Long Lost Travel Blogs from 2023 -
I have been meaning to post these trips since I got back almost a year ago. I got out of the rhythm of posting but decided it's time to finally get back to the swing of things and share these family vacations in 2023 since I am so close to starting the same family trips for 2024. I'll call these the long lost travel blogs and I'll get through two trips we took in 2024. The first one is a big trip that my wife is always wanted to do that is much different than our normal family vacations, but it was a combination family trip / 15 year anniversary.
Had to do something different for the Kids, International Beach Vacation
Fly to Atlantis - Nassua Bahamas
We are evil cruel parents who believe in not telling our children what we're doing. We plan the entire trip and made them pack but would not tell them where we're going. We told them we're going somewhere warm so to pack swimsuits and shorts and hats and the lake. They didn't know where we were going until we got to our last connection. They read the bored and it said Nassau bahamas, and they finally put it together that that's what we were going. At that point they were so excited to be taking a vacation not a trip.
There's a big difference between the two and I had a family friend recently explain it, trips are where you go visit places and see things but typically have a very grueling long day schedule or vacations are meant to go somewhere and sleep in and relax and typically stay at one destination.
We stayed at the Atlantis bahamas, we stayed on the property and we stayed in the coral hotel. We had a view of the ocean from our balcony and it was a very nice experience. The first day we got there without much time so the only thing we really did was walk around the property to get acquainted, and check out what they had to offer. The property is gargantuan and takes a long time to walk all the way through. It is absolutely gorgeous and it is well maintained. Everyone working there very nice.
Friday - Saturday
They had a ton of sea life in outdoor aquariums as well as indoor aquariums. We really enjoyed walk around and looking at all of the fish and turtles sharks and other animals they had.
The turtles were really active in swimming around and putting on a show for everyone.
We only had a few hours Friday so after walking around the resort we went out and swam in the ocean until sunset.
Massive Water Park
The next day on Saturday we went to visit the massive water park. The only way I was able to take any photos was from my GoPro which had to be attached to my wrist. These were some shots I took out of the videos when I went down the slide. The first one is a really cool steep slide where it is a vertical drop that leads you to an underwater tunnel as you can see in first photo where it has sharks swimming around you. There is another slide directly to your left that takes you under on a tube that is much slower. The slow one gives you a chance to actually see the fish swimming around while the first one is an absolute blinding blur that you're typically having your eyes being splashed with water and are any we'll see.
They also had some great slides that you can race down. It was great because you could line up at the top with your family and it would count you down and then you would race down and slide into the pool together at the bottom. Was pretty wild too get the right one to park opened and not have much competition for the slides
Swimming to Sunset
We finished the first two nights by going to the beach for sunset. We swam in the ocean until that too dark and then showered off and went up to our rooms to call it a day.. Saturday was spent just doing the water park and checking out the resort, and then swimming for a sunset. By the time we got back to our room, ate a little bit of food and showered up it was well past our bedtime and being outside all day. I hope to follow up with the next post that would share our activities for a couple more days on the trip. We did a couple of excursions and activities while we were there.
Summary
Overall it was a really great trip. I should mention I got really sick the week before the vacation where I got a tick-borne illness that required me to take medication. The side effect of the medication was that I was supposed to stay out of the Sun as much as possible. That month wearing my visor, long sleeves and a hood all day with sunscreen. Luckily for me you can wear all that stuff while going down the slides and still have a great day outside. Like most of our vacations we didn't really eat out but one meal a day and the rest were spent eating bagels peanut butter chips and snacks throughout the day while we are off having fun.
