First of all, this I am still getting used to this blog website, and it turns out since I already had an album titled "Nassau, Bahamas" It joined my photos together with some photos from 12 years ago on Semester at Sea, so my apologies if you got any weird notifications about an album about Semester at Sea. I was trying to rearrange the photos.

So, to the fun stuff....We arrived in port today, and again left our curtains open, so were greeted with the bright Bahamian sun again. We went to breakfast and left the ship to meet up with our tour. Everybody else in our group did their own thing again today. Since our ports both yesterday and today were added ports since we had to re-route from Cuba, so we didn't really have time to plan anything as a group. Jaime and I just did a short city tour as we were able to do the beach yesterday, and will again tomorrow when we go to Norwegian's private island.

Our tour guide was so freaking halarious, we definitely made the right choice again with this tour. He had us laughing so hard I was crying. Our first stop was just a quick pit stop at the Atlantis, which was pretty cool since it wasn't even listed on the tour itinerary. We only had about 15 minutes here, which was fine since I actually stayed there when I started Semester at Sea. But was cool for Jaime to see since it is so iconic. We had just enough time to take a few photos, and then continued on.

We drove by some other notable sites, all the while our guide, Karven, giving us history about the island, and making jokes along the way. We found out the state bird is the flamingo, which is why so many of the hosues and buildings are pink. The Bahamas were also celebrating their Independence Day, so there was a ton of decor, and flags everywhere. That was actually my favorite thing to see.

Our tour was supposed to include a stop at a distillary, but since it was Independence Day, it was closed, so we drove to a nearby beach to get some photos there before heading back to the docks.

We had passed this really cool street with some cool lanterns and stuff on the bus ride, and when it was over, we asked Karven how to get back. He was nice enough to drive us back to the street and give us directions how to get back to the docks. We gave him a large tip for being so awesome. He was awesome anyways, but his generousity was off the charts.

So Jaime and I walked around the city a bit for more shopping and photos. Nassau is a really cool city, and even though I was here back in 2007 for Semester At Sea, I only stayed on the Atlantis and didn't get to explore any of the rest of the city, so I am very thankful for the opportunity to have been able to come back and experice the actual culture and history of Nassau.

We walked along the pier and on the streets for some shopping and food. Once we got back to the dock area, we had just enough time for me to get my hair braided (yes, I caved too, and got just 4 braids on one side) and Jaime to get some more Bahamian Conch Fritters, and got back on the ship right on time.

So we cleaned up to meet our group for our 5:30pm dinner. Something I forgot to tell you, a major drink available on the ship is a drink called a Bahama Mama. It is basically rum and mixers such as juice, but they have it on tap at the bars, and is a good go-to drink. It is usually pink in color, and looks like a very girly cocktail. At dinner, the server came around and asked what everybody wanted to drink. Sue and Gerry always get champaign or wine, the others would get wine or beer. I usually just like soda or water when I am eating, as does Jaime, but since we are on vacation, Jaime ordered a Bahama Mama, but paused and said...actually I would like a Stella (a type of beer) So then Jesse was like, aw, you are on vacation, get your Bahama Mama! So our server got that Jaime was trying to seem masculine in his drink order, so she said, don't worry I will bring you your "Stella." So she comes back with the drinks, and sets a Bahama Mama down in front of Jaime and says, "Here is your Stella." Aw, man that had us cracking up. So throughout dinner, she would bring him Bahama Mamas and call them Stellas. That became an ongoing joke all night, and Jaime had his fair share of "Stellas" throughout the evening.

Tonight's activities included a comedy show with famous comedian Willie Barcena. He did a family (clean) show, and then up on deck 11 there was what was called a White Hot Party. Jaime and I both knew this was going on, so we bought white shirts in port today. Which worked out well, since we usually get shirts as souvenirs anyways. The White Hot Party was just a lot of dancing, but they handed out these glowy stick things, and had black lights everywhere and ice sculptures! It was so fun! The DJ was awesome, and our whole group was together, just dancing and drinking the night away. I did include some photos of all of us in the album for this blog.

We are going to Great Stirrup Cay tomorrow, which is Norwegian's private Island in the Bahamas. We rented a large cabana as a group, so really have no deadline to be anywhere, but as we have to tender to the island since the cruise ship has to anchor so far away, we have priority boarding for that so do want to get up at a decent hour. Before we turned in for the night do you want to guess what we did? We headed to the back of Deck 11 for our second dinner. I don't know what it is but somehow that latenight meal just always hits the spot. It is almost the same thing every night, but I am just in love with their cole slaw, and they have this incredible pesto pasta salad. It was a delicious way to end our night.

It is our last port tomorrow, I cannot believe how fast this trip is going!