What's Up Wednesday: Vacation Edition

 

I haven't seen my horses since last week's What's up Wednesday, so I have absolutely nothing to report on that end... I haven't heard from the barn, so I'm assuming no news is good news. Fingers crossed there! I'll be there tomorrow though, and can't wait to kiss those noses!

I'll try to keep this short since you're not really here for a horseless vacation post. But figured I'd share a little about my trip anyway for posterity. 

We flew the day after Christmas down to the Bahamas. We spent a few nights at the Atlantis which has become a pretty regular destination for us. It's fun there, with a water park for the kids. When I was in college I enjoyed the bar scene and casino there, but now that I'm old it's less of a draw. I do enjoy the warm weather though! The days we were there were a little cool and cloudy with some rain sprinkles, but nothing too bad. The kids did some water slides (seriously, do children feel the cold?) and us grown ups enjoyed a pina colada and relaxing. We all enjoyed a solid round of putt putt. None of us are terrible at it, so that was super fun. 

Home sweet home boat

We wound up spending an extra night at the Atlantis as there was a lot of wind and the seas were pretty high. Our next destination was a three and half hour boat ride away. And I'm not sure if you've ever been on a boat with children... But it's much more pleasant if it's not rocking and rolling. It was the right choice for sure, but we all agreed we could have used another day at the second spot. Which was Harbour Island. 

We had just two nights there so we didn't get to do all the fun boating things we had planned. But that's okay. A solid vacation is one that leaves you wanting to come back again. Anyway, we arrived there in the afternoon and did a little island tour and then spent some time on the beach. The beaches are pink on Harbour Island and the sand is super fine. Really beautiful.

Then it was dinner and bedtime. We're a wild bunch. Haha! The next day was New Year's Eve and our only full day here. We took the tender out after breakfast for snorkeling. I'm not much of a snorkeler so I opted to stay on board, but enjoyed the time out there. We got to see some turtles and they were so friendly! They swam right up to the boat and to our swimmers. One of our crew got the best photos with his Iphone (did you guys know that they truly are waterproof now?!):

Above photos are not mine, but shared with permission. Beautiful, aren't they?!

Most of our day was spent out in the tender doing fun stuff like above. We came back to the boat for lunch, went back out for more turtles. Quite a day! And then it was New Year's Eve! 

We're a bunch of boring old people and a couple of kids so we just had dinner together on the boat. Our crew set up some really cute decorations for us complete with party hats and headbands and whatnot. The marina lit off fireworks promptly at 10 which, I don't know about you guys, but that's exactly the right time for me! And then we retired to our rooms to either watch the ball drop on tv or just go to bed. 

And then it was time to come home! We had the morning for a delicious breakfast. The kids had time for a quick pool swim and my younger brother and his girlfriend got in some beach time before we had to get to the airport. We stopped in North Carolina for customs, and were landing in CT by 4ish. 

I'm all snuggled up with Rita at home now. I probably could have and should have unpacked tonight, but I didn't. I'm pretending like I'm on vacation until I wake up tomorrow. I don't think that's unreasonable. 

I hope you all had a safe and fun New Year's Eve, and that 2025 is kind to all of us! Happy New Year everyone!!!