nassau, bahamas
Ah Nassau. Probably our least favorite place in the Bahamas. A lot times when we mention the Bahamas to people it is where they think we are going because it is a very popular, and easy stop for cruise ships.
We had planned to visit Nassau a little later, but we needed to take an unexpected trip to Miami. There were a few places we could fly from in the Bahamas, but Nassau made the most sense since we could get there in a few days and leave our boat at a marina while we were gone.
We have flown a lot in the last couple years. This by far was the shortest flight. The girls were very excited when they heard the pilot say we'd be in Ft. Lauderdale in 39 minutes.
We landed in Ft. Lauderdale and drove to Miami where we spent the next three days with family. We got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen in many years. Somehow I managed to take only a few photos during our visit.
Our flight back to Nassau was a little longer because we had to fly around some thunderstorms. It was still less than an hour flight.
We don't stay in marinas very often, so it was nice to take advantage of some of the marina conveniences. #1 on my list - laundry. I spent 3 days doing laundry. All the laundry. It is so nice to be able to get all the big stuff done that doesn't fit in our little washing machine on the boat.
While we were there the girls wanted us to go on a date night dinner. Our table overlooked our boat in the marina.
We also took advantage of the marina lounge. It is always nice to have a little change of scenery for school.
This lounge cat tried very hard to distract Emma.
Another huge advantage of being in a marina is how easy it is to get groceries onto the boat. It is so much easier to load groceries from the dock instead of loading and unloading from the dinghy. Emma is always up for a grocery store excursion. We made several trips to the grocery store.
This was the most impressive grocery store we'd been in since November. It can be a little overwhelming when you haven't had access to this much stuff in months.
When we were in Miami it was crazy to compare the price differences. At Publix strawberries were 3 for $10. The same container in the Bahamas - $12.99 each. That was actually the cheapeast I've seen them in the Bahamas. In the more remote islands they are at least $15.99 each.
This grocery store even had Ellsworth Cheese Curds all the way from Wisconsin. These are $6.99 back in Minnesota. In Nassau they were $16.99.
On one of our trips the very nice kid bagging our groceries offered to walk them back to the marina in the cart. When Braden told him we were in the further marina (not the one right across the street) he said it was no problem. It is almost a mile there and back on some very bumpy sidewalks.
He even took the groceries right to our boat so all we had to do was unload them.
After a week in Nassau it was time to move back south to the Exumas. Hurricane season is coming so our time on the boat is running out. While the conveniences of being in a big city like Nassau are nice, we'd much rather be enjoying the sunsets, the friends and the water while we can.
