough for Keido to wade out into and play in for a long ways.  However, it was a little too shallow for snorkeling.  We had to swim while skimming our bellies over the sea grass quite a ways before making it to a place deep enough with fish.  I tried my hand at spear fishing and decided I wouldn't make it if I had to survive off of that skill.  However, it was fun, we saw lobster, huge sea urchins, lots of tropical fish, and sea cucumbers.  Carl shot a small lion fish which ended up being the only catch of the day.  Fun times though:)

(Carl with his Lion Fish)

(Keido Loving the Shallow Water)

(The sand was so soft you could sink your legs three feet down into it.  Boyd used this to his advantage to look taller than Justin.  Justin really was standing straight up;)

(Keido- the Mighty Spear Fisherman)

After we were all worn out, we cleaned up a little and went out for some awesome pizza at the port.  They had a live band playing Caribbean music that Keido danced to.  We checked out the gigantic yachts on the dock, dreamed about having that kind of money, walked around a little, and went home exhausted.

Sunday was church in our little branch.  We were really thankful to have Carl with us at church because he taught part of the primary lesson.  In small branches, everyone has to pitch in.  After that we sent Carl back to the airport to fly on home.  What a vacation.  We loved having Carl come.  It was another packed adventure that we will treasure in our memories forever!

(Good Times)