Today I’m turning over the blog and giving full posting powers to the one and only Little Ocho. I figured it’s her story to tell and it will be better told in her own words. I had her type everything up and she agreed to let me edit a little bit and add pictures. I’m dividing it into a few different installments because my girl is nothing if not detailed and descriptive. And so, here’s her story:
On Sunday morning, I woke up at 4:45 to the sound of Chase’s little brother Trey bouncing around our room screaming into our ears “wake up, wake up!” I had spent the night with them to attend Chase’s dance recital and we had all had a long night and wanted to sleep in, but it wasn’t meant to be. We got dressed and headed to the airport. During the drive Trey, Chase, Dr. Hunter, and I sang a continuous marathon of Taylor Swift songs. On the way, we saw one of Dr. Loden’s billboards and I then I realized who I was going on this trip with.
When we arrived at the airport, there were only about five or six planes, all chartered. In the lobby we met Heather Loden, who is very sweet and pretty, and her two young boys, James, who is 8 and Reed, who is 6 (and also the cutest thing ever!) Dr. Loden came trotting in and quickly greeted us scanning over our names. At first he called me Olivia.
We headed outside and saw our plane. It was very small, especially on the inside, but yet spacey at the same time because there was no strange man snoring on your shoulder the whole time.
After some brief instructions from our pilot we settled in and got to know each other. Reed informed me of how old he is going to turn next year, then the next, then the next, and so on until nineteen. Then the plane took off and we all turned on our electronics and were sucked in until the boys started asking, “Are we there yet?” They asked until the plane landed, but thankfully it was only a two and a half hour flight.
We stepped into the humid Bahama air which smelled naturally of pineapple and sun tan lotion. After filling out paperwork for customs, we met our host, Mr. Scott who is the owner of the Bougainvillea house where we were staying. Then we climbed into two separate vans which had a steering wheel on the right and a sign that said “keep left “ which meant drive on left side only. We drove for about 30 minutes listening to Scott’s stories of various wrecks in the area and how it happens so often to Americans because of the unusual driving customs. The stories made me nervous because Dr. Hunter kept pulling out on the right lane and swerving around ditches. Then, right around the corner, we found the beautiful house with palm trees growing coconuts and the tropical flowers everywhere and the smell of the ocean wrapped around us like a blanket.
I picked up my luggage and Chase and I raced the boys into the house to get first picks on our room. There was one bedroom downstairs with the smallest bathroom, smallest bed, and smallest dresser and the ugliest comforter. We were certain Trey was going to get either that bedroom or the sofa bed. Chase and I selected a big bedroom with an iPod charger with a speaker and a stairway to the roof and a big pink bed. We were halfway done unpacking when we were told to go to the bedroom downstairs, but we were right about Trey getting booted to the sofa bed! We repacked then unpacked again before being told to put on our suits and sunscreen up. We did as we were told then walked into the kitchen to find Scott and his wife Karla, who is from South America. They told us that they were going to take us on their boat to the sand bars to look for starfish and swim around for a few hours. So with that we got into the vans and drove to the boat dock.
We carefully climbed into their boat and got situated then we took off. It amazed me how blue the water was and how clear as well. Very different from the water you see in Florida or any lake in Tennessee. A few minutes later we arrived at these beautiful sand bars that form in the middle of the ocean over long periods of time according to tide.
We were the first to find something and the boys were not happy because they had been snorkeling for about two hours and didn’t want to be shown up by a couple of girls. But it was too late, because we already did.
After we got some good pictures of the fish we got back on the boat and headed to another island right next to where they shot the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. When we pulled up, there were starfish everywhere! They were all red, and all the same size, as big as the one Chase and I had found. So, our moment of victory only lasted or 30 minutes, but at least ours was pink.
The boys gathered all of the fish and put them in a big cluster. Scott then announced that we were going to go on a hike. After asking him multiple times if we needed our shoes he firmly said no and we headed on only to find that the trail looked like a desert and there were rocks everywhere. When we got to the other side we saw the most beautiful colored water I had ever seen at the beach. There were many rock jetties and the sand was made completely of broken shells. We then decided it was time to leave and took the trail back only to find that our starfish had all separated and gone back to the exact places where we had found them when we arrived. It was what Dr. Hunter liked to call “nature”. It’s his favorite word and was used many times on the trip.
After riding on the boat for a while we stopped at this island with a restaurant called “The Chat ‘n Chill.” The place was family friendly on the outside with rope swings and a basketball court but not so much on the inside. Chase and I asked if we could sit outside while we waited for our food. We got our food about an hour later, burgers that were burnt to a crisp with buns 2 times bigger than the burgers. The fries were pretty good though.
After our strange dinner experience we got back on the boat and rode to the dock as tired as could be. We sluggishly walked to the vans in the light rain. All I wanted was a hot shower and a cozy bed. As soon as we got home I showered and eased into bed and instantly fell asleep. This had been one fun- filled day!
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