first few days~

Friday: Flying with a wedding dress and groom suit is not fun. Especially when you have an unhelpful (or perhaps newly divorced?) Delta gate agent... *smile
So we arrive to the Atlanta airport by city cab (dirty, hot, and very "public") with a very delicate and heavy garment bag, one "personal item" each (a large, overweight purse for me and an overstuffed Camelbak bag pack for Ben), one large carry-on duffel bag, and 3 pieces of checked luggage. What a site we must have been! Thank goodness for the sweet baggage check agents who warmed us with wedding wishes and 2 free drink tickets...off to a great start! Bags checked (minus carry-ons and personal items) and off to Starbucks for one last gourmet latte and some breakfast before the flight.
Luckily the flight was uneventful, despite my separation anxiety from my dress and his suit.
We arrive to Nassau, get our bags again (very unique site I'm sure for that airport), and park our butts and bags at the local domestic "wing" lounge appropriately titled "Da Hang Over".

if you could only see all the luggage; plus wedding dress taking a break too.

what a freakin' cutie.

We rest, read, imbibe on the local beer, Kalik and grab some nibbles from Wendy's. Yes, Wendy's. The Bahamians love their American fast food. But their chicken nuggets are sea-salted and quite tasty in a pinch.
Finally after our 3 hour wait, we are ready to board our 30 passