Island Moosie ... Snorkeling, Eating, and Drinking her way through the islands

September 24, 2018

I awoke to some unsettling news about work, with my friends messaging me. It wasn’t unexpected, but still a bit disconcerting to finally hear it come true. No matter. I can’t change the outcome. Change be damned, I will enjoy my vacation and deal with it when I get back home! Well, maybe some extra libations are in the forecast for today as a result…

The sun is shining and the breeze is blowing. A quick brekky of toast with butter, and coffee, and we had our plans for the day laid out. We like to kid ourselves into thinking that we can do a whole bunch of beach hopping in one day. So today we planned to pack it in and hit Tropic of Cancer beach, Forbes Hill beach, Cocoplum beach, and Prime Island Deli. We are getting out of the house early, we tell ourselves. Riiiiight. By the time we were ready to roll it was 11:30. Gah! Where did the time go??

Hook suggested we ditch ToC and Forbes Hill and head up to Cocoplum instead. No arguments here.

Cocoplum is my absolute favorite beach. EVER! I’ve been fortunate to travel to many beaches around the Caribbean, but Cocoplum has captured my heart.

We arrived with no one else in sight.

Is this heaven or what?!

Hook had his head down as we walk to our usual spot. Aha! Wait a minute… I know what he’s doing… 🤔 He is upping the game and intends to be first to find a sand dollar!! After setting our stuff down, I headed off to our usual spot to initiate my search.

One thing that we factor when planning our vacation dates is the timing of low tide. We know we are not early morning risers so the optimal low tide for us is sometime in the early afternoon and later.

I was giddy with joy sinking my toes in the sand and savoring the shallow waters all around. You can walk for hundreds of yards offshore and the water is still very shallow. This height-challenged girl approves!

This is how far I was from shore

This is how shallow the water was. Not even up to my knee. And remember? I have alligator legs! (code word: short 😆)

But where are those sand dollars? Hook and I both walk all around yet there were none to be found this time. Gasp! Apparently our account at Bank of Exuma is overdrawn! 😳 Sand dollar account that is… 😉 I did find a very small one. (Side note: Please do not take or handle brown sand dollars. They are alive and should be left alone. Thank you.)

We spent a few hours sitting in the sand letting the waters swirl around us. A school of friendly fish kept us company and tickled us with their nibbling.

On our way out we stopped to chat with another couple who had discovered this beauty of a beach and asked us to take their photo. We chatted for a bit sharing our awe of this wonderful island. It was their first trip to Exuma and they were celebrating their 40th anniversary. Happy Anniversary! What a place to celebrate. ❤️

One more snapshot of my favorite place

We stopped at Prime Deli to pick up some more goodies on our way home. More crackers and a hunk of brie. Yum! While perusing their other offerings I spot a lady who came in that I sort of recognized. I kept stealing glances to see if she was indeed the person I thought she was. I finally got the courage to go up to her and ask if she was Ms. Gardiner. I introduced myself and told her we were actually FB friends, six-degrees-of-separation connected (ok more like one degree of separation) when I had found a mama kitty and her kittens living under one of the Exuma Beach Resort buildings when we stayed there a few years ago and I alerted the manager and she said she knew exactly who to call to save them. We were leaving that day so I never met the person but I followed up after as I kept thinking of those kitties (I’m a cat lover in case you haven’t noticed 😺). That is when I was connected to Ms. Gardiner via FB and since then I have been in awe of her efforts to help the animals of Exuma. As a fellow animal lover I was thrilled to have finally met her. 🐶🐱

I wanted to take them all home! 😿

Quick stop at Smitty’s Pharmacy as I was looking for Orajel. Alas no luck. I will continue to scratch my bug bites. Here’s a tip: Apply Orajel to bug bites to numb the skin. It prevents you from feeling the need to scratch it. The numbing doesn’t last a long time but it does provide a brief respite from the urge to scratch it before needing to reapply again. This was the tip from my doctor years back when I came home from an island trip with noseum bites. I am very sensitive to bug bites and react quite severely despite all the hydrocortisone that I slather on them.

