Day 3: Exploring Cat Island

Once again it was very windy out and semi-cloudy, and CK was once again tied down with work, so the girls and I decided to go with the rest of the group and explore the island. I know the girls, especially Sofia would have preferred to stay and play in the sand and ocean, but I wanted to see a little more of the island and thought the girls would enjoy it. We left CK working in the big house and drove to the other side of the island, which Chip and Lisa had been to visit before we hadn't. We planned to hike down the beach and walk about a mile or so to an area that apparently had some ruins of the early sugar plantation that was on the island. We parked near the Greenwood Resort and made our way to the beach. Because it was so windy out, the water was incredibly choppy and rough. We took a group picture before we started walking down toward the point. It was surprising to see the amount of trash that was on the beach, washed up from the rough seas. We continued on our way, stopping for Olivia having to clean out her shoes from time-to-time. There weren't any shells to find and the sand was pretty thick, but otherwise it was nice to get out and stretch our legs. Strangely we ran into some woman who was busy combing the beach for plastic crates that she could use in her garden. Of course, Chip approached her and chatted her up. She was a flight attendant from Holland and decided to retire and move to Cat Island full-time 2 years ago. She has a little house near where we were hiking and she was obviously happy to have people to talk with. I love Cat Island, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't live there full-time.

We walked a bit further, but it was clear that our way was blocked by the rising tide on the cliffs. We could have made it to the other side, but with the tide coming in, it would have been impossible to make it back to our car. So, we ended up turning back prematurely and headed back to our car. It ended up not being a very long walk, but it was great to see the other side of the island and stretch our legs. After we loaded up in our cars, we drove by Greenwood Resort, which looked very bohemian.

From there, we drove to explore Andrew Deveaux's house. Andrew Deveaux was born in South Carolina in 1758 and was sent in 1783 to recapture the Bahamas from the Spanish. Using just 70 men and 6 vessels, he forced the Spanish to surrender, without a single shot fired. When he removed the Spanish flag, it marked the last time that a foreign banner was to fly over the Bahamian capital. As a reward for his efforts in the Bahamas Deveaux was given a large portion of Cat Island where he built a mansion at Port Howe, Cat Island. He left for England shortly after but later lived in New York. The house must have been spectacular when it was intact and I can't imagine the money and effort that went into building it, especially in 1783! It was really interesting to see the ruins and try to imagine how spectacular the house must have been. The ocean was a short distance away and the bay was spectacular!

From there, we decided to show Chris and Allen Hawk's Nest Marina. It's about a 30-45 minute drive down to the far eastern end of the island and there are several really nice houses on the final miles to the marina. There is also a nice little resort and an airstrip that we have to drive over before arriving at the marina. The marina had a few fishing boats, but it was completely empty of people. The kids walked over to the area where the sharks were fed last year and immediately sharks arrived ready to eat! It was incredible! There were suddenly so many sharks! It was amazing. Although there wasn't much activity, Allen and Chris enjoyed seeing it and especially liked seeing the sharks. It was pretty cool. After seeing the sharks, we returned to FBV, about a 45 minute drive from the Hawk's Next Marina. The girls were itching to get back and get in the water or build sand castles. Sofia was a little perturbed that we'd been in the car most of the day and wished that she had stayed behind with Papa. I do think it's good for them to get out and see some of the rest of the island, and I promised that tomorrow would be spent entirely on the beach!

We got back to FBV in time to shower and get ready to get back in the car and drive up island to Shanna's Cove for a fancy 3-course dinner. Again, Chip, Lisa and Charlie have had dinner there before, but we hadn't and Chris and Allen were just as excited as we were to try their dinner. We arrived and had a drink as the dining room filled up with the guests staying at Shanna's Cove. It was a good mix, mainly of Americans of an age to not have little kids with them and they all seemed to get along and have fun together, even though it was clear that they didn't know each other before this vacation. It ended up being pretty lively in the dining room and we were served our first course, which was a beet and goat cheese salad which was absolutely amazing! Of course, I love beets, so it doesn't take much convincing on my part. However, even CK, who doesn't love beets, enjoyed it. The kids all got pasta, so they were easily satisfied. The second course was either filet mignon or fish, and I think I was the only person who ordered the fish. CK and I agreed to split our main courses so we could try both, and it was a great decision. Both were amazing. For dessert, there was a coconut flan that was amazing! The whole meal was really superb and as fun as it was delicious. We lingered for a bit after dinner and then headed back to Fernandez Bay. The drive went by pretty quickly, although I wasn't driving either. Such a fun day and a terrific meal!

