There are some snorkeling reefs that we swam out to, and snorkeled around. It was fun and we saw some neat fish, but the tide was going out so the water was getting murkier and murkier. After going for a walk around the island it was time to take the water taxi back to the mainland, if you can call it that (since it's also an island) and get on our cruise ship.
We checked in and made all the last minute arrangements for where we'd eat each night on the ship, and got the list of activities and excursions that they offer in the Bahamas and then headed to our room. The ship had a big welcome party that we attended and then we just went up to the main deck and enjoyed some nice sea air as we headed towards the Bahamas. It was really peaceful. That night we had dinner at one of the middle-tier restaurants on board, which was nice. We sat next to a table of middle-aged black women who were hilarious, especially the grandma, who, in typical grandma fashion, just said whatever she wanted, which she could get away with because she's elderly. She was a hoot!
The next morning we were already in the Bahamas and so we headed out to go on the "snorkeling excursion". We wandered around on the island of the Grand Bahama for a while before the excursion began and then we hopped on this little boat with our guides who all had the awesom-est accents. They took us a ways out to this awesome reef where we jumped overboard and got to snorkel around for like an hour. It was really neat. It was a coral reef, which I had only ever seen on the Discovery channel so it was really awesome to see it up close (but, of course, not touch it). There were also approximately 1,000,000,000 fish of all shapes, sizes and colors. We have to find a place that still develops physical film from our underwater camera and then we'll post some of the pics that we got.
After snorkeling it was back to the ship to hurry and clean up. That night we had booked an hour long couple's massage and then enjoyed an amazing dinner in the shnaziest restaurant on board. We had a great view of the sun setting over the ocean, enjoyed some really tasty food, tried escargot (not too bad), and generally just had a great, romantic evening.
The next day we were back in Florida and had decided to spend our last two nights there in Orlando. We were driving along the road and saw a sign for GatorLand. Not expecting too much we pulled in and parked. The entrance was a giant mold of an Alligator skull. They let me in free for being military, thank you GatorLand, and so we were determined to have a good time since we got in 2 for the price of 1. First we went to the gator wrestling show where some college kid was getting paid minimum wage to wrestle alligators. Quite the summer job. He avoided being eaten and it was very entertaining. Right after, we got in line and got to do our own little gator wrestling! After hitting up another show, which was also, you guessed it, about alligators, we grabbed some gator chow - hot dogs, and walked around to the different exhibits. They had albino gators, Cubans, even some crocodiles. In short, it was very nice. Then as the park closed for the day we watched the last show where the workers string chicken meat up on a wire and the gators jump, like all the way out of the water, to get the meat. That was very impressive. We're glad we made that stop for sure.
When we got into Orlando and checked into our hotel we grabbed a bunch of those pamphlets that hotels always have on display for free about what's there to do in the local area. That was good because we had a big decision to make - Disney World or Sea World. To some this may not even be a question (Rhonda), but it was for us. So we went next door to a BBQ joint, that served gator bites as an appetizer, and figured it out. Given that admission to Sea World was free for military we decided to go there.
The next day we got to Sea World early (the one and only time we did anything 'early') and enjoyed a full day of rides, shows, animals and the like. It was a lot of fun! Then we headed down to Orlando's old towne where you just stroll up and down the closed down streets and there are all kinds of fun shops along the way. There was one bar there that had a massive following from bikers. There were hundreds of motorcycles parked outside. Some of which were all tricked out. That was fun. Then we found a little carnival were we went on a few more rides including a rope course and zip line, and grabbed an ice cream cone to share. Basically the kind of day that kids dream about. It was fun to go out and just do fun things like that and be spontaneous and have a blast.
Then it was back to Colorado Springs from whence we were to embark on the next leg of our adventure - Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment