We set an alarm today! And it woke us up! Success. We did it. We woke up at a reasonable hour. We got up with a plan and ready to put it in action. We each poured ourselves a bowl of cereal with our fancy almond/coconut milk blend. Ate breakfast, categorized books we had finished read on our reading challenge (don’t judge) and got ready. Learning our lesson from day one, we covered ourselves adequately from head to toe in Sam’s zinc-based sunscreen. We had successfully made ourselves look whiter, huzzah. Determined, we got our hammocks, straps, towels, water bottles, books, hat, sunglasses, assortment of sunscreen and aloe, phones and go pro, and set out for a day of relaxation. We returned to our perfect palm tree spot of three trees we found last night and began setting up our hammocks. Hammocks up, without discussion we both seemed to agree not to put up the slack line yet, which we would later find out was an excellent choice. Putting up the hammocks was fun, because it was insanely windy and they were blowing out like parachutes, but we managed. Posted, this was our view.
We each laid in our hammocks, reading our books. Mine happens to be taking place at a beach so that was nice to relate to the scenery. It’s warm, sunny, and breezy. Paradise.
Until it wasn’t. Until I started feeling a little mist of water. Until I sat up, curious, only to hear Sam say, “Do you feel the rain?” I respond with, “Is it rain, or just mist being blown by the wind?” Only to have Mother Nature respond with an increased amount of downpour upon on. Now both, sitting up in our hammocks look at each other with a “What do we do? Is this going to pass?” Only with out thoughts to be answered with MORE RAIN. It’s pouring. Outside. On the beach. On us. On our hammocks. With that, we are up. We jump up and immediately start stripping the tree of our hammocks in a windy, rainy, madness. I opted to leave everything that was in my hammock (towel, book, hat, water bottle, room key) all in the hammock and carry it back that way. However, I was determined not to walk back to our room in just my bathing suit. I HAD to put on my dress. So, there I stood. On the beach, in the crazy wind, with rain pouring down trying to put my dress back on over my suit. The problem was not only was my dress getting more wet and harder to manage by the second, the wind blowing was shaking my hammock amuck, and I didn’t want all my things to blow out. One hand holding the hammock closed together, and keeping it as still as possible, while the other hand and my mouth worked to find the bottom of my dress and put it over me. I don’t know how I managed to make this work, I just did. Looking back, it feels like magical forces were on my side because
I literally have no idea how I made that happen. Dress on. Soaked, sticking to me, wind blowing, I somehow manage to get everything off this tree. I look at Sam, equally wet, cold, and wind blown who also got everything down, and set off back to the room. Soaked, standing at our door that we’ve now mastered, we try to dry off and wipe off all the water and sand we have just accumulated before going in. We manage that, bring everything in, hang it up to dry, change and decide to play Bingo that was just about to start around the corner. We played the weirdest rounds of bingo. Some were four corners OR a square of four, Lucky 7 (literally just the first person to get 7 numbers), and bad luck bingo. Bad Luck Bingo was my favorite because it meant the person with the worst bingo board got to win. Anytime a number was called, if you had it, you were automatically out. Sam made it to top 4 for this round! I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing….? But she got out before she could win. She was close!
Of course, after bingo, the sun was out again and it was back to being a beautiful day. We decided we were gonna pick everything back up and go set up in our spot again. So we did. We got all our towels, hammocks, slack line, sunscreen, etc AGAIN and set it all up. This time, slack line included. Side note, as we were walking in to our room, the is older couple (who is on the other side of our locked door) came out of their room. They stopped and asked if we were the ones staying our room (as we stood at the door) and we said yes. The woman responded with “Oh, you were out partying last night?” Sam and I looked at each other confused. We told her no, and her husband proceeded to say, “well, then you were up late” Sam and I again, look at each other confused, knowing we weren’t and the husband tells us how they were up late watching TV and could hear us. Even more confused I respond with “We were up late in bed reading our books” and the woman says something about how she heard showering (Sam showered) and assumed we were going out. We all laughed, said nope just up reading. After all that was settled, I realized what I said and looked at Sam and we both laughed and shrugged it off. If people didn’t already think we were a couple (which we are pretty sure they do) they definitely do now with my “we were in bed reading comment” oh well, no problem in that. We went back in to get our stuff.
