Wade and I just finished our fourth year of school and are now enjoying our first summer as a married couple.
After the rush of finals, graduation, and commissioning everything has finally slowed down. My best friend graduated this May and my ROTC class commissioned (well a few of them did...most of us are taking five years to get out of this place). I watched (enviously mind you) Cait graduate and then commission. The Air Force now has four new lieutenants who I'm sure will do a spectacular job! It was so exciting watching them get their butter bars and finally get to leave this place. I love school, but I'm starting to get antsy. I want it to be my turn!
After all the ceremonies celebrating the new college graduates, the summer kicked off to a great start with a trip to the Bahamas...for me. My best friend and I took off to celebrate her graduation and left poor Wade behind to play golf and mope about missing the Bahamas (oh and his lovely wife of course).
The Bahamas were an absolute blast! The trip started with an uneventful plane ride and an incredibly sketch bus ride to an even more sketch hotel. We were fortunate enough to be put in the honeymoon suite (which was deemed such because the TV pulled out from the wall). After surviving Miami and an equally crazy bus driver, we boarded our cruise ship, the Norwegian Sky. She was beautiful in a tacky cruise ship sort of way and the best part was meals were included! Fantastic really, however after the amount of desserts we ate, I'm pretty sure my waist band will never be the same.
The first day we went to Grand Bahama Island with the intent of exploring Lucayan National Park. However, when we disembarked we learned to get a taxi to the National Park was going to cost us $150! Reluctantly we got on the $5 taxi to the tourist beach with the hopes of possibly being able to find cheaper transportation there. Let me tell you...we made quite the find! Scooters! Yes, we rented a scooter in the Bahamas (where they drive on the left side of the road) and wearing our sun dresses we set off (both of us on one scooter mind you) into the horizon in search of the National Park. (Ok so maybe it wasn't all that exciting but we were both pretty excited about finding a way to get there). It was completely worth it--we explored underwater caves, saw beautiful plants and spent the rest of the day at the most breathtaking beach I've ever seen (unfortunately this is where the camera batteries died so we have no photographic evidence!)
We left with seemingly enough time only to get lost and drive in circles. Our embark time was 1630 and the scooter rental was a 15 minute taxi ride to the ship. At 1615 we were still tootling down the streets of Grand Bahama Island with no idea where we were. Fortunately the people there are spectacular and redirected us to our proper location. A frantic 80 km/hr scooter ride, a mad sprint, and a pathetically slow taxi ride later we arrived at our ship...30 minutes late. As we boarded we heard the crew say "there's the last two". Whoops! Day one summary: amazing scooter adventure, great national park, frantic scooter ride back, massive sunburned bodies (feet, backs, shins--seriously though burt shins hurt!) and grumpy crew. Mission successful!
The second day was Nassau where we played with dolphins! We got to pet, dance with and get kisses from a friendly dolphin whose name I have already forgotten. Obviously we didn't connect--it's cause he kisses way too many girls a day for my liking! It was amazing to see them up close though. My favorite is watching them breathe; they seem to gasp for a breath which doesn't seem like it will last them long enough, but they can actually hold their breath for 7 minutes!
Our last stop was at Great Stirrup Cay, the cruise line's private island. The front of it was terribly crowded and honestly would have been horrible if we hadn't found a nice beach about a mile and a half away from where we were dropped off. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon roasting on the beach and the rest of the afternoon sitting and reading in the shade. I finally convinced Cait to get into the ocean, and we spent some time floating around before we headed back to Miami.
It was all around a fantastic experience and I only touched on the highlights. The time spent on the actual ship was full of adventures too--everything from walking the track (and running...once), to making towel animals, to wonderful food and fantastic desserts, to time spent on deck while we cruised the seas, to late night entertainment and movies, and of course feeling, for the first time, the "motion of the ocean". That's not including the adventures we had on the Miami public transportation system, at the Miami MetroZoo and bumming in the airport while our flight was delayed 5 hours.
Overall rating of the trip and the summer so far: A+!
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