The girls - ready to walk down the beach for a short hike.

The whole crew!

Olivia cleaning out her shoes from sand...

The beach and shore

The girls and me!

Sofia's cute sand pile.

The Andrew Deveaux House - must have been amazing when it was built and lived in!

A massive tree that has grown up in the middle of the "kitchen" building.

The windows

Sharks!

They arrived as soon as we were on the small dock where they get the fish scraps.

The kids checking out the sharks

The three amigos!

A family picture at Shanna's Cove

The delicious dessert! Yum!!

Day 2: Beaching...

On our second full day at Fernandez Bay Village, the girls begged to just hang out on the beach all day long. Unfortunately, the stock market took a dive and we started hearing reports of the Corona Virus starting to be a real issue in the States, so CK was busy pretty much all day calling clients and calming their fears. So, the girls and I hung out on the beach and they played in the sand or swam with Charlie while I lounged on the lounge chair and read. Unfortunately, I didn't have very fun or interesting books to read during our visit, but the books I had were alright. It was great fun to just relax and enjoy siting on the beach in the Bahamas.

For lunch, we headed to the big house and had cheeseburgers. FBV makes the most amazing cheeseburgers and they serve it with a really great coleslaw. We hung out with Chip and Lisa and the kids had their lunch together at a separate table, as they have done sine we arrived. It's so great to see them connect and have fun on their own without having to be at our table and be quiet or keep to themselves, etc.

After lunch, we returned to the beach and swimming, playing in the sand. It was such a relaxing day and ended with yet another terrific meal and chat after dinner with our fun group. Such a great day, but then I'm pretty sure any day spend in the Bahamas is pretty good.

Olivia finding a crab on the beach on our way to breakfast (yes, she is still in her pjs).

The girls playing in the sand together and trying to build a "sand wall" together.

The view of Sand Dollar Villa from the beach.

Love this view so much!

The wall and little "castle" is complete!

The view from the big house patio! Love it!

Olivia doing a little reading before lunch is ready.

Sweet girl!

Building sand castles with Charlie!

The girls building another sand wall with a pool on the inside!

Day 1: Beaching and Lunch at Shanna's Cove!

We woke the girls up at 9:00am, so they didn't miss breakfast, but neither of them were very hungry. I figured they would be up and in their swimsuits at 8am, but who knows what time they actually went to sleep last night. One great thing about having a separate bedroom, is that I told them they could go to bed whenever they wanted to, but to be responsible. I decided that I would not nag them or tell them to go to bed at a certain time during our vacation. Instead, I'd be a hands-off mom until school started back up on Monday. I figured they should enjoy their spring break as much as they could.

We had breakfast in the main house and it was still really windy and a bit overcast but it was warm enough and comfortable to be in shorts and a t-shirt, which felt great after being bundled up for weeks at home. After breakfast, we hung out for a bit and then got ready to take a road trip to Shanna's Cove at the west end of the island. Shanna's Cove is run by a German couple who left Germany about 11 years ago. They bought up the land and built six cabanas and a main room and created a very comfortable and well-made resort. They bring in a chef from Germany or Austria, who cooks their three-course dinners at night and serve pizza, salads and sandwiches at lunch time. The resort doesn't allow children to stay at the resort, but it's fine for kids to visit for meals. Since it wasn't a terrific day to be on the beach, we decided to drive to Shanna's and have lunch.

Chip and Lisa invited their friends Chris and Allen to join us during our week together and they ended up being a super easy and fun addition to our group. Both are retired and Chris is an avid triathlete and just an all around interesting woman. Her husband, Allen is a retired doctor who was quiet and more reserved, but a lot of fun once he opened up. They are a super cute couple together and just easy to be with. It was great to spend time with them and get to know them over the week.

