Docked early today and we decided last night to carry our own bags off.  Straight from the dock back to our car and the long four hour drive home.  Needless to say the dogs were extremely happy to see us.

We haven't decided that we aren't cruise people yet.  The experience wasn't a screaming success, but it didn't completely suck either.  We are sure we want to go back to the islands again, but we may decide to just stay at a resort and do our adventures out from there.

We've committed to at least one more cruise though, just to confirm our suspicions.  Maybe on a different cruise line.

The long road home.

Well today is our last day.  Full day at sea again, so we slept in some...or so we thought.  We were still out of the cabin by 9:00.  We went upon deck and caught some sun.  I read to Chris from my Michio Kaku book, and when we were done with the sun went back down into the Majestic Bar, grabbed a Guinness and  a Sandeman,  and I read t her some more.  Changed into something more casual and headed up on deck for the 7 game BINGO session.  $20 per card but I figured I had a pretty good chance.  Again...I should have stayed in bed.  Didn't win a damn thing, and right as we were starting game 6 it started raining.  First rain we've seen the entire trip.  It didn't last long, but it has gotten colder in the after storm.  Definitely not hitting the casino tonight.  My luck has not gotten any better since last night.

Anniversary in Nassau, Bahamas: 25 degrees 04'50"'N by 077 degrees 20'25"W

Yup!  It's our first anniversary today.  We pulled into port about 6:30 this morning.  Got to be up and at 'em.  We have a half day of snorkeling today!  The snorkeling trip was fantastic.  We found this excursion on excursions.com, and the outfit was called Sandy Cove, and our guides were Kathryn, Jaimee, and the boat captain.  Apparently they have had a lot of famous people go out with them over the years and they have pictures on the wall including Tiger Woods, Pierce Bronson, and many others.  We were quite pleased with the whole experience.  There were three stops to get in the water.  The first was called" Hollywood Bowl".  It’s a place where they film most of the movies here in the Bahamas’ including the James Bond stuff.  At first Chris was not at all thrilled.  Pretty soon though she was swimming off on her own and having a great time of it.  The second stop was "Nari Nari".  This is the location where they filmed a scene in "Jaws IV" where the sea plane tries to fly in and execute a daring rescue.  Didn't work out so well as the shark came up, bit the plane on the tail, and drug it to the bottom of the ocean.  Fortunately for us, if not for the Cessna, the wreckage is still there on the bottom and we got to swim over it for a bit.  Last stop was "Treasure Cay".  This was our shark swim.  Chris, when she was told it was going to be Reef Sharks, had this image of fish tank sized sharks.  Oh No!  We're talking 4' - 6' foot sharks with lots of teeth.  Not as dangerous as it sounds though.  The team dropped a bait cage in to the bottom and called the sharks in, about 30' down.  Then we got to slide, quietly, into the water and look down at them.  When we were all DONE THEY PULLED THE BAIT CAGE UP AND BROUGHT THE SHARKS TO THE SURFACE.  Chris GOT SOME GREAT VIDEO OF THEM.   Chris was very excited to get in the water and thrilled she got to "swim with sharks".  She even admitted that now she really does want to learn to SCUBA.  Bus ride back into Nassau for some shopping.  As we were walking along and taking pictures we met a man named Eric who appointed himself to guide us around Nassau.  Chris was worried he was taking us someplace to steal everything we had, but it turns out it was a good deal.  We went to see Government House, and then we tripped across the "Pirates of Nassau" museum, which turned out to be pretty interesting and very well done.  Bummed around the shops for a bit after, but really didn't find anything worth the coin.  Mostly tourist crap again and expensive trinkets.  Took a nap then hit the casino again.  Should have stayed in bed.  Both tables I sat at we pretty cold.  We have ended up about $20 down for the trip.  Might try again tomorrow but I doubt it.  Went back to the room and had the champagne that was given to us by Annie at the reception, and  had a lovely evening together and went to bed.

