We woke up the next morning at around 8:00. We all ate breakfast (although, I ate by meself, because I couldn’t find everyone) and then met up and left the ship. We decided to take my cousin’s best friend w/ us, since her family wasn’t doing anything she was interested in. After stepping off, I decided to take this pic of the ship:

Afterwards, we went through the port building where we looked around for a little bit. When we first step inside, you’re greeted by this sign above the information desk:

Continuing inward, you then see a whole bunch of shops:

And then, after the shop stalls, you then see a neat little bandstand, where the players allow you to play music for a while! My cousin, her friend, and my brother wasted no time on taking up the opportunity, and then, my mom decided to join in as well. Here are those pics:

We then went back outside, where we met up with my cousin’s friend’s parents. We there decided what we wanted to do all day. We basically each decided to go our seperate ways. My cousin’s friend’s family went their own way (to learn about the historics of the island), my mom, my brother, my cousin, and her friend met up with the other families that came along with us to go snorkling, and my dad and I basically decided to hit the casinos, since the legal gambling age was 18, and not 21.

So, once we said good-bye to everyone, me and my dad went our seperate ways from everyone else. The first thing we did was get a taxi to take us to the casino. I managed to snap this pic while in the taxi (we were with a few other people):

No, this pic hasn’t been edited - that’s the right side of the van you’re seeing the driver on - they drive on the opposite side of the road in the bahamas! Although, the far majority of cars still have the driver on the left side and not the right, which I think is better.

Well, after a few minutes, we arrive at the casino. But, instead, my dad and I changed our minds and headed over to the beach instead, which is just on the other side of the building. While, there, I take perhaps my favorite pic of all from the whole vacation:

Just look at that white sandy beach and those blue ocean waters! That’s not a site you’ll see on most coastal areas of the US.

We walked along the beach to the casino, but unfortunately for us, only people staying at that hotel could go in the way we went, so we had to walk all the way around to the front. But on just before we got to there, my dad got hungry, so we decided to take a taxi back to the ship so we can eat (because the cost of food on the ship is included in the price of the trip, and you actually have to pay for things you buy in the Bahamas, and everything in the Bahamas is way overpriced).

So, went back onto the ship and ate, and then afterwards, we took another taxi back to the casino, and of course, this time we went in through the front.

We basically played Blackjack the whole time, although at one point, my dad did play roulette. We played 2 types of Blackjack. The first was the regular game, but then that table closed up, so after taking a brief walk outside, we went to another table, and with that one, I couldn’t let my dad see my cards or give me advice on what to do. I forget the name of it though.

Well, decided to cash out. Having my dad not give me advice really helped out, as so far on the whole trip, 3/4 of what I lost was due to my dad’s advice. So, I had a bit of a profit after we stopped. But, before we left, my dad decided to play “viritual blackjack”, where it’s played just like a table, except there’s a viritual dealer (i.e., it’s a computer). I didn’t want to play, but my dad made me play a couple of hands, and because I did, I ended up back in the red, but not by much.

We finally left and got a taxi to take us back to the ship. While in the taxi (which is actually a van), I shot a vid showing that we were driving on the opposite side of the road. Here’s that vid.

After we got back to where the ship was, we went browsing in the various shops they had there. Afterwards, we went back on the ship and caught up with everyone else.

We found my mom and the rest of my family, and it was at this point that things got very interesting. My mom told us of this hilarious story about one of the people at the shops offering her an extra large t-shirt because the shop employee thought my mom was pregnant! However, that was not the highlight of the day.

Well, we got ready and went to dinner and while in line, we told the friends we went with the story about my mom’s “pregnancy”. We then went into the dining room and ate dinner and desert. Here are the pictures from that event:

My cousin isn’t in these pictures, because she didn’t go to dinner that night because she was tired after all that she did that day. Too bad she wasn’t there because she missed perhaps the most notable and hilarious event of the day (and possibly of the whole vacation).

It turns out, the husband of one of the families we went with got such a kick out of my mom’s “pregnancy” story, thtat he slipped word to one of the waiters. Well, just as us kids were about to leave and do our own thing, the waiters told all of us to stay because they had to sing. And as we were all wondering “Sing for what?”, they placed a fruit platter with a lit candle in it in front of my mom and sang “Congratulations” to the tune of “Happy Birthday”. All of us kids were like “Oh my god...”, the adults were laughing, and my mom was embarrassed.

During the dinner, I snapped these pictures:

The picture on the left is just of the ceiling in the dining room. The picture on the right is a window shot. I took one that night because the first night, we were at sea, and there was nothing but total blackness, so this time, there was actually stuff outside to photograph!

Well, after dinner was over, my dad and I went back into the casino, and unfortunately, the bad luck bug bit me, because I lost a decent amount of money. And once again, as I’ve already mentioned, 1/2 of what I lost was because of my dad and his friend’s (Mr. Salmon) bad advice. The other half wasn’t really all my doing, I just got a lot of bad cards.

But, to add some fun to the mix, while we were in the casino, we ended up having a blackout! The lights had been flickering slightly the whole time we were on the cruise, so it seems the electricity was being pushed just a tad too much. The problem was fixed in a matter of minutes, but because they had no power, and no “security” in the casino (cameras and not enough light to make sure people weren’t stealing anything), they had to close the casino until they got the power back up and running. For some reason, there was a woman my mom was sitting next to at the slot machines, and she seriously thought it was a terrorist attack, and of course, it wasn’t.

Well, after the power came back on, we continued to play for a little while longer before calling it a night. However, still finding it early, I decided to go souvenier shopping and take some more pics of the lobby, and being nighttime, it was a lot more lit up:

After I took these, I did decide to call it a night.

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