S M Squared: May 2018

Alfred House

View from my bedroom window

Many months ago, Corinne organized a surprise trip to the Bahamas in honor of Kent's 40th birthday. It was booked so far in advance, I made lots of assumptions about how Holland would be by then... that turned out to be incorrect. My mom kept all three kids for the 5 nights we were gone, and I'm fairly certain that will be the last time! Holland seemed to be coming down with something when we left, so she didn't sleep the first two nights we were gone, just cried. She's never been away from me, so it could have been many factors contributing. Eventually she got it worked out and started sleeping, thank goodness.

I'm still nursing, so I pumped milk while I was gone and flew back with it. I was stressed about how to fly back with it and if it would stay frozen, but it worked out fine. I bought two freezable pack it lunch boxes, and put the frozen milk in them and put them in my checked luggage for the flights. They were still frozen when we made it back to Oxford! I will say, trying to pump on an airplane is not fun. On the flight back, I tried to use a nursing pod at the Atlanta airport, but never could get it to work and open the door for me. Not the most fun to pump on vacation, but glad to have the milk now, and glad the Holland and I can wean at our own pace instead of a forced cold turkey. She's eating solid food so much better now, so is beginning to take less milk.

Now, for the good stuff. I recommend this trip to anyone if you like remote, non-commercial, not crowded, relaxing vacations. It only took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes of flying to get there- so much easier than driving to florida (but not cheaper). The island has no fast food, just a couple of small settlements with some grocery stores and restaurants. We could snorkel right out from our house and there were miles of beaches that we would literally be the only people on. The group saw sharks, sting rays, conch, star fish, and all manner of fish right out from our house. The island is long and narrow, you have to drive on the left side, and it's slow going, so going from one end to the other takes a long time. Beautiful views, though.

French Leave Beach

We rented a boat one day to go snorkeling out on the cays, and got to spend some time on a cay all by ourselves. Everywhere you look was just gorgeous water and beaches. We got to go to a "drop off" where the elevation changes from 50 feet deep to like 500 feet deep. Corinne and I saw a small shark at this point, and that was enough for me to swim back to the boat. :) We also saw sea turtles swimming and lots of other fish on the reefs. I will say there were some sections where there was so much plastic in the water where people had dumped their trash. I'm trying to be hyper-aware of our plastic use now. Sad to see what we are doing to such a beautiful natural treasure.

Completely Empty Cay where we hung out

aboard the Potcake

nurse shark at cape eleuthera

Our one other excursion day, we went to Harbor Island via ferry for some shopping and dinner at The Rock House. It was a long drive and quick boat ride to get to the island, but we had a fantastic meal together. Both islands had such old, historic buildings. Lisa and I walked through a cemetary in Governor's Harbour and saw some really old graves, and some very sad stories of families that lost so many of their children. Hard to imagine what life must have been like hundreds of years ago on an island cut off from most of civilization. I hope to do more research on the history of the island.

Rock House at Harbour Island

Ferry Ride Back

The rest of the time, we beached, snorkeled, ate, drank, dance partied, and just had a wonderful time. We had our fill of conch, grouper, snapper, and tropical drinks! Our group of friends just went with the flow and enjoyed the time together. Having been to the grand bahama island before, I was unsure what to expect, but Eleuthera was outstanding.