Some Last Things About The Bahamas . . .

. . . and then it will be over, I promise.
But there are a couple more things that struck me about our resort.

SEAGULLS.

They were everywhere.



On the beach.




In the pool (seriously).





Divebombing you if they smelled bread scraps, as one of my companions discovered.





WIND & OVERCAST SKIES

I think I mentioned before that during most of our stay, it was blowing a steady 30 mph with overcast skies, sometimes showers.
These pictures were taken on one of the nicer days.



Did you notice that umbrella with the scarves hanging from it in the last picture?
Some local ladies would take turns at that umbrella and set up their wares to sell to the hotel guests.
I guess they figure they have a captive audience. And they do a pretty good business there.
That picture as taken during a rogue calm moment. Usually, the scarves looked like this:




BEACH VOLLEYBALL

What can I say - the scenery was, uh, terrific ;-)




2 last things:
this sign in a fitting room in a tourist store in downtown Nassau:


Makes me wonder what happened there to necessitate that warning.
Well, let me take that back, because obviously we know what happened.

And it seems some things, no matter what country you are in, never change.

How Did I End Up Here?

Really, how?

Every year for the past lots of years, some of my co-workers have taken themselves to a lush tropical paradise for a long weekend when the chill winds start to blow around here. I've heard stories about these trips. Cancun, Jamaica, Freeport, and this year is was Nassau, in the Bahamas. A small group this time, with just 3 of them, but at the last minute, one of them couldn't go.

Aww, gee, I guess I could take her place. I've never been to a lush tropical paradise.
It was on my bucket list, so I had to go, doncha know?

Let me tell you, it was bound to be a wild ride
if what happened before we even got off the ground was any indication.

DR & SJ were my companions for this trip, and SJ doesn't like to fly. Seriously doesn't like to fly.
She requires fortification for the flight with sufficient quantities of wine.
Even if the plane leaves at 6:50 am.

I got to the airport at the appointed time, and looked around
no sign of them
checked my suitcase & looked around again
no sign of them
went upstairs to security & looked around
no sign of them
took my shoes off & put by carry-ons through the big machine & looked around
no sign of them
didn't get frisked this time & looked around
no sign of them
walked to the gate & looked around
no sign of them
went to the bar next door & looked around
no sign of them
walked back to security & looked around
no sign of them
asked the nice man at the gate if they had checked in
he said yes
walked back to security & looked around
no sign of them
asked the nice man at the gate if they had checked their bags yet
(they could have checked in online)
he said yes (well, at least they're here somewhere)
"Now boarding Flight XYZ to Charlotte"
no sign of them
everyone else gets on the plane
no sign of them
I'm the last one at the gate - I'm not missing my plane dammit
no sign of them
I get on the plane & take my seat in the back row
no sign of them
"Attention passengers. Please take your seats as we prepare to pull away from the terminal."
clunk goes the door closing
no sign of them
clunk goes the door opening
DR & SJ careen around the corner and flop into their seats

Wouldn't you know, I looked in the wrong bar.
And because I had asked for them a couple of times,
the airline paged them when time was running out.
I was all set to have a good time all by myself.

A small bus from the hotel picked us & all the other vacationers up at the airport and drove
(on the wrong side of the road, thank you very much)
to the all-inclusive resort right on the beach.




The nice people who were everywhere to help you with whatever.


And wouldn't you know, the first thing I noticed about the hotel when we walked in was the floor.



But then, my attention was soon completely distracted by this lovely sight
bearing a welcome of frooty libations.


And some weird statue-like thing.


Our room (and the all-important bathroom. Sista G understands this):



The whole lobby area, and indeed most of that floor in the common areas is open air.
If you walk straight back from the lobby to the back of the building and step out to the balcony,
THIS is what you see - your first sight of the aqua blue sea.


Now, I want you to notice something.
Look at the clouds.
The outer bands of Ike.
They were there on Thursday (the day we got there), Friday, Saturday,
and a good part of Sunday.

It was relatively cool, as evidenced by people, including Bahamians (who were downright cold at times),
walking around in sweats & hoodies & things to ward off the chill . . .

And lastly, I want you to see the, uh, I can't call them breezes (like the name of the hotel).
It was WIND.
Gale force winds at a steady 30 mph.
Blowing you sideways.
For 4 days.

