bahamas! — MY NAME IS COX

* disclaimer: i have to apologize in advance, this whole entry is not in sequential order. there were so many pictures to go through and i couldnt get a handle on organizing them properly.

kyle and brad had a landscaping conference at The Atlantis in Nassau at the end of february (how fancy of you landscaping industry). so, of course, michele and i decided to join, sans kiddos. it was blissful. (although i have to admit a bit of a headache getting there, layovers are no fun). in case you didnt know, which i didnt, the atlantis is huge. like disney huge, with a casino and a water park. and the prices reflect that hugeness. a bottle of water was like $8.

The Royal Towers Atlantis...just ONE of the seven hotels on the resort

michele, being the savy traveler she is, did some research on tripadvisor and smartly packed 2 cases of beer to bring over with us in order to cut costs. we also made a liquor store stop on the way to the hotel. priorities people, priorities.

also, in honor of the event, michele made these tasteful tees for her and i. we got a few laughs to say the least.

we got there a day early and had the afternoon and the next morning to just hang out. the beach was beautiful. i have never seen water so blue in all my life.

unfortunately my white body hasnt seen the sun in awhile so i got a raging sunburn, of course.

my beverage of choice for the week was the virgin mojito (aka sugar water with mint and lime) but it was oh so refreshing and worth every dollar, all 10 of them.

the resort had a marina, why not! and there were some of the hugest yachts parked there. in the mornings i would walk down to the marina starbucks, grab a cup of decaf and watch the workers scrub and scrub these beasts, yet i never saw anyone actually using them. upkeep is key when youre rich i guess.

also on the resort was a huge aquarium and natural river thing, that was filled with all kinds of native tropical fish, sting rays and sharks. the sting rays were huge, i'm so sad i coudnt get a decent picture of them, but they had to have a wingspan of at least 8 feet.

we never did figure out how the sharks didnt eat all the fish in the aquarium with them.

the guys found a fondess for roulette and spent many a nights at this exact table wasting away their lives and their pocket books. i lost $20 on a penny machine and had it. i'm not the gamblin type.

michele likes to dance. just in case you were wondering. she owned that casino nightclub.

massive glass sculpture in the casino

saturday, our last official vacation day, the guys went golfing in the afternoon and michele and i got pedicures and hung out at the beach for awhile. i decided to go on a loooonnng walk along the waters edge, i just kept going and going until the resort was a tiny spec in the distance (not that far, but far enough that i could no longer hear club music). it was so serene and beautiful. not a soul in sight.

so i decided to go float in the water for awhile and soak up the silence. it was blissful. the best moment of the trip for me for sure. i am so amazed how crystal clear the water was, and still cold since we're technically still in winter, but so refreshing.

i got out of the water and sat and stared at it for a long time. trying to absorb every last second of it before the sun went down.

slowly, i started noticing a few women come out and sit on the beach too. i thought, oh how nice, it is so pretty over here.

but no, it wasnt coincidence, i had stumbled upon an ocean front yoga retreat. haha! i'm such a dummy. but it was such perfect happenstance for me, i wish i had known it was there the whole time, i would have taken advantage of it more.

Silvananda Ashram Yoga Retreat

as for the rest of the trip, we spent the mornings sleeping in, michele and i would finally get up and wander out to the beach to find us a spot and the boys would meet us after lunch (they had meetings all morning).

friday morning michele and i got massages...ah heaven. i stuck my belly in this little pregnancy mat thing and fell asleep face down for the first time in months! yuh yuh

we spent the remainder of the afternoons lazing around on the beach, ordering drinks and reading books. i picked up the most horrible murder mystery in the lobby gift shop. just horrible, never forget a book on a beach vaca.

the evenings were spent eating at one of the resorts many restaurants. We went to Bobby Flay's restaurant, Mesa Grill. It was good, probably one of the better of the trip, but so overpriced. Bobby has a thing for cotija cheese, i think it was on almost every dish. the elote was amazing, but then again, when isnt it?

we did venture off the resort the last night to eat at the notorious Poop Deck. apparently lots of celebrities have been there and sign a menu that the restaurant then frames and mounts on the wall. my favorite that i found was the ever-classy Tara Reid. You know a place is high class if she is attending.

the dinner rolls here were a.maze.ing.

remember i mentioned the water park? brad and kyle went on the river rapids ride, and guess who flipped out of their tube and scraped up their knee. it wasnt one of the kids...

at the end of the second day, after a lot of beach walking and exploring, i came across another hotel on the resort called The Cove. This was a private part of the resort, for guests of this hotel only....so of course i had to sneak in. it was almost 3 times the price and was super clubby, like miami/vegas. everyone was in heels and had louis vuitton bags as their poolside bags. whatever about their annoying garb, they had the most comfortable chairs and the best food!

illegally posting up at The Cove

michele and i grabbed a late lunch there one day, we got side-eyed by the wait staff but they served us nonetheless. from this point on we made it our routine to sneak over to their pool in late afternoon, to get a glimpse at the good life for an hour or two. it was well worth the risk.