Family Bahamas Trip - Part 3, The Atlantis

The Atlantis resort is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to.  Words really can't describe it, and even at 1,000 words per picture, I don't think that really does it justice.  This place continued to blow me away day after day.

To start with, it's on an island, Paradise Island.  I was able to verify the maps claims to it being an island by running pretty much end-to-end and side to side, even over both of the bridges to the island.  At the center of the island is the resort, a collection of a whole slew of hotels, with a giant hotel casino in the middle, a million pools, coves and beaches and aquariums and an amazing water park in the middle. 

I'll start with the Atlantis Waterpark, the place we hung out most of our time.  A typical day would involve us getting up, doing our mandatory jamba juice/starbucks run, and getting to the pool about 10.  The place was pretty empty so we had our pick of where we would hang out - normally equidistant from the salt-water pool, the ocean and the lazy river.

One of our favorite rides was the leap of faith.  It was your standard water-park, "Slide almost straight down while crossing your legs to prevent a giant wedgie" ride, with the exception that you went through a tube filled with sharks.  Well, the tube itself wasn't filled with sharks.  That'd be scary.  The tube went through a shark tank.  You were probably moving too fast to really see any sharks, but as you'd watch people go down the slide, it was great to check out, like  in the picture below.  That's Nate going down the slide.

Here's video of Nate and Maddie going down the slide:


There was another tube slide that ended with a slow float through the same aquarium, watching sharks inches away form you.  Great effect!

This picture is the post-jubilation of us going on the slide and not getting consumed by sharks in any way.

On the other side of the leap of faith you had these two racing slides.  There were no lines for anything, so the kids would go on these non-stop, checking their times and the winner on the clocks at the bottom.  From there, you could take a whole bunch of mini-slides, leading you into this salt-water pool with the waterfalls on the right.  This was one of Emily's favorites and she would drag us repeatedly in to just swim around like a fish and swim under the waterfalls.

The highlight for all of us was the lazy river.  When you think Lazy River, you normally think of a loop where you don't have to move yourself.  This lazy river was unbelievable.  It would take 20-30 minutes to do a loop, during which you'd traverse 15 different pools, rapids, wave canyons that would push you forward on 5 foot+ waves, rapids and at the end a ramp up that would take you to 3 other water rides - all without getting out of your tube once!

We even figured out a way to compete in this, by having a "lazy river race", where you couldn't paddle.  Nate and I won!  The only real downside is that I never figured out a way to take a nap on this ride.

These were only a few of the rides. Check out the video on this link for more. There were others that actually shot you up hill in your inner-tube, another that took you through a pitch black drop and into an underwater lagoon.


The other cool thing about the Atlantis was the fact that it was all decorated to look like a lost city that had been recovered, and everything, the art, the sculptures, the aquariums, all followed this theme.

The kids and I would go exploring and continually find new things that we had no idea about.  Maddie and I went exploring one day and kept finding new coves and ponds, not to mention the stuff we'd find inside the resort.

We walked by one pond across the robe bridge only to find this hammer-head shark swimming about 4 feet away from us.  With each of the kids, we'd go and discover stuff that we'd see for the first time together.  It was a fun part of the trip, rather than being at a place where we'd been before and just seeing it new through their eyes.

The resort was decorated up for Christmas, and it was hard to get used to hearing Caribbean Christmas songs with steel drums, all while having it be 85 degrees and sunny.  The decorations were beautiful, especially if you've never seen a dolphin covered in wreaths.

The pools and aquariums were just a small piece of what made the Atlantis amazing. Probably five times a day, we'd all look around and say something to the effect of, "Can you believe we're really here, in the middle of all of this??" The place was perfect for our family because the kids could run around and do stuff while the parents chilled out by the pool. On the other hand, everyone loved going down the slides and the lazy river too. It was a perfect place for people to relax by the pool, hit the slides, go to the ocean and battle the waves, walk around and check out the aquariums and then go snorkeling in the cove. All while drinking a $12 pina colada!

If you got to this post via facebook, click the link at the top to go to the actual post and see the videos.

Family Bahamas Trip - Part 2, The Powerboat Adventure

On Tuesday, we headed out to the dock in the morning and arrived at a giant powerboat for an all day excursion through Powerboat Adventures.  This huge 1000hp boat headed out about 40 miles to the Exuma islands.  We were flying through the water, and it still took almost an hour to get to our first stop - an island where we fed ignauanas grapes.  The water was this amazing blue and you felt like you were in the middle of nowhere, except for these two sailboats parked in the bay.  The iguanas were huge and while they'd eat grapes off of a stick, you got the feeling they'd just as soon grab a finger from you.  From there, they cranked on the miami vice theme song and we headed off to their private island to hang out for the rest of the day.


