We left early in the morning on 4/13 for our spring break trip to Harbour Island, in the Bahamas.  The plane-plane-boat trip went pretty smoothly apart from about an hour delay to our second short flight from Miami to Eleuthera.

But when we arrived we were greeted with this!

The house we were renting was perfect for us: a short walk to the beach and a few restaurants, plenty of space, and a great pool for the kids.

The first night Andrew cooked barbecue chicken on our grill at the house.

On Sunday we had a beautiful morning at the beach, followed by a delicious lunch at Sip Sip.  We happened to be there for a Sunday special, Bahamian “boil fish” with buttered grits and johnnycakes, which was delicious (I tasted Andrew’s).  I had the tuna burger, and the kids had the giant hot dogs.

That night we had another delicious meal at the Landing.  I had grouper, Andrew had the lobster, and the kids shared a burger.  To top off our wonderful Sunday, our rental house had HBO so we were able to watch the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones!

The next day (Monday) we’d reserved a boat trip at Blaine’s request.  We were picked up at Valentine’s Dock by Todd and Cassandra Pinder from Spanish Wells.

First stop, Pig Island!

There was also a strangely friendly turkey living on Pig Island, who seemed to be jealous of all the attention the pigs were getting.

We asked how pig island came to be, and learned that people just brought some pigs to the island and taught them to swim as a tourist attraction.  It didn’t seem like the pigs were all that interested in going swimming; they had to be lured into the water with slices of hot dog on a stick.

Next stop, fishing!  Blaine managed to catch a small fish (some sort of grouper?) right away, but then we didn’t catch anything else after that and gave up pretty quickly.

Sarah was not impressed.  She had not really enjoyed pig island, she refused to try fishing, and she was not a fan of the bumpy boat ride.  Luckily, we’d remembered to bring dramamine so neither child ended up getting sick.

Last stop: sea turtles!  They were so beautiful, really neat to watch.

Blaine loved the trip, especially getting to assist the Pinders in dropping and raising anchor, and tying up the boat at the dock.

That night Andrew cooked dinner again!  Steak that we’d brought with us from NY and snap peas.

On Tuesday morning, we took our golf cart to breakfast at Arthur’s Bakery.

We spent the afternoon at the beach and enjoyed building these large drip castles.

That night we got a babysitter and Andrew and I went to dinner at the Rock House in town (lobster crab spring rolls and more grouper — thai curry style).

The next day (Wednesday) the kids wanted to build another castle!  The wind had changed overnight and so the beach was covered in seaweed, which we incorporated into the castle.

We had another delicious lunch on the beach at the Blue Bar (I had mahi tacos).  That night the whole family went out for a sunset view dinner at Aquapazza, where I had yet more grouper, this time in a tomato broth.

We did not realize until we’d arrived that Blaine was barefoot!  He’d hopped in the golf cart sans shoes.  Oh well, no one in the restaurant noticed/commented.

The next day was Thursday, and we realized we’d been neglecting Sarah’s preschool homework assignment, to look for and take pictures with shapes.  Here’s Sarah’s first find, a rectangular mirror.

We had lunch at Sip Sip again, and Sarah was excited to take a pic of the circular cross section of her hot dog.  Andrew and I split the gazpacho and the famous lobster quesadillas.

An oval doorknob.

That night Andrew and I went out for another nice dinner, this time at Runaway Hill.  We both had… more delicious grouper!

On Friday, we spent the morning at the beach, and then went to lunch at Queen Conch (we had conch fritters and “exotic” conch salad).  Blaine explored while we were waiting for our food and found the man who was cleaning the conch, and got to ask him all about it.

For our last night we had burgers at the house, cooked by Andrew (of course).

On our final morning we packed up the house and went back to Runaway Hill for breakfast.  We were grateful to be on a covered porch as a very heavy downpour started coming down.

The rain stopped for awhile as we took the boat back from Harbour Island to Eleuthera, and we checked in at the airport and avoided another downpour at the nearby liquor store (which is where everyone hangs out and has a beer while waiting for their flights).

Our luggage was not so fortunate, since the airline had left all checked bags out during the rain.  We found this out when we got home and opened up the suitcases!  Oh well, lots of laundry and not too much damage.

We had a wonderful time in Harbour Island, probably our best vacation yet.  It helps that the kids are getting older, and we don’t have naps to interfere with our very important plans to lie on the beach, play in the sand and water, and read our kindles.  Add in all the delicious food and drinks and I was completely happy.  It was a perfect week!