Next door was Smitty’s Liquor calling out my name. Score! Sands Pink Radler. Why yes, I will buy some thank you. Oh look, they have a small bottle of Rose’s grenadine syrup. Perfect! Now we can make proper rum punch. Not a lot of rum selection here so we settled for a local Bahamian rum.

Back at the villa, Hook fixed us some cold drinks as we ended the day at the gazebo. We were waiting for sharkie to make his appearance and he did not disappoint. 😃

Sharkie! He is a good size… around 2 1/2 ft or so

What a great day! Dinner was crackers and brie and ice cream.

Cheers to another day in paradise!

*******************

Some prices from our shopping expedition

Prime Island $42 and change (didn’t get the receipt)

Quarter slice of President brie

Pineapple juice

Crab salad

Stax chips

Ice cream

Can of corned beef

Potato

Bath tissue

Paper towel

Water

Soda

——————-

Smitty’s Liquor Store $33 and change

• 6 pack Sands Pink Radler
• Rose Grenadine Syrup
• Bottle of Gun Cay gold rum

September 23, 2018

We started our day with toasted Mom’s bread, spread with that yummy French butter, and mine sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Yes I brought cinnamon sugar sprinkles with me. What can I say, sweets are my downfall. And of course freshly brewed coffee. Can you believe I am drinking black coffee with only sugar? No half and half. 😮 Anyone who knows me knows that my coffee is really a bunch of sugar with a whole lot of cream and a splash of coffee. 😆 Alas I opted to pass on the big carton of half and half at Prime Island thinking that Exuma Market would have a smaller carton and just my luck they did not. So I’ve been drinking black coffee since. I may be a convert by the time this vacay is over.

After breakfast I decided to step outside to take some photos of the property. To get a higher vantage point, I stepped up to the low stone wall, walked along it, and took some photos.

As I finished, I looked down and thought that the step down from the wall was low enough that as I lowered my left foot that it would be at ground level. Oh boy was I wrong. Clearly my depth perception was either way off or I really do have alligator legs (I’m short and Hook calls them alligator arms and legs 😅). My foot didn’t hit the ground and instead I fell and landed/slid on the grass right on my stomach. Ouch! And what is the first thing one does when they fall? Why look around of course, to see if there were any witnesses to the embarrassing fall! LOL. Very lucky that I landed on the grass part and not on the exposed limestone parts. I had grass splinters embedded in my shirt and shorts, a bit of grass burn on my legs and hands but no real injuries. My right shoulder is a bit sore as I jarred it when I hit the ground. Times like these make you pause and think how quickly things can go awry. It’s also when I think that having purchased trip insurance, which includes medevac should something really serious happen, is important.

The loungers were calling so after cleaning up we headed back to the gazebo. We lounged for a bit enjoying the sun when those darn clouds moved in. What party poops! We hoped they were just passing clouds but they seem to like lingering around to annoy us.

Lunch again was the leftover crab salad and crackers with some cold drinkies while being mesmerized by the blue waters.

We were on the lookout for sharkie and hoping it would make an appearance. This time the camera was strategically placed close by ready to take that snapshot. As I was bending and looking down, I felt that funky feeling that I get when I know I am going to have an SVT attack. Great… Just great! Errrr my med is in the villa. I usually carry it around with me just in case, but I’ve been complacent lately. Hook recognized me acting ‘funny’ and went in to grab my meds and handed me the big chunk of ice from the cooler. Thank goodness I hadn’t gone into full blown SVT yet and I was able to convert the rhythm back to normal with the cold shock from the chunk of ice before I could take my med. Whew! Another crisis averted. Again, another reason for us to have trip insurance for peace of mind.

