During the past twenty five years we've been lucky enough to travel to some amazing places but how do you choose where to celebrate your silver anniversary? Well since we added a dog to the mix a week before our anniversary it needed to be somewhere that didn't require too much advance planning, a place preferably close so that we wouldn't leave my parents for too terribly long with a brand new puppy, yet somewhere that had adventure, nice accommodations but still felt off the beaten path because everyone knows I don't like to travel to places everyone else does. So to the Exumas we went and what a treat it turned out to be. While the airport ranks up there in the top two smallest we've flown into, the bonus was that it felt like we had the island to ourselves much of the time. It was dreamy that's for sure!
So here are a few highlights from this picturesque place!
Flying in was so beautiful, seeing all these small islands surrounded by sand and fifty shades of blue!
We made it!
We stayed at the Grand Isle Resort on Great Exuma. It's an all villa property on the beach with a beautiful golf course that wrapped around the property. We would definitely return here to stay as the service, food, and location were fantastic.
We spent our first day getting settled and enjoying the beach at the resort. How cute is this swing set?!?
So for our first full day I planned for us to go on an excursion to see some of the out islands. What a fabulous time we had and how much more fun it was to do it with my brother Sean who jumped on a plane with his fiancee Amy to join us from Nassau where they were for Sean's Presidents club retreat! We spent the day crossing miles and miles of ocean visiting numerous cays where we fed iguanas, swam with pigs, explored a cave, grotto, and plane, saw celebrity private islands, enjoyed sand bars in the middle of the ocean, and of course the highlight swimming with a bunch of sharks! It was quite a day of adventure and boy did we cover some mileage!
Our next day we rented a boat so we could explore all the small cays just off of Great Exuma! Captain Jack always does a great job navigating us around and how fun this was. While it was a little windy, we still had such a nice time. It reminded me of our time on Lake Como in Italy when we rented a small boat like this one. We hit some snorkeling spots before enjoying lunch at Chat n Chill on Stocking Island. My favorite part of the day had to be exploring the sand bars though. It's amazing how quickly a bunch of sand bars start to appear in what feels like the middle of the ocean. We'd anchor our boat in the sand in water no deeper than two feet and just walk and walk, finding all sorts of sand dollars and star fish! It was so peaceful and beautiful!
Captain Jack!
The next day I had a car delivered to the resort so that we could spend the next several days exploring the island and all the fantastic beaches I had read about. We spent this first day heading to Little Exuma which is connected to Great Exuma by a small bridge. On the way we stopped at Hoopers Bay which I had read was a great place to swim with turtles. Sure enough it did not disappoint! Afterwords we enjoyed a great lunch at Santanas where we also got to watch lemon sharks swim alongside the beach as we ate. After grabbing some delicious banana bread freshly made next door at Mom's Bakery we were on to the Tropic Of Cancer beach. We can see why this beach continues to make the top five list of best beaches in the Caribbean. It was beautiful but the water was even more spectacular!
After a wonderful day, we cleaned up and went in search of finding a good place to watch the sun set! We weren't sure it was going to happen because the side of the island the sun sets on isn't the side with all the main beaches but I'd say we hit the jackpot. Again it was low tide and sandbars could been seen popping out of the water.
The next day we were on another beach adventure! This time we focused on the northern part of Great Exuma but not before making another visit to Hoopers Bay to hang out with the turtles.
After another fun morning with the turtles we made our way back up north making a stop at Big D's for lunch before heading to Coco Plum Beach. I loved the bright colors of the restaurant against the blue of the ocean. Such a fun setting!
Coco Plum beach did not disappoint. It was beautiful and I was so glad I had read to arrive at low tide because really what makes most of these stand out against other amazing beaches we've been to are all the sand bars that pop up at low tide. Again we could have spent hours walking out on sand bars that stretched into the ocean...well, that is if low tide lasted hours...ha! Unfortunately, low tide comes and goes pretty quick!
And look what they also had at Coco Plum!!! I'm really loving the swings on the beach! Even if Jack and I got a good laugh over him trying to get me up on the swing. It's a bit harder than it looks!!!
Well, this trip is up there with some of our other top trips. We had such a great time and it was so nice for Jack and I to have some time together alone. When your soul mate starts to feel like a roommate, it's definitely time to get away! Our new goal is to make our next twenty five better than our first! Hear's to us!
Of course a big thank you to my parents who continue to make our life easier by coming to watch the kids at the drop of a hat! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!
