Atlantis Equals Paradise

We were given a few choices of activities for the day Saturday, none of which struck our fancy. So we chose the day of relaxation, which unfortunately wasn't a spa day - it was a free day to do whatever you wanted. I was anxious to see Atlantis on Paradise Island, so we grabbed a cab over to Nassau's sister island. On the way we drove along a road that was right next to the water. Out in the water I saw a white tower that went down into the ocean. I knew I had seen this before, in fact I had been telling E about it a few days before our trip, wondering why it wasn't in any of the guide books anymore. I don't recall what it was called, but when my parents and I went on our cruise of the Bahamas one of our excursions was to this little island area with a marine park and an observation deck that went down into the water instead of up into the air. It was a natural aquarium and under the water was a huge coral reef surrounding this tube observation deck. Unfortunately our cab driver told us that it had been damaged in a recent hurricane and was no longer open. That explained why I hadn't seen it in the guide books!

After the short drive we pulled into the Atlantis grounds - we were in awe. It isn't easy to make us speechless, but this did it. We took a ton of pictures but none will ever demonstrate the feeling of being there. We got tickets to go into "The Dig," the "archaeological dig of the discovery of Atlantis." It was incredible. We walked through underground tanks and corridors, every so often coming up to a wall of water with fish swimming on the other side of thick glass walls. Soon we realized that these fish tanks were open to the air above, and we were wandering through something of a maze which led us out onto the beaches of Atlantis. Being that we weren't hotel guests and had only paid for Dig tickets we weren't given full access to everything, but we were able to see a lot. We wandered the grounds as much as we could, then went to check out the casino. E bet on a few horse races and then we went over to the Marina at Atlantis.

wishing we could stay forever

The Marina was an outdoor mall of shops with a marina on one side. We checked out the shops, got a bunch of souvenirs, and of course had to stop in Starbucks for mugs and Haagen Dasz for ice cream. When we were done shopping we walked along the water, checking out the ships docked in the marina. There were private yachts all along the walkway.

After wishing we could stay forever, we finally decided to head back to our hotel and relax. We wandered the hotel, checked out the shops in between our hotel and the casino attached, and then spent some time in the casino.