We're back

Our flight home from the Bahamas landed last night around 9:20 & it was immediately evident that Fall had finally arrived in Pennsylvania. Today was the most beautiful day: blue skies, sunshine, and a bright canvas of leaves just beginning to change.
I absolutely love this weather.

Our Grand Bahamas vacation was fantastic; I don’t think that I’ve ever had a more relaxing trip in my life!  Anthony and I enjoyed visiting various beaches and touring the island. On Tuesday, we visited Paradise Cove, a beach that rents snorkeling gear and is within swimming distance of a fascinating coral reef. We snorkeled for nearly two hours & saw a wide variety of fish including a large group of manta rays and a barracuda. We both enjoyed diving down towards the bottom to get a closer look at the fish & coral. I really wish we had an underwater camera. The only negative part of this experience was that the flippers left nasty blisters on four of my toes.

Wednesday morning, we left for a kayak and nature tour that took us through a creek surrounded with Mangrove trees at Lucayan National Park. We had a wonderful time winding through the creek, which was very narrow in some places. The creek spilled out into the ocean after two and a half miles of paddling. Our tour guide, "Uncle Chad," then took us back to the beginning of the route where we crossed the creek on a wooden raft operated our guides pulling on a rope strung across the creek. At the end of the tour was Gold Rock Beach, one of the nicest beaches that Anthony and I had ever seen. One of the highlights for us was a curious raccoon that came to inspect the picnic site. Anthony actually got to hand-feed him!

Thursday was quite possibly my favorite day (though they were all so good, it’s hard to decide). We went to a neighboring beach and rented a waverunner. It was so much fun; we’ll definitely have to invest in one of our own some day! After a quick bite to eat, we returned to the beach and went parasailing, which I’ve wanted to do for about 15 years. It was amazing to float above the crystal clear water and have an aerial view of the island. : )

On Friday, we returned to Gold Rock Beach and spent the day swimming, relaxing, and collecting sea shells.

There were only a few negatives:
I was very surprised to find that the island natives were not very welcoming (with the exception of our friendly tour guides). Our resort was nice, but the staff wasn’t helpful and everything that would ordinarily be complimentary seemed to have a fee associated with it (but they were kind enough to transfer us to a room that didn’t have cigarette smoke seeping under the door). We were surprised to find that the maid service only visited the room once per week, unless you wanted to pay extra. I also felt like I couldn’t turn a corner in Lucaya without being bombarded with ladies offering to braid my hair or sell jewelry.

All in all, we had a great time. I’ll definitely post some photos later in the week. : )