Freeport Docking Station: 26 degrees 31' 27" N by 078 degrees 46' 25" W, Sea Depth 920'

Today we were in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island.  We got into port about 8:00 am.  As a last minute idea Chris got us booked on a bus tour of the island, which ended in a shopping event.  Between the tour and the shopping we went down to the beach and had a nice walk.  The island itself is kind of disappointing.  I'm sure if we were staying at a hotel and had more time to spend on the beach and make a couple of treks down to the more natural end of the island it would be very interesting, however the towns were devastated by to back hurricanes  few years ago and are still recovering.  The tour consisted of a lot of "on the left you'll see the oil refinery for the island.  Production was shut down in 1980" and "over here you see our power generation station which runs on diesel and gasoline".  Even the shopping was pretty disappointing.  The usual touristy crap.  I did get a few good pictures though, especially of Chris.  She looked beautiful down on the beach.  Ah well, we went back to the boat and got a decent nap before this evening.  Dinner after the nap.  Chris figured out Margarita's riddle tonight.  Very proud of her.  Jerk pork loin.  I liked it, Chris not so much.  After dinner we took a turn in the casino.  Both of us had a great time.  At one point Chris was $60 ahead, but then she ended up losing all of it, including the $20 she started with.  I stuck in a  by Guinness again tonight.  Really the only thing worth drinking on the boat.  Hung out for a bit on the Serenity deck and just looked  out over the ocean talking.

A Day and Night at Sea

Today we were at sea all day. I the middle of the night I was woken up by some loud mechanical noise.  I swear it sounded like the forward maneuvering jets.  I remember thinking to myself "maneuvering jets?  Out here?"  Turns out I was right.  One of the passengers had a stroke in the middle of the night, and they had to turn the boat back around and race towards Charleston to meet up with the Coast Guard and transfer to their boat.  One of our dinner mates was saying that the woman and her family would get billed for the extra gas and all.  Apparently it's in the fine print of the contract we signed.   Speaking of the dinner mates tonight was a bit better.  More relaxed.  Food still very good.  Chris has become addicted to the Sandeman's port.  Asked me 'how in the world did I not know about this stuff?"  We wandered up onto the top deck and man was it windy in the morning! Then again we had turned back around and were racing to make up time, moving at 18+ knots. Turns out the top deck is also the jogging track.  I am guessing you get extra points for running into the wind.  Very pretty view though, and I’m amazed at how many small boats we are seeing this far out.  We took several naps today.  I think we're both breaking the stress and the bodies are taking advantage of it.  Could also have been the massage and facial we got today.  Very nice, and not horribly expensive for a 75 minute session.  Definitely might have to go back during the return leg.  Hit the hot tub on the Serenity deck again tonight.  Had it all to ourselves this evening.  The late comedy show was the "adults only" Cowboy comedian show.  Pretty funny, if a bit predictable.  Afterwards we caught the "Newlywed Wed Game" show.  They actually had one of the couples that got married on the boat on stage.  The other was a couple that had been married 17 years, and the third had been married for 40.  Much better than the show we caught last night.  Early'ish to bed tonight, our first landfall is tomorrow.

All aboard...we're expecting youuuuuuuuuuu

We're off on our first cruise.  Going to the Bahamas.

Left the house at about 8:00.  Stopped to get gas, and went to the store to get sun screen and money...then we realized we'd left the champagne at the house, had to turn around and get it.  Take two:  Left the house about 8:30 and we were on our way.  Of course we listened to our getaway song.  Finally got to the port about 1:00, and found out it wasn't an easy as we thought it would be to meet up with Uncle Eric.  Still, we figured it out...caught us a ride back out from the dock to a drop off area, met him for a bit, then caught the bus back to dock side.  Apparently they have a thing about you walking up to the dock.  Not sure why, but hey, their rules.  Through security, up the gangway and right out on to the deck our cabin is on.  Empress Deck, cabin 19.  Our first disappointment of the trip came early.  Turns out even the soda on the trip costs.  At $1.95 a can think we are going to be drinking a lot of water and tea.  Before we could get into any trouble we got called out for the safety briefing.  So we go to our "muster area" and listen to a safety speech, then they march us all out to our lifeboat location and we stand there for a while before being told we could go.  Not really sure what the point was, but hey, I’ll play along.  Besides Chris and I got to identify which inflatable raft was ours.  Not anyone else’s mind you, just us. We then wandered the ship for the rest of the evening until dinner, getting out bearings.  We took the early seating, 6:00, and arrive just about on time.  There is 4 other couple at our table, and we spent a few minutes saying hello and getting to know our tablemates.  Chris compared it to being at a friend’s wedding where the only people you know are the bride and went to the then getting stuck at one of the extended family tables.  They seem to be nice enough folks though.  After dinner we went to the Serenity Deck, the adults only section of the ship, and sat in the hot tub for a bit.  Afterwards we caught the opening show.  Wow!  That was sad.  Typical, low talent, forced energy and fun, drek.  Ah well.  Off to bed and looking forward to tomorrow.

