the bahamas... indescribable

I am going to attempt the impossible... I am going to attempt to put into words the incredible trip that I just took to the bahamas with two really great friends. As I'm sure you can imagine from the above image, we had a fantastic trip.

This was the shot flying out of Atlanta early Friday morning...

And this was the shot flying into Miami Friday afternoon... Tell me: which one do you prefer?

We got on the ship Friday afternoon and did a lot of ship exploring, laying out, and eating until Saturday morning. We arrived at a private island called Cococay, owned by Royal Caribbean. Below is the shot as we were heading towards the island of Cococay Saturday morning.

We did some exploring around the island. We were the first group of people off the boat, so it was nice to explore without people being all around.

When the clouds started looking like the photo before, we decided to head back in. It was a great idea! On a side-note, can someone please tell me how something that huge can just sit on top of the water? I am amazed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon up on top of the boat, lying out by the pool. As I'm sure you can tell by the background, we really weren't at a loss, were we?

The view: not edited at all. That was literally the color of the water.

We went to formal dining 2 out of the 3 nights and really had a great time. Our head waiter, assistant waiter, and table guests were really fun to be around.

Remember those fun dinner table guests I was telling you about? Well, we went to the poolside party with them and had a blast!

By far, the greatest experience was our snorkeling. I wish I had photographs from being under the water. It was marvelous. I was literally in awe each time I put my mask and snorkel under the water. We were able to snorkel where they filed "Into the Blue" and "Flipper" and "Jaws." On the last stop, we swam with these sharks. Yes, I got into the water with these guys:

We survived and actually made friends with 2 couples who were vacationing in Nassau. We ate lunch with them after the snorkeling adventure. Here are Mio and Satu from Finland:

And here is Moreen and Josh, who live in West Palm Beach. She is originally from Israel, and this picture does not do their attractiveness justice!

We just had to document the fact that we DID eat native food from a VERY high waiter!

This was the scene walking back to our cruise ship in Nassau. I could have stayed there all day, I think.

And, of course, all good things must come to an end. I took this picture the morning as we docked into Miami.

It was sad to leave, but I will say that it was the best vacation I've ever been on. I will (hopefully) be going back soon... I also want to give a shout-out to Royal Caribbean and to Stuart Cove's Snorkeling. Those two companies made our weekend nothing short of extraordinary!