Nassau.

The first port we stopped at was Nassau, Bahamas. The water was absolutely gorgeous. What else can you expect for a "paradise island"? We weren't sure what we'd do or see in Nassau. . no plans. We just caught a taxi over to the Atlantis resort, and nosed our way around looking at things. The taxi driver was really nice. We talked to him about Anna Nicole's place and a couple of other celebrities that have houses or condos there. I wish I would have written down the things that he told us because there were some condos near the resort that I think he said cost $10,000 a night. . maybe even more than that. I can't remember that stuff because it's been too long now. Maybe Shane will remember. The resort was huge. And this was no low-end resort. . you had to pay top dollar to stay at Atlantis. At the resort, you could only go so far without resort id. They wouldn't allow you to see the whole aquarium or use their private beach unless you were a paying guest of their resort. We looked at the part of the aquarium that they would allow, and then we started searching. We knew there had to be public beach somewhere, so we just kept walking around the resort trying to find a way there. We were all getting tired of walking around looking in the shops of very expensive jewelry and makeup, and decided to try one more wing of the resort. We started walking, and ended up in a hallway of hotel rooms, and when we got to the end, there was an exit door. Just outside that door was the beach. Beautiful beach. . white sands, turquoise water. We were a little nervous that someone was going to kick us off the beach, but there weren't many people out because it was a really windy day. We just walked out on the sand like we owned the place, and we were bothered only twice. Once by some Bahamian black ladies that wanted to braid Macy's hair for only $50, and then again by the lifeguard who told the kids to stay back out of the water. They got to walk out in it a little bit before he came, and it did make me a little nervous. The water was really wild, and I was afraid it was going to sweep them up and swallow them. (I've seen that happen before in fairly calm water, you know.) So we let the kids play in the sand for a few minutes, and then we took them up to the shower to wash their feet and put their shoes back on. Then we just started walking down the sidewalk out there near the beach. It seemed the walkway would probably take us back around to the prohibited part of Atlantis, but we figured they weren't going to check for resort id to let us OUT of the private beach. When we got back up to the hotel part of the resort, not knowing where we were going, we accidentally walked right in to another part of the aquarium. Oops. So we just enjoyed the scenery, and that beautiful paradise-like feeling, and then found our way back out of the resort and caught another taxi back to the ship. The driver on the way back was a little scary. He took us on back roads (really narrow), and ended up driving us through the police station/court house parking lot where there were a bunch of prisoners that had just come from their court appearance or something (nerves). After we got out of there, the driver tells us that he doesn't like to be around that place because if they find him, they might lock him up. "Now that we're back at your ship, I can tell you that I have some traffic violations." Holy cow!! Why does he still have a job as a taxi driver?? I'm glad we made it back okay.

That night on the ship was dress-up night, so we got dressed up and went to dinner together. Except Macy. . she wanted to go to her club and eat dinner at the buffet with them. Okay. After the rest of us had dinner, we took Bryant to the club too. R & R went swimming. Shane and I walked around to see what was happening on the boat. It was fun. We didn't do any shows. After we picked B & M up, we went back and got in bed and watched Movies until we fell asleep. Ahhh.