SGS Meets HD at Last by "Gigi" & "Opa"

Exuma airport was a busy place last Monday as we bid Tara farewell as she returns to school and welcomed Chrissy, Jaime and Sophia for their first visit to HD. We had some time all together as we introduced Aunt Tara to her niece for her first hugs and kisses before heading back to Georgetown and 

lunch at Eddie's Edgewater, affectionately known as "Fast Eddies" to us.

HD was at anchor across the harbor which was still quite rough from the front that had just passed so the girls took the water taxi across and  Jaime and I filled our three 6 gallon jugs of water at the Exuma Market dingy dock and headed to HD against the wind/waves.

Jaime's first introduction to sailing was a thorough soaking before even getting on the sail boat which I'm guessing was a welcome deprive from the dingy ride.

Now all assembled on HD we could enjoy our time together for a short five days.

Starting with....

The "Star of the Show" in George Town, Exumas

Finally, after four long months of not being able to hold her, Opa and Gigi fell in love with Sophia all over again this past week... How could we not?  She's SOOOOO adorable!  Look at these shots-we have hundreds more just as beautiful.  She loves to smile at Opa's duck quacking and Gigi's "Pillow Puppet" actually made her belly laugh out loud!

Upon arrival, Opa shows Sophia her new bed...a lee cloth, like Mummy had long ago-all decorated in PINK, but never to be slept in...It's better by the generator to hum her to sleep!

I do not know what happened with this giggle video, but it's not working out for me with the videos so far.  Looks kinda cool tho, all digitized.  I like it.  You'd really like the video, maybe I can post it on Facebook.  I'll try later.

They left her alone with me...we had to play dress-up!

Kickin' back, Bahama style

Seriously, folks.  This is how she looks MOST of the time-what a Doll baby!  All smiles until she gets too much BEACH!
The little "Kew Gardener" can't take that much bright sunlight for long.  Maybe next year??

"I'll take it from here, Mummy"

After yoga on the beach for the grown up girls (well sorta)...
a decision on sailing or diving had to be made due to the weather.  Sailing to Emerald Bay Marina ten miles north won out. Unfortunately this meant Chrissy who had been looking forward to diving would not be able to on this trip. Diving and flying don't mix as a 24 hour grace period between the two in necessary for the body to equalize.  While there is a dive operation at the marina our schedule and their's didn't jibe. Chrissy will have to come back with her family for a longer stay which will accommodate a dive.

Before we left George Town, we took the dinghy over behind Chat n Chill and hiked over the "mountain"(as the Cracker calls it) to the ocean side to show Sophia what a beautiful private Bahamian beach looked like.  We built her a special "sun tent" and had a picnic lunch on Gigi's many "pareos".  Wrote Sophia a love letter in the sand on the way home...Awww! (See photo above-it won't move down here where it belongs!)

That SPF 50 really worked!

Building the tent with Pareos and banner sticks

She loved all the colors!

Emerald Bay Marina is a five star facility previously operated by Four Seasons until the owners went bust and now it is a Sandals Resort. It is the nicest marina HD has seen in the first 11 months of the voyage; concierge service, a very nice lounge with free coffee all day, DVD's to loan, a book exchange, laundry room with commercial machines that are FREE, showers, sinks and heads individually set up and very clean, complete with shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash and the works! The big one is FREE actual high speed internet which makes Cin very content and is the reason we have delayed our departure for a few days, so she could finally POST some blogs!

We did get a chance to snorkel and see some fish at the condo development next store while Sophia slipped in her beach tent.

This time we had REAL wood to make a tee-pee tent and she fell fast asleep...but...
awoke hot, still tired and NOT happy for the walk home to HD!

So much fun, so many laughs, but the best part of the trip was watching Mummy eat Gigi's apple crisp and vanilla ice cream while I gummed the plate...my day will come!