After this latest excitement we decided to lay low and answer the call of lounge chair gravity instead of kayaking over to the sand bars. Just as we stretched out, the breeze died down. Uh oh. That means one thing. No breeze equals noseums out in full force. Just as we commented about how still the air has become, we felt the little buggers. Wow those suckers wasted no time attacking us. We quickly packed up and called it a day. 🤐

We spent the rest of the afternoon indoors, in a/c, reading, watching golf, napping, and drinking some cold libations. What else can you do but roll with it!

Dinner tonight was the bbq chicken that we had gotten as takeout the other day and a packet of soup that we brought from home. And drinks. Gotta have cold libations. 🍹

Tomorrow the plan is to hit the beaches! And more rum cake!! 😋

September 22, 2018

Well, a different kind of shopping that is…

Lack of provisions means a trip to the supermarket is in order. First order of the day though is breakfast. And coffee. Must have coffee. That is one thing that we do bring from home. What do we eat when we have no breakfast items? Why rum cake! It is noon somewhere, no? 😁

Our first goal of the day is to hit Prime Island Deli. We haven’t been back in two years and they have expanded. They now also have a grocery store where you can pretty much get the stuff that you need. Saturday was super busy. Many folks had come in to buy their meats for the weekend. There was a run on ribs! We picked up crackers and some prepared side salads. There is something about their fake crabmeat salad that we love. We also picked up a nice piece of prime rib steak that we planned to grill that night. Surprisingly we found that the prices were not much higher than back home. And actually some were surprisingly lower, like the French butter. The salads were less expensive than what we would have paid at Whole Food$!

Next stop, Exuma Markets in town. We picked up some bread and a box of Kleenex as my allergies were still in full force. 🤧 That box of Kleenex was probably one of the priciest items of our purchases. Yikes! Note to self, don’t forget to pack Kleenex next time.

Then off to the liquor store next door. What? They don’t carry Sands? But…but… I’ve been looking forward to the Sands Pink Raddler. Pout. 😕 Oh well, gots to roll with it. We picked up some Kalik, Kalik Mango Raddler, and Kalik Lemon Lime Raddler to get us through the next few days.

Here cash is king. I almost never carry cash when I’m at home, relying mostly on cc or Apple Pay from my phone. When I have cash it burns a hole in my pocket. 😬 When traveling, I always seem to underestimate how much cash to bring and inevitably panic and hit the ATM multiple times. Which is exactly where our next stop was, at the Scotia Bank ATM across the street from Exuma Market. Note, Scotia charged $5.60 fee. 😳

Having done our errands, we quickly zoomed back to the villa. As zoom as one can, having to avoid the numerous potholes on the road. Potholes of all sizes. Big, small, deep, shallow, in the middle of the lane, along the side of the road.

Back at the villa we quickly put the stuff away and headed to the gazebo by the water. It was low tide and the sand bars were out. I do not tire of being mesmerized by the turquoise water and blindingly white sand bars. Pinch me. Is this for real?

As the VV tag line says: Every day should feel this good #EDSFTG 😎

Lunch was as simple as life can get…

Moosie… Oh Moosie… What? Who is calling me? Oh! The lounger is calling out to me. I’m not one to resist the charms of lounge chair gravity. 😎 We spent the rest of our afternoon lounging, sunning, reading, drinking, lounging… Oh, we did have one excitement when Hook spotted a shark swimming by. Alas I was too slow in getting up and sharkie was gone by the time I grabbed my camera. Next time.

Dinner was the steak along with the pasta salad and coleslaw sides from Prime Island Deli. What a nice ending to a great day!

************

Grocery store receipts posted here for tracking our expenditures and to help others plan a budget

September 21, 2018

Groan.. another early morning flight before the rooster crows. I’m usually puttering around through the wee hours of the night and then too nervous that I will oversleep that I barely get any sleep the night before. Yawn. So not a morning person. Who books these flights?? Oh yeah, me! 😆

As usual we were running late and on island time. We didn’t get out of the house until past 4:30 am. Thank goodness IAD is a hop and a skip away. Plus we decided to suck it up and drive and pay an arm and a leg for garage parking instead of stressing over Red Top Cab always being 20 minutes early for pickup. Always. Did I mention we are always running late?

