June 2017

So far June has been a great month!  On the 2nd, we flew to Freeport, Bahamas!  Unfortunately, it was the beginning of rain (and hurricane, apparently) season.  I thought that started in August.  It rained every day (sometimes a LOT) but we had a blast anyway.  We stayed at a place with a waterslide, which was awesome and not just because there was a swim-up bar underneath it.  We all went down the slide a lot! It's a much different island than New Providence (where Nassau is located).  MUCH larger, but only like a quarter of the population.  Not so crowded or busy, for sure!

I decided that even though it was the "wrong" island, to bring some of my mom's ashes down there.  We put them in through one of her Bahamian shell necklaces and they immediately headed towards Nassau.  I think we did the right thing.

We toured Lucayan National Park and Gold Rock beach, which was stunning.  Mangroves and birds galore.  I had wanted to go at low tide (Gold Rock Beach) but it didn't work out.  It was still beautiful and fun to go WAY out with Hana and the water was still just on our legs.  maybe we'll go back some day. 

We decide to go to the "Dolphin Experience" once we found out that they are free to leave at any time.  It's in the ocean, but the enclosed areas are apparently opened each night.  They leave and come back each morning.  Since they choose to come back,  I thought that was ok.  They are fed daily (which is probably why they come back) and given vitamins, etc.  3 of the older ones were from the 80's movie "Cocoon" and the youngest was 2 1/2, I think.  After the dolphins, Hana got to see birds and a huge African tortoise, which was pretty cool.  She was beyond thrilled and said numerous times that that day was the "BEST DAY EVER!!!!" 

We ate good food (including "cake by the ocean", just like the song!), played games (winning a bunch of prizes throughout the week!) and had so much fun in the ocean.  It was wet and there were lots of bugs (poor Hana) but we had a blast!  You just cannot go wrong visiting the ocean.  We are so lucky!

 

 

 (That's Hana waving at the top!)

 

 

Still to come in June, Knute's annual fishing trip to Canada and Hana's going back to BECC for Vacation Bible School.  Also, more days on the slip-n-slide with ice cream afterwards!