(October 20 to October 28, 2012) – A wonderfully planned anniversary vacation to the Bahamas for a week turned into an escape from Hurricane Sandy and a cross-country adventure driving home! We began the adventure on Sunday, October 21st with a travel day beginning at 3:15 am and catching a flight from Minneapolis Airport that landed in Miami at 10:50 am local time & then a layover until the scheduled 3:45 pm flight from Miami to the Bahamas. The flight to the Bahamas was overbooked, delayed, and then “over-fueled” – so it did not leave Miami until about 4:45 pm or so. We arrived late afternoon at the Freeport Bahamas airport, and immediately sensed the underlying “unsettledness” feeling that we had the entire time we were out of the USA. We were told “no photos” of the aircraft as we walked down the stairs onto the runway and toward the small terminal of the airport.
The taxi ride from the airport was enjoyable and interesting in that travel is on the “left” side of the road here, even though they have American cars (with steering wheels on the left side). We drove through multiple roundabouts on the trip from the airport to the resort. The resort was nice, and we were pleased to find a fully equipped kitchen unit, overlooking the “lazy river” pool from our veranda. We dined the first evening at the resort’s restaurant located on the beach. We enjoyed a meal of Grouper fish this evening, which we both found to be delicious. We walked back from the beach to unit 5206 and enjoyed the evening decompressing from our travel day, and making plans for Monday – which would be our first day on this island of paradise.
(Monday, October 22, 2012) – On Monday, we awoke in paradise with a warm sunshine soaking on the veranda & beaming down on the pool and ocean! Today our wonderful anniversary vacation in paradise would begin, and we planned to take the water taxi from the Flamingo Bay resort to the Port Lucaya Marketplace mid-morning. We had time to walk along the beautiful beach and enjoy some “hammock time” before the taxi left, so we did & it was delicious!
The sunshine was magnificent – shining down through the palm trees as we gently swayed back and forth – it was delicious! We then strolled to the beach and discovered a beautiful beach with powder-white sands with the texture of flour. The beach was awesome with thatch-type umbrellas and lounge chairs along its length. We walked to catch the water taxi at the neighboring hotel and enjoyed a boat ride over to the Port Lucaya Marketplace. We walked around the Marketplace, enjoyed lunch, and then walked around the many shops. We stopped at a conch shack and watched a guy cut up some conch to make a salad – Yuck (not a pleasant-looking thing this conch).
We visited “Reef Tours” and scoped out some water activities for later in the week, and were interested in the sailing/snorkeling tour & the glass bottom boat tour. We visited a couple shops & looked at things, and also discovered that the local beers in the Bahamas are called “Sands” and “Kalik” – both made by the Bahamian Brewing Company.
We headed back to the water taxi pick-up spot to wait for the return trip to the resort and were faced with a sales pitch from a salesperson that offered us cash, prizes, booze, etc., – all for “no money from our pocket” if we would attend a breakfast for an hour and a half and listen to what their club/resort had to offer. We resisted and said we’d think about it and give her a call (much to her dismay). She said, “No, no, that is not good – this is going left”.
We made it back to the resort from the water taxi in time to freshen up in the room, and then report to the lobby for a “grocery run” – which they offered three times a day. The grocery run was into Freeport to Solomons – a local grocery store that had many of the familiar items you’d find in a grocery store in the USA. We stocked up with supplies for the week, and caught the van ride back to the resort in time to relax for a bit prior to heading down to the beach for a Welcome Party for the resort guests that included “supper”.
The Welcome Party included loud music and a dancing game that some guests took part in. We met two couples from Michigan who have been coming to this resort for the past four years. Flowergirl and I enjoyed the appetizer meal and also shared a slow dance as the sun began to set on this wonderful day in paradise. We enjoyed a stroll along the beach as the sun set to the west, prior to heading back to the resort (where we would soon find our vacation interrupted).
We began to plan what we would do in the next few days: snorkel, glass-bottom boat, etc. & we decided to check the weather channel to see what the next few days looked like (with respect to wind that might affect a possible snorkel trip). We soon found ourselves riveted to the Weather Channel as they described a tropical storm forming south of Jamaica that had the potential to form into a hurricane and a projected path directly towards Grand Bahama Island – Yikes! A few moments later we were on the phone (at about 8 pm in the evening) checking on the next available flight off the island. We found out there was a 7:40 am flight the next morning (Tuesday), and we booked two seats & began packing! We notified the resort that we’d be leaving in the morning, and arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 5 am to take us to the airport. It was an unsettled feeling all night, and a restless three hours of sleep ended when the alarm woke us up at 3:15 am to prepare to leave paradise. We later decided that the “2nd” highlight of our entire vacation was when the airplane landed back in the USA at the Miami Airport at 8:40 am on Tuesday.
(Tuesday, October 23, 2012) – It was such a great feeling to be back in the United States when the plane landed, as there would have been no place to escape the Hurricane’s wrath on the Grand Bahama Island (had we stayed). We found out later that the Grand Bahama Airport closed on Thursday (two days after our Tuesday flight), and we hoped that all who wanted to fly out were able to.
Our next task at hand was to secure a rental car for the Anniversary Roadtrip Adventure that we were about to embark on. We found the Miami Airport rental car hub, and with the help of wireless internet, used the laptop to find the best rate for a one-way drop-off from Miami to Minneapolis. We soon discovered that Alamo Rental was the best deal, and we also rented a GPS unit – that we affectionately called “Maggie” to guide our travels home across the country. It was our good fortune that a new mid-sized car became available – a Hyundai Elantra with only 440 miles on it, as the rental car agent was trying to extol the virtues of traveling cross-country in a nice mini-van (which they had plenty available for some unknown reason – LOL). As we weren’t born yesterday, we indicated that a mini-van wouldn’t work for us & we chose the Elantra.