Luckily line at the checkin kiosk was non-existent. Breezed right through there. Security on the other hand, well…

Security lady directing people to lines was clueless! She seemed confused on why I was entering the line on the left. She was looking for the word “Premium” on the ticket as the line sign said Premium Passengers. Duh! Lady, “First” is “Premium”!! 🙄 Sorry, I have no patience in the morning. Did mention I am not a morning person?!

So sleepy 😴 that I passed up on brekky and mimosas on the flight. Hook said his seat mate (we were on separate rows) ordered JD on the rocks for his first drink, then proceeded to down 2 more JD and Coke. Before 7 am!

Pit stop at the Admirals Club in MIA for a couple of hours. Nice reno on this place. It is brighter and more seating. Food offerings were the usual.

Quick flight from MIA to Exuma, admiring the stunning waters of the Exuma chains.

I love landing at the family island airports. So chill and a much more relaxed pace. Stepping off the plane and breathing in the fresh, warm, salty air and I can feel the stress lifted off my shoulders. If only my carryon beach bag did not weigh a ton with all my electronic gadgets… 😜

Short wait at Immigration. Customs was easy. The Officer asked about alcohol. I replied that we had 1 bottle of wine. She then asked if we had a drone. I replied no, I wish. (I really wished we did. I contemplated it, but ran into analysis paralysis and ran out of time to purchase one 😐) Customs seem very keen if one had a drone as she repeated it a few times.

Our host Charlie was busy so he sent a taxi to pick us up at the airport. Our taxi driver’s name was Janet and we had a good chat catching up on what’s changed around the island.

Finally we reached our villa in Rolle Town. Bay View Villa #2 is our home away from home this trip. This is our second time here and the views just do not disappoint.

Charlie remembered us as soon as he saw us. We enjoyed some great laughs and shooting the breeze with him last visit 😃

We met our neighbors Janet and John. Very nice couple. They seemed like they would have been fun as neighbors but alas they’ve had their week of fun and were leaving the next day.

We unpacked quickly and hit the road. Hook decided that our first meal would be at, where else? Santanna’s! So off we went to Little Exuma.

Dee was off island, and so was Mom. Instead we were welcomed by a new friend, this cutie pie. ❤️ This is Lucky and he is a precocious puppy. I want to take him home! Not sure the cats would like that. Ha ha.

We both ordered lobsters, of course. Yum! Just as we remembered. Welcome to Exuma indeed!

After lunch we popped on over to Mom’s Bakery. She has the best rum cake ever!! So good that I caught Hook sneaking a bite (a huge bite at that!) as he was putting it away when we got home. 🤨

Her grandson Alex was in charge today. What a wonderful young man. So friendly and welcoming. And he is a huge Caps fan! He showed us his photos of him at the Caps playoff game. We don’t normally follow hockey but when the Caps made it to the playoffs this year and kept on winning, we jumped on the bandwagon and became fans. Go Caps! 😁 🏒🏆

We were still full from our late lunch that we ended up just snacking for dinner on the 405 Cracklins that Hook brought. LOL. Cracklins. Classy. Real classy! 😂

Down for the count at 8 pm. Boy we really were tired! More to come…

************

Meals and prices are posted so we can track our expenditures and in case it helps others plan their budget…

Lunch: Santanna’s $113 including VAT and 15% gratuity (gave $120)

2 lobsters at Santanna’s

2 Kaliks

1 bbq chicken takeout

2 cokes takeout

~~~~~~~

Sweets: Mom’s $12 (gave $15)

1 choc rum cake

1 pineapple turnover