Leaving Tomorrow!

Wow the last couple weeks have just flown by! Sorry I haven't been better about updating!

We leave tomorrow morning for our trip to the Atlantis with my parents! They don't particularly like flying, and my mom gets anxious in airports, so they are driving here today (about a 9 hour drive) and then we are all flying out of Charlotte tomorrow together.

One trick I'm trying out for the first time tomorrow is something our travel agent taught me when we went on our trip to Jamaica back in November. When I booked our tickets for this trip, I booked us in the first and third seats in a row that is 3 seats wide, leaving the middle seat emtpy. I also booked us toward the back of the plane. My hope is that no one will take the center seat between us, so we'll have extra room for our bags and ourselves. Here's hoping!

Something we're doing to help save a little money on this trip is to eat our breakfasts in the condo in the morning. We really do not like to cook on vacation, but we aren't big breakfast people, so I packed Nature Valley granola bars for our breakfasts (Mom packed pop tarts), and I'll buy some fruit when we get to the Bahamas. I've also packed some other snacks, like trail mix and microwave popcorn (mom packed some snack crackers and other things).

When we get to the Bahamas, we have booked a taxi that will take us to the grocery store before taking us to the resort. There are very limited grocery options on Paradise Island, so we will be stopping at a store in Nassau. While we're there we plan to pick up coffee, orange juice, bananas, water, soda, and beer. I've heard that even at the grocery store these things tend to be about 3x as expensive as they are in the states, but still cheaper than they would be at the resort. I will try to save my receipt to report back on if those cost estimates are accurate.

I have also packed a small cooler to take with us. It is an insulated beach bag, and I plan to put drinks in it in the mornings and take it with us to the pools so we have some cold beverages handy that won't cost an arm and a leg.

We plan to eat lunch and dinner out each day. Most days we will be eating by the pool for lunch, and the snack stands have value meals that are $7-10 for a hot dog, burger, or chicken, chips or fries and a drink. It's not gourmet, but it'll sustain us until dinner time.

We are splurging for dinners. We have reservations at Mesa Grill (by Bobby Flay), Bimini Road (traditional Bahamian fare), and Carmines, a family-style Italian restaurant. The other nights we'll play it by ear, and will dine at casual places.

So, we're all packed and ready to go. Today will be busy at work making sure everything is ready for my absence, and my parents will get here shortly after work is over, so until I'm back from the tropics, take care!