When we arrived at the island, we were greeted with blue water, an beach bar and an explanation that the sharks, wild boar and sting rays were real and could hurt you if you were stupid.  We immediately grabbed a drink and then headed out into the water to check out the sharks and sting rays swimming around.

As Nardo cleaned the fish, he would toss the guts into the water and get them all worked up into a frenzy as we watched.  You can see from the picture of Emily below with my father-in-law Ron, that she had no fear.  On the right is the feeding of the sharks and sting ray.


It amazed me how close these things were and how close we could get to them.  Even cooler was being able to the water to feed the sting-rays.  We all knelt down in the water and put pieces of fish in our hands.  The stingrays would swim buy and take it right out of your hands if you did it right, which I apparently didn't, because I got my finger bit.

Afterward they lined us up and started wrangling this shark in using the grouper carcass on the end of a piece of rope.  After watching the sharks come in close, he asked for a volunteer and Emily jumped right in to help.  These Sharks were six feet long and she had no fear of them.  I was impressed.
 




After Shark wrangling, we went snorkeling in the island's reef.  They took us to the end of the island and put us in the current.  It was effortless, as we'd lay there and float and the current would take you over the reef to check out the reef.  The kids loved it, especially Maddie, who floated with Nardo, the leader.  He swam down and got her a conch shell, which she loved.  The pic on the left is of the us snorkeling.

After snorkeling, we had a giant meal of fresh-grilled grouper.  It was delicious.
There was a giant boar on the island that would just lay around and look scary.  This thing was 500lbs at least.  We all took pictures with it, kind of like the guys in the movie The Hangover posing with Mike Tyson while he slept.

As I mentioned, this was Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary.  I hope Cathie and I are following their example 23 years from now.

The trip back seemed to fly by, especially for my brother-in-law Ed. He started the boat ride dancing, ended it with a nice nap.  The whole excursion was a blast.  I don't know how you could script a better day, unless it ended with a bit day at the blackjack tables, which it did.

The only thing that could have made the trip back better was to have had my brother-in-law Ed dance for me, and my sister-in-law Stacy to refer to herself in third person:

You can see all of the pictures in Picasa here and here.

Family Bahamas Trip - Part 1, The Journey

Three years ago at Christmas, Cathie's parents announced to us that for the 40th anniversary, the whole family would be going to the Bahamas for a week! It seemed like it was forever coming, but it finally arrived two weeks ago. We got up at 3:30AM and headed to the airport. I later found out that for $95 you could stay right at the airport, the Wyndham with parking included.... Doesn't a leisurely stroll down to the gate for a 6:15am flight sound nice? We were on the road by 4:20am and made it to the airport.

I'd originally bought an 8am flight, but Delta was kind enough to change it up on me.  We got through security without a problem (Dana and Eli weren't with us) and I took Cathie and the kids into the Delta Sky Club to grab something to drink and hit the bathrooms before jumping on our flight. We connected
through Atlanta where Cathie jumped into first class, and the kids and I slummed it in coach.
 
Emily was either singing loudly or sleeping with Trunker, her 'ugly doll'.  The kids were all great, but there wasn't much sleeping going on.

We arrive din the Bahamas with the Caribbean bands playing in the airport.  We made it through customs without a problem and jumped in a cab.  The driver was kind enough to stop off at a liquor store, aptly named: "I need a... Liquor Store"

We drove through downtown Nassau and saw the Atlantis as we came around the corner.  The colored buildings in the lower left were the condos we stayed in, a part of Harborside Villas.

The Condo was a three bedroom on Paradise Island, part of the Atlantis resort.  The bridge between the two towers in the background is a 10 bedroom villa that goes for $25k/night, minimum 4 nights.  The place was beautiful, with two balconies right on the waterway, with this great view every morning.  We were about a ten minute walk over to the Atlantis.

We made it to the condo at 1pm and were met by Cathie's parents and her brother Ed and his wife Stacy and they took us over to the condo.  It was perfect for the nine of us.  It had two full kitchens and after a trip to the grocery store on Sunday morning, we were able to save a bundle by making our own meals (a loaf of bread at the local grocery store was $4 and a box of oreos was $9).
 
The area around the Atlantis was amazing.  We'd walk through a marina area that had $20M - $100M boats that were mind boggling.  I'm just amazed that there are that many people in the world that can afford these boats, the crew and maintenance.  Tiger Wood's boat (check this out) was in the Atlantis this week too.

