Harbour Island

Last weekend we were out at Potter's Cay having fish and chips and drinking some really awful rum drinks with our friends John and Tricia. At some point in the evening we decided that a multi-fmaily trip was definitely to be considered so within a few days we had booked a trip to Harbour Island. John and Tricia have two daughters Emily's age (Ali is in Emily's year at school, Victoria is a year younger) who get along very well so we though it would be a fun trip. We also took along their friend Claire.

There are over 800 islands of The Bahamas. We don't expect to be able to visit all of them during our time here - but 3 hours on the ferry is doable, so Harbour Island became one of the first on our list. Harbour Island (and the main village of Dunmore Town) is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. The island is world famous for the 3 mile long pink sand beach. The pink in the sand comes from some microscopic shelled organism known as "Foraminifera". I wonder if that is also what makes the sand so powdery and soft? Dunmore Town is the oldest settlement in the Bahamas and was once the capital. It has definitely retained it's Colonial charm. The narrow, hilly streets are edged by lovely pastel painted wooden houses mostly from the 1800's and all with a ton of charm. There are lots of tiny little boutiques and gorgeous restaurants situated amongst the many, many wild chickens and roosters wandering along the roads. You won't see many cars here. Everyone was walking or driving in a golf cart. Although Harbour Island is obviously a major tourist destination (evidenced most of all by the massive yachts parked in front of our fabulous lunch spot at Valentine's Resort) it doesn't feel touristy at all which is great.

The best part for the kids was that during the day they got to wander the streets alone and unsupervised, as long as the 4 of them stayed together, during the day. They felt very grown up and independent which is a feeling we don't get to give our kids very often in this day and age. We also took them to the Pink Sand beach, Emily brought back sand, and out for a lovely meal at The Landing.

It was a really great weekend. Mark and I had to come back to Nassau on Saturday but we left Emily for an extra day of fun. You can read of her impressions on Harbour Island on her own blog post here.

Making sand castles

Lunch at Valentines

Walking down to town

Our house for the weekend

Leaving Nassau on the Bahamas Fast Ferry

Home to Nassau

Leaving Harbour Island

The Girls!

John and Tricia



and Pink Sands Beach...

A Lucky Child

This weekend coming up will be Emily's 11th birthday. I am not quite sure how it happened but she is creeping up on teenager awfully fast. I just got depressed this morning when I realized that we are past the halfway point of the time period when she will be at home with us. Tom (her Dad) came down to The Bahamas for a few days as a birthday visit and she even got to spend time with her Grandparents and Great-Aunt(Tom's Parents and Aunt), who were in port for the day with the Disney Cruise.

She had the week off of school this last week cavorting around the island with her Dad and getting all of her birthday presents from them. Then it was off to Harbour Island with us for the weekend (she's still there - more on that in another post).

As we were walking on the Pink Sands Beach of Harbour Island I could see her with her friends jumping in the waves ahead of us and I thought that she truly is a lucky girl. We hope to always keep her very aware of (and thankful for) how privileged she is and hope that she never, ever takes her life for granted. Standing on the dock as Mark and I left her to come back to Nassau, I looked at her filthy dirty bare feet and thought, "she hasn't worn shoes for the last 2 days, what a dream for a kid."

Her birthday weekend will be a whirlwind of cake at school, a sleep-over party with her friends and then a family dinner (including Tina who arrives on Tuesday) at her choice of establishment - probably the Marketplace buffet over at Atlantis. Lucky girl! Here she is during her week with Tom...

Oh Well - It Didn't Work

Last weekend we attempted the hummingbird feeder. We took an old juice bottle and inserted bendy straws in the bottom, surrounded them with hot glue and decorated the bottle with red flowers (red draws the hummingbirds). The theory is that when you pour in the sugar water and recap the lid the vacuum that is created will cause the liquid to stay in the bottle until the hummingbird drinks it... nope! All that sugar water poured out - over the rug as we carried it outside, over Mark's shirt as he hung it, and all over the bushes and patio after it was hung. A feast for the ants but not really very convenient for the hummingbirds. All in all - a complete failure. Oh well - we had fun making it.

Emily is on her Spring Break this week and is looking forward to a visit from her Dad for a few days (who arrives tomorrow)as well as meeting her Grandparents and Great-Aunt at port when they disembark from the Disney Cruise for the day.

He Wants To Be Friends

Lisa swears that this hummingbird wants to be friends. You can't really tell by the photo how tiny he is - but imagine a bird the size of your thumb and you'd be pretty accurate. Lisa and Emily are going to make an attempt at a home made hummingbird feeder. He comes to our front garden all the time but he looks like he would hang around a little more if we only had some more munchies on hand.