If I am going to be getting up before 3 am, it better be for a good reason…especially if it’s on my birthday! Well, going to the Bahamas fits into that “good reason” category!

We left home at 3:30 am (we are blessed to have Simon who works all hours of the day and night and doesn’t much mind the middle of the night hours) and picked up the Withrow’s on the way to the airport. We were traveling with just carry-on baggage and had our boarding passes on our phones so we didn’t even have to stop at the airline check-in; it was smooth sailing through security. 

Breakfast at the Firkin and Flyer. It was very good, but there was no orange juice…which became the theme for the next few hours. We saw the orange juice being delivered as we were heading to the boarding area, much to Bill’s dismay!  

The flight to Toronto was ok and they had orange juice on the plane!  We had about 3 hours in Toronto, so we got a snack/coffee and did some duty-free shopping.  Did you know that Wayne Gretzky has his own label?  No.99. Considering I don’t drink, my strategy for picking out wine and alcohol is looking for pretty or interesting labels.  John wanted some vodka and I found the nicest label, which happened to be No.99.  Sarah had also purchased a bottle of No. 99 wine.  Looking up about it later, he has Wayne Gretzky Estates in the Niagara region where these products are produced. Might have to check that out on a trip to that area someday! We checked out the other shops in the airport a bit. Who actually buys purses and watches at airports?  

After boarding our flight to Nassau, the pilot came over the speaker and announced that it was my birthday! Hmmm, how did he know that? Of course, that was a little embarrassing, since I am usually pretty quiet about my birthday.

Flight to Nassau was smooth sailing, until we were over the Nassau airport, and we had to circle for about 30 minutes…there was no room for us to land.  We started thinking that it was a good thing we had almost 2 hours to get to the Bahamas Air flight to Marsh Harbour because we would still have to go through customs.  Well, it turned out, 2 hours was nowhere near enough time. The customs hall was full and slow.  The airport was much larger than expected and we had to do some walking, and then, once we found the terminal that the Bahamas Air flight would leave from, it had already departed (we still had 20 minutes to spare, but things are a little different in The Bahamas)! We booked a flight for the next day, but the earliest we could get was 4:30.

So, unfortunately, we had to stay a night at Breezes all-inclusive resort.  It was a hardship, but the guys made sure we got our money’s worth of food and beverages! A Westjet worker helped us to find the place to stay and call to make a reservation.  Unfortunately, we made the reservations for the flights separately, so there was no compensation.  

Deserai, a great cab driver, got us there.  She was even pretty good at driving on the opposite side of the road! I think she had as much fun as we did, and we arranged for her to pick us up the next day to take us back to the airport.  

Breezes was dated and a smallish resort, but it was in The Bahamas and on a beach!  It was chillier than we expected, but gorgeous, nonetheless. We had a walk on the beach and went out to supper at Garden of Eden restaurant in the resort.  It was a bit of an unusual setup.  We were in a section with bench seating, both people sat on the same side of the table and we were at a separate little table from Bill and Sarah.  The food was very good…we had steak, and they surprised me with a beautiful cheesecake on a plate, decorated, with Happy Birthday in chocolate on the rim of the plate, and sang to me! 

The final part of my birthday celebration came when the bartender was surprised

 that I didn’t want alcohol in my drink.  When someone said it was my birthday, he grabbed my hand and sang Happy Birthday in this most 

  amazing voice to me!  That certainly helped to make my birthday special.

All in all, things did not go as planned, but a better birthday would be hard to find…and a little adventure along the way must always be appreciated!