We left for the Bahamas Thursday on the Carnival Fascination for our 4 night/4 day adventure. Flew to Jacksonville through Atlanta early Thursday morning so we were able to get the kids to Paul's parents before we left Wednesday night. Arrived safely and timely into Jacksonville and got onto our ship around 2. Had lunch, explored, did safety checks and departed from JAX 4PM! We enjoyed a lot of relaxation over our trip-sleeping in, reading, just plain old fashioned good times! Food was relatively good. Non-buffet dining was better at night, but our table that started off with 10 people dwindled down to 4 (and only us on the "formal night").
Stopped in Freeport on Friday and Nassau Saturday. Also had a couples massage Friday AM before we arrived in Freeport! Freeport was relatively boring. Took a taxi into the city, did some shopping, had a drink and tried conch fritters. Nassau was a lot better. Shopped there in the AM, did an afternoon catamaran trip with snorkeling and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. Sunday was at-sea day. More book reading, relaxing and not much else. Paul and I entered a TV theme trivia and tied for 1st and ultimately won a ship on the stick thanks to Paul's good rock-paper-scissors skills.
Getting home was challenging to say the least. Had a scheduled stop through Charlotte NC that wasn't supposed to leave from JAX until 5. Got off the ship at 9AM so tried to get another way home earlier, but didn't get standby on any flight. Once we were in air, found out that the weather was bad and we were going to have to stop in Myrtle Beach. Were able to get off and have dinner, thankfully. A lot of the people had to get back on the plane before they were able to get food. Once we got back on the plane, we still thought we'd make our connection. But, we didn't leave SC for another hour and landed around 10:20 PM in NC, but our flight left ontime at 10:15 that night. :( We tried to get anywhere out of NC that night that would get us closer to home, but were unsuccessful. And, in order to get out first thing in the morning, Paul and I had to split up...Paul went through CHI and I went through PHI. Since it was so late once we got that all figured out and our flights were leaving at 6 and 6:30 that morning, we ended up sleeping at the airport. We were not alone. Rumor has it that most hotels were sold out. Thankfully, our flights went as scheduled on Tuesday morning and my mom was able to stay longer to help with our kids. Paul landed 90 minutes before me in MSP so he went home to get the kids and picked me up-a welcome treat for someone who missed her kids! But, all the rest we got before that point was wiped out and it took us a few days to get back to normal.
But, overall a great retreat. When is it time to go again?
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