La Expedición de Nassau

On November 20th, the ladies ventured in the city of Nassau. It was a grand adventure, and in case you were wondering (because you were sure that Lane is not a lady), Lane is not writing this. It is I, Tania, his youngest daughter, here to recount and probably exaggerate the wonderful happenings of that day!

Dad dropped us off at the Harbor Patrol dock, and they were nice enough to let us pass through their property without even a threat of legal action! The first happening of the day was the successful deposit of all three of us on land without sinking our dinky dinghy. Roxanne and I are significantly larger than we were on our last trip, and as it is all four of us *barely* fit in the inflatable dinghy. But the inflatable dinghy wasn't inflated, so we had to use the finicky hardshell. And because there was no place to tie up our dinghy, Dad had to ferry us over, one at a time. We made it over with only a small casualty - the soaking of Roxanne's new pants. But this was quickly forgotten on our trek into Cruise Ship Land.

We walked about a mile to Prince George's Wharf, the docking place for cruise ships. Except for a 6-hour period on Thanksgiving day, there has always been at least one ship there. As we drew closer, the shop style mysteriously changed - from "Irene's Takeaway" to Gucci! Could it be that the stores around the cruise ships are catering to a different class of shopper? We gleefully navigated the air-conditioned boutiques with only minimal wallet drainage, mostly due to excessive postcard purchasing. On a side street, we found a pirate museum! The pirate outside gave us a "sneak peak" and then let us in after minimal haggling over the ticket price. We got to see inside a replica of a pirate ship, which was pretty interesting. The goats shared space with the cannons, and we learned that a pirate's life basically consists of long periods of drunken idleness interspersed with quick moments of heavy action. Also, a quote from a pirate (this was the basic gist of it - can't remember it exactly): "If you can't get into jail, don't even THINK about being a pirate. Being on a pirate ship is just like being in jail, except you can DROWN. And the food and the company aren't nearly as good." We learned lots about pirates. One of the juicy tidbits was that they never buried their treasure - they just squandered it on drink and willing women. But the women had to be willing  - the penalty for "defiling a prudent woman" was death! We wandered out of the museum, newly enlightened.

For lunch, we found a....(drumroll please) MCDONALD'S!!!!! Hurrah for American products taking over the globe! Some people may think it's strange that McDonald's food tastes the same everywhere, but I prefer to think of it as "quality control." We savored our Big Macs and golden french fries in the cool atmosphere of our newest island paradise. On our way back to the boat, we took a detour through the government buildings - all a lovely shade of pink! Then we went to the public library - a fascinating three-story octagonal building. There was high-speed internet for a "minimal fee," so we blissfully checked our email, blogs, and webcomics. Then we went up to the top level, where we got some great pictures of the park in front of the library and the Parliament and judiciary buildings. Then we went back to the boat through the increasingly squalid (as we moved away from the cruise ships) city streets.

A couple days later, when the boat was hauled, we went into the downtown again while we were waiting for the tide to come up so we could relaunch the boat. This time Dad came with us, and we wasted no time showing him the wonders of civilization (the McDonald's and air conditioning). This time, we had walked about two miles from the boatyard to get into town, so we were all thoroughly tired by the time we had to be going back. We decided on a whim to try to catch one of the private buses that traverse the downtown area, and we were sucessful. We made it back to the boatyard with (lots of) time to spare, for only $1 each. We concluded that it was the best $4 that we've spent this whole trip. This was quickly followed by the best $6 dollars we've spent this trip, for four cold Diet Cokes at the Sailor's Choice cafe next to the boatyard.

(below left)  An example of the store type before Cruise Ship Land. Anita's Place "fashion." (Hello to my friend of that same name!)
(below right)  In Cruise Ship Land many "cruisers" hire these horse jitney tours for way too much money.
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(below left)  A limestone church right next to the pirate museum.
(below right)  Exterior of the pirate museum.
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(below left)  Pirates named their cannons - this one is the "Swan of Avon"
(below right)  Goat hangin' with the cannons in the pirate ship hold.
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(below left) Tania being punished in the stocks.
(below right) Mom and Tania being vicious pirates.
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(below left) No longer parking for Prosecuter Court #1.
(below right) Beautiful pink government buildings with "scenic" cruise ship in upper left.
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(below left)  Cool octagonal library. Roxanne and I are on the balcony.
(below right) Captain Woodes-Rogers expelled all the pirates from Nassau around 1720. This statue is outside the Hilton.
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A last anecdote....I wanted to get a book out from underneath Roxanne's bunk, but she was feeling surly and uncooperative. So, I asked her what it would take to make her move. She replied that she wanted a head cozy...like a tea cozy except for your head (this whole concept is from a hilarious English teenager series I have read many times by Louise Rennison). So I got her a head cozy and she got me my book.
(below left) Head cozy time!