Nassau, Bahamas
25.04.945N
77.19.364W

Bob & Caron Bass told us, if you want to pamper yourself for a day, go to Atlantis on Paradise Island in Nassau. We did; they were right; but boy it was expensive. You know all of those mega yachts you see at the Miami Boat Show every year? Well, this is where they are; then there's us. We are the tiniest boat at the marina. You can barely see our mast for the triple and quadruple decks of the surrounding boats. Dale kept shooing away the dock boys who wanted to wash our boat for the going rate per foot but Dale pointed to the 'big boys' and said that we didn't have that much to wash. They took mercy on us later when Dale started washing the boat himself and struck a deal for half the cost.

What drew us here was that we wanted to see the aquarium with the glass tunnel beneath the shark exhibit. Impressive. In fact, I was totally impressed with all the architecture and attention to detail in creating a mythological site. My favorite place was the exhibit called "The Dig". (You can find it on the internet (Atlantis) with some pretty neat visuals.)

In the Dig, you walk down stairs to caverns that have sides to various aquariums along with pretend artifacts. It was these pretend artifacts that were so very creative. Dive suits, lanterns made from huge trumpet sea shells, designs of corals making the railings, shields, urns and ruins of temples were in the aquariums, waterfalls and of course the gardens surrounding all of it. It was all fascinating. Even the stucco walls had imprints of sea shells imbedded into it.

The 'marina village' was comprised of all of the boutiques you would find at the finest resorts in Las Vegas and the service everywhere was the best we've ever had. Since it was Thanksgiving, there were no reservations remaining for dinner. So, we dined at one of the nicer restaurants at the bar. Same food, just higher chairs and we got to talk with the wait staff. Probably a lot more entertaining than sitting in the dining room surrounded by families reminding us that we weren't with our own. We reminisced that we'd had at least one child at home with us always. Being away from our family is the very worst part of this sabbatical. I think that we are a very close family and the holidays are tough.

Tomorrow we will head to Rose Island to pre-stage our entry into the Exumas. The really neat thing about being the tiniest boat in this marina, lots of turning room! No problem, mon.