Nassau and Paradise Island

We were able to get off the boat again on Day 3. this was our long day on shore, we pulled in about 9 am and were going to be "parked" until 11pm. So, we had plenty of time to get some sightseeing in.

There were no scheduled excursions for us, our plan was to "wing" it. We set out to head to Nassau just to see what we could find.

We found "Captain Kirk" who promised to show us some good spots in the city and to take us over to Paradise Island to see the Atlantis.

Our first stop along the way was "Tasty Teas" where we were met by Sasha, she is 86 years old and it was her birthday that day. She told us all about the teas they sold there and their medicinal properties. We bought some, we figured if she looked this good at 86, we needed her secret.

Our next stop was a beach. It was pretty empty and this is where I drew a line in the sand. I have wanted to do that for a long time and finally had my opportunity. I even took a picture to prove I could do it.

My line in the sand

Moving on, we stopped at John Watlings Distillery. Our tour guide here was a young man, pretty sure he was less than 86. Probably 84. He said we could ask questions along the way and if he knew the answer he would tell us and if he didn't, he would make something up. That led to much skepticism about anything he told us. However, he did tell us that there was usually one cell phone a day that ended up in the well. This was a small operation but they offered a chance to purchase rum at the end of the tour.

Next stop was a t-shirt company. It was a store, not a market type shopping experience. There were some very nice ladies who worked here and we purchased a few things.

Along the route, Captain Kirk pointed out places of interest in Nassau. He had told us up front the tour was about 2 hours, so we went pretty quickly. He took us to areas of the city where the rich lived and to the poorer areas (probably never the poorest) and the in-between. There were two hospitals there in the city. One was a public hospital where you would wait to be seen for not less than 12 hours, unless it was an emergency. The other hospital, which took payment of either cash or insurance offered much quicker services.

The Bahama Parliment

He then took us up to Fort Fincastle and the Watertower. We just walked around the area. The fort was built to look like a ship. Near there was the Queen's Staircase. The history there was interesting. Slaves started building or digging the stairway and during the process the queen abolished slavery. The freed slaves returned to complete the job which ended up being 65 steps. When the queen died, her reign had been 64 years so the city paved over one of the step so that it matched the number of years of the reign of the queen. And that, is how I heard the story. If you look it up online, it may vary a bit.

Fort Fincastle

From there, we headed over to Paradise Island which is where the famous Atlantis is. We spent about a half an hour in the hotel, long enough to go to the "restroom" and the casino and then walk around the outside back to the vehicle. Certainly saw how the other half lives. We crossed the "Sidney Poirtier" Bridge. He is of Bahamian descent (who knew?).

Captain Kirk returned us to the port and we headed back to the ship.

This was the night we would see Plumb and Danny Gokey in concert. Kathy and I got in line while Renee and Leila went to dinner. I wanted front row seats and so we started waiting way sooner than we could if we did dinner. Here are some shots of the concert, I can't bring the sound from the concert to you, but it was pretty awesome.

There was a paint session by Jared and then a concert on the pool deck that night. I will tell about those events on my next installment. You are probably tired of reading this by now anyway!!