We started our day by eating at The Hiltons morning buffet. It was so yummy! And much needed after eating dunkin doughnuts for a few morning in a row:) with a side of diet coke.
This greek yogurt parfait was my favorite! It was so fresh and delightful! I've been recreating this for breakfast since.
I thought it was funny that I picked steel cut oatmeal, yogurt, fruit.. John picked all heavy carbs:)
I couldn't finish my first round of food and he went back for seconds!
I would love to have eaten seconds!
And it's lovely to eat your breakfast, that someone else made you , {and will clean up after you}watching the morning waves. Ahhhh. So peaceful.
After that wonderful breakfast we hung out at the beach {of course}. After we laid out and swam for a while, we took to the streets for some sight seeing. I love all the colors they paint their buildings. It just feels so happy.
Right in the middle of town is the embassy. The town was getting ready to celebrate 40 years of independence! So there is giant stands with pictures of all the people who have been leaders through the years.
A really cool image of a navy ship. I never really think about the important things that happen in the Bahamas.
This was a cool building. When I see cool places I always think that it would be a cool place to have a family photo done.
This tree was growing up the other side of that building! In rocks! I thought it was amazing!
Seeing as though Conch is the main food source in the Bahamas, they use the shells for everything! Walls, fence tops, walk ways and they sell them to tourists.
We walked over to the Queens stair case, which we have never made time to do. And I'm SO glad we did! There is so much history there. I was lucky enough to meet up with two Bahamian residents at the top who were gracious enough to share the story with me.
The King who once ruled over the Islands of the Bahamas was worried there would be an attack on his home one day, so brought over 4,000 plus slaves from Africa to build him a giant hill from the top of where he lived to the lower land. His point was to have an escape route for him and his family if they were ever attacked. The plan was for them to roll down the hill, run to the ocean about a mile away and board a boat he had waiting with fresh water on it. Unfortunately, all but about 100 slaves died because the king neglected to feed them or give them much water until they hand dug escape route was finished. It didn't take long for his slaves to perish due to the 100 degree weather, lack of provisions and the fact that the slaves were quite literally 'hand' digging the hill. The feeling the man telling me the story had as he took great pride in his history made me have goose bumps.
The plants are beautiful
More of those cool trees that grow randomly up things, with really no soil.. puzzling.
Many years later when the King died and the Bahamas had a new ruler who was a Queen, the people wanted to honor her for giving them freedom. So they made the hill into limestone stairs. After time the limestone started to disintegrate and the town decided to lay brick over the limestone to preserve the stairs.
Which are really steep I have to say.
These days people use the stairs as a good place to work out. It must have been 90+ and these women were running the stairs like nothing. I was in awe!
John stayed at the bottom to get pictures of me at the top.
Obviously he caught some of my amazement
A handmade waterfall at the bottom of the stairs. A sweet woman working out offered to stop and take our picture, and encouraged us to move closer and see the beauty up close! I felt like I was intruding but she said no, lots of people get a closer look.
Beautiful. And so peaceful.
On our walk back, we saw a man with a truck bed full of these. They are land crabs. More common on some of the other islands. These {really smelly} guys crawl in your front door the way spiders do here!
The buildings are so pretty.
Awesome tropical trees
Everywhere you looked there was decorations about the 40th celebration! It was a really big deal! They have a giant junkanoo where people come from all over the place and preform in a GIANT street parade. We caught a glimpse of some "warm ups" as they are called and it was truly magical. One of our taxi drivers said the junkanoo in January is the biggest event of the year. There are over 500 different groups of performers. Someday I'll go during that celebration and it will be amazing!
Even the mail boxes are colorful.
They have a pirate museum! Because the islands were once inhabited by pirates.
And as all the other nights, I couldn't wait to line up for the prom show! There was such an exciting fun feeling in the air.
This one reminds me of something Michael Jackson would have worn!
This girls little brother rode with her in her limo to the prom. super cute!
Every night was a production
Beautiful and classy
I loved his corn rows!
Arriving on a horse!
Hope she didn't have to ride that far!
Lots of people let balloons go as part of the show!
There was a bunch of gold this night
Lots of the dresses had island flair!
And vivid colors
The dad of this boy was standing next to me and he made his son show me his cool socks!
His dad was so proud! He told me some of the parents look at this as the next closest thing to a wedding so they spend thousands of dollars. { he let me know he didn't!} smart man.
Some were pretty unique.
I think this one was my all time favorite!
And I told her so:)
It was a beautiful night.
These girls look like rainbow sherbet!
Hundreds of people line up for hours, such a community event.
Little mermaid style
Then we headed over to Senior frogs for dinner.
Did I mention it's the only close & open place after sunset?!
Having SO much fun!
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