Bahamas

This will be the last post regarding the summer since Halloween is almost here! Praise God for granting us such a fun-filled summer. We're truly thankful for His grace and providence at all times. The highlight of the summer was our trip to the Bahamas which wouldn't have happened without the generosity of our good friends Cailee and Kyu. They invited us to join them at their timeshare in the Bahamas. They even gave us the bigger side of the lockoff since we have two kids. Thank you once again for your generosity and inviting us along. It was one of our best family vacations!

So here is Atlantis. It was quite impressive. It reminded me of Las Vegas but even better. The grounds are immaculately clean and beautfully maintained. I could see why they charge an arm and a leg to stay at the Atlantis.

Good thing for our friends, we stayed at the Harborside Resorts at Atlantis (we were in a 1 bedroom suite). It was literally a 1 minute shuttle ride to the other towers of the Atlantis. It worked out great because you can't really stay in 1 room with 2 kids who go to bed at 7:30pm. Plus it was lots of fun playing Settlers with our friends every night. Too bad I didn't win a single game.

Even some ceilings were painted with such detail. It's so much more impressive in person. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The boys loving the Aquarium and exploring marine life. This tunnel has a see through glass ceiling where sting rays and other fish would swim above your head. It was very cool. Justin on the other hand enjoyed running back and forth in the tunnel.

So we got to know the local Bahamian people and they are so friendly and welcoming to tourists. We met Kenva (a front desk person aka our own personal tour guide) took us outside of the resort to this hole in the wall stand to get the best fresh conch salad. She kept saying how conch (pronounced konk) is an aphrodisiac and that we had to get one. I think the locals just say that so the tourists will try the shellfish because it seemed like it was ubiquitous.

Here is the man whacking the conch shell open with what I think was a machete.

Here he is pulling out the conch out of its shell.

Chopping the conch with tomatoes, peppers and onions.

All the ingredients get mixed and they squeeze like 10 limes to get rid of the fishy taste and it acts like a bactericidal. Thank goodness because I don't think I saw the man wash his hands once but I don't think the Dep't of Health comes to inspect so what are we to say anything. We were definitely going for the local experience.

Here's the final dish...fresh conch salad. It was the best thing I had in the Bahamas. Sort of like ceviche...not at all fishy. I highly recommend it.

The boys were fascinated by this stilt walker...actually I think Justin was scared. He never sits that calmly. =)

To continue our culinary adventure, our local guide Kenva would bring us local fruits to try. This is called a sugar apple which is sort of a misnomer because it's neither sweet nor related to an apple. It doesn't look that appetizing but it's actually pretty good. It tastes like persimmon and wasn't too sweet.

Look who we ran into at Atlantis! It's NBA star Kevin Durant. He was very gracious and his mother was even more gracious when she took this group picture. The Miss Universe Pageant was also being held there the same time. We tried looking for Miss USA and Miss Korea but no luck. I think the husbands were disppointed...haha.

This pic was taken at the exclusive Cove Tower where only celebrities stay and they have swimming with the dophins. It felt like we were in Hawaii. We'll have to save money for the next 10 years to go and swim with the dolphins.

Hanging out at Marina Village (overpriced shopping area in Atlantis for people who don't want to travel downtown)

When you ask Justin what he did in the Bahamas he will make a swimming gesture and proudly say "schwimming!" I think his favorite time was snacking afterwards while lounging in the chairs.

So basically we went to the kiddie pools and lazy rivers everyday. The kids loved every minute of it as well as the parents.

Cailee and me at Marina Village.

Did I mention the kids AND parents loved the kiddie pool? Nice random person offered to take our family picture. People are so nice when they are on vacation.

The boys at you guessed it another kiddie pool. I must say, it is a very family friendly place but if you're going to pay that much money you should go when your kids can go on the rides and slides by themselves. Dare I say it? It may be better than Disney World since you're not walking around the whole day and waiting on lines for rides. However Tyler wants to go back to Disney and the Bahamas. What a lucky kid that he can even say that.

Date Night - Thanks C & K for babysitting while we went out. We had Nobu but it's not as good as the one in NYC but it was so nice to enjoy a meal without yelling at two kids to sit down and eat their food. So nice!

This was probably one of the best family vacation we have been to. It was so relaxing and fun and we had great traveling buddies. FYI - if you need to bring food out of the country just freeze it and check it with your luggage. Thanks again C & K. We must travel together again. =)