Monday, July 21, 2008

More Fun in the Sun!

Here's a bit more about our fun in the sun!


While standing in line at the ice cream shop, I noticed that a man behind us had the same camera as us. - So I asked him to take a picture of us!





I read in a book in our hotel room that you could get fish and chips at a certain poolside restaurant. I really wanted to go there so I could get some! We tried to find it on more than one occasion, but we couldn't find it for various reasons. (Making a golf tee time was one of them!) Finally we found it, and I'm so glad we did! The fish and chips were delicious!




Jordan in the grotto pool. You can get a nice massage under that falling water!




Bando having fun in the ocean! We also rented a jet ski and rode around on the waves for a while!




I had a great time at the beach, too! - In a place that beautiful, how could you not have a great time?!!




Jordan wanted to try out the favorite local beverage, and he discovered that it's Goombay Punch. I tried it, too, and it reminded me of Inca Cola, but it has an extra ZING!!! Bando loved it, and we actually have one more can in our fridge right now!




One day we took a taxi across the bridge to downtown Nassau.



We saw some beautiful flowers.






July 10th is the Bahamian Independence Day, so the town was decorated with the colors of their flag. It was fun to see the town all decked out like this!




When I saw this bench, I thought of Rebecca, (who absolutely LOVES dessert!), so I had to get a picture here! (And I love dessert, too, of course! In fact, I'm elongating my National Ice Cream Day celebration!)





Here's one last picture to wrap it all up! We had a great time!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Happy National Ice Cream Day!!!

That's right! It's National Ice Cream Day, and we celebrated in style!!! Last night we went to the store and both picked out a flavor that we wanted.


Jordan got Snickers ice cream.



And I got Cookies 'n Dreamz, which is chocolate ice cream with pieces of ice cream sandwiches mixed in!!!


YUM!!!

While we were perusing the ice cream aisle, we met a guy who said he didn't like Blue Bell. He said we should try Stuart's ice cream. Then he said he was from New York, and that pretty much did it. I was wearing a Braves shirt, so he started talking about the Braves and then the Astros. (He told us that we shouldn't like those teams). Then he got really excited and hyped up about the Yankees, and he eventually rolled up his pant leg and showed us a New York Yankee tattoo just above his knee! Yikes! He got some ice cream and left, and later Jordan and I finally decided what we wanted. We were walking towards the check-out, and Jordan said, "I bet if we see him again, he'll still be talking about it." Two seconds later, who do we see? The same guy from New York. And what does he say? Something about the Yankees! It was crazy!

Mesa Grill

Jordan and I celebrated our anniversary by going to the Mesa Grill in Atlantis. (We had a fun day on our anniversary, but we were on a road trip, so we didn't really celebrate it then). The Mesa Grill is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. Bobby Flay is a chef on the Food Network.


We began our evening by walking around the restaurant and the surrounding area, where we saw these colorful lily pads.




This area is right outside the restaurant.









Here's the entrance. We were both very excited, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for!






The atmosphere was great, and the service was impeccable. We had a waiter and an assistant waiter!





The meal was absolutely the BEST meal both of us have had in our entire lives! We started with two appetizers: smoked chicken and black bean quesadillas with avocado and toasted garlic creme fraiche, and Bahamian spiced chicken skewers with yogurt cilantro sauce and mango vinaigrette. When these plates were delivered, I felt like I was on Iron Chef because of the way they were plated! It was beautiful! And it was incredibly delicious!!!

Then on to the main course. Jordan got a chipotle glazed rib eye with red and green chili sauce, and I got New Mexican spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon-ancho chili sauce and a sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter. The meat that we ate was incredibly tender, and every bite was delicious!!! The best part of my meal was the sweet potato tamale. I'm not kidding. I didn't expect it to be that good, but it was amazing!!!

Then the assistant waiter asked us if we'd like any dessert. We both said no way because we were way too full, but we asked for a dessert menu just to see the desserts available. And that's what got us! Jordan got the tropical sorbet. It came with one scoop each of mixed berry, soursop, and mango. Soursop was Jordan's favorite flavor. He had soursop when he was in Brasil. He, of course, let me try each of the flavors, and I actually liked the mango the best. That's kind of weird because I'm not a fan of mango here in the States. But it was nice and fresh in the Bahamas! It was great! I got burnt orange cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. It was not as smooth as the cheesecake that I'm used to, but it was soooo good!!!!! It was served with a few slices of orange and some sort of sauce. We asked our waiter to take a picture of us with our dessert, so you can see it!






After dinner we were so excited...



and so full!!!!



We had an absolutely fabulous meal at Mesa Grill! There's also a Mesa Grill in New York and Las Vegas. I 100% recommend that, if you're in one of those cities, you go to Mesa Grill!!!




We had a great time that night!!!

Golfing in Paradise!

The day we arrived Jordan called and scheduled a tee time to play golf. He wasn't going to waste any time, so he set it up for the next afternoon. I went with him and took lots of pictures. (What's new, right?!!)



Jordan on the driving range getting warmed up.




And we're off!




This is the first swing Jordan took on the actual course. He started on the back 9, since a group had just started on the front 9, so this is hole #10.



Here's a bunker on #11.



Jordan putting on #14.




A view from #16.




Checking out the green on #16.




A beautiful view from #17.




Atlantis in the background.




This is the view from hole #4, which is their signature hole. It was absolutely gorgeous!




Jordan at #4.







Julia on the rocks by #4.




Jordan told me back during the US Open that he wanted to hit a golf ball out into the ocean. This tee at #5 was his perfect opportunity!



Success!!!




A view of the flag at #5.




Jordan played with a guy from California named Dexter. This is on #6.




There were some amazing houses on the course, like this one at #7.




I loved climbing on the rocks!




And that was it! Jordan played all 18 holes, and he loved every minute of it!





We drove back up to turn in the cart, and an employee said, "So you're all finished?" And Jordan said, "Well, I'll always go play more, if you'll let me." So she let him! She said he and Dexter could play for about another half hour! So they went at it again! These are the pictures of the extra holes they got to play!





So there you have our golfing experience at Atlantis! (And if this seems like a lot of pictures, I'm sorry, but I promise this is only the tip of the iceberg of the golf pictures!!!)