family

long Island, bahamas

erin

19 Jan 2025 — 4 min read

We've had a lot of 24+ hour trips this time around. The trip from Great Inagua to Long Island was no exception.

One of the stories we've always told the girls is in the Bahamas you can see starfish on the bottom right from the boat. Apparently Emma thought we were making that up until she saw it with her very own eyes. The water was so clear and shallow we could even see sand dollars on the bottom.

We've been taking turns being sick. This time it was my turn, so I spent our first day in Long Island in bed with a fever and body aches while Braden and the girls went into town to scope it out. Luckily it only lasted 24 hours and by the next morning I felt great.

Long Island is... long - 80 miles from one end to the other. We rented a car for two days so we could check out more of the island. Our first stop was the famous Dean's Blue Hole. Dean's Blue Hole is the third deepest blue hole in world at 663 feet. The girls wasted no time getting in the water to check out a gigantic stingray.

After that things took a turn. Olivia got out of the water and said she was itchy. She immediately broke out in hives all over her body and said she felt dizzy. Luckily we found a local lady who had us follow her to the ER on the island. Olivia HATES shots so her eyes got really big when the doctor said she recommended a shot of Benadryl. Her eyes got even bigger when the nurse said it was going to be in her butt. She took it like a champ and started to feel better pretty quickly.

A simiar thing happened in Great Inagua after she went swimming. That time she only had hives that cleared up with Benadryl. We figured she got stung by something in the water, but after it happened this time we realized something else is going on.

The next day we stuck to no water activities until we could figure out what is going on with Olivia. Our first stop was the Long Island Museum. We learned a bunch and bought some really cool straw souvenirs.

The lady at the museum gave us some suggestions that we hadn't found in our research. So we set off in search of the flamingos. She told us there is always one, but sometimes there is a flock of 80+. We kept our fingers crossed we could find them.

Every once in a while we stumble upon a place that we didn't expect. Long Island was one of those places. We really enjoyed our time here and we're glad we didn't just pass it by. The people are so friendly. There is surprisingly a lot to see on the island. There are plenty of places to eat, drink and be merry. Plus a decent medical facility in case of emergency.