Nassau

The first port of call was Nassau, capital of the Bahama Islands. In Nassau we took a taxi to Ardastra Gardens and Zoo. I think that this was the perfect excursion for our family. The zoo was small, but it offered lots of up-close encounters with the few animals that it did have. There were a large number of birds at the zoo.

One of the things that we were able to do at the zoo was to participate in the feeding of the lory parrots. When we entered the aviary, we were given an apple slice. Before too long, Brian was able to lure a bird to his apple. Olivia didn't want to hold the bird, but she did want to make sure that the bird ate her apple and not Brian's.

One of the neat things about the zoo was that they let the flamingos roam around uncaged. These flamingos are apparently "world famous" because they "march" military-style and obey commands (like about-face). There was even a show to demonstrate how they do this. I really didn't see the "marching" part- it just looked like a guy herding the flock in one direction and then another to me. Maybe I just didn't know what to look for. Nevertheless, it was still a lot of fun. After the marching drill part of the show, some of the audience members were invited into the arena. Brian and Olivia went in, and Olivia got to get up-close-and-personal with a flamingo...

...and one flamingo got a little too up-close-and-personal with Brian. This flamingo was really checking Brian out! We left the zoo shortly after the show. Brian and his mom took the kids back to the boat while I stayed in Nassau to shop and visit some of the historic and government sites (like the Parliment Building and the Queen's Staircase).


This day ended with a delicious meal at Animator's Palate. This was my favorite restaurant on board. The room starts off in black-and-white and "animates" as you eat. At the end of the meal everything is in color. After eating, Owen went to the nursery again while Granny Mel and I took Olivia to see that night's show- which was a stage version of Toy Story.