The Lee Family: Spring Break: Heading to Fernandez Bay

We headed on our way to spend Spring Break for the 3rd year in a row at Fernandez Bay Village at Cat Island, Bahamas. We ended up taking the girls out of school on Friday so we could get an early start and spend most of Saturday with the girls' Grandpa and Grandma. I took Sofia to her orthodontist to get a bracket fixed and the we stopped by to pick up Olivia from school. She was upset that we'd taken her out of school since she was looking forward to working on her math and also spending her "last recess for a long time" with her friends. We got home, packed up CK's truck with all of our stuff and headed out. Poor Buddy stayed behind and Mitzi took him later that afternoon to Olivia's sweet 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, who watched him while we were gone. I hated to leave him and not be able to drop him off ourselves, but since we left during the school day, it wasn't possible to drop him off.

We loaded up the Baron and headed to Apalachicola, FL to spend the night. Once we left, it was a four-hour flight and we arrived around 3pm. We had a one-night reservation at the Gibson Inn, which is a historic inn built in 1907. CK called originally to ask if there was a taxi service or anything available and they offered use of their Bentley chauffeur service, but it would be $100 each way. It is literally a 2-mile drive to the hotel so it seems absurd. Thankfully we were able to get a ride by the young lady working in the FBO, which was so nice. Downtown Apalachicola is small and super cute. It was mainly a sleepy little fishing village, but has now become a cute little touristy town. We arrived at the Gibson Inn and it is a beautiful little place. Our room was very nice and comfortable and we tossed our stuff into our room and decided to explore. We went straight to the store across the street, Apalach Outfitters. It was in the 50s and CK and I were freezing. Olivia had leggings and a thin jacket, while Sofia wore her regular outfit of a skirt and short-sleeved shirt. Sofia is literally never cold, so both girls were completely comfortable.

The store was super cute and we ended up each buying an Apalachicola Outfitter's t-shirt and Olivia fell in love with a flower necklace, which she later paid CK back for, which was sweet. After our shopping, we walked around the town, which was starting to close down since it was 5pm. There was an adorable book store which looked like it would be a lot of fun to visit if it were open. Of course the girls found a cute cat and wanted to pet it, but couldn't get near it. We continued on and ended up at The Station Raw Bar, which is right across from the Gibson Inn and was recommended as a good place to eat. We started with a dozen oysters which were literally the best I've ever had in my life. Olivia even wanted to try one, but then chickened out in the final minutes... The food after oysters was also excellent, although I think I should have stuck to more oysters because they were so delicious. To finish off our meal, we had a slice of key lime pie and a piece of the homemade banana pudding, which I normally don't like but found to be amazing.

After dinner, we returned to our place and CK and I read while the girls watched tv while they were in bed. The girls loved it. We woke up around 9am and went downstairs for breakfast. After eating, we walked around a little more and then we got a ride back to the airport. We were back in the air and heading to the farm, a short hour away. We arrived shortly after lunch and it was good to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma. The girls immediately jumped on the Gator and took off to explore the farm. They returned after about 45 minutes to breathlessly announce that they found puppies! CK and Connie's neighbor Jimmy has several hunting dogs down by his hay barn and they found one of his females out of the dog cage and roaming around. They noticed that she would return to the hay barn occasionally, so they followed her behind some bales of hay and discovered 7 of the cutest puppies ever! There were five boys and two females and they were adorable! Of course, the girls named each of them and wanted to be with them full-time. We managed to pull them away long enough to go to Sonny's BBQ for dinner - the best meal in town! After we returned, the girls immediately returned to the puppies until it was dark!

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up early and loaded up the Baron, hugged Grandpa and Grandma and headed for Ft. Pierce, FL and then to Cat Island. While we were in Ft. Pierce we had lunch at the Tiki Hut on the airport, which is a pretty decent meal. Then we headed to Cat, about 2 hours away! The flight is incredible and the water is so clear and beautiful. The girls read or napped and I sat upfront with CK and read mostly, but also took a short nap. We landed around 2:30pm and the girls were super excited to see their friend Charlie, who had arrived the day before. It was very windy, but a comfortable temperature outside. We went through Bahamas Customs, which is always a bit comical since our bags, snacks, etc are all loaded directly into a taxi without anyone even looking at our things. We fill out the paperwork, which takes 10 minutes and then pay a small fee. This time, we were asked to fill out a very basic questionnaire that looked like someone made it at home and then photocopied it 1,000 times. It asked if we had fever, cough, body aches and if we'd been to China or been with anyone who had recently returned from China. I filled it out for our family and wrote that we were fine, which wasn't 100% true since CK had a sore throat and cough. However, he never had a fever, and we are certain that it's just a common cold or something similar. He never felt terrible, just not great.

We were driven the 2 miles to Fernandez Bay and to the Sand Dollar Villa, which Chip, Lisa and Charlie stayed in last year. The Sand Dollar Villa is a great set-up in that it has a small main house that includes a small living room, kitchen and upstairs a room with two twin beds. Across the patio is the main bedroom and bathroom. The bathroom is secluded by a wall and roof, but otherwise outside which is one of my very favorite parts of staying at FBV. As we were dropping our bags off and getting settled, Chip and Lisa came over from Point House Villa, where they are staying this year. They had hurt us fly over and headed over to our place to greet us. Immediately, the girls ran off with Charlie, even though they were still in their regular clothes. It was very windy out, but it felt great to have arrived at Cat Island and looked forward to the week ahead!

All loaded up and ready to go. I love to get a picture of CK and the girls with the Baron, but CK was busy locking up the hanger and the girls love to load up together in the back and cozy up like chicks in a nest. It's pretty cute, actually. So, i stopped them before they were fully loaded up and took a quick picture.