July 20th and 21st:
We travelled to Fort Lauderdale on July 20th and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. Since there was only one flight scheduled on the 21st from Fort Lauderdale to George Town, Ron and I decided that it would be safest to arrive at the airport three hours early to catch our 10:45 a.m. flight. You can imagine our surprise when we found out at the check-in counter that our flight had been delayed over three hours due to mechanical issues. After waiting 9.5 hours at the airport, our flight finally ended up departing 6.5 hours later. This is the longest that I have ever had to wait an at airport with our children and I am so grateful that we managed to survive without losing our minds. By the time we left after 5 pm, we were just so grateful that we were actually going to make it to Great Exuma before the day ended instead of having to spend a second night in Florida due to a cancelled flight.
The kids boarding our Silver Airways flight from the tarmac of the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
After arriving on Grand Exuma, we got our luggage, made our way through customs, and picked up our rental car. After checking into our little beach cottage, we drove down the street to the local Fish Fry where we ordered some delicious Bahamian dinner at the Krusty Crab restaurant and ate outside right next to the beach. It was a great way to start our Exuma Islands vacation!
July 22nd:
Since renting a car is so expensive on this island, I decided to reserve a minivan for only two days so that we could explore some of the beaches on Grand Exuma and Little Exuma. We started off on Monday morning driving over to Little Exuma to visit the Tropic of Cancer Beach. This beach has this name due to the fact that the Tropic of Cancer literally runs through it. In addition, a scene from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was filmed here which we all thought was super cool since we are such big Jack Sparrow fans. Here are the kids standing at the entrance of the beach before heading down to the sand.
A family photo that we had taken right after arriving on the beach. This was the first of several stunning beaches we visited this week that had barely any people there. It was amazing!
We enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in the water for a few hours in addition to playing with the sugar-fine sand on the beach. It was a perfect way to spend our first morning in the Bahamas!
After a few hours on the beach, everyone had worked up an appetite, so we packed up and headed to a few restaurants that were right down the road. We first stopped at Club Arawak which is a total whole-in-the-wall restaurant where locals visit. We ordered our first side of fried conch fritters that ended up being the best ones we ate all week long!
We then walked across the street to eat a second half of lunch at Santanna's Bar & Grill which is right on the water with spectacular views. We were all excited to eat here as this is the restaurant where Johnny Depp used to eat while filming POTC. There were pictures of him eating at this restaurant on the wall!
After finishing up our lunch, we drove to two small beaches on Little Exuma that Ron found on Google maps and they both turned out to be absolutely incredible! The first beach was called Forbes Hill and it consists of the most pristine cove beach I have ever seen! With the exception of one family, we had the place to ourselves. After swimming for awhile, we hiked over some lava rocks to find another little beach on the other side. We couldn't get over how brilliant the turquoise water was from atop the lava rocks.
Another view of the kids from a rocky ledge we climbed down to overlooking the cove. We then drove to a second beach called Pretty Molly Beach that consists of two coves. We snorkeled at this beach and actually saw an octopus on the coral! After a very long day, we returned back to our hotel around dinner time to quickly change and head out for dinner in George Town. After arriving at Eddie's Edgewater restaurant at 8 pm, we had to wait over an hour (for the second evening in a row) for our dinner. Needless to say, the kids were very tired when we got home from dinner around 10 pm.
July 23rd:
We headed out for our second morning in a row with our rental car to explore two more beaches we had heard about. The first beach is called Hoopers Bay which which is known for its turtle sightings. Although the beach was beautiful and practically empty, we unfortunately did not see any turtles while we snorkeled there.
The kids enjoyed playing in the soft sand for a bit after swimming and snorkeling in the water.
We then drove to another beach called Coco Plum Beach that is known for its sandbar at low tide. Just like the other beaches, there were only a handful of people hanging out on the beach next tp the parking lot entrance. Since we wanted to explore the sandbar, we quickly left the group and walked down this pristine beach. Here is a picture of all four children running down the beach to the start of the sandbar.
This sandbar was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun walking out onto it. We then ended up walking and swimming in the shallow water for an hour or two. It was so beautiful and so fun to explore and we had it totally to ourselves. Here is the darling picture I took of the children before they turned and ran down the sandbar.
A picture of all four kids together in the crystal clear water off of the sandbar.
Ella enjoying doing gymnastics at every beach we visited throughout the week while I tried to capture her in pictures and on video. This is my favorite picture I took of her all all week long while she posed on the sandbar.
July 24th:
We headed out for our biggest adventure of the week on Wednesday after reserving a water tour that lasted 10 hours. Although our boat held ten tourists, we were the only ones to make a reservation today, so we ended up getting a private tour which was amazing. Our wonderful guides, Wayne and Ronaldo, took us to seven stops throughout the day in addition to stopping for lunch. It was the definite highlight of our week and we all had such an amazing time doing and seeing so much. After an hour long boat ride, we made our first stop at a natural grotto along the edge of an island where they let us get out of the boat and walk along the small beach inside. Here is a picture of the kids looking up at the hole in the top of the grotto as the boat pulled up.
Our second stop was to snorkel around a sunken plane that had been at the bottom of the ocean since the 1970s. It was right off the coast of Staniel Cay and only in a few feet of water, so we were able to swim really close to it.
Lia and Logan looking down at the plane which dark shape can be seen from above the water.
Our third stop was everyone's favorite! In the background of this picture is the entrance to the Thunderball Grotto where a James Bond movie was filmed years ago. After swimming through a very skinny entrance between two rocks and swimming under a very low entrance under a rock wall, we found ourselves inside the most amazing grotto with a hole on the top. As a result, the sunlight poured inside this grotto to illuminate the beautiful blue water teeming with fish. We spent several minutes swimming around inside this grotto all to ourselves before leaving right as five boats full of tourists pulled up!
