Every winter we take the kids (who are now in their 20's) to the Bahamas; this was our fifth year in a row at an out island. My intention was to spend this vacation at Long Island at either Cape Santa Maria or Stella Maris. We would have rented a cottage or small villa so we could cook and not be obligated to dine out; I was psyched because Long Island is further south and because it looked beautiful. However, my son, now aged 20, stated early on (when we were scoping our flights and reservations in late July) that he absolutely would NOT accompany us, and would remain here in NJ. In the past, we have allowed our daughters to bring their boyfriends, so I told him it could be "his turn" to take a friend. He still wasn't entirely convinced, so I asked him where he would go with us, he replied, "Abaco". In 2007 he was just 16 and found the golf cart rental a lot of fun.
OK, so even though I had doubts about the weather in Abaco, I caved in and booked an "oceanfront" 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment at the BBC, in order to keep the family intact.
The reality: My son decided not to invite a friend and my middle daughter's fiance, Ed, was able to buy a last minute ticket. Ed flew from Atlanta to FLL. Our Continental flight got us to FLL on time and then we sat down to wait for our Gulfstream connection which was scheduled at 3pm. Meanwhile, Ed's flight from FLL-TCB was at 1.30 and, since he is active military, he was able to convince to gate agent to take our daughter with him. Unfortunately, our 3pm flight did not leave until 5.30PM. We arrived in the dark, took a cab to the BBC, went to the front office to find out our location; turned out it was ground floor apt #2011, below the one we rented in 2007; not beachfront, and not very nice. My daughter and Ed had checked in earlier and said they were told that the place was booked solid, so they didn't contest the non-beachfront accomodations.
December 29th was cool and windy, as I expected. From December 30 - January 2 we had sun. January 3rd and 4th were windy,cold, and solidly overcast. More sun on January 5 and 6. We had a nice New Years Eve at Tipsy Seagull, and also had a good dinner on January 4th at The Spinnaker. We rented a car and drove to Marsh Harbour and ate lunch at the Jib Room; outstanding!
The ocean was too cold to swim in, as was the pool, and the hot tub wasn't always hot. We were in the older section, although I hoped, because we booked early, that we would be in the new area. The old beach bar was still good and the staff at BBC is friendly, outgoing and helpful; no complaints with the front office staff or housecleaning folks. However, after the 2 gray and stormy days, the beach in front of our older section was full of seaweed; in front of the new section we noticed it had been raked so we asked when our beach would be done? It had not been raked when we left on January 6th.
Maybe we should have left our memories intact; this wasn't one of the best vacations.
