In January of 2004, I was lucky enough to receive a great deal on a trip to the Bahamas with a stay at the all-inclusive Breezes resort in Nassau. Emily and I had already been to Nassau on a previous cruise, but didn't get a chance to see much of it in our short docking time there. I talked with a couple of friends at work, Travis and Denise (who are getting married soon by the way - Congrats, Donkeys!), and we all decided to plan a trip together and head down as a group. I had never been on a trip with co-workers before, but I was excited to have people around that weren't complete strangers.

We were able to talk our way into getting "business" passes for the trip down. It was legit - I think we talked business amongst the group once or twice. The passes allowed us to travel with a little less anxiety since it was harder for us to get bumped off the flight. And traveling with Emily, the less anxiety, the better.

We arrived National Airport for our departure and apparently made the gate agent mad immediately because we sensed there was a little attitude in the way we were being checked in. Maybe it was the semi-casual clothing of 3 employees and a spouse traveling to Nassau on business passes on a work day. Yep. That's probably it. It also didn't help that we were trying to upgrade to first class. I think the agent made it his mission NOT to let us into first. He succeeded. We were called to board, and as we went back to coach, we saw at least 8 open seats when we were told it was full. Oh well...at least it was a free flight.

Welcome to Nassau

I love Caribbean airports. They are usually open air terminals and there are rarely jetways. So, we walk off our plane and onto steps to head down to the hot, black asphault tarmac. Then we stroll into the airport with a handful of fans going to add to the constant breeze blowing through. It was hot, but there's something about being in the Caribbean that makes you not really care.

After waiting in line at Customs and Immigration for a few minutes, we all made it through and headed outside to catch our shuttle to the resort. The ride was not nearly as eventful as the white-knuckle rides that we've taken in Jamaica and we even saw some nice houses (also unlike in Jamaica). It was a fairly short ride from the airport, and within 30 minutes we were at Breezes.

Arrival

Like most all-inclusives I've seen, Breezes was "nice" but not what you would call spectacular. What you sacrifice in luxury, you make up for with unlimited jerk chicken and margaritas by the pool. Check-in was quick since we had done most of our paperwork at the airport and we were off to our rooms in a flash. Unfortunately, we didn't have a room anywhere near Travis and Denise, but in the end, it wasn't a huge deal because we were rarely in the rooms.

After a non-stop travel day, we were all pretty hungry, so we stopped by the buffet to get a bite to eat. The buffet was ginormous and had a good variety of food on it. Some things looked great and other items I decided were probably not best consumed at a buffet in the Caribbean if I wanted to keep my digestive system intact.

After lunch we took a quick self-tour of the place. Before the tour however, I had to sample the daquiri machines. This place actually had daquiri machines out in the open where I can get to them and just fill a glass anytime I wanted to. I love this country.

After the tour, we hit the pool. Well, not so much actually getting IN the pool as just laying around it in chairs with a drink in one hand and a book in the other. I'm not exactly sure how long we sat there, but I don't think it mattered. I do know that we sat there long enough that we made it to another meal time. Mmmmm....food.

We all chose to go to the italian restaurant at the resort: Pastafari, which sounds like a name that they spent about 7 seconds coming up with. I had something called Shrimp Diablo. It was shrimp and it was hot - the name pretty much says it all. We lingered after dinner to talk and have desert and a bottle of wine. Maybe 2 bottles of wine. Regardless, we all felt it was a good idea to go to the piano bar before calling it a night. Yep...must have been 2 bottles of wine.

We all took seats on stools by the piano next to two teachers that had obviously been there for a LONG time. Apparently, before the piano player began, a guitarist warmed the crowd up with a selection of classic favorites. It was strange to hear "Bridge over Troubled Water" come out of a guy that looked like a cross between Rick James and Herb from Peaches & Herb.

After singing a good cross section of Billy Joel, Elton John and Kenny Rogers and having a few mango martinis, we decided that if we wanted to have a productive next day, we should probably call it a night. A very fun first day finally came to an end.

Cliff's Notes

I can't do a step by step diary of the rest of our trip because 1) I can't remember that far back, and 2) it was pretty much the same stuff over and over again. So, this next part is the majority of the rest of our trip rolled into a paragraph.

Wake up. Shower. Go to the bar and get a white russian/pina coloda/long island iced tea. Sit by the pool. Read. Go to the beach grill and get a jerk chicken sandwich. Sit by the pool. Go back to the bar. Read. Bathroom break. Lunch at the buffet. Back to the pool. Bar trip. Read. Quick nap in the shade. Wake up. Small order of nachos at the beach grill. Bar. Read. Bathroom. More pool. Back to the room for another shower. Dinner. After dinner entertainment (comedy club/piano bar/NFL Playoffs/casino). Bed. Repeat the following day.

What a completely mindless trip. Just the way I like it.

Snorkeling

One departure from the norm was when Emily and I went out on the snorkel boat for a quick dive. We were with a group of 12-15 others and led by a group of 3 Breezes Sports employees. They gave us quick instructions on how to use the equipment and told us not to touch the coral on the bottom because it could cut us and leave a nasty rash. Emily, of course, was not into getting a coral rash.

We jumped into the water and I could tell immediately that Emily was not at all comfortable. She couldn't quite get the whole routine of blowing water out of the top of the snorkel and she ended up drinking a significant amount of the Atlantic Ocean. She stayed pretty close to me as we swam around. There were tons of fish and coral to look at and even some old military equipment that had sunk in the dive area.

Emily and I stopped briefly to talk about something and as we prepared to start looking around again, I heard Emily let out a high pitched squeal. I looked around to see her fighting to keep her feet near the surface. We had apparently drifted into a fairly shallow area and were right above some coral. Emily just knew coral was close, but didn't really analyze exactly how close. While she was struggling to stay near the surface, I looked down to see what was beneath her. She apparently didn't notice that we were in about 8 feet of water. She's only a little over 5 feet tall. She never was very good at math.

Atlantis Hotel

Amazing as it may sound, we did venture off the resort once. When we had docked in Nassau for our cruise, it was within sight of the Atlantis Resort. It was the biggest hotel I had ever seen, and I was kind of amazed that I had never heard of it before. It towered over everything in the area...it was a monster.

We decided to leave Breezes one morning and take the cab ride to the Atlantis to see the thing. Since we had seen it the first time, we had seen a TV show on it and it looked like a "must see."

The major attraction if you are just visiting the Atlantis and not staying is the giant fish tank called "The Dig" that runs throughout the property. It is basically a self contained ocean with all sorts of fish and other sea animals swimming around for our enjoyment.

We were kind of bummed that they charged (quite a bit) just to stroll through the giant fish tank, but we had already dropped $25 on the cab there so we kind of felt obligated to check the thing out. I will admit, it was pretty amazing to see. Pictures really can't do it justice.

If you have the chance to stay at the Atlantis, I would do it, but only if you get a good discount and you don't eat on the property. Room were ridiculously expensive and pretty much all of the food at the on-property restaurants were equally asanine.

Heading Home

After a few days in the Bahamas sun, it was unfortunately time to go home. The trip was a great break from work and having some travel buddies made it even better. And we even rode in first class for the ride home. Sweet.

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