My Trip to the Ba-ha-mers

"You're back from the Ba-ha-mers, Mommy?", said Ben when we got home late Monday night. "I cried about you!"

Oh, it was truly, truly fantastic to see my baby boy (and my big boy) again. I didn't realize how much I'd miss them. It was hard to stop hugging. Really hard.

After 12 hours of traveling from the Bahamas Airport to Logan Airport, Ian (who was still sick) and I were exhausted and hungry.

My mom and dad were very thoughtful and had warm food ready for us....and a clean house. It was overwhelming having everyone talk to us at once, but it still made me happy to see everyone well...and in one piece. My mom looked really tired (poor mom!) after the 4 days and I could totally understand why.

(Oh, I forgot to say that Mom and Dad helped the kids to draw pictures for us, that were hanging on the walls, and two sets of balloons to welcome us home. It was great!)

Now, I'm SURE you're wondering...."Well, how was the trip?????"

And my answer comes in two parts:

1. Good
2. Bad

It was GOOD because:

-The scenery was gorgeous, the air was warm and sweet, and the temps were hot, but not a bad hot.



The Sunset



-The hotel was great....so beautiful...and the room was equally nice....we'd hoped for an ocean view, but the view we had wasn't too bad. Everything was amazingly clean and all the staff was very friendly.



Hotel Lobby and Our Room:



Back of Hotel and View from Room:





-The food...oh, the food....the choices were limited (3 choices for lunch and only a couple more for dinner)...but DELICIOUS!!! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the breakfast buffet, the fresh fruit (with grapes the size of kiwis!) and the Pina Coladas...well, I've never in my life had a better one...and I'm sure I never will. They used fresh pineapples, pineapple juice and coconut milk. Need I say more?

Ian at lunch...looking cute like Ben:



-Most of the company was very enjoyable....I had a great time talking with Ian's co-workers: Jerome, Justin and Phil. We laughed and joked and...they drank. They seemed to have no trouble with my favorite topic of conversation (ah-hem) and, although I shocked Phil's wife with my interests, we continued to joke around about it all weekend. I even played a few games of pool with them and actually got a few balls in...though Ian and I lost pretty much all the games. Oh, well...it was fun.

Justin, Phil and Ian being "sexy"....then Ian and Jerome Lounging:





-The pools couldn't have been better...and after being used to 70 degrees in our pool on a good day....the bathwater temps of the pools there were HEAVEN. I didn't end up going in the ocean, though. There were off and on mini-storms the whole 4 days we were there and the water was pretty choppy. Ian missed out on some good snorkeling....but him and his friends decided to try the snorkels in the pool instead. Weird.

Our Favorite Pool and Ian Jumping in Waterfall





It was BAD because:

-Ian and I were both trying to get over being sick. After the first day, I was all better...though I did have to take my migraine meds twice..ick. Ian stayed sick the whole 4 days and is still trying to get over whatever we had. Poor guy.

-Because of the rough weather, we weren't able to go on the Waverunners....and missed a trip I really wanted to take. It was a tour of the island which included getting to see and visit one of the boats that they filmed Pirates of the Carribean on. I saw pictures, though. Man, we were bummed. I talked to one of the native women there who worked at the "scooter/waverunner/etc. shop" and she told me how nice Johnny Depp was and how friendly the movie crew was. She said that they paid them big money to film there and they even gave out props from the movie as gifts to the locals. I wish I remember her other stories.

-Ian and I had a huge fight on the next to last night. We both said things we shouldn't have...I ran off and cried....he stalked off to drink and smoke. It was terrible.

-There wasn't much shopping to be done. There seemed to be mainly two kinds of shops there. Fancy-Schmancy or Ully-Dully. The FS shops had (with no exaggeration) some of the finest jewelry I've ever seen-way more fancy (and expensive) than any mall jewelry store. Gorgeous emeralds, diamonds, etc. I could drool, but that's all. There were also Perfumes of Paris shops, clothing stores that you'd find on the best streets in NY or California. (FYI...I didn't even try to go into those.) The UD shops had more of "tourist-y" type things like post cards, tshirts, shot glasses, hats, etc. I did manage to find some little huts across the way where local women made shell jewelry and pretty things....so I was able to get a few nice pieces...but nothing that really stood out as awesome.

-The plane ride back was slightly hellish. First, the bus that was supposed to take us from the hotel to the airport (which was only slightly bigger than my house) went to the airport without us. Hmmm....that was interesting. Second, the plane ride from the Bahamas to Miami was a bit bumpy (we had a tiny, tiny plane). Third, the plane ride from Miami to Boston was delayed an hour and then we hovered over Rhode Island for another 45 minutes. ugh. Lastly, when we FINALLY got to Boston, they herded all of us into one place to pick up our bags....where we waited at least a half an hour...and then said, "Oh, uh, actually you should be picking up your bags somewhere else." Everyone was soo angry. We got home at 9:30 pm after leaving the hotel at 9:30 am. Not good.

Ian, Justin, Jerome, Me and Ann Waiting in Miami



and



All in all, I was glad I went. But missing the kids and all the other stuff really got in the way of the overall good feelings of the trip. I think I had a better time when we went to Punta Cana 5 years ago. I'm happy to be home.

As for knitting...well, I got 1/4 of the first Poseidon sock done....and 3/4 of the plain sock using the new Regia Kaffe Fasset sock yarn. Here's the latter as I was laying on the lounge chairs near the pool. (I found it was a bit difficult to knit in such hot weather...and while swimming. Next year....waterproof knitting!)



Here are some random pics to savor...

1. An unflattering pic of me in a funky yellow helmet when we "tried" to go on a scooter ride:



2. My fav pic of Ian against the stormy skies:



3. View of the clouds from the airplane window:



So glad I'm back and huge thanks to everyone who commented last time and wished me well...and sent healing energy my way. You did good! : )