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Sorry for the delay. Did the Christmas card thang complete with holiday letter, and I'm STILL in a dang flare! But the vacation sage continues....

November 9 began much earlier than I was hoping it would. The captain started making announcements on the intercom at 6:30am about the ship having docked, when passengers could disembark, etc. So much for sleeping in.

But I was curious whether there was any sort of view from the ship of our destination, so Dan and I and the camera left the stateroom around 9am, heading for our favorite hangout, deck 9. Near one of the pools was Minnie Mouse in a tropical print dress posing for pix with the passengers. There weren't a lot of people around because many had gone on morning excursions, so I had my picture taken with Minnie.

When I got to the open-air part of the deck, I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was! On our right was Nassau proper, and on a nearby island to the left, the Atlantis resort. And a few nice-looking homes within sight as well.

The Caribbean Seas was an amazing shade of turquoise. In some areas, it was more blue and others more green, but most places it was a combination of the two. The wind had not died down a whole lot and was probably still about 30mph, so I was glad I had decided against a harbor tour because I saw the boats out there and they were tossing around something terrible.

Dan was feeling better now that the ship was in port, which was quite a relief. We spent a fair amount of time admiring the view and taking pix and laughing at the birds hanging around the deck looking for handouts. When I had photographed the area from every possible angle, we went back inside and ran into non other than Goofy and Max, and they posed for a picture with Dan.

While strolling the deck a bit later, I noticed that the foosball table had nobody playing, so I challenged Dan to a game even though I hadn't played in at least a decade. I surprised myself by winning by a point. Beginner's luck, heh heh.

After that, Dan got a sandwich and I got some fresh fruit from a stand by one of the pools. There are few things better than actual fresh pineapple! That stuff shipped still green to the mainland doesn't count.

At noon, it was finally time to embark upon our excursion in Nassau. We met with the rest of the group and headed off the ship, across the dock and into Festival Place, where the shuttle met us. It was a full bus of about 24 people.

In the Bahamas, the rules of the road require you to drive on the left. I'd never experienced this before, so it was a bit odd at first. And while not a requirement, it does seem that all drivers operated their vehicles as fast and as close to other vehicles/buildings/people as possible, heh heh.

One the way to our first stop, Ardastra Gardens, our driver gave us some history and trivia about the buildings we were passing and about Nassau in general. It took maybe 15 minutes to reach our destination. Ardastra Gardens is a combo zoo and botanic gardens featuring mainly exotic birds.

Our first order of business was meeting and hand feeding Lory birds, small brilliantly colored parrots. Dan and I went inside a large enclosure where the birds were flying around. We each took an apple slice and waited to see if we got any takers.

Dan was insanely popular: almost immediately, two birds landed on his head, one on his shoulder and one on the camera! I couldn't do anything but laugh. When his apple slice was gone, the birds left, and Dan could pick up the camera and take a few pix of the gorgeous red bird that had perched on my hand.

After we left the enclosure, we had some time to wander around. Nearby, there was a "crossing" road sign with a picture of a flamingo on it, and wouldn't you know it, actual flamingos crossing the road in front of it. Cracked me up.

We also saw peacocks, turtles, other birds I couldn't identify, and a meerkat. I stepped out of my wheelchair to get a good shot of the turtles, and when I turned around, more flamingos were walking past Dan and my chair single file on the path! Kinda surreal.

I took some pix of the beautiful flowers and plants and was going to check out more animals, but it was time for a show to start. Believe it or not, several of the flamingos had been trained to march in unison around a grassy gazebo area. A "drill sergeant" would bark out orders, and the birds would change direction or whatever was asked of them.

These birds looked different from any flamingo I had seen before. For one thing, the males were five feet tall! And instead of the pale pink birds you see in zoos in the U.S., these were an intense reddish orange, the result of their diet in the Bahamas.

Members of the audience were invited to go into the center ring to meet the birds, which I did. I was told to stand still in a certain spot, and they would come to me. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by birds, and most surprised when one of the females leaned against me like she was giving me a hug; her feathers were very soft.

After the show, we went toward the entrance where the macaws were. We were asked if we wanted our photo taken with the birds. I was given a cockatoo, which mistook my short hair for feathers which needed preening, heh heh, and Dan had a macaw standing on a hat on his head, which I thought was hilarious.

Then it was back to the shuttle and a 45 minute tour of downtown Nassau. The history was pretty interesting. Our last stop was at Fort Fincastle, which had been built in the late 1700's to ward off enemy invaders.

Near Fort Fincastle were various vendors, the closest of which was a guy with fresh coconuts and a large blade with which to chop them. Like the pineapple, coconut tastes very different right off the tree. The milk is sweet, the meat chewy and the jelly, well, jelly-like, heh heh.

When the tour ended, Dan volunteered to push me in my wheelchair around town a bit. The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't far off. I bought a black long-sleeved t-shirt with the logo in silver and gold.

We wandered for awhile longer until I started getting too tired, and then we headed back to the dock. Took some last pix of Festival Place and the exterior of the ship and went back to the stateroom so I could rest a bit. Ate a snack and watched a couple of ABC shows on the TV, one of which I really liked called "Modern Family".

By 5pm, I was feeling less wiped out but more stiff and sore, so I headed for the pool area. It was still too windy to put my towel on a chair without it blowing away, so I tied it to a hand rail again, but the pool was calm enough to swim in, and I did approximately the equivalent of one lap in it before going to a hot tub. Got to talk to a nice couple who were originally from Ohio but now worked for Disney and were on their first cruise.

Went back to the stateroom around 6pm and got cleaned up. It was supposed to be "dress up" night for dinner, which meant I was supposed to put on a dress, but I don't own one, so I wore a matching top and long skirt, which I figured was close enough. Found out the hard way that ankle-length skirts and wheelchairs don't exactly get along, heh heh.

Unfortunately, once the ship left port around 7pm, Dan immediately got seasick again. He took some Dramamine right away, but it was only partially effective. So he was queasy again when we went to dinner at 8:15.

The restaurant we were assigned to this time was called the Animator's Palate. All along the walls of the restaurant are black and white sketches from various Disney animated films. During the course of the dinner, some of them become color, which is cool.

Dan's parents and grandfather and Virginia hadn't gotten off the ship, but had instead seen a performance of "Toy Story: The Musical", which Virginia said was excellent. Since I had ordered the night before, my dinner had already been modified to be gluten free. I had whitefish with a five-spice Chinese sauce which was amazing, tomato salad, and a small ice cream sundae.

Dan got through the main course but had to leave before dessert. Dan's mom pushed my wheelchair back to the stateroom. In the room, we had fresh towels made into the shape of a monkey (the previous night had been either an elephant or a dog, we weren't sure) with squares of chocolate for the eyes.

I had to stay up a few more hours to digest my dinner, but the sheer magnitude of all the activity of the past three days came rushing at me big time like a sledgehammer. I found myself at 1am with an open book still in my hand and a horrible crick in my neck. I wondered how I was gonna make it through the rest of the week and went to bed hoping against hope for some genuine restorative sleep.