The Hyundai Elantra proved to be an excellent car for our adventure, as it was equipped with XM Satellite Radio, which allowed a vast number and variety of programs to listen to & you never had to worry about going out of range of the radio station. We were determined to get to a beach, and tried our luck north of Miami, at Hollywood Beach. However, the wind/waves were at “Red Flag”, and no swimmers were allowed in with the danger of the “Rip Tide”. We walked along the beach for a bit, and then decided to head north for the day (Tuesday) until dark and then find a place for the night.
We drove for about 4 hours and made it to Kissimmee, FL, where we exited to a motel/waterpark called Clarion Resort. We approached the clerk at the desk and asked how much for a room for the night (fully prepared to pay whatever price that came out of his mouth: $100, $150, etc.). He said “$39.00 for the night” & we immediately stared at each other wide-eyed and were both thinking “bed bugs?” – LOL. We scoped out a room, and found it to be very nicely accommodated and enjoyed a peaceful night’s rest (after sleeping about 3 hours in the previous 38 hours)!
(Wednesday, October 24, 2012) – Our next task at hand was to locate the AAA office, which we did nearby in Kissimmee, and get maps and travel guides for the states that we would possibly journey through on our Anniversary Adventure. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin were all possibilities (nice to have options!). With the maps and travel books in hand, we set a course for Pensacola, Florida – on the beach – to enjoy the warm weather there, the beach, and the ocean (Gulf of Mexico)! The location was awesome, right on the beach, and the Marriott Spring Hill had three beautiful outdoor pools that were crystal clear, between the hotel and the beach.
On our travels to Pensacola, we stopped for fuel and a meal. We had heard about a good restaurant in Chipley, Florida, which was a few miles detour from our route, but it was well worth it! The restaurant was called Bailey’s Surf & Turf, and the steak and jumbo shrimp were fantastic! The staff at Bailey’s was also wonderful, as our waitress had moved from the Chicago area and was a big Green Bay Packers fan. She commented on what a cute “northern” accent we had – LOL. We enjoyed dining at Bailey’s and will be back again if our travels bring us that way sometime in the future.
Following our wonderful meal at Bailey’s, we continued driving into the evening until we arrived at our destination on Pensacola Beach! The Marriott Spring Hill pools were open for swimming until 10 pm, so we enjoyed a wonderful moon-lit evening swim – just Baby Doll & I – as no others were swimming on this beautiful evening. The water was warm, and we enjoyed a memorable time swimming together on a beautiful warm night – so blessed!
(Thursday, October 25, 2012) – This day was the highlight of our Anniversary Adventure, spending a morning at the beach in the warm sunshine of Florida. We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico, and after a delicious breakfast, spent the remainder of the morning enjoying the beach and pool.
The beach was wonderful, with white sands, and we were able to go into the Gulf and enjoy the sea water strike us (kinda like getting hit by a linebacker, I would suppose). The water was not too cold, and it was invigorating!
The beach time and pool time were wonderful, and were the highlight of our trip! We perhaps discovered a place that we’d like to return to, as the beaches here were very much as nice as those at Miami & Fort Lauderdale – but not as crowded. Our next adventure for this day was to head north, through Alabama and Mississippi, to our next destination, which turned out to be the Days Inn @ Tupelo, Mississippi. We checked in for the night, and had a wonderful night’s sleep – in preparation for our next adventure destination (which would be determined as we continued to drive north).
(Friday, October 26, 2012) – Today we awoke in the 6th different location in the past seven (7) days on this Anniversary Adventure. We enjoyed the thick southern drawl by the locals here, and it inspired us to come up with new nicknames for each other – “Baby doll” & “Sugar pie”, respectively (haha). We enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at the Days Inn, and hit the road for the next destination – which turned out to be Hannibal, Missouri, about 463 miles away (which translated to about 9 hours on the road today).
(Saturday, October 27th, 2012) – Today we awoke in Hannibal, Missouri, which we found out was the boyhood home of Mark Twain (who wrote many books, including the adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. Hannibal, Missouri was located right on the Mississippi River, and we walked downtown in the morning and toured the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum while we were there. We visited some of the many gift and book shops that were located in the quaint downtown area of Hannibal. After the morning spent in Hannibal seeing the local sights, we hit the highway for our next destination in our Anniversary Adventure, which would take us through Saint Louis on our way to Waterloo, Iowa. We ran into our first stretch of cooler weather, and so we decided to stop for a meal in a St. Louis suburban area & also visited an outlet mall to purchase some warmer clothes. We arrived in Waterloo, Iowa in the late afternoon and enjoyed a wonderful meal at Red Lobster before checking into the Country Inn & Suites (our 7th different bed in eight nights – what an adventure!).
(Sunday, October 28th, 2012) – We awoke in Waterloo, Iowa this morning to the sight of frost on the windshield – so we knew we were getting close to home (haha). This was the last driving day of our Anniversary Adventure, and we drove for about three hours or so to the Minneapolis Airport to pick up our car for the final trip back home. The total driving on the Anniversary Adventure ended up being about 2, 100 miles driven (including our trips to and from the airport from home). We arrived at home and enjoyed the most restful night’s sleep in our own bed (the eighth bed in the previous nine nights – LOL). All in all, we had a wonderful Anniversary Adventure and were able to see things we had never seen before along the way. We were also safely ahead of the Hurricane that we learned had devastating impacts to so many in the Caribbean, Haiti, Jamaica, Bahamas, and the Northeast of the USA. We are so blessed and fortunate with all we have, and the Anniversary Adventure was wonderful because we were with each other the entire time – no matter where we ended up at the end of each day – so blessed!