05Sep2010 --> Waterfalls, Bouldering, and Hiking, oh my...

Another early morning, another dead battery.  This time it is the Mazda!   Chris swears her DROiD killed the car since it was plugged in all night.  Fortunately, the nice group next to us had cables and were willing to jump us (note to self:  make sure cables in garage get put into the car).

Chris pointed out that I forgot to mention her addition to our camping gear - her compasswhistleometer.  Apparently, one of her packing lists said we need a whistle, and she found one that is also a compass and a thermometer.  It isn't something I would have bought, and I gave her some grief about it too.  However, since I actually used it as a thermometer... anyway...

BLT sandwiches for breakfast (well BLT for Chris, BL for Tim).  Lunch packed into the backpack, complete with fresh fruit.  Off we go.

It's a good thing we turned back the previous day.  It turns out that the distance listed on the sign at the trailhead was only for the section of the trail that was inside Gorges State Park.  Since the waterfalls are actually outside the park, our nice little three mile hike turned out to be seven miles.  It was well worth the hike though.

The trail inside the state park was amazing - it was all downhill going out, at least five feet wide and graveled.    The grade was fairly gentle and switch-backed.  Then we crossed into the national forest...  Now this was a trail!  Dirt!  Variable grade!  Ankle-breaking roots and rocks!  Tim was in heaven.

At the bottom of the trail we took a short rest and crossed over into the rocky stream bed.  It was here we introduced Chris to a new experience - Bouldering!

 
We decided to go upstream along the river bed, going from rock to rock trying to stay dry.  We were mostly successful and Chris was a real trooper...  After only a couple of "I can't do it"s, and finding a stick to help her along, she was rock hopping with the best.  She only got wet twice, not counting the forced swim we both had to take.  Some fishermen along the way were pulling some really nice brown trout out of the river.

After a while (and lunch on one of the rocks), we returned to the trail.  Heading back upslope, we passed a couple of trailside campsites.  Chris and I are thinking it might be nice to come back one day and hike into one of them for a day or two.  The trail is still pretty rugged, but not impossible.

About three quarters of the way out, we finally made it to Rainbow Falls.  Very pretty cascade with a deep swimming hole at the bottom with a ledge to jump off into it.  It was fairly crowded (and at least a 30 foot drop, if not more), and we wanted to make it to Turtleback.  At the top of Rainbow, we walked out to the top of the falls.  I even got Chris to sit for pictures right out on the edge.

Turtleback looks more like a huge rapid than a waterfall.  It also looks just like its name - a big rounded slab of rock with water washing over it into a deep pool.  Perfect for a water slide!  Of course I got some great action shots of Chris sliding in to the water.  Even helped her defeat her ancient enemy - the dreaded climbing rope.  There was much rejoicing.  Sadly, somewhere along the way I split the nail on my left big toe - Ow!  Oh Well.

We hiked back down to the bottom of Rainbow when we were done.  It was much less crowded this late in the day, and the sun had shifted so that the area was in shade.  It was lovely, cool, and not all that loud.

Chris got a good look at the ledge I had her posing on earlier.  I think she may have fussed at me some more.  Not to worry though - she admitted to being happy she had done it.

In the pool was a father and his young daughter.  I mean young too - she may have been four years old.  She was having a grand time in the water too.  This is the kind of Dad I would want to be.

More pictures of course, then it was time to go.  The hike out wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it might be (there were many stops 'to see the scenery' on the way - editor).  The thing that always amazes me though is the number of people who go on hikes like this who are wearing flip flops and carrying no water.  I have never thought this was a smart idea!

Back at camp it was another nice quiet night by the campfire.  We heated a can of coup for dinner and roasted hot dogs on the open fire.  Of course Chris made S'mores again.

It really wouldn't break my heart if we could do this far more often than we have been.