Atlantis

• As I mentioned before, we didn't go home for Christmas, which meant we did not see our children since last September. Our whole crew is meeting us in Atlantis, Nassau, Bahamas.
• Our plan was to take the boat to Nassau. We made a reservation at the Atlantis Marina and found out it was $4.50 a foot and a minimum of 40 feet; we're only 33 feet. It's been very windy here and the ocean waves are well over 6 feet. We would have to travel 110 miles in the ocean. It would not be a comfortable ride. A few weeks before the trip we decided to fly over and get a room.
• We arrived 2 hours before the kids. We checked in and then checked the kids in. We had asked for rooms together. What a surprise, the rooms were all in a row.
• We had enough time to put on our bathing suits, get breakfast and check out the place. We were sitting in the lobby when their van pulled up. My God, seeing the children brought tears to my eyes. Mike's eyes looked watery also. We grabbed the grandchildren and took them to our room. Once, Karen H. told me you should always jump on the beds when you go to a hotel. So we all started to jump on the beds, singing "5 little monkeys jumping on a bed." We were having a ball until their parents arrived. The kids got the LOOK. My little angels, I hope I think of them as angels at the end of the week.
• We spent the day at the pool, relaxing and catching up with 6 months worth of stories.
• Every morning we would meet at breakfast. The sad thing was that you had to get a lounge chair early. You had to put some stuff on the chair to save it (books, towels or shirts). It was very annoying because people would save chairs and never use them. There should be a rule against saving seats for more than an hour.
• After the second day the kids were told to buddy up and they could go on some rides without us. After all, they knew their way around better than we did. They found the best stuff to do and were busy all the time.
• One slide took you right through the shark tank. You would be sitting in a tube and the speed of the water would push you through. You look up and the sharks are swimming around you. I think they said it was awesome.
• Another slide had you sit and when the light turned green you would push off. You entered a pipe that was dark, you would go about 2 feet and then you would just drop. It seemed like you were free-falling forever. All of a sudden you were in a cave, it would take a few seconds for you to realize that you should stand up. I heard loud screams on the way down and they were mine.
• In another ride you sat in a tube, actually you were laying down, you went through a narrow opening that you could see through. It was like a roller coaster with twists and turns that made you go up on the side of the walls or banks. I loved it and so did everyone else.
• The best was the lazy river. I believe it ran for a mile and took 45 minutes. On the river you would go through rapids that made you scream with delight. You would get hit with waves that made you go high in the air. The waterfalls came and you got soaked. They had a double tube that was great. We took turns taking the little ones in these tubes.