And now for something different, Harbour Island-can you hear the Bahama roosters?

Our anniversary dinner at a great Italian restaurant next to the swimming pool, I mean, ocean!

 Chris and I went on a anniversary (27!!!) trip to the Bahamas last week.  Oh, it was so gorgeous.  We actually flew to Nassau and spent 1 night.  Then flew to Eleuthra Island and took a water taxi to Harbour Island.  I have to tell you the difference between Nassau and Harbour Island is like night and day.  Nassau was beautiful but it was filled with honking horns and bad traffic.  Harbour Island, on the other hand, is mostly golf carts that kind of jaunt down the road.  If you happen upon a Bahamian they politely wave you on with a friendly smile and kind word. 

If was so lovely there.  We stayed in the Bahama House Inn-a wonderful bed and breakfast.  John, the owner, makes you feel right at home from the start and fixes a great breakfast every day.  We had a wonderful ocean view room.  Well, it was perfect.  I highly recommend staying there.  The maid service was superb and it was spotlessly clean.  Gorgeous foliage and even a Tiki house in the backyard for parties. 

You can see the Atlantic at the top and the Caribbean at the bottom

Harbour Island is famous for the pink sand and we even brought some home.  The beaches are so beautiful.  On one side you have the Atlantic with all the waves and on the other side is the calm Caribbean.  Unfortunately because of the cold front up north it carried down to where we were by being very windy.  So not ideal beach swimming weather.  That was disappointing but we did go in some.  The water was like looking into a swimming pool.  Crystal clear.

All day long you could hear these silly roosters crowing-especially early in the morning.  They're all over the place, wild, along with hens and chickens.  At night you can see them flying up to roost in the trees.  We walked by a cemetery and there were horses grazing.  That's something you would never see in our town. 

The big deal in the way of sea food is the Conch (you know-like Conch shells that you listen to to hear the ocean sound).  I did try some of that but the best sea food we had was at the Sip Sip Cafe for Lobster fajitas and coconut cheese cake.  Oh, we went to a local fruit stand and asked if they had any fresh coconuts.  The owner must have been about 85 and he told me to wait a minute.  Before I knew it he had climbed a roof and gotten me a fresh one, drilled a hole in it and I had the best drink-along with the meat inside.  Delicious!  His name was Anthony and he's a celebrity around the island.  He used to be a monk.

We tooted around on our golf cart looking at gorgeous multimillion dollar estates.  Even the least expensive shacks on the island are 1 million-no kidding!  Only the outsiders pay any taxes.  The locals don't have to.  They have the lovelies pastel houses.  

This estate had the Atlantic on one side of the property and the Caribbean on the other (imagine that!)

We just didn't want to leave.  It was too sad but hope we can return someday and bring our kids.  Forget about Nassau.  Just go straight to paradise on earth, Harbour Island.

Can't remember the name of this beautiful hotel but notice the conch shells around the front desk

P. S.  I have to give credit to Grace and Dave.  They were the ones that discovered this all last year and we just went in their footsteps.  Grace researched and found all this out.  Thanks to them!

The Atlantis Hotel, Nassau

*A side note:  On Nassau there is a fabulous world class hotel called the Atlantis.  There is one other in the world in Dubai.  It is incredible with amazing fish tanks that go on forever.  We walked around at night.  Outside, looking up at the hotel we felt like we were in a science fiction movie.  It was "other worldly", unreal.  There are pools with sharks swimming around and we heard that there is even an escalator water slide.  We didn't see that.  But it's definitely very worth seeing.  You can even pay for a day pass to the water park areas.  We didn't do that.