Nassau, Bahamas

I've never been before, so why not?

At first I thought you could only fly to continental US destinations with the All You Can Jet pass, but it turns out you can fly anywhere they fly - you just have to pay the extra taxes on those flights.

So, it looks like it'd be just under $100 in taxes to fly to the Bahamas. Let's go!

I took a cab to Cable Beach, found out that most of the hotels are closed this time of year, and strolled into the Sheraton. I walked out onto the beautiful beach, sat under a thatched umbrella, and soaked in the view. Just like in the brochures.

This lasted for about 15 minutes. What now?

Then it began to rain. After eating the probably the worst $14 salad ever, I retreated to the lobby. Since the adjoining casino was closed (I don't think they have poker anyway), I hung out in the lobby for a few hours on the computer - chastising myself for going to the Bahamas and then ending up in front of the computer anyway.

I was starting to question: is a beach vacation alone when you didn't even need the break worth doing? At this moment, sadly, it was not.

Don't get me wrong...this feeling disturbs me.

Throughout my first 24 hours, along with skies threatening to rain, I did see it rain once or twice. But I wondered, what's with all the puddles everywhere? I found out today when it started pouring, right about the time that I planned to leave the hotel and look for something nicer on Paradise Island.

Not wanting to be out in the rain with all my possessions (laptop, notably), I decided to stay another night and wait out the rainstorm.

As you can see in the pics above, Nassau is a pretty interesting place to wonder around, as long as you aren't expecting upscale awesomeness. It has a few high end stores, but they are all concentrated around the docks where the cruise ships come in.

The city is filled with narrow streets (most of which are completely unfriendly to bikers and pedestrians) lined with old colonial homes - many of which are boarded up and being overtaken my mother nature.

Lush, green, and jungly...everywhere but the busiest of streets. Walking through the streets, I couldn't help but feel like it was a Disney version of what Caribbean blight might look like - beautiful in it's decay.

The Atlantis Resort / Casino is amazing. Just look at <a href="http://www.atlantis.com">this picture</a>. Proof.

I took the $3 ferry over to Paradise Island (which seems to own roughly half the island), passing some celebrity houses on the way (Mick Jagger and Nicolas Cage. Although the ferry drops you off under a bridge with no clear path to the resort, the island is very done up for tourists.

Cute pastel townhouses grouped together in a mini little neighborhood abut a "citywalk" lined with fancy and familiar stores (notably: Starbucks, Ben and Jerry's, and Jamba Juice) lead you into the casino which is opulent, to say the least.

Actually, it's stunning. Beautifully done inside and out, it curls around a 177 acre waterpark and magnificent beaches (supposedly). I can't give you more details because you basically cannot leave the casino or shops area unless you are staying there, or bought the day pass.

$100. That's what it costs to get access to the waterpark and beaches. Well, I think you can get beaches only for $50, but I cannot recall having ever been told I needed to pay to walk out onto the beach. So sad.

I could walk around the outer moat of the waterpark which teemed with fish, small sharks, the occasional scuba diver, and two giant manta rays with 6+ foot wingspans. There is something so fascinating and majestic about watching rays - they're like the birds of the sea. (I did see some that size from a foot away on the Great Barrier Reef in 1999).

There is also a section inside the public part of the hotel where you can walk downstairs and catch an underwater glimpse of what is going on. Pretty cool.

Then it began to rain, again, so I killed some time reading a magazine in one of the hotel libraries, and then took the ferry back to Nassau.

I promptly checked the weather, which showed rain all day tomorrow, and moved my ticket up 1 more day (and incurring a $100 change fee, which basically is only costing me $15 since I would have had to pay another $85 to stay at the Towne Hotel an extra night.

Back to Boston, 4 days earlier than I had originally planned.