day 1: two tickets to paradise.

Flying at 6am is rough.  I wrestled with two options for being at the airport by 4am:

• Option 1: Go to bed on Friday evening around 7pm and sleep til 1am.  Get up, shower and pack, leave for airport at 3:45am.
• Option 2: Come home from work, pack and clean, go to bed at a normal time (10pm) and wake up at 3am, shower and leave for airport at 3:45am.

Option 1 sounded better initially, however, I'm a VERY light sleeper.  Jeremy didn't get home from work until almost 9pm, so I knew going to bed at 7 would mean I'd wake up as soon as he came in and not be able to rest well.  We ended up with Option 2, although we didn't get to sleep until almost 11:30pm.  Waking at 3am wasn't too bad, though, knowing that in 12 hours I'd be on a tropical beach!

Our travel was not without drama, though... most people who know me know that I'm pretty organized (I am an event planner and all), but that I have terrible luck when it comes to putting plans into place!  I'm also very bad at rolling with the punches sometimes, which can make traveling a little maddening for me.  

Anyway, we boarded our flight on time-- we were flying to Dallas first, and from there to the Bahamas.  We got settled, headed out to the runway and... nothing.  After about 10 minutes of sitting, the pilot came on to tell us two systems were malfunctioning and we had been instructed to return to the gate for repairs or an equipment change.  I immediately started getting anxious, because no one wants to fly on a broken plane and because our layover time in DFW really only allowed us about an hour of flexibility before we'd miss our connection.  Our connection, of course, was the only direct flight from Dallas to Nassau that day.

We returned to the gate and sat in anticipation for about 40 minutes.  We could see the mechanics working in the cockpit and eventually got the good news that we'd be able to leave soon.  We finally left the gate again, and our wheels were up about 55 minutes past our original departure.  

As we landed in DFW, we figured out we had just about 20 minutes to get to our gate.  Thankfully, the airport was laid out very efficiently and we managed to get right in line and on our flight.  Nothing like a little raised blood pressure to get vacation started!

Flying into Nassau was awesome-- I slept for about 45 minutes towards the end of the flight and woke up as we began the descent.  The water was the most awesome shade of turquoise I've ever seen, and I got so excited as we headed closer.  We hopped off the plane and into the hottest terminal I've ever been in; I guess the A/C wasn't working so well that day!  We walked for what felt like forever before reaching a few stops: first to customs where our passports were stamped, then a baggage check for our carry-on items and then we grabbed lunch before hopping into a cab.

Thelma, our cabbie, welcomed us to Nassau and drove us into Cable Beach.  I had forgotten that the Bahamas roads operate on a European system, so everything was reversed from what I'm used to!  The resort was only 15 minutes from the airport, and we finally arrived around 4pm.  Check-in was no problem, we were given vouchers for our two free excursions that our package included, so we made our reservations immediately.  We then headed to our room where we were greeted with a king sized bed and a balcony with a pretty awesome view.

 

We immediately freshened up from our flights, changed into our beach attire and headed down to check out the resort.  Our hotel, the Wyndham Nassau, shares its property and amenities with the Sheraton Nassau Beach, so we kind of got two hotel experiences for one!  We were able to use all the pools, hot tubs, beaches and activities at both spots-- pretty cool!  We spent some time exploring the grounds, but eventually grabbed a Bahama Mama from the beach bar and plopped into two beach chairs to watch the sun set.

We were pretty exhausted from our travels by about 7pm, so instead of going out, we ordered room service and snuggled in bed.  Part of being on vacation is getting to do things you don't normally do, right?  We munched on some pizza and chocolate cake and fell asleep early, ready to take on our first full day and our Dolphin Swim!