I wish I was like you, easily amused

I started writing this post almost two weeks ago.  Due to moving and unpacking (read: laziness) I just finished it. 

I’ve been running around today getting things delivered to my townhouse and servicing my car. In between I got a car wash. I stopped at home to grab some stuff and parked my car under the big cherry tree in our front yard. I come back out to take my car to get the brake pads replaced and there’s a huge hung of bird shit right in the middle of the windshield on my driver side. Unbelievable. And wasn’t the relatively clean white stuff that comes right off with some washer fluid and a few strokes across with the wipers. Nope. It’s a little yellow with some nice chunks of brown mixed in that cling stubbornly to my windshield. Damn swallows. I’ve been lobbying my parents to get that tree cut down for years because the damn roots jut out of the ground making mowing the lawn around that tree plain frustrating. Now that I have a new reason.

Anyway, got back from The Bahamas with the family on Saturday. We stayed in Atlantis which is a pretty swanky resort. The weather was sunny and 85 every day except the last day when it rained. The beaches were really nice and they had a million swimming pools and a cool water park with the greatest lazy river of all time. I dare you to name one that’s better. I had a great time, but I don’t think I would go back there if I had to pay for it myself. The resort is basically a huge cruise ship with just one port of call. It had a night club, a bunch of different restaurants, and a casino that didn’t have any poker tables. It’s geared more towards honeymooners and couples or families with elementary age kids. Nice place, but not great for college grads/young adults. On top of all that, The Bahamas is expensive.

At first I thought it was just on the resort. But we ate off the resort in proper Nassau several times. They were cheaper, but still expensive. To give you an idea, I had a BLT for lunch one day that was $10. A gallon of gas is $5. A taxi driver told us that the cost of milk was close to $6 a gallon compared to $3.79 in the DC area right now. That’s not that big of a deal to me since I don’t drink milk. But Jesse would go broke in a hurry. I’ve never been to Mexican beaches other than 4 hours in Cozumel during a cruise, but the beaches there are probably comparable and food and drink is way cheaper. But, I’m not complaining at all. Probably the last free vacation I get from my parents.

Aside from the priciness of it all (which didn’t really affect me since I didn’t pay for a single thing) it was a good trip. A few other things:

-Atlantis has the largest aquarium in the world with an incredibly diverse population of marine animals.  They have the requisite sharks and exotic fish.  But the coolest animal there was a monster sting ray.  This thing easily had a wingspan of at least 10 feet.

-I wasn’t that impressed by the beaches.  Sure the sand was white and the water was clear.  But, they seemed a bit manufactured.  In the water, the sand was a bit rocky and not that nice to stand in.  I’ve been to nicer beaches.

-We ran into quite a few professional athletes.  I walked by Grant Hill with his daughter.  He isn’t nearly as tall as I thought he would be.  But he did make his toddler daughter look tiny.  He had to slouch down to hold her hand.  Jeremy Roenick and his family were on my flight back to the states.  He makes millions of dollars and he sat in coach.  He’s one of the best hockey players of the last 20 years and he sat in coach.  Maybe something to do with the blue collarness of ice hockey.  His wife was pretty hot.  I’m pretty sure we also ran into a few professional football players.  I couldn’t put names to the faces, but judging by their size and musculature, they were clearly in the NFL.

-The resort has a huge marina adjacent to it.  I’ve seen large yachts before, but one of them was absolutely enormous.  Probably the size of my parent’s house.  No joke.