I woke at about 5:00 a.m. for my early flight. Conscious of my final destination, I wore cargo shorts even though the temperature was lower than 20 degrees. This would be my first flight since my family vacation to Utah in 1993, and it would certainly be the furthest I'd ventured from home alone.
When I arrived at the airport, I checked my one bag, proceeded to the gate, bought a chocolate-chip cookie (although I was too nervous/excited to eat it), and watched as the crews de-iced the plane's wings. The last time I was this excited for a trip was for that 1993 trip to Utah.
The empty flight to New York's La Guardia Airport was short and cold, but the skies were clear and the views of the city and Shea Stadium were awesome. Although the same plane continued to Nassau, they still made us disembark. In the airport, I didn't know what to do. I was still very excited. Unfortunately, I was also freezing. The airport terminal was very cold. During the short layover, I placed a call home just to say I was in New York, which I thought was cool.
Finally, after about 45 minutes, we boarded the plane for the flight to Nassau. I tried reading a couple times during the flight, but, again, I was too excited to really pay attention. I did, however, manage to listen to the pre-Bahamas mix I made while the movie, "Men of Honor," played without sound.
There really wasn't anything interesting to view outside, since most of the flight was over water. That was the case until, all the sudden, the water turned from black to vibrant shades of blue and turquoise. I'd have to say that my first sight of the turquoise waters of the Caribbean ranks as one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Shortly thereafter, the tiny islands and turquoise water got closer and closer until we finally landed on a flat, sandy stretch of land known as New Providence Island. As we taxied, I quickly threw all my inconsequential belongings into my bag as haphazardly as possible, proudly put on my new sunglasses and stood ready to get off the plane. As a stroke of luck, we would disembark onto the tarmac rather than onto one of those drab jetways. As I passed the stewardess on my way out the door, I handed her my now worthless Wall Street Journal and stepped outside into a warm, humid, breezy world the likes of which I had never experienced.
I followed the crowd through some doors into the large, hot customs room. A small steel drum band played in the corner as over-dressed Americans (except me!) waited impatiently to pass through customs.
After some time, I passed through customs, retrieved my waiting bag and quickly met my brother who had just arrived at the airport's entrance.
My brother got me up to speed on his, so far, awesome trip during our short, crazy taxi ride to the Nassau Marriott and Crystal Palace Casino.
After lugging my bag to 803C, I was greeted by an unforgettable view of that spectacularly turquoise water from our ocean-view room. On the beach below, hundreds of hot girls sunbathed.
Despite never meeting my brother's friend, Vin, prior to this trip, I would be spending the next few days with him in one of the coolest places on Earth.
We proceeded to the beach after I got quickly settled. The sun felt unbearably hot, except when it tucked behind a cloud and the ocean breezes sent a chill in my bones. I applied some suntan lotion in a haphazardly manner, which would cause problems later in the day when I humorously discovered that my uneven application left some spots more tan than others.
During "down-time" (approx. 5:00 through 8:00 p.m.), we took naps while cool breezes from the ocean swirled around in our room. We also took a trip down to the lobby where we enjoyed free rum punch and were surprised by an extremely loud Junkanoo band making its way throughout the lobby. It was all just so awesome.
We also met up with some of the girls (each hot, and each very cool) Vin, Dave and my brother met earlier in the week, before I arrived. Later, we went with those girls to the bar between the Nassau Marriott and the Nassau Beach Hotel temporarily called, "Bourbon Street". The deal there was $20 for all-you-can-drink.
After drinking our fill at Bourbon Street, we all crammed into a taxi and headed to Cocktails & Dreams, which was nearly empty and quite sketchy. Shortly thereafter, we crammed back into a taxi and headed for Club Waterloo on the east side of New Providence Island.
Waterloo is an indoor/outdoor club with a pool, three bars (at least) and a large sunken dance floor in an open-air wing of the building. The place was absolutely my preconceived notion as to how a dance club in the Caribbean should look. Despite the awesome frenetic atmosphere of the place, the incredibly hot women all around, and the comfortable Caribbean air, I had perhaps one of the worst headaches I've ever had. It had been a long day, for sure, but I didn't let my headache get me down. After all, I was in awe of the place. All I needed to do was sit, not move, and just watch the scene. That held me over until we all left.
Despite my headache, I played blackjack when we got back to the Nassau Marriott until, perhaps, 5:30 a.m. to fully complete one of the most spectacular days of my life! To top it all off, Dave, wanting to sleep on a bed, placed a still-sleeping Vin (he's only about 5'1") in the bathtub. Eventually, Vin woke up in disbelief. What a day!