The kids and I would make the walk to Jamba Juice each morning to get something to drink.  Nothing is cheap in the Bahamas and to top it off, they add 15% gratuity to everything.  I never thought I'd pay $45 for juice for my family.  Man those things are good...

Talk about six degrees of separation.  Some people play the 'Kevin Bacon' game, I play the Ken Buck game, and had an ecounter even in the Bahamas.  One morning while the kids and I were hanging out at Jamba Juice, we got to talking with some local people who'd just come in from a run.  It turns that one of the guys was a native Bhamaian and was there as a part of a missionary team, working to disciple teams of newly graduated  college students.  Not a bad gig.  Anyways, as I talked, it turns out he knew Ken Buck.  Amazing.

Emily and Maddie found an odd sleeping arrangement on the pull-out bed, with Emily sleeping on the chair and Maddie on the couch.  They seemed comfy enough.  I was amazed at how quickly at night the kids crashed, getting up around 8ish.  Must have been the Bahamian air.


I'm just getting through all of the pictures, and getting these all online.  I'll have them uploaded and blogged in the next few days.  Since it will take me a few days to get to the end, I'll say it now: Thank you so much Mom and Dad for the trip!  It was the most amazing family vacation we've ever had!  The only negative, is that the bar is now set so high for the kids for any future vacation, that short of taking them to the moon, I don't know how we'll ever match something like this again.

To be continued...
You can see all of the pictures in Picasa here and here.

Ebony & Ivory

My Big Mouth and Nate's Smelly Haggis

At Nate's open house earlier this year, his World Languages teacher told the parents about the kids bringing in a dish from their heritage.  I joked with Nate that he should bring in Haggis, a scottish dish.

If you've never heard or had haggis, it's made up of sheep’s lung, heart, liver mixed together with oatmeal, onions, nutmeg and sprinkled with some salt and ground pepper. The ingredients are then stuffed into the sheep’s stomach and boiled.

I looked up how to make this and decided that I would use the Brad Jeffrey technique and throw money at this.  I went to the Akroyd's Scottish Bakery in Redford, a place we used to go all the time as kids to get meat pies and pastries for my Mom and Grandma and bought me a haggis.

I started boiling it this morning before I left for the gym so Nate could bring it to school with him.  I came home to the smell of a dead body in our house.  Nate was literally rolling on the floor laughing as he watched his Mom gag from the smell.

Do you reall want to be a leader?

Most of the time I sit back and think of my career goals in terms of people in my organization above me.  As I get closer to those roles, I start to get a view into what it really takes to have those types of jobs and the trade-offs of moving upward.  This WSJ article entitled Do You Really Want to Be a Leader? nails the intensity and emotional investment associated with those roles:

To reach higher office and to fulfill its obligations, you must continuously make choices that will affect other people’s money and lives. And you will be doing this in a context where other people will want your position or will be competing with you for the next higher position.

First off, I think you have to give more of yourself in those roles, and let's face it - we're finite resources.  What I give to my job in terms of mind-share, my time, my energy, my emotions - really my soul, is something I'm not giving to my family, my friends, my youth group.

Secondly, it's competitive. There's definitely a weeding out that happens as you move up the ladder and what might have differentiated you at one level doesn't stand out at the next level up.   What got you to where you were, won't get you to the next level, and I've found that I have to constantly be willing to adjust what I do and how I do it, and step back and figure out what's working and not:

Leadership certainly requires business smarts, technical capabilities and cultural sensibilities, but above all, it is about power. While this point is upsetting to some people, the brutal reality is that whatever else a leader must do, a leader must gain, exercise and retain power. We meet too many “high potentials” who aspire to high leadership but are used to receiving rewards for being bright and creative. This breeds a sense of entitlement that is incompatible with the necessity to fight for leadership power.

I've watched some pretty impressive leaders in my organization that have made huge trade-offs in their life to have the position that they're in.  They've got huge pay-checks and huge amounts of power, but the trade-offs they've made in terms of their family life and other areas, in my opinion, aren't worth it.  I've wondered just how far I could go if I poured every part of myself into my job.  Don't get me wrong, my life would be miserable, but thinking about willing the 'one thing' is interesting.  I attribute part of the reason I've been successful in my jobs to the fact that I have a life and a soul that isn't just about work, is full and I think that's given me an edge.

I guess Jesus might have known what he was talking about when he said this:

What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? - Mark 8:36

Donuts with Dad at school