Bahamas!

For our 5-year Anniversary, Gary and I planned a cruise to the Bahamas... 

So we conned asked the grandparents in Tampa to take the kids for the week.. We left on Nov. 4th (our actual anniversary) and drove to Papa and Nana's house..

  As you can tell they were sorely abused and mistreated... Gary and I left the next afternoon for Orlando, we stopped in Lakeland to see Darrin, Joy, and Baby Riley, then we were off to Orlando to meet up with Steve.

In the morning we headed to Port Canaveral for our cruise... 

Gary getting one more chance on the cell phone before we boarded... 

The view from our room.. 

 On our way!

The first day was a little rocky.. thankfully I took dramamine, unfortunately it KNOCKED me out! And I slept about 90% of the first day.. which was lovely.. every moment of it! The next morning we awoke in Freeport, Bahamas with 80 degree weather.. ahhh... 

We took a taxi to the straw markets... and stopped for a drink.. they used a machete to make the drink.. the Bahamas does not mess around.. 

While in the straw market we met this character... we spoke with him about Freeport.. and when we left he blessed us.. and told us we would in the lottery. This "blessing" cost us five bucks... something tells me this will not come true... 

Then it was off to the only free beach access around.. it was GORGEOUS! even if we did have to fight away peddlers selling us everything from jewelry to hair braiding... 

Then it was back on the ship and in the morning we awoke in Nassau, Bahamas and even warmer weather... 

This was the view from the ship of Atlantis.. 

 A small yacht.. HOLY COW this thing was huge! 

 We walked around Nassau in the morning taking in the local scenery... McDonalds.. 

 I must say this local free beach was AMAZING! The colors of the water was ridiculous.. 

 As we were walking around we noticed this.. it was a police stand in the MIDDLE of the road... who wants that job? ps- this was one of the busiest roads

 After we went back to the ship had some lunch and relaxed.. then we took the water taxi from Nassau to Paradise Island... There were three ships docked in Nassau at the same time.. ours was the one in the middle. 

 Our room was in the back of the boat... it is the second window above the ships name.. 

 Paradise Island is where Atlantis is.. while we could access most of the areas, we were able to catch some of the amazing view around the hotel.. 

  Sea turtles!

 After convincing Gary to walk an extra way to get to the free beach access, we finally got to see the oceanside of Paradise Island.. very pretty and very rough... so rough that a rogue wave came up and SOAKED me! It was not fun to walk back through the hotel lobby looking like I had just wet my pants! So thankfully we took a taxi back to the ship!

 Us leaving the ship... so sad.. .

 The kids were now at Abuela and Ca's being abused and tormented again... They arranged a sleepover with the Glenn's and of course had a BLAST.. 

 A few more hugs before we headed home.. 

It was sooooooooo nice to get away.. and FINALLY take a honeymooon! The kids did great being away from us, and we didn't mind it either!