Staniel Cay, Bahamas Pt. I

Between Christmas and New Years we closed the store and Brian and I went down to Staniel Cay, Bahamas to see my parents. I hadn't seen them since October when they left to go cruising on their boat. That's the longest I've ever gone without seeing them since I lived in Florida in 2004. I missed them like crazy. Staniel Cay is a small cay in the Exuma chain:


We had only been to the Bahamas once to go to Atlantis and my dad promised it was nothing at all like that, so we had no idea what to expect. We flew out of JFK and into Ft. Lauderdale, then from Ft. Lauderdale we took a propeller plane to Andros where we cleared customs, then to Staniel Cay. I was completely terrified at the thought of taking a Cessna, and even more terrified when the pilot told me I'd be flying co-pilot. I literally had a steering wheel and gauges in front of me. Scary at first, but definitely the best seat in the plane once I got over the initial fear. The closer we got the more excited I was to see my parents. We got off the plane and they took us back to the club in a golf cart they rented for a couple days. That's how you get around the island. We settled in and went to the clubhouse/restaurant bar...

...and put in our dinner orders. Every night they serve a 4 course dinner. You have to get your orders in by 5pm if that's what you want to do for food. You choose your protein and your side (my favorites were lobster - the lobster tails were the most ridiculous things I've ever seen! HUGE and just tons of white lobster meat - and parsley potatoes) and they serve you a soup, salad and dessert. At 7pm-ish they ring a bell and that's how everyone knows it's time to eat. We only did that twice, the rest of the time we ordered off the regular menu.

The next morning we woke up and went out on the porch of our cottage (the blue one on the right)...

...for the most insane view ever.

We got breakfast from the club, ate it outside, then my parents took us on a tour of the island. Staniel Cay is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Here are some sites we saw:

You take this road anytime you have to go to the grocery store or to get bread:

Have you ever seen the James Bond movie, Thunderball?


A lot of scenes were shot in the Bahamas (mostly Nassau and the Exumas). Here's the sign to a restaurant/bar called Club Thunderball where a lot of the cast and crew hung out during filming:

The smallest island in the middle is where Thunderball Grotto is located. You get there by dinghy and you have to swim under rocks to get inside the grotto. It is supposed to be one of the most amazing places to go snorkeling but we didn't get to it this time around.
This pretty much sums up the "Whatever" vibe of the Bahamas...it's an actual street sign: