Bahamas- Day 1 (Arrival)

After dinner together at Mai Lee’s (I have no pictures D:  but I used Josh’s iPhone to take some.. maybe he’ll post them somewhere?), it was packing time for the Bahamas!!  *dance dance dance*  Daniel drove us to Walmart, where we bought some travel things like mini-shampoos, and I ended up buying 8 cans of soup ._.’’  Durr..

Random picture of Daniel in Josh's pants, tee hee :D

Pack, pack, pack~  After some running around, it was 3:30am when we left the apartment in a taxi.  Debra still wasn’t ready, but since she was taking a later flight, she wanted to leave a little later.  After we arrived at the virtually empty and abandoned airport (too early!!), we got to the gates to wait for our plane.  They bought Dunkin’ Donuts, and I stretched out on the seats and passed out.  @_@  Can’t stay awake~  When Book woke me up, there were so many people around me, and the flight crew was calling for us to board.  >_<  So embarrassing, but good thing I had covered my face as I slept!

Josh took a different plane which was transferring to Houston, TX (Whooo, home!) instead of at Charlotte, North Carolina, which was the plane that Elaine, Daniel, Book, and I were taking.  Debra’s plane was another one, so our flights were all crazy. 

When we arrived in North Carolina, all of us were groggy and tired from not having slept.  The airport was big!  And they had a huge, open-spaced food court :D  Pretty~  Daniel and I both got something from a restaurant I’ve never heard of called Salsarita’s, a fast food Mexican place.  Breakfast burritos for both of us, and Book also ordered a breakfast bowl later.  Basically the same thing except for a bowl instead of a tortilla.  Elaine was special and got a fruit parfait!

:)

New restaurant!

^__^ <3

Sleepy sleepy~

As we waited at the gates for our flight, the others were sleeping as Debra popped out of nowhere.  She materialized in front of me and opened her arms wide for a hug while I was sitting down.  Haha!  After that, she plopped down and joined us for some serious sleep time.  The wait was 3 hours, so I took up five seats to sleep.  The seats had handles, so I had to squeeze into the space under the arm rests..  I almost rolled off twice while I was sleeping!

I sat next to Book and Daniel on the flight to the Bahamas, and Elaine and Debra sat in the row next to us, but separated by another person.  The boys and I talked non-stop all the way there~  Fun stuff ^^  When we stepped off, a warm gust of air welcomed us onto the island! 

Yay Debra!

We had a dinner cruise planned at 5pm, and our flight landed at 3:40pm.  So after some running to the baggage claim, waiting around for luggage, Josh and Book went ahead to take a taxi to the hotel.  Book told us it only takes around 10 minutes from the airport to the hotel, so the plan was for those two to check in, so by the time our luggage arrived and we took a taxi to the hotel, we could throw our stuff into the room and set off for the cruise.

Except that once we got our luggage and sat down in the taxi, the driver told us it actually took 35 minutes!!  @__________@’’  Durr. On the bright side, all the cars drove on the left side of the lane :D

Guess whoooo

We met Josh and Book at the hotel, and Book told us that he called to tell the company we couldn’t make it.  It was already 5:30-ish when we got to the hotel room.  Debra was incredibly upset over that fact, and so we left it to Josh to console her.  Daniel, Book, Elaine, and I went exploring and walked to the nearby beach.

^^v

Sun setting!

Model walking with body guard :D

And photographer appears!

On the way to the beach~  We can smell the salt!

It was BEAUTIFUL!!  O____O  I’ve never, ever, ever, ever, *ever* seen water that pristine and that blue or sands that light in color before!  <3  The beaches in Galveston are a dark brown color, so this was just totally amazing T___T *tears of joy* haha~  We all goofed around, and Daniel, Elaine, and I played chicken on the shore.  None of us were waring swim suits, so we dared another to get wet from the incoming tides.  At the end, Daniel and I were soaked with sand encrusted onto our butts, and we waddled our way back to the hotel.

Evening!

Super cute!

Durr hurr

Elaine frolicking away with her body guard on watch!

Photographers!

On the way, there was a restaurant called Viola’s, so we sat down in the eating area which was outside.  It was my first time to eat outside in a really long time!  It’s cold in St. Louis, so eating outside would be like torture X_x

Only Book had ever had conch before, and apparently it’s a Bahamian thing!  Conch is a sea creature like a sea slug in a shell (conch shell!), so I ordered the conch chowder, while the boys both got the cracked conch (which I later learned that “cracked” meant the way it was battered and fried!).  Elaine ordered the conch burger!  We all thought our food was pretty yum yum :)  My soup came with johnnycake, a sort of fluffy, doughy flatbread cake made with cornmeal and condensed milk.  So good!  I liked to eat it separately, but the boys were adamant that I was supposed to dip it in my soup.  The soup was tasty and flavorful, but it tasted similar to the Chunky soups that I ate at school!  The conch was yummy though, mostly just texture!

Rwarrr!! Nom nom nom 

Aww ^^

Cracked conch!

Book peeking over my conch chowder and johnny cake

We bought an order of the bacon cheeseburger and another conch burger for Debra and Josh back at the hotel.  When we went back and found the hotel room to be empty of Josh and Debra.  We wrote out a note telling them about the burgers in the fridge, the microwave in the hotel dining area, and the time we were leaving for Mini-sub adventures the next morning.  After we all took turns showering, we all fell into bed exhausted.  Zzzzzzzzzz  *drool*