40th Anniversary Trip to Nassau
I posted about the downside of our Nassau anniversary trip, but I never got around to sharing about the fun stuff. Fortunately, the broken ankle happened on our last day, so we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves prior to that.
Check out my previous post about the injury and how important it was that we had travel insurance to get reimbursed for the $15K hospital bill and many other expenses.
One of the best things about this trip was the price. We’d been looking at places to go for our 40th Anniversary. Initially, we were thinking about a trip to St Thomas and some of the neighboring islands.
Killer Travel Deal
But then I happened to come across an Email from Delta Airlines about the a Nassau Bahamas vacation. They offered a trip for two to the Bahamas for 25,000 Skymiles and just $200 in cash.
We weren’t too particular about which Caribbean island to go to – they’ve all got beaches and fancy drinks with little umbrellas. And, we just happened to have 30,000 Skymiles each from a previous flight to Barcelona that had been cancelled. As a long-time travel blogger, I’m always on the lookout for killer deals like this. Sometimes having a little flexibility in your travel plans can help you take advantage of them. I’ve gotten several other similar deals.
Driving on the Left is SCARY
Nassau is a cute little town, but we about had a heart attack when we picked up our rental car. We hadn’t realized that they drive on the other side of the road until we saw a sticker on the dashboard that said “Keep Left”.
Yikes! Driving on the opposite side of the road is a real mind-bender. Took us the first couple of days to figure it out and we nearly had a couple of accidents. The weirdest thing is that they switch it every 5 years or so to keep the roads from wearing unevenly. How weird is that? I’ll bet they have a LOT of accidents that first week….
We had such a good time just bopping around town and seeing the sites.
Riding an ATV was a Big Adventure for Me
We even rented some ATVs to take a quick spin around the island. Not really my thing – I’m terrified of motorcycles, but we went slow and we had a guide with us. We visited the John Watkins rum factory, and the place where they make those delicious little rum cakes. Even though it was February, the weather was gorgeous and sunny.
Best Fish Sandwich at Two Brothers Restaurant
We finished up at a place on the Boardwalk called The Two Brothers and had the best fried fish sandwich we’d ever had.
Atlantis – Really FUN, but it RAINED All Day
The highlight of our trip was a visit to Atlantis Nassau. Unfortunately, that was the one day we had awful weather. Rain in the Caribbean is pretty warm, but there was a LOT of it. Some of the puddles were several inches deep.
We had visited Atlantis previously on a cruise excursion probably 8 years ago, and they had remodeled a lot of it. But it was still very cool and we always love a good aquarium. Happily, a lot of it was indoors, but we would’ve liked to get to the beach and spend more time on the famous water slides.
My husband did the famous waterslide down through the shark pool. That was pretty cool.
They had a bunch of these sawtooth fish, but I wasn’t sure how they could be happy in such a shallow enclosure. It was maybe 2 feet deep. I would’ve liked to see them in something grander.
Then the BAD Thing Happened
On the last day, we went down to the Marina to catch a dive boat to go snorkeling and visit Rose Island where the famous swimming pigs are. I wasn’t quite sure about that. I love animals more than anything, but pigs??? Not cute little piggies, but big full-sized hogs. I wasn’t too sure about that. My niece has one about that size, and I was not a fan.
But we never found out. I fell getting on the boat and broke my ankle in 3 places as well as dislocating it when they tried to get me to stand up. They got me off the boat somehow – I have no idea. I think I might’ve passed out. Then they parked me on a bench outside Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Some nice patrons bought us a drink while waiting for the ambulance! I was just grateful that it didn’t happen out on Rose Island or somewhere that wasn’t a few minutes away from a hospital…..
Not quite how I’d planned to end our anniversary vacation, but I survived it. They X-rayed my leg. At that point, I’d thought it was just badly sprained, but one look at the sympathetic looks from the X-ray techs and I KNEW it was bad. They set it for me under a mild anesthetic and wrapped it up really well. The Delta crews were such champs to get me on and off not one, but two planes as we had a layover in Atlanta.
Did you know you can order a wheelchair from Amazon with overnight delivery? I wasn’t a great wheelchair, but it enabled me to get from the car into the house. At midnight, in a blazing snowstorm. We had my husband, my son, my daughter-in-law and a neighbor. They almost dropped me getting up the steps. But somehow we made it.
I ended up with all sorts of screws and plates and had 8 weeks non-weight bearing and 4 more weeks of limited mobility, plus months of physical therapy. Fortunately, my husband, our kids, and a bunch of our friends helped me through it. But boy, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Be very careful on these tours – you just never know what can happen.
Be sure to check out my post on travel insurance – we had to pay out $15,000 in CASH to get me out of that Hospital. Fortunately, I got nearly all of it back.