Chris and Allen had a car as well as Chip and Lisa, so we spit up into the two cars and drove the 45 minutes or so to Shanna's Cove. Unfortunately, the drive is pretty boring, since the entire island is basically old dead coral with strange 5 foot trees and vegetation, so there aren't any real views to speak of while we drive. The kids love the drive because they can sit in the back without seatbelts and have fun together without any change of getting in trouble with the law. Sofia has a tendency to have some motion sickness, so I checked on her throughout our drive up.

We arrived just after noon and Lisa, who is one of the friendliest and most personable people I think I have ever known, greeted Gabi and Frank as if they were long lost friends. She's so great at making connects with people and she just makes every one feel special. We found our seats and decided on our lunch meals. I decided on a salad, which looked really great. There was a couple sitting behind us who had salads, and they both looked terrific! Everyone else ordered pizzas, which all looked delicious. My salad was wonderful and I also had a piece of CK's pizza, which was really great. We lingered over our lunch and talked for awhile before walked down the pathway to the beach. It was just as windy on the beach as it as Fernandez Bay, but it was nice to visit the beach.

After the beach, we walked back up to our cars and headed back to FBV. We arrived and the girls and Charlie changed into their swimsuits and were on the beach in no time. Sofia was especially excited to be back "home" and just play in the sand and swim. It was still very windy and the water is shockingly chilly, but the kids completely do not notice. I don't know how they do it. The girls had a ball playing together in the sand and building sand castles and mini-pools. It was still very windy and a little chilly to watch them play, but great to just hang out on the beach and watch them.

Around 6pm, the girls decided to get out of the ocean and shower. Usually, I have to coerce them to get out and get ready for the drinks/appetizer hour that starts at 6:30, before dinner being served at 7:30pm. But, they wanted to be sure to get to the main house to meet Charlie, get a pina colada and play on their electronic devices together. CK and I made our way to the main house and met up with Chip, Lisa, Chris and Allen and had a drink while we hoped to see a nice sunset. There were clouds on the horizon, so it wasn't a great sunset, but still very pretty and great to watch from the patio. Soon it was time for dinner, which was delicious, especially the great big salad! I was still pretty full from lunch, but it was such good food and the dessert was also good. The staff rotates the meals every week, so each Monday the meals are the same, and we always laugh with Lisa, because she knows every menu for each day and especially knows the dessert for the night. I am convinced that Lisa, who is friends with absolutely everyone at the resort, should get the recipes for all the different meals and should create a cookbook that can be sold at the gift shop. I know it would be a huge hit!

After dessert, we hung out and chatted at our table, since it was too chilly to sit outside. Every time we visit Fernandez Bay there is a distinct feel of the visitors. In past years, most of the visitors hang out after dinner and talk or play cards or games. However, it seemed like the visitors this time would head back to their place as soon as dinner was finished. It was just such a different feel and probably due to the weather. After we visited for a while, we said our good nights and headed to bed. The girls stayed up and read for a bit and eventually went to bed.

The view from our patio!

Breakfast with these beauties!

Just doing a little relaxing after breakfast.

The whole crew at lunch at Shanna's Cove.

The view from the Shanna's Cove restaurant! So gorgeous!!

The sign on the way to the beach!

Ready to spend some time on the beach! The girls are so excited!

Watching the girls play while I relax in the sun.

Building a sand castle.

Girls having a great time together!

Dinner! Delicious!

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.

Olivia a few minutes after lift off!

Sofia busy reading....of course!

Olivia staring down her very first oyster.

This is as close as it got to her lips...

The adorable town of Apalachicola.

The girls by The Station, where we had such a wonderful meal the night before. The girls picked out a few oyster shells from the mound out back.

The Gibson Inn is very majestic!

We made it to the farm and the girls immediately jumped on the Gator!

Olivia, our crazy little driver!

Puppies! So little and SO cute!

CK meeting the puppies...

Sofia and one of the cute puppies.

Olivia is SO excited to be holding a little puppy.

CK and the girls after lunch in Ft. Pierce ready to fly to the islands and start our Spring Break!

Getting a little snooze in before landing.

Cat Island in the distance...almost there!

The girls got into the water immediately!

A refreshing drink from our villa balcony.

Cheers to a great week ahead! Charlie and the girls enjoying their first pina colada!

Our first Cat Island sunset.