It's Gobbles Time!: A Little Getaway

Over the years, I have had to travel a lot for work. Sometimes to exotic locales like Iceland or Santa Cruz, but most of the time to nowhereville USA like Peoria, Illinois or Oyen, Canada. Yes, I'm aware Canada is not part of the US, but this part, a 4 hour drive from Calgery, was so far in the middle of nowhere it may as well have been.

Last month, I was lucky enough to have to go to a conference in Nassau taking place at the Atlantis in Nassau. And I was doubly lucky in that hubs was able to come along too and that our mothers both took the time to watch the kids. That's right, as much as we love them, it's always nice to get away for a few days.

We got there on a Wednesday, where I basically had to start working right away, first setting up a booth the schmoozing, which worked fine for hubs because he got a chance to relax. The hotel complex was beautiful, but I must say it was very large, I must have hauled ass at least a half mile or so each direction going back and forth from the conference center to my room. It totally added up over the few days we were there so my workout gear that I packed with good intentions went completely unused!

When my mandatory cocktail hour was finished, I found hubs and we explored together before grabbing a bite. We wandered the aquariums in the main part of the hotel and walked through an area referred to as "the ruins". Everything was very elaborately done with beautiful sea life everywhere we turned.

Under da sea

Hub's new friend

Hiya pal!

The lone sting ray looking for a friend

Giant nasty eel-like things that seemed to glow... like in the princess bride!

The next morning, it was off to work early for me, and hubs relived our pre-kids days by sleeping until close to noon. He found breakfast and made his way to a poolside bar where he befriended a bartender and scored free drinks and read his book all afternoon. I managed to take a 90 minute break to go to sit on the beach with hubs before heading back for the women's networking hour. It was strange because the conference was still going on and I felt like I was playing hooky during this break. It was even stranger that when we were approached on the beach to jetski, etc from the locals my excuse was I have to go back to work in an hour.

I returned to my professional socializing and hubs got ready for the evening reception that I roped him into attending with me. When I met back up with him I realized how glad I was that he was with me, since about 80% of the people had spouses there. I'm not really good at this type of stuff and it's so much easier when he's on my arm (I'm on his?). We enjoyed some drinks, bites, and hubs was a good sport while I networked. It ended up being a fairly early night again since I had another early morning.

Finally, the last day of the conference arrived. The other vendors and I joked about how we felt like kids on the last day of school, counting down the minutes until the bell rang. And when it did, we were out in no time. I packed up the booth and hauled the 75 lb load back to our room where hubs was waiting. We got our suits on and headed to one of the beach bars for lunch. We spent the afternoon on water slides, on river rapids, and playing like children. I haven't been to a water park in almost a decade, I forgot how much fun they were. The only awkward part was when I'd randomly see professional contacts also in their bathing suits. I tried my best to hide behind my giant sunglasses and hope they didn't notice me.

That night, we took a cab into town to one of the local-recommended fancy restaurants - Café Matisse. We dined outside on a little patio that was decorated in a candlelit, rustic manner not unlike Terrain back here. It was so pretty there and the food was good. We had a few cats wander in to visit us and the other diners and I thought it just added to the charm (we ran into many homeless cats during our trip, none who looked underfed. They looked like the tourists took care of them, which is nice compared to many sad dogs we have seen in our other travels.).

The meal itself was really good - I got a warm shellfish salad with a guacamole and citrus sauce. Basically it was an abundance of lobster, crab legs, mussels, and shrimp. I have no idea what hubs got because I was too busy licking my plate to care. For dinner I got a pumpkin ravioli that was also excellent, followed by a black and white mousse that I could barely fit into my belly. With everything that happened that day, I hit the pillow full and content that night.

Chilling in a double float on the river rapids

Rounding the corner and seeing the beach!

Water slides that shoot you UP, not just down.

Floating away!

About to take the plunge into the shark tank!

Waiting for lunch

My turn!

Obviously I went more than once

Ending a busy afternoon with a drink

Just watching other people slide on through the shark tank

YUM

Saturday morning was the first morning I could sleep in, but on vacation I'm one to pack in as much activity as possible and leave sleeping for the birds, so we were up for a reservation to swim with the dolphins. This was something I've always wanted to do and for some reason (probably the cost they jack it up as part of a cruise excursion), we never have. This was my favorite part of the trip, I would love to work with them for a living. Hubs made fun of me because I was just like Gobbles is with out dogs - completely smothering. I could have played all days with these guys. We got to snorkel with one of them, do underwater tricks with her, and finally get pushed across the pool by a pair of dolphins swimming behind our feet. It was exhilarating!

After the dolphins, we got lunch and drinks beach side and went to relax on the beach. Hubs read his book and I went for a walk and just enjoyed the ocean breeze. It was a nice afternoon to just hang out with each other, knowing it would be back to reality tomorrow. When we'd had enough sun, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner - this time we went the other extreme - cheap street food. We took a cab to the fish fry, which a the party area in Nassau, similar to South St in Philly and hit up Twin Brothers. I got some local beers while hubs had some fru fru drink, keeping with his tradition that he always drinks the girliest fruitiest drinks when he's south of Florida. We dined on Bahamian wings and conch fritters, and it was probably the best meal down there - local fare all the way.

When we got back to the hotel, I played a few rounds at the penny and nickel slots in the casino, and we laughed about how the penny slots seemed to have a 30 bet minimum so they really weren't penny. We wandered around the grounds one more time, taking it all in and talking about how much fun the kids would have had (as we always do when we're not with them, we constantly talk about them!). The next morning we got on a plane and came back in time to beat the snowstorms that began to pummel us for a month straight. The snow started so quickly after we landed, if not for the pictures it almost feels like we never even went away!