Heather

March 24, 2010
Well where to start.. Thursday night I put on a surprise birthday party for my friend chris it was just at a restaurant down the street from me. We had about 10 people there. It was good! My vacation!!! I had a BLAST!!! :0) Friday morning I got to the airport at 5am. Ugh so early!! But its ok. I had a layover in Houston Texas ya I kinda back tracked. I got to Fort Lauderdale at about 2 and Steve landed about 20 min before me so it worked out perfect. It was so good to see Steve again it has been a long time. We got to our hotel and then went out to see the town. Near Ft. Lauderdale there is a town called Hollywood. We went there to this famous casino called Hard Rock Café and Casino or something they had a mall kinda attached to it so we walked around. We had dinner at this really cool old diner they served endless fries!! They had huge guitars every where I took a pic next to everyone I found, Steve thought I took a lot of pics! Lol!!! We left for our boat really early in the morning it was kinda chilly outside but it was beautiful the sun was shining and there was no snow on the ground (still snow in Chicago) I love being on a big cruise ship. It was so much fun! We watched a movie in there theater and then it got kinda stormy so when you walked in a straight line you would walk side to side. I looked like I was a drunk person. I told Steve this is the closest I will ever be to understanding how drunk people feel! On the back of the deck they were having a party for all the spring breakers. It was fun to watch people play games and stuff. It was so beautiful just looking out in the ocean and see nothing on all sides of you. I liked the front of the ship the wind in your face and nothing ahead of you I felt free! We will have to go on a cruise when you get back it was a blast! The cruise was 8 hours we got to the Bahamas at about 2pm. It was beautiful!! The water was so clear and the beaches were amazing! We got to port and got in a taxi and went to our hotel. They drive on the wrong side of the road.. That is crazy it was weird having the cars pass on the right side instead of the left. Some cars have the steering wheel on the right and some on the left like we do so it is kinda weird! We got to our hotel it was in town but they said that they were shut down and that they were going to let us stay at there sister hotel for free and it is right on the beach!!! We got so excited!!! We could see the ocean from our room. It was right on the shore it opened up to the beach it was crazy! We were super lucky. We also had a kitchen and everything so it worked out really well cause we wanted to save money and cook instead of go out. Well we went to this little place it is kinda like a mini outside mall but there are a bunch of little shops with homemade stuff inside. They made some really cool things. We went to this little grocery store and bought mac and cheese, milk , cereal and a few other things to hold us over for the next few days! We went back and made dinner and then walked on the beach!! It is so beautiful there! I want to go back. The next day Sunday!! We slept in!!! we kinda just hung out around the hotel went exploring it was fun went swimming a little bit. I got some cool shells! On Monday we went kayaking it was fun it was in this national park they have there. Our tour guide was like a human dictionary he knew everything about the island. He has been living there since he was 6 years old he came from Spain I think. It was about a hour drive to the park so he talked to us the whole time about the island. I got the front of the kayak and we went out into the ocean it was fun!! There are no waves like there is in California just flat and smooth. Then we went in this little stream river thing for about 2 hours. I just relaxed and Steve did all the work cause we were not going that fast. I took a lot of pictures it was a perfect day! When we got to the end we pulled up our kayaks up and then all got on this raft that had a rope attached to it that ran along to the other side. So we pulled ourselves over to the other side. We walked through some trees and it opened up to this beautiful beach. You could not hear any cars or see any buildings it was so cool it was like we were the only ones on the island. Next we went on this tour he told us all about the trees and the plants and birds and wildlife. Then we went down in these caves!! They were way cool most of them are underneath the water and they had underwater tunnels that lead to another cave. They have them all over the island. They mapped it all out if you scuba dive then you can go from cave to cave! We went back to our hotel and went exploring again. I found these really cool conk shells they were big they are the ones that you put your ear up to them when you were a kid and you could hear the ocean. They were just laying there. They had some holes in them and I guess they could not sell them at there stores so I picked the 2 coolest ones. The next day (tue) was our last day we just went swimming and did more exploring. We got back on the cruise ship we left at about 4pm and they had dinner on the boat and we just watched the sun set and then you could see the lights from the Bahamas it was really cool. It was so dark outside and you could see the stars! I loved sitting on the front of the boat with the wind in my hair sailing nowhere!! We got back to our hotel at 1am! We were switching hotels the next morning we rented a car for the next few days our hotel had a kitchen in it too so we went grocery shopping again! Our hotel is right next to the biggest outlet mall in the world so we went to go check it out. It took 4 ½ hours to walk the whole thing. The next day we had to sit through this 90 min thing to try to get us to buy into a time share that is how we could stay there for free. Then we went down to the beach! It was more like Cali but the beach part was not as dirty. We looked in all the surf shops and had some ice cream. It started to rain so I got in the ocean! It stopped but we kept on swimming the currant was so strong I could not stay in one place Steve had to hold me so I would not float away. We went back to our hotel and went hot tubbing. We met some interesting people some were from Canada that was cool to talk to them. On Friday it was raining so we did not do a lot we went out to lunch at applebees then went back to the mall. Steve had to drag me out cause I kept on buying things!! LoL!!! we went country dancing that night at this really cool place he is a really good swing dancer so it was good to dance again. People came up to us and asked if we were professional? It was really funny! We are just that good!! Lol!! We got back to our hotel at about 1 and we had to wake up at 3:30 am. We only got about 45 min of sleep! Ya we were tired at the airport. I had to leave first and Steve left about 30 min after me so it was not to bad. He walked me up to my gate and waited for me to board. It was a long flight home cause I was so tired I kept falling asleep then waking up. I had a lay over in Atlanta and my plane was late and I did not know where I was supposed to go! I almost missed my plane I would have not been happy if I missed my plane! I was in the front row of my plane so I was happy about that cause I had extra leg room to sleep! Well that was my trip I made it home safe and I had a blast!