Bahamas

18 - 21 February 2000 - Vanessa and I tried to escape from the Chicago winter to spend a long weekend at the Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Our weekend almost started in disaster, because the night before we were scheduled to leave, Chicago was placed under a winter storm watch. They were predicting 6 - 10 inches of snow for Thursday night and the whole of Friday. We would have been very happy to miss the snow, if we could just make it out. Thursday night we heard on the news that some flights were already cancelled and it hasn't even started to snow. We called the airline and they confirmed that our flight was still scheduled to depart. What a relief!

We drove to the airport while it was snowing heavily and we were still unsure whether we'll be able to leave. But once at the airport, everything seemed normal. The crew checked in, we boarded the plane, a couple of minutes of de-icing of the plane and off we went!!!

Our first stop was in Miami, where we took another flight to Nassau with American Eagle. The aircraft was one of those with propellers and I wasn't too comfortable flying with those planes. Our flight was delayed for about an hour. Two earlier flights to Nassau had been cancelled and we were getting worried about the status of our flight. But this seems to be normal for American Eagle (more on this story later in this page).

	This picture was taken out of the aircraft as we approached Nassau. The water looked beautiful and we couldn't wait to get on the ground. The scratch marks on the picture is not on our camera's lens, but on the window of the airplane. Makes one wonder how they get there. If it was on the inside, it must have been some freaked out passenger and does not make me any more comfortable on this flight. On our way to the hotel, I realized that they drive on the left hand side of the road, although our taxi had a left hand steering. Our taxi driver said that it was kept from the days the British governed the islands.
We would spend our first two nights in the Beach Tower and then transfer to the Coral Towers for one night. After we checked into the hotel, we went up to our room to unpack. We had an amazing room with an ocean view. Below our room was a pool with sharks and stingrays. It was fun watching them glide through the water, while sitting on our balcony. It was time to explore the area. We had heard and read a lot about the hotel and now was the time to see it for ourselves.
	The hotel has an amazing display of marine life. Everywhere on the hotel property there are pools filled with exotic fish, turtles, sharks and stingrays. One of the attractions at the pools is the Serpent Slide. You travel on a tube down a five-story corkscrew and at the end you pass through a shark-filled lagoon.

One of the great places to watch the fish is at Predator Lagoon. There is a underwater tunnel submerged in the lagoon. Here you can have an up-close look at the creatures, including sharks, barracuda, sawfish and giant groupers!

	The local women constantly ask the vacation goers whether they would like to put braids in their hair. This was something that Vanessa wanted to do, so it didn't take much encouragement.
We planned our Saturday to do absolutely nothing. All we wanted to do is just to lay on the beach and relax. Here is Vanessa on the strip of beach in front of our hotel, called Cabbage beach. Everybody can have access to the beach (including non-hotel guests), but the advantage of being a hotel guest is that the hotel personnel supply you with towels and beach chairs. You just point to a spot on the beach and they bring you the chair. What a pleasure!
	Vanessa and I at the underwater tunnel at the Predator Lagoon.
The Royal Towers at the Atlantis Resort as seen from across Paradise Lagoon. This is the newest addition to the hotel and features the main shopping area and casino.
	Feeding time! We were lucky to walk by "The Dig" when this Sea keeper was feeding the fish. Apparently they only get fed every second day. The sharks were the most impressive to watch!
Vanessa at The Dig, which is a maze of rooms and corridors and takes you back 11000 years to the ancient city streets of Atlantis. Here you can see piranha, sleek green eels and venomous lion fish.
	This is one of my favorite pictures, also taken at The Dig. There is such a lot of detail created which makes it look and feel very special. Fortunately, only hotel guests have access the The Dig as hotel personnel guard both entrances. We saw plenty of non-hotel guests trying to gain access without success, leaving them very frustrated and I don't blame them. Vanessa and I came here at least once a day. It really is beautiful.
At the hotel, we spotted this sign next to one of the pools.
	We spent lots of time in the water park and we had great fun. This picture was taken by Vanessa in the Serpent Slide. During this time of the ride, we are surrounded by sharks, because the tube that we are traveling through passes through a shark-filled lagoon.

