Spring Break 2012 - A New Adventure In Treasure Cay

As much as we prefer staying in Pam's Sandollar Dreams condo, we stayed this year at the Bahama Beach Club #2042 and #2034 since even more family and friends joined us for this years getaway and we needed more room!  We were joined by my Dad and Kim, Kim's mom and her fiancee, and our family friend Karen.

We forgot to reserve a golf cart, the preferred local mode of transportation, and unfortunately found out upon arrival they were all booked until Friday.  Oh well, it wasn't too far a walk to the grocery store and I improvised with Mary's umbrella stroller to help get the heavy stuff back to the condo!  This was the first time I brought some food in to the country with us.  I went to Costco before we left and bought packages of chicken breasts, pork chops, and rib eye steaks.  Everything else we bought in Treasure Cay.

We ate out a few times.  The Bahama Beach Club still has some delicious dinner theme nights.  Our first night was the BBQ night which was really good.  We enjoyed our seating by the beach and the bonfire after sun set.  Kim and Abby used a cool iPhone app to search the starts.  We also enjoyed the Italian night.  The food was good, but we preferred the way they did it last year, family style, so everyone got a little taste of everything.  The rest of the evenings we BBQ'd the meats we brought in.  We also finally enjoyed Thursday Pizza Night at The Tipsy Seagull located on the marina.  The great pizza drew a huge crowd and there was even live music to enjoy!

The mornings always started off with pancakes served up by Grandpa.  A well enjoyed service by both the kids and the cook!   Most days were spent with folks enjoying the beach and the pool.  We met a few other families which was great since Abby and Mary quickly found some other kids to play with.  Some of the group would walk the beach at low tide everyday to explore South Point and search for sand dollars and shells.  A few treasures were found and we even spotted a few sea turtles, needle fish, and some juvenile barracuda.  I finally managed to get my dad out to the little island off South Point at low tide to search a new area for shells.

The new adventure and highlight of this trip was when we rented a boat for the day from JIC Boat Rentals.  The winds were up mid-week, but we managed to push our reservation off till Friday when the winds came down and we all enjoyed an awesome day.  I debated bringing Mary along, but I have to say overall she did very well.  She loved the boat, but still isn't a big fan of the beach yet.

Abby thought it was the coolest thing ever.  We loaded up at the Treasure Cay Marina around 9 am and headed out onto the Sea of Abaco bound for the areas around Green Turtle Cay.  Our first stop was a little beach on the southeast tip of Green Turtle Cay.  The routine became for me to beach the boat, let everyone out, take the boat to anchor and wade back to shore.  It worked out pretty well.  The beach was nice, but since there weren't many treasures to have, we loaded up and headed further north to Fiddle Cay just north of Green Turtle Cay.

Treasures abounded at Fiddle Cay.  The beach and shallow waters were strewn with collectible sea biscuits and sea urchins.  We NEVER take any shells, sand dollars, sea biscuits, sea urchins, or anything else that is still alive or in which the shell is still home to a live animal.  Everyone made a dash for the snorkel gear and the feverish harvesting began.  You can see some of the "catch" on the bow of the boat.

It was hard to believe, but by this point it was now about noon so we headed for Green Turtle Cay and had an awesome lunch at the Pineapples Bar & Grill just accross the harbor from New Plymouth.  They have a dock right in front of their place as well as a pool to enjoy.  The food was great, but the rum punch was even better!  It was obvious during lunch we had pushed Mary enough for one day so once lunch was over we headed back across the Sea of Abaco to the beach right in front of our condo to drop off Kristi and Mary.

We had just enough time to explore one more area before the boat day was over.  We headed for "Shell Island" off the northwest tip of Great Guana Cay.  We did not find any large treasures there, but it definitely lived up to its name.  We all spent an hour or better hunting for shells before we had to head back to Treasure Cay and get the boat topped off and back to the dock by 5:00 pm.

The boat worked great and everyone had a wonderful time.  The crew at JIC Boat Rentals were extremely pleasant and helpful.  We definitely will have to make that part of our vacation "routine".  There are so many beautiful areas to explore that we could experience new and exciting things every year for many years to come!

If I only had one complaint about our stay this year is that it went too fast.  I usually enjoy the fact that the first few days appreciably slow down, but from day one this year it seemed like the clock was spinning out of control.  Oh well, guess we'll just have to go back!

Instead of posting all of our pictures this time, I have include a slide show below of our vacation photos.  If the slide show doesn't work, follow this link to the online album:  Treasure Cay, Spring Break 2012