We decided to go ahead with our spring break trip to Harbour Island in the Bahamas.  It was a lot of planning — covid tests before, during and after the trip, plus the last minute passport renewal.  But in the end everything came together and we made it there and back, covid-free!  We flew in and out of White Plains airport which is a lot smaller than the other NYC airports (though still surprisingly crowded!).  We all wore our fancy masks for the whole trip and we relied heavily on the Nintendo Switch and tablet to keep the kids entertained.

We had a long time to wait in Fort Lauderdale so we left the airport and went to an outdoor seafood restaurant on the water for a nice lunch.  It was fun to be eating at a restaurant again after so long since we never tried out an igloo this winter!

Sarah’s top two teeth are on their way back in!

Then it was back to the airport for our Silver Airways flight to Eleuthera.

Then a short cab ride, boat ride, and another cab ride and we arrived at our VRBO house on “Juicy Hill” in Harbour Island, helpfully marked on these trash cans.

The place was beautiful!  The kids headed straight up to the roof deck for some much anticipated lounge time!

There was even a nice view of the water from the upstairs living room.

The kids wanted to jump right into the pool on the back patio.  We ended up splitting most days between the pool and the beach!

The kids were creeped out by these black cricket-like bugs on the plants around the house.  There were a lot of them, but they seemed to be harmless.  The landscaper came and cut back a lot of the plants they were feeding on while we were there.

Here’s the path to the beach, with a “No Trimming” sign.

The beach was beautiful, as always!  It’s called the “Pink Sand Beach” and the sand does have a pinkish hue from all the conch shells.  And the island is so quiet we had plenty of space.  A short walk would get us down to Mrs. V’s beach bar for a Goombay Smash to go.

We went down to the Blue Bar for lunch one day and Andrew enjoyed his favorite “Five Rum Pina Colada,” which is no longer on the menu but which they made just for him.

We didn’t get a babysitter this year so we took the kids along for our three dinners out.  Here we are enjoying the sunset at Aquapazza.  Andrew and I got the grouper in tomato broth and a conch pasta special; both were delicious!

The subsequent moonrise was pretty spectacular from our roof deck.

Here are the kids another night when we went to Runaway Hill for dinner.  We had a wonderful appetizer which was tuna wrapped around crispy shallots.  For the main I had a seafood crepe and Andrew had the grouper curry, perhaps?  Grouper is always a good guess.

Our last dinner was at the Landing, and I had a yummy ginger lobster with risotto this year.  Blaine was not really into this photo but he was so cute in his little shirt.

All the food was excellent, including the meals we (mostly Andrew) cooked at the house!  One day for a change of pace we took the water taxi across to Eleuthera and rented a car to drive around.  We saw some rock formations like the one below, we think it was the “Queen’s Bathtub” but we’re not totally sure.

We had a picnic lunch on James Cistern beach and Blaine collected some shells and a natural sponge.

We stopped at this place called “Sapphire Blue Hole” which was a deep cave where (crazy) people must go cliff diving.  There was a long rope for coming back up.  I was nervous even letting the kids look over the edge.

Then we went and saw this place called “Preacher’s Cave” which was a cave where some shipwrecked people sheltered for awhile.

And then on to another beautiful, secluded beach.

Back on Harbour Island, here’s a pic from our golf cart going up Juicy Hill!  Our poor little rental cart was not in great shape and always clanked and struggled to get up this little hill.

We had beautiful weather all week, until our last day when we had some wind and rain.  So we took advantage of the puzzles we found in the house.

It was such a beautiful week, and so refreshing to be in a place that was far from home (and a place that is taking such good precautions against covid!).

March came in like lion and went out like a panda!

One day we went on a family hike at Cranberry Lake.

On the drive back we were impressed to see the giant tents set up at the vaccination site in White Plains.

On St. Patrick’s Day I finally made the Nigella Lawson Chocolate Guinness cake I have been thinking about for a few months!  It came out looking like a pint of Guinness as intended, but the cake itself was kind of underwhelming.  Oh well, we still enjoyed it.

Another day we went on a hike at the Marshlands.

We had our first meal of the year out on the patio!

Also in March I took a last minute trip to Washington, D.C. for an urgent passport renewal!  My passport expired in January and I didn’t even notice.  I was very lucky to get an appointment (it was DC or Buffalo!) in time for our spring break trip.

I drove down on Sunday without stopping and stayed at the Park Hyatt in Foggy Bottom, across the street from the WWF building.

I didn’t see another guest during the short time I was at the hotel, but I did get a delicious takeout meal from the Blue Duck Tavern onsite.  Early the next morning I walked over to the passport office for my 8am appointment, and passed some pockets of very early cherry blossoms.

The appointment took about 2 hours and I walked out, passport in hand!  Then met up with Fran for a quick hello and bite to eat before driving back to NY under the 24 hour limit!  Phew.

Gram sent us a Bon Voyage / early birthday present for Andrew celebratory bottle of champagne and chocolate cupcakes, which we enjoyed that Wednesday.  Thanks, Gram!