On our way out, I was making the conscious decision that this time I would not bring my hat. The moment I did this, I looked around for my hat and then panicked when I could not find it. This hat, my lovely sun hat, has had a lot of hoopla in my circle of friends and buying/owning this hat. But I love it. I’ve stuck by it, in my whole.. uh… two weeks of owning it? Haha! Anyways, I instantly realized my hat was missing. And I was so sad. In all of our panic and rush, it must have fallen out and blown away. I was convinced it was gone forever, while Sam held a lot more optimism. Sure enough though, we walk out back to our area, and there rumbled up- but there!- in the sand was my hat! I grabbed it, so happy to have it back, and apologized to it? Because inanimate objects have feelings in my world and I felt bad it got left behind and beaten up.
Hat back, hammocks up, slack line up, we decided to go for a swim and to take the GoPro. I’ve never taken my GoPro in water before and read online it was waterproof up to 33ft in water without a case. I must have read this a million times on the internet, but was still convinced I read it wrong and that I was carrying my GoPro to its death. I didn’t. It was totally fine. We had a blast swimming in the warm blue water, talking and soaking up the sun. After we jumped in our hammocks and just read away the afternoon.
We knew we had to go back to the room around 4:30 to shower get ready and head out to the fish fry tonight. Right before we went in we decided to play with the slack line a little more. Next thing you know, this shorter stockier older man comes up and starts talking to us. His accent was apparent immediately and I knew this guy had to either be from New Jersey or Philadelphia. Too many of my family members sound similar to this guy. Sure as shit, he’s from New Jersey. He was a kind retired construction worker who owns a home and spends time here a couple months out of the year. Told us about his kids, asked what we did, and looked like he had been in the sun a lot more than we had.
Back in the room we got ready and left. We double checked with the front desk lady about how to get there. She said it was walkable, or we could take a $3 cab. Sam and I opted to walk and set out. It was so hot. Like, really hot. 5:30 in the evening, sun up and we were covered in sweat. It made the walk feel long. Not to mention our directions were “follow the road all the way and turn right, then any of the three entrances” so walking without being too sure of where the road ended, felt long. We eventually see a stop sign and assume that is our end and note to turn right. As we approach this stop sign, a taxi drives by full of guys. One of them says, “hey pretty ladies” and followed by “we have alcohol” as they keep driving. We roll our eyes, ignore them (as any girl out there understands how annoying this is) and keep walking. We see them turn where we are turning. Then turn again where we need to go.
Great.
Awesome.
Fabulous.
Super excited.
We keep walking, lose sight of the cab, round a corner and see a group of restaurants. We have found the fish fry. We walk up to one, decide to check the other and after being handed menus, pick the second place. It’s hot. We are sweating. Sitting outdoors, no fans. So, we got two beers. Sam and I have now tried both Bahamian beers here. There is Kalik and Sands. A server went out of his way to tell us Sands was produced on the islands, which leads me believe Kalik is not. Kalik claims be “The beer of the Bahamas” while Sands is “Truly Bahamian beer”
They’re both light beer.
They taste like light beer.
Light. Beer.
Sands was a little better. But now we’re getting into details and the classic debate of Coors or Bud. Light beer is light beer.
Anyways, back to my main story. Me. Sam.
Ordering beer at the bar, a guy comes up to the bar next to us and orders a drink? Many drinks? Wasn’t really paying attention. All I noted were his shorts and his Hawaiian style button up he was sporting. Then I hear him exchanging words with the bartender. He never looks at us, but he knows we are there and is talking loud enough. Bar tender says something about his total, the guy responds and says something like “Not to mention the $80 I dropped at Señor Frogs earlier today”
Okay. No. If you know what Señor Frogs is, you understand this. Those of you who don’t, Señor Frogs is a total American tourist trap. I’ve mostly seen them from my time in Mexico. They play loud American music, cater to American things, etc. and to each their own. But oh my god.