Our fourth stop was definitely a once in a lifetime experience as we visited the wild pigs on the empty island of Major Cay. We were able to feed them from the boat and then walked on the shore to take pictures with them. It was so crazy to watch them swim right up to our boat when we first pulled up since they are trained to eat food from the tourists who visit daily.
Our fifth stop was to Compass Cay where we could pet and hold the nurse sharks who live in the marina. Although nurse sharks are scavenger sharks and won't attack, you always should keep your distance from them in the wild. However, the sharks that live in this marina are so used to tourists and eating right out of hands of the tour guides, that it is safe to touch them. Even Emmett and Ella were brave enough to get in the water for this experience.
A family photo with a nurse shark.
Leaving the marina.
Our sixth stop was to the Pipe Creek Sandbar which is in the middle of the ocean between several islands. We were able to get out of the boat and just enjoy walking around the sandbar and swimming in the perfect water for quite some time.
The kids lined up on the sandbar.
After many hours of being out at sea, we were all very hungry for lunch and ready for our stop at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Although it was super fancy, the food cost the same as anywhere else in Exuma and the service was super fast! We thoroughly enjoyed eating lunch here.
The kids had fun playing some pool before getting back on the boat for one more stop.
Our seventh and final stop was to visit the giant iguanas on another uninhabited island. We were able to feed them bread and we couldn't get over how friendly they were. Just like the pigs, it was such a funny and strange experience.
The family with a huge group of iguanas in front of us on the beach. After another hour boat ride back to the marina, we met up with our driver for the 30 minute drive back to our resort. We returned back a little after 5 pm and the kids enjoyed a swim in the pool while I made dinner in our hotel room kitchen. We were all grateful to go to bed early after such a long and eventful day.
July 25th:
After a slower morning, we caught our hotel's complimentary shuttle into George Town to catch the 11 a.m. water taxi to Stocking Island where we spent the day on the beach next to the Chat 'N' Chill restaurant. There is of activities on this beach, so we spent several fun hours hanging out here and eating lunch. Here is a family picture we had taken next to the massive pole with signs pointing to towns all over the world.
This restaurant has a conch salad bar right on the beach where the chef hands out conch guts to feed the rays with. Sadly, he was gone today, but the rays are so trained to swim up to people when they see them, it didn't matter that we didn't have food to feed them. We were blown away by the massive size of so many of these rays and how easy it was to get them to swim up to you after walking into the water. Here is an awesome picture that I was able to get of all four children as a ray swam by!
Ella and I walking around a ray.
Ella petting the ray on its back.
Ella swinging on the beach.
The three younger kids trying out a slackline.
All six of us enjoying our lunch from Chat 'N' Chill.
Since we had heard about a swing over the water at a neighboring resort, we walked in a few feet of water for several minutes to get to a hotel called Peace & Plenty. The kids and I had so much fun taking turns swinging on this swing above the beautiful, warm water.
Lia and Ella swinging away.
A fun, family photo we were able to get on the swing.
We caught the 4 pm water taxi back to George Town before catching our hotel shuttle back to our resort. Just as with every afternoon this week, we enjoyed some pool time before dinner back at our hotel room. Emmett was inspired by another little girl at our resort and decided to start swimming without his life jacket on. It was so fun to watch him do this!
Logan and Ella playing basketball in our pool.
July 26th:
We spent the morning of our last full day on Exuma walking to a nearby beach to our hotel called Jolly Hall Beach. It was yet another beautiful beach with only a handful of people on it. Emmett and Ella had fun on playing on the tire swing on the beach.
We also enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in the water.
Emmett in the beautiful water.
Lia and Logan exploring with their goggles on.
After returning to our hotel for lunch, we changed clothes and took the shuttle back into town to do some shopping at the Straw Market and to buy some fruit smoothies to drink. This turned out to be the perfect activity for the afternoon as a storm had blown in after lunch which would have made spending the afternoon at the beach unpleasant. The kids all enjoyed picking out a souvenir to buy at the market.
We thoroughly enjoyed drinking our homemade smoothies at Sharie's Tropical Spot while a rain storm came through.
After returning back to our resort, we decided to eat our final dinner in the Bahamas at our hotel restaurant called Splash. The kids had fun playing pool while waiting for our dinner to be served.
After dinner, Ron took Lia, Logan, and Emmett back to the room while I took Ella to the hotel lobby to get her hair braided by one of the resort employees named Ebony. We had gotten to know Ebony throughout the week and she offered to braid Ella's hair when we asked where we could get this done in town. She did a great job!
July 27th:
After packing up our room on our last day in the Bahamas, we spent about two hours at our hotel pool and on the beach before catching our taxi to the airport. Here I am paddle boarding on the water in front of our hotel.
The three younger kids enjoying the pool together.
Logan balancing Ella on his shoulders.
At 1 pm, we sadly said goodbye to our cute, little resort in George Town to catch our taxi to the airport for our 4:05 pm flight. After last weekend's experience, we were a little nervous about how delayed our Silver Airways flight would be this afternoon. Luckily, it was only about 45 minutes late, so we made it back to Fort Lauderdale with plenty of time to catch the shuttle to our hotel and then walk to dinner before getting to bed for our early wakeup the next morning. We were grateful that our Seattle flight was on time and we were happy to arrive back home in the afternoon of the 28th. Overall, it was a glorious trip and I am so grateful that we were able to squeeze this family vacation into our busy summer!
