Huskers in the Bayou: September 2012

After one of our "Hurricane Workouts"

Well...even with all the commotion of Hurricane Isaac making his appearance just days before we were scheduled to leave for our honeymoon....we were still able to fly out as planned without any hitches. Hurricane damage wise, we really faired well. We were out of electricity for only about 5 hours on Wednesday afternoon...a few tree branches in the yard....no shingles anything that need to be fixed, and only some minor flooding in the street and the ditch behind the house....Our overall time was spent studying for my Physics boards I was supposed to take on the day the storm it (it was cancelled on account of the 100mi/hr winds), working out, rating the quality of the areas meterologists and lounging. (P.S. I passed the test when I took it today ☺)

Making our living room into a workout space...

Our overall time in Exuma, Bahamas and the Sandals St. Emerald Bay resort was wonderful. Some major R & R with blue skies, great weather, not a storm in sight...some sand in our toes, ice cold drinks in our hands...we really enjoyed our time. With our time there, we became quite the resort reviewers on the food, staff, rooms, alcohol, activities....etc. Here is some of our thoughts.

FOOD:
We really enjoyed the fact that it was all inclusive...allowing us to try multiple things from multiple places. We liked that there were about 7 different places to choose from with each meal...but by the time we got to the end of our stay...we were starting to lose options. Overall, the food wasn't A-MAZING. Either we had too high of expectations...or our taste pallette was yearning something differently. They did fairly well...but nothing we would ever miss or anything that we couldn't try making at home (and maybe even tastier). We enjoyed dining at their French and Italian restaurants. The "Drunken Duck" pub was okay (not top notch bar food....and no Husker game showings when we got there). The "buffet" place always had awesome selection of salad bar and fresh fruit....and then each night they had a different them...Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranian). The low key beach restaurant (shoes optional) had fairly good selection. We really enjoyed their cocnut chicken soup and their lobster. The dessert, however, was always scrumptious...no matter where you tried it!

Rating: ☺☺☺☻☻ (3/5)

ALCOHOL:

We LOVED the all inclusive aspect of this! Our room mini bar was always stocked (for the most part...depended on what time of day they came to replenish) The beer selection was lacking...with only Guiness or their Bahaman version of a Budlight on tap....and not always was the Crown Royal available at every bar. (Chad would ask for a Crown Royal/Coke almost every time...and faired somewhat unsuccessful most of the time....they would even try and just bring Jack/Coke without saying anything...but we could always tell right away). We especially enjoyed the swim up bar and them bringing around drinks they would mix up to try while we sat by the pool. It seemed as though we drank wine pretty every time we ate...(aside from breakfast)

Rating: ☺☺☺☻☻

SCENERY:

Who could complain about waking up to blue waters, a beach, lounging by the peaceful lull of the ocean, beautiful sunrises and hardly any clouds in the sky for 7 days?!?! Not us!! Although the water was a little choppy the last couple of days...we loved the atmosphere. The golf course had beautiful views, which we LOVED (almost more than the golfing!)

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☻ (Chad says he would have given it a 5/5 but the water was just too blue...haha)

ROOM/ATMOSPHERE:

Overall, we really enjoyed our room. The beds were SOOOO comfortable....and spent every day with a good nap. We had lots of space and was at ground level, where had a little patio to enjoy coffee in the mornings or sit in the evening and enjoy the cooler temperatures looking into the gardens. The atmosphere of the resort was very calm and the staff was always very accomodating. However, some of them didn't enjoy their job...and weren't always willing to answer our questions. Nothing ever got too crazy at night...and you could be as involved or secluded as you wanted to be. We were probably more the latter. Every restaurant and facility had it's own unique ambience...where we were able to just spend some time together... And the fact that our cell service was very limited and you had to pay for your daily usage of internet...we were able to spend more time without our cellphones in our pocket and focus on each other. We spent most of our time at the pool or beach...which neither of us had complaints about!

Rating:☺☺☺☺☺

ACTIVITIES:

One of the greatest highlights of our trip was the golfing. Although it was a little warm for our liking...and we lost a lot of balls....we had a great time! The views were pretty unbelievable....and the course was pretty nice. The greens were slower than we expected...and we compared it to some of the nicer course we would go to from time to time in Colorado. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Aside from golf we also spent a morning at the spa, a few times at the workout facility and some time enjoying kayaking in the ocean.

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☻

TRAVELING:

I have to say, although the trip itself and the time spend at the resort were very relaxing...traveling and going through customs was too stressful. On the way there we connected twice to two flights in "tin cans". Customs was not an experience I liked...things were not clearly marked and you never knew where you had to go to do what. Going there AFTER we had to claim our bags and go through customs, we had one more flight to catch where we had to re-check in, go through security and wait in their "terminal" which was an un-airconditioned place about as big as our living room...and our flight was delayed. Once arriving in George Town...the baggage claim was literally everyone standing in the parking lot where they pulled the cart up and it was free for all for who could reach their bags. That was Chad's job...I kept our place in line for the taxiing to the resort. Coming back we were delayed in Miami....and had to do the whole claim your baggage/customs thing again (they really need a new process). As much as traveling internationally is appealing...I would SOOO pay to not have to do the whole customs process to do it! And because of the flight situation both ways....we missed the Husker games (which would have worked out that we got to watch them if flights weren't delayed and worked out as planned). It was lots of traveling/transferring that just wore us out!

Rating: ☺☺☻☻☻

OVERALL RATING: ☺☺☺☺☻

Although some of the trip didn't meet our expectations....we would definitely do it again and recommend a trip that lasts a week with that special someone distraction/interruption free... to EVERYONE!!

Here are a few more pictures from the trip!