The way the guy said this though, I wanted to laugh. He thought he sounded so cool. Already on a roll, after the bartender makes another response this guy responds with “Tell that to my accountant”
I think my eyes almost rolled out of my head. Sam and I looked at each other, rolled out eyes, laughed and commented on how much of a tool this guy just sounded like. To be honest, I’m pretty sure the word “douchebag” was used. I could not handle how pompous this guy sounded. We left and went back to our seats.
We drank our beer, fanned ourselves and made friends with the people sitting next to us from Maryland. Mother, her two daughters and son-in-law. They frequent the Bahamas often and the mother (from Mississippi actually) let us borrow her bug spray! Which was nice.. and we used.. on our legs. Didn’t spray our backs. Remember that.
Waiting for a server, 45 minutes, one beer and a Bahama Mama later, no server. We flag down a guy and just tell him we are ordering with him. The people next to is make a joke about how we are gonna wait another hour to get our food. They weren’t wrong. Service was slow. Real slow. Dad, you would have hated it.
Talking, drinking, waiting, looking around and across the seating area four guys sitting at a table, drinking. And then Sam says, “Oh look, and there’s douchebag with them” of course. We agree. Of course douchebag, his friends- these were the guys in the taxi. Of course. So what did we do?
We judged. We judged real hard. We stared at them, assessing their glasses, visors (yeah dude had a visor) and their demeanor with each other and judged. We guessed what they did for work. They looked younger, clearly Mr. Tell-My-Accountant thought he was coolest one there. We guessed them to be engineers, accountants, or maybe IT. After a solid debate on what they do for a living, and still no food, I tell Sam I will buy her two drinks if she just goes and asks them what they do so we can settle this. I didn’t need to bet her, that was dumb on my part, Sam is ballsy. Those of you that know her, she’s got no shame and no fear of things like this. I admire it greatly about her. Sam jumps right on up, walks over, and says “Hi friends. I’m Sam. My friend and I have a bet about where you’re all from and what you do for work. So, ready? Go.” And proceeds to point around in the circle to each one so they know it’s their turn.
No chill.
No shame.
Have to love it.
They’re all going around at this point, I can’t hear or see so I turn back to my drink awaiting Sam’s report. Next thing I know, there’s a guy, sitting in the chair across from me. Who says, “My friends and I have a bet about what you two do for a living” I laughed, told him to guess and figure it out.
Turns out they’re all part of the Navy. Jacob (dude who sat down across from me) admitted that they were the ones in the taxi who yelled at us, that it was douchebag (of course) who’s name is Yosh. Jacob apologized for Yosh, trying to justify his actions with “he’s only 19” I took this moment to educate him and explain that contrary to popular belief, that is 100% not a way to successful get women’s attention. The wrong approach.
A whole group of navy men, and one woman! were in port for a few days. We sort of? Made friends. Not with Yosh. That ship sailed. Ha get it? Cause they’re in the Navy?
We got our food- Conch, fried Barracuda, broiled Grouper, rice and peas, plantains, and mac cheese.
That’s right, friends! I ate barracuda, conch, and grouper! Look at me! Trying stuff. Conch was the best, followed by grouper. Wasn’t feeling the barracuda, it had bones in it! This morning I looked up pictures of all the fish I tried last night. They look gross. Never again.
We walked from one restaurant to the next, which had music playing and a dance floor. We hung out, hand fun with everyone and watched Alabama dance around and have fun. Alabama is what we called one of the guys all night. I don’t actually remember his real name, and he’s not from Alabama, but super into and all about Alabama and Alabama football. He kept saying “Roll tide!” All night. So, all I knew to do was call him Alabama.
It was a fun night, we walked back to our room and crashed.
The Wandering Sandals 