This picture was taken at the back of the hotel, with the beach in the background.

	Vanessa and I took a afternoon to explore the rest of the island. We took a water taxi from Paradise Island to Nassau to walk through the downtown area. We were told to visit the Straw market and the picture to the left shows what it looks like. Although somewhat interesting to see, there was nothing worth buying, just a bunch of stuff (due to a lack of a better word). It's all marketed towards the tourists, I don't think any locals buy from there, which was kind of disappointing. We did make up for it by having lunch at Conch Fritters, a local restaurant on the main street. The food was great and as you might have guessed, we had some conch!
When we returned to Paradise Island, we decided to rent a motorcycle to explore the rest of Paradise Island. I knew there was a golf course on Paradise Island and I wanted to know what it looked like, since we almost decided to bring our golf clubs with. We rented this scooter from a local guys who had a whole yard full of motorcycles across the road from our hotel. I was surprised that the motorcycle did not have a automatic transmission, but I figured that changing the gears myself was just going to make it more interesting. After a quick lesson on how to change the gears from the vendor, we were off. It wasn't a smooth ride, but we managed to stay on top! When we arrived at the golf course, we learned that it was closed for construction, so it was a good thing we didn't drag our clubs all the way.
	I think we look cool in our helmets and sunglasses. Maybe I should send this picture with our application to join a Harley Davidson club! We had so much fun with the motorcycle, that we decided to leave Paradise Island and go over to the main island to see what the rest of Nassau looked like. I thought it was rather dangerous driving in an area that we didn't know very well, so we stuck to the main streets, but I was afraid that we might get driven over by a truck, so we returned quickly to Paradise Island and was very happy to make it back in one piece. Driving around with the motorcycle was lots of fun and we're glad we did it.
During our last day in the Bahamas we arranged to go snorkeling. The day before we had booked a trip with Bahama Divers. For the first time during our stay, the weather was not very good. During the boat ride to our diving spot, it rained, but luckily cleared when we stopped to start snorkeling. We weren't sure what to expect to see under the water, but we were very eager to get into the water. The water temperature was great and we had no need for a wet suite. The water depth at our dive site was approximately 10 feet, which was ideal, because we were close enough to the bottom of the sea even while we floated on the water. To the right you can see our boat with Vanessa's head barely visible in the foreground.
	Bahama divers supplied all the snorkeling gear, but a couple of days before we left for the Bahamas, we bought our own gear to go snorkeling whenever we wanted to. Although we did manage to do some snorkeling along the waters near our hotel, doing this chartered snorkeling trip was the best thing we ever did. They took us to a beautiful reef with an abundance of fish.
To the right you can see how many fish there were. We were able to buy fish food on the boat and as soon as the fish realized that there was food, you were just surrounded by fish everywhere. This was an amazing sight to see and exceeded our expectations by far. This was probably the highlight of our weekend.
	This picture was taken by Vanessa while I'm feeding some of the fish. As soon as they realize that you have food with you, they just swarm you trying to get a bite and you can feel al those little bites on your fingertips.

We made it back to the Nassau International Airport in time for our flight, but our flight with American Eagle did not depart on time. Getting back in Miami, we missed our connection flight to Chicago. Unfortunately, there were no more flight out of Miami to Chicago, so we had to spend the night in Miami, while the airline arranged for us to leave at 07:00 AM the next morning. As expected, the airline paid for the extra night, as well as giving us vouchers at the hotel for meals. I don't think very highly of American Eagle, since both our flights were delayed.

Apart from the flight arrangements, we had such a great time during this weekend and this was probably one of our best vacations ever. This vacation exceeded our expectations by far and I could recommend Paradise Island to anybody. There is just so much to do, that you will never have a dull moment.