This poor tree was blowing to the side the whole time we were there.
It didn't fluff out once.


But, really, what a nice sight, right?


Stay tuned.

Morning Beach, Evening Clouds

I'm really glad I had the 2 giant margaritas in me Friday night at Rosie's house. I had chosen that weekend to come for 2 reasons: tropical storm Danny party and no more kids with their dogs.

Tropical Storm Danny? BUST!

Kids & dogs gone? Nope!

But you know what? It didn't matter. Margaritas make everything better.
It was a terrific evening -> night -> morning -> afternoon -> evening.

Warning - lots of pictures ahead. I couldn't decide which ones I liked the best, so put in a whole bunch.
Sorry if that bores you, except . . . not.

After breakfast in the morning, Rosie & I wandered over to the beach to see what havoc had been wreaked on the poor tourists.

Hmmm, they don't seem so upset.

There was a bit of a bigger surf . . .

. . . and the big, red "No Swimming" flag was out.
Did that deter the surfers, one of whom was Rosie's youngest?
No. There is a video of that gripping excitement at the end.

On our way home, we stopped by to say hello to my good friend from high school & college, Russ of blogdom fame. His blog is at times hilarious, at times thought provoking, but always worth a read.

He has a house that used to have a nice view of Jockey's Ridge, the tallest sand dunes on the east coast. They can barely still make the claim though, as they have been slowly shrinking over the years. They are visibly smaller now than they were in the early 70's when we first started vacationing there (my father has lived there since 1976). Dunes don't usually do that, as they shift and move with the winds, and Jockey's Ridge normally migrates slooooowly to the south-southwest. But these have a problem. Their normal migration pattern has been halted by development. If you were allowed to dig at the southern end, though, you would find a bit of their revenge - a miniature golf course that was buried and a bit of a castle that once decorated it just visible peeking up through the sand. The sand also gobbled up a hotel in the late 1880's. So what's a dune to do when it has nowhere to go? Simply and slowly blow away.

In fact, the entire Outer Banks are on the move, shifting to the southwest. Oregon Inlet, connecting the northern Outer Banks to Hatteras Island, has migrated more than 2 miles since it first opened up during a hurricane in 1846. Consider this - when the existing Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built in 1870, it was more than 1500 feet from the shoreline.

Since the construction of the lighthouse, the shoreline has been retreating at an average rate of 15 feet per year. By 1935, the shoreline had retreated to the point where the base of the lighthouse was in the surf zone, forcing the lighthouse to be abandoned. This prompted the construction of a series of palisade dune ridges in the late 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service. By 1950 the lighthouse was deemed safe and returned to service.

And the whole lighthouse had to be moved inland in 1999. I got to see that. It was the coolest thing ever.

Sorry, I got distracted by the dune saga. Where was I? Oh, the view of the back corner of the dunes from Russ's house.

Oops. Caution - objects in the zoom mode are farther away than they appear.

I am feeling very sad for the dunes.

But back at Rosie's house, we passed a nice afternoon watching Monty Python & the Holy Grail, only the best movie ever made (along with about a couple dozen best movies ever made), but as dusk drew close, I had to pack up & go home. Goodbye goodbye hug hug had fun come again thanks for everything blah blah blah. As they walk me to my car, I glance up and . . . oh wow!

I love the 3 layers of color in these clouds. Now I was on a mission - get to the beach as quickly as possible to see these cool-as-all clouds over the water with a couple photo-op stops en route. Clouds change quickly.

Dusk is my favorite time of day, as long as the air is clear. And it was clear as a bell that evening. Dusk feels full of promise. Dusk is full of energy. Dusk feels like something exciting is just around the corner. Dusk feels like fun. Dusk feels like peace.

Ooh look, the moon.

And then I turned to the western sky.

Lastly, my blind videography. Of course, the whole morning of beach pictures was blind. Blind for a couple reasons.
1) The day was so bright I couldn't see the little screen on the back of my camera.
2) Even if it hadn't been bright I couldn't have seen it since I forgot my old-lady reading glasses.

I've decided that surfing on the east coast is really nothing but long periods of self contemplation whilst paddling on your surfboard interspersed with a few seconds of upright posture before the wipe out. Uhhh, yeah, to each his own.

Youngest Hawthorne lived to tell the tale.