Atlantis - the end of a fabulous visit

Somehow, two weeks flew by and we found ourselves docked at Atlantis, a bit stunned to realize we only had a couple of days left together.

Blossom in her slip

I think I wrote in the last blog entry that we arrived during a mean thunderstorm. It was first real rain that we’ve experienced in two weeks and it feels to us like that storm ushered in the Bahamian summer. The combination of being at a marina and the change in weather made our last few days together very different. We’ve been basking in AC and had to eat ice cream to keep cool J

Sitting on the ice cream bench, post ice cream binge

Atlantis is an amazing place. A bit of an adult Disneyland on water. It’s a huge complex with a casino, enormous aquariums, a water park, several restaurants and a marina that features mega-yachts. The closer in to the main building you get, the bigger the boats are. Blossom is a wee boat here and we’re docked in the outermost slips. This is actually quite nice because a) it’s much cheaper (the $ goes up with proximity to the complex) and b) less looky-loos. It’s also a quarter mile walk to the park so it helps burn off the ice cream J  The marina staff will come get you in a golf cart and transport you back and forth is you give them a call. This is a really nice service if you have luggage or groceries, etc and need a lift.

The four us of sitting in the Atlantis Throne

An amazing Chihuly glass sculpture

The rain persisted our first night here so we spent the evening walking around the inside of Atlantis and went for a drink and dinner. We had a hard time getting a drink so we went off to an early dinner at our favorite restaurant – the most incredible buffet we’ve ever experienced. Sushi, salad bar, cheese bar, fresh pasta made to order, grill and of course – a dessert table(s) featuring dozens of goodies including made-to-order sweet crepes. Yup, went there twice J

Enjoying people watching and waiting for drinks (that never came!)

Pics from around Atlantis

 Lobster

 Shark

 Sawtooth Shark

Lemon(?) shark

 Hammerhead 

Turtles

Filefish

The day caught up with me and I had to have an early night after dinner so I missed out on the rest of the fun, but Mart, Ed & Jo went out for an evening on the town at Atlantis. (Thanks, again, Jo for the pictures!!!)

Evening out at Atlantis

Thursday was a sunny, hot day and we had a blast in the park. We went to get our wrist bands and towels and look at that - they even put a "blossom" by our name!

We spent most of the day riding the Crazy Rapids. We were in there for hours, until we all started to prune.

Fun in the rapids

Getting to the Tower, hard work for the guys

Ready to drop...

After a day in the sun and rapids we came back to Blossom for drinks... We were having a great time up top when we looked over and saw that a boat had come in 3 slips away – Stellina – the folks we met at Conception Cay! We went over and said hello and made plans to meet up on Friday.

Checking out the scene from the fly bridge

 And returned, of course, to the buffet for dinner.

Kitty on light, waiting outside the restaurant for handouts

And then it was Friday and I think we all felt a bit shocked and sad. We went out in the morning to do a bit of shopping and check out the little straw market on Paradise Island. Then we went back for a bit more fun in the rapids, lunch at Murray’s Diner, ice cream and soon it was time to say good-bye.

I bought this beaded octopus and found a place to put my lemons!

We’ve had the most wonderful time with Ed & Jo these past two weeks. They were amazing guests and made everything easy. We were sad to say goodbye but feel blessed to have made so many warm memories of laughter and adventure.

The goofballs. We miss you guys!

And so it was Friday evening and Martin and I came back to a very empty feeling boat. We only had a minute to wonder what to do when Steve knocked on the hull and invited us over to Stellina where we met their friends Tom & Sandra. We got a tour of Steve & Angela’s gorgeous boat and all went to dinner. We learned that Tom & Sandra had been at Highbourne with us (and that Cristobal had actually anchored a boat length off their bow after circling us!) and that they’re from St. Pete. It’s seriously strange how we keep meeting such wonderful people from that city!

Today is a rainy Saturday and we’re spending the day preparing for our next guests who arrive tomorrow. I feel like an incredibly lucky person. Life is just so dang good.

Boat Business:

• 20K gen. Mart changed the oil and filters on the 20k per the maintenance schedule.