Friday in the Bahamas

rmiles7721February 19, 2008Photography, Travel

The trip down to Nassau was fantastic! Just what I needed but not nearly long enough. That combined with the nasty plane ride home was enough to slightly tarnish the trip. Oh yeah, and I’ve been fucking cold ever since I got home.

We dropped the girls off early at school on Friday morning so we could get down to the airport. The drive down wasn’t too terribly bad, we managed to get in the airport at around 7:30 Friday morning. It was actually very crowded and we had to wait through the line at security forever. Once we made it through the obligatory cavity search and managed to get to the gate I took one of the Xanax and settled down to wait for the plane. The ride down was pretty uneventful and I actually enjoyed it once we had been in the air for awhile. The Xanax didn’t do shit to calm me down but I seem to be getting a little better at flying. At least I thought so until the flight home.

The airport in Nassau looks like it was built around the time that JFK was hanging out in the Bahamas although they seem to be trying to update it. We had to wait awhile to get through customs but we did have these guys hanging out playing the entire time.

Nassau, Bahamas 002

Can’t help the graininess of the shot. I was afraid one of the security guys was going to stomp my ass if I turned the flash on.

Anyway, once we made it through security and out into the general terminal, Breezes has a booth there that directed us to a shuttle bus. They provide transportation to and from the resort as part of the deal.

I really regret not renting a car or scooter while we were there. The caves where the pirates used to hide their shit and the villas all along the coast were truly a site to see and I would have liked to stop and take more photos than I did. We spent an inordinant amount of time either walking or riding the bus and while it’s nice to let someone else do the driving, perhaps a taxi would be the best bet. A tad bit more expensive but at least they will stop when I want them to.

We got to the resort around noon and check-in isn’t until 3 so they stuck armbands on us and let us roam around to check the place out until we could get our room. We tried their native brewed, called Kalik. It pretty much sucked. If you like Budweiser with a higher alcohol content and more carbonation you might like Kalik. It was probably closer to Corona than Bud but it was still crappy piss water. I much prefer Sam Adams and Guinness as well as other dark, full beers. They also had serve-yourself daiquiri dispensers there so I settled on Pina Coladas. I didn’t drink much on this trip anyway. I wanted to make sure and enjoy the island in my own self-created stupor without adding too much alcohol to the mix. The water was too cool to get in, either the ocean or the pool, so we just sort of hung out. It was pretty overcast when we arrived and it had started drizzling shortly after we got there. You can see the rain arriving in this photo.

Nassau, Bahamas 004

Normally you can see clearly to Long Cay and to the right the coastline as well, that’s rain coming. It never did rain very hard unless it was while we were napping, which we did shortly after we finally got our room, which was closer to four rather than the three p.m. check-in time. It was actually starting to get pretty fucking irritating that they didn’t have the room ready. I think we were both crabby and tired.

After a nice nap we checked the place out some more and then had dinner. There are a couple of different restaurants in the joint as well as the buffet. We chose the buffet and the fare was actually pretty decent. Nothing to write home about but I certainly had my fill. We made a trip to the Crystal Palace Casino right down the street where the wife won $100 on the slots. Some of that was profit 🙂

After the Casino we hung out on the beach for awhile where they were doing a circus show. Two of the four acrobats couldn’t be there so it was OK, but nothing fantastic. After that we just hit the sack. Flying screws with my ears and we were both tired.

I will post more pictures and more about the trip later this evening. I’ve got a bit of house cleaning to take care of and then I have some work to do this evening as well. I have posted most of the pictures to my Flickr page if you want to see them before I post them here.

Tramp Stamp Tuesday

rmiles7721February 19, 2008Site News

I am on vacation this week and provided I didn’t miss my flight Sunday I am at home now (yeah, I scheduled this prior to leaving town).

This is just the hint of a Tramp Stamp, leaving what it is to your imagination. No need for the extended entry this week as it’s PG material. What do you think this thing is peeking out of her butt?

trampstamphint.jpg

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Eating’ the Conch Penis…

rmiles7721February 18, 2008Travel

First check out the video…

We went down to Potter’s Cay early on Saturday afternoon. Actually we left the resort very early on Saturday and spent the morning walking around Nassau shopping and eating. It’s beautiful down there. I’ll tell you one thing though, fuck the walking and buses. Next time I take my own advice and drive, call a cab or rent scooters. I enjoyed the sites and being able to take pictures but we wasted about four hours on Saturday just walking so by the time we got back to Breezes I was ready for a nap.

After walking forever we got down to Potter’s Cay. Here’s what it looks like on the dry side.

Potter's Cay

I don’t guess anyone had used this boat in quite some time…

Nassau, Bahamas 101

This gull flew by at just the right moment…

Seagull

These guys were playing dominoes right next to the conch salad booth where we stopped. I’ll tell you one thing, they take their dominoes seriously. NOT a child’s game at all.

Dominos

I guess because of where I was sitting in the shade and the fact that it was so bright everywhere else, the exposures in a couple of these were really crappy. I had my dark shades on and wasn’t really paying attention or I would have most likely noticed in time to fix it. This is the dude that made the conch salad. He’s in the booth right next to the domino players and was extremely happy to chat with us while he made the salads. I forgot his damned name or I would have posted it here and told you guys to go visit him.

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The guy has been doing this for seventeen years. He buys conch from fishermen in the morning and makes salads all day long for both locals and tourists alike. Just a few bucks for a Heineken and Conch salad and it took both of us to eat it. Think cole slaw without the cabbage and with seafood. It really kicks ass. This is how he makes his living though and as he was so gracious and the food kicked so much ass I figured I would tell ya’ to go see him.

Conch Salad Ingredients

Those are the fixin’s above. He was making them two or three at a time to save on wasted food I am sure but for the three he made while we sat there He took and entire onion, a couple of tomatoes and a bell pepper and diced them up small, as well as one slice from a jabenero or some other type of hot pepper and a bit of sea salt. I found a recipe at the Hot Sauce Zone that has more involved ingredients and it sounds pretty good as well. Anyway he also diced up small a couple of fresh (raw) Conchs right out of the water behind his place, popped a hole in the shell to release the muscle that holds it in and pulled the damned thing out and started washing and cutting. After mixing all of the up he stuck it in a bowl and squeezed the juice out of a couple of limes and an orange as well. It was pretty damn refreshing after a hot walk to get down there.

Bridge to Paradise Island

Here are a couple of shots of Potter’s Cay from the water side.

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That big ugly pink thing behind the bridge? That’s the Atlantis resort. It’s not as close as it looks, it’s just fucking huge.

Oh yeah, the conch penis. The dude making the salad brings out these wiggly looking clear things to us and the bahamian sitting with his girlfriend right next to us. The other guy says “Conch Penis, better than Viagra” and down the fucker goes. I don’t think it’s the penis, but I ate it whatever the hell it was because I’m a guy and you can’t let one guy eat it and think you’re a pussy or anything. I wasn’t bad actually, supposedly has plenty of protein. Work like Viagra? I’ll never tattle…

Here I Sit…

rmiles7721February 17, 2008Travel

…bored as hell.
Just got back from the Bahamas but unfortunately I am sitting on the plane in Augusta, GA. The weather is supposed to be really bad in Atlanta and we didn’t have enough gas to keep circling Atlanta for much longer.
Someone at Delta filed incorrect paperwork with customs so we were stuck there an extra 30 minutes, otherwise we might have beat the weather.
Hopefully I will be home soon.

Sunday Open Trackback

rmiles7721February 17, 2008Site News

This is the Sunday edition of the open track-back post. Open track-backs are a great way for you to share and show up your work. Just send a ping back to this post and your trackback will show up in the bottom of this entry.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am currently in the Bahamas. Hopefully on the beach and half drunk next to the beautiful wife. I hope you are all enjoying the weekend as much as I am and will see you folks in a couple of days if they can drag my ass back on the airplane.

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Saturday Open Trackback

rmiles7721February 16, 2008Site News

This is the Saturday edition of the open track-back post. Open track-backs are a great way for you to share and show up your work. Just send a ping back to this post and your trackback will show up in the bottom of this entry.
I should be in Nassau right now vacating so anything getting posted most likely will have been scheduled ahead of time. Please feel free to post some interesting links for everyone!

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Friday Open Track-Back

rmiles7721February 15, 2008Site News

This is the Friday edition of the open track-back post. Open track-backs are a great way for you to share and show up your work. Just send a ping back to this post and your trackback will show up in the bottom of this entry.

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You can also go check out the link above and join in the Linkfest, where you can send your ping to many different blogs and get noticed by folks that may not have checked out your site before!
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REALLY Time To Go…

rmiles7721February 15, 20085Travel

I think I may have found the cause of my blog not wanting to rebuild the main page. It was the “most viewed entries” widget. You may not have seen it because the MT wouldn’t reindex the main page with it included in the sidebar. whoduthunkit.

Anyway, I did manage to squeak in a few minutes this morning. I woke up at around a quarter ’till four and the wife had already been awake for an hour. Pre-flight jitters or just looking forward to the weekend in the Bahamas? I don’t know but I have the prescription for Xanax in my overnight bag. Just as soon as I get cleared of security I’m taking one of those bad boys and as long as I don’t start chasing peruvian midgets through the airport we’ll be alright. If I do by chance see one, I have a call to make (and you know who you are).

I think the girls are looking forward to the weekend. Michelle is coming to look after the house and the girls and provided they don’t whine her to death they will all have a good time. Most likely they will be very good since she’s not their parent. That’s the way that shit works.

I can’t remember if I have mentioned it or not but this they have been planning on re-aligning the districts and their stores. It is a highly feared and anticipated ‘event’. It’s actually been about four years since they changed the stores around other than my promotion and I just picked up the same stores the last guy had. I almost feel as if I have dodged a bullet on this one. One of my managers has been promoted and while I am out of town this week he is running my stores. As of Wednesday he picks up the Mirror Lake store and my slowest store. That’s actually a good deal. I lose money on that one and the manager there is the one that hates my guts. I am keeping my busiest store. That’s the one where the girl is in the hospital. I am somewhat upset because they are most likely going ahead and putting her on leave of absence and putting another manager in there, probably the third district manager, who has been demoted. I am getting the Temple store back and one of the stores just to the west of we. Now all three of my shops are within seven miles of me and they are all money makers. Except for the fact that one of the girls has some serious issues I picked up the best district out of the three. I must have gotten seven phone calls last night about it after the meeting.

Enough about all that crap. I am off work for the next six days now and looking forward to it. Just as soon as I get finished typing I will go shower, shit and shave and start getting ready. Hell, I would leave now if I though I could leave the girls at the school. They would probably frown on two little girls standing outside in the Elementary school parking lot at 5 a.m. though.

So has anyone heard that Greene County is going to start segregating their schools next year? Not by race though, by gender. They will be separating the boys and girls and hope to see a drastic change in test scores as well as teen pregnancies. Here’s a tip you may not have heard. They’re not getting pregnant while they are at school. Doh! I know it’s unheard of but most likely it’s when they are skipping or out doing other things. Not only that but you know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder. That and the fact that if you tell a teenager they can’t have or do something you are generally creating a reason to go looking for it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rise in more than the boy’s pants by this time next year as the rate of teenage pregnancies gets higher. Then again, what the fuck do I know, I’m not an edukashun expert like the people making these decisions.

I guess that’s all my ranting for today. Time to start getting ready.

Have a Great Weekend!

rmiles7721February 14, 2008Travel

I’m off to bed. We are getting up early tomorrow and I may post a bit but probably not. We are spending the weekend in Nassau and I don’t know that I will have a chance to get online although I am sure to have some good pictures to post when we get back Sunday evening.

I do have the usual weekend stuff lined up though. Some open trackback posts (if you get thrown in the spam folder I’ll fix it Monday), Saturday photohunt, Green Thumb Sunday, that sort of stuff and if my brother is cool he might even stop by to say hello, although I haven’t had the chance to ask him so I don’t know what he’s doing this weekend.

Getting Packed and Ready

rmiles7721February 14, 2008Travel

I ended up not going down to Grady to see my friend. They won’t let anyone in as she spent the morning in surgery and is in ICU waiting for another surgery. Her husband said she is doing terrible. That sucks. I ended up calling my bosses’ boss to see what we are going to be able to help them out with and am just going to have to wait for an answer on that one. I looked at my local paper’s web site and haven’t seen anything there

I napped for awhile and then went and picked up a new pair of jeans and a shirt for the trip. Unfortunately none of my jeans fit me comfortably anymore. I think that perhaps the Marine snatched the wrong pair before he went to California and I need at least one pair of jeans for the trip and a sleeved shirt for dinner one of the nights. Nothing fancy certainly but it can’t be jeans and a t-shirt. I am just about ready to go, just need to gather a few more things.

I didn’t realize that you can’t do the online check-in for international flights, so we are going to have to push it and be driving away from the school by 6:30 tomorrow morning so that we have a couple of hours before the flight. It will take at least an hour to get there at that time of the morning and our flight leaves at 9:40. Kind of pushing it but the airport shouldn’t be too busy at 7:30 in the morning.