Summer Vacation Day 3 - Nassau

Having ignored the "crucial and mandatory" hard-sell meetings of yesterday and early this morning, Southern Man and Wife decided to eschew the pre-packaged tours and snorkeling and such and just take our chances ashore. So after breakfast we disembarked and wandered about and eventually found the scooter rentals and rented a two-seater for the day. Southern Man was a bit nervous about this; while he does have the "M" endorsement on his license, he is very much a novice biker and Southern Wife, due to neck and hip injuries from a long-ago car accident, dares not suffer a fall. However we ended up doing rather well.

An avid geocacher, Southern Man had already mapped out several caches in and around Nassau and we decided to use those to guide our explorations. We started at historic Ft. Charlotte, which once guarded the harbor and was the site of our first cache of the day. The fort area was also thick with vendors and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours purchasing a number of trinkets and t-shirts and such for both ourselves and for the family back home. We then (on the recommendation of one of the vendors) went down the hill to the nearby shoreline and ate red snapper and drank Kalik (the self-proclaimed "Beer of the Bahamas") at Big 10's Briland Lounge. We then explored the town of Nassau proper (the traffic was thick but forgiving), picked up another cache in front of the beautiful Governor's Mansion, and then had to turn in the bike and return to the ship all too soon, having never made it to the east end of the island to see the Ocean Club (featured in the Bond file Casino Royale) or across the bridge to Paradise Island to explore the seashore and visit the legendary Atlantis resort. Note to self - on the next cruise, find one that allows far more time ashore than did this one.

The beautiful (and pink!) Governor's Mansion in Nassau.
(photo cribbed from the 'net)

Tonight we were scheduled to eat in one of the formal dining rooms. Our host seated us in the exact spot where we were wed the day before, served us a wonderful meal, and brought the rest of our wedding cake for dessert. We then went to one of the ship's nightclubs (where we had our picture taken with the Captain, who had already signed our marriage certificate) and even got out on the dance floor for a while before turning in for the night. But Southern Man ended up exploring the ship for much of the night, watched the blackjack players in the casino, hung out with some of the crew on a little hidden smoking deck, rode out a mild storm while on deck, climbed way, 'way up some ladders to the top of the fo'c'sle, and watched the Florida shoreline emerge from the misty dawn as we returned to the USA.