Bahama Mama

So this week Mama Winn's place is in Abaco, which is located in the Bahamas. Life just doesn't get any better than this!

The family menagerie here includes Bruce and me, Loni and Jesse with Alli, Madison and Taya, Jamie and JD with Hailey, Jolene and Rob, Kristi, Grandpa Winn, Melissa and Bob, Jene, Monique and Jennifer with Caden. Traveling here on Sunday was quite the adventure, with all of us coming from all over the United States. Half the clan got stuck in West Palm Beach, Florida, where thanks to some very brilliant scheduling on the part of Travelocity, they didn't arrive at the airport until 30 minutes after they had to be checked in for their international flight. With the next flight for Marsh Harbor that had available seats not leaving until Tuesday, JD took over as travel agent, and started some creative scheduling. They took a 45 minute shuttle to Ft. Lauderdale, where they waited for 6 hours to catch a flight to Nassau, Bahamas. They spent the night (if 6 hours counts as a night) there and caught a 6:30am flight to Marsh Harbor. Needless to say, it was an adventure!

Yesterday, with everyone finally here, we played on the beach in the morning and swam in the pool in the afternoon. We took a trip into town, only to find there was only one grocery store open because it was a holiday. It was staffed by six employees, none of whom were over the age of 14. Literally. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by an 8 year old boy who said "Hello, white people!" We knew he was talking to us. The store had three full shelves of cooking oil, three of panty hose, and about fourteen other items available for purchase. We decided we would have pancakes for dinner, as opposed to the delicious looking pigs feet that were displayed with other enticing items in the meat case. We bought all the milk that was in the store. We think we'll have to go back to town when the holiday is over, and see if we can find another, hopefully bigger and better stocked store. On our way out, the teenage cashier handed us each a recyclable grocery bag, after bagging all our groceries in the usual plastic bags. "Here," she said, "These are good for the environment. I don't know what that means, but you can have them." Then she gave us a big Caribbean smile!

Most of us have the traditional, first day in the Bahama's sunburn, except for JD, who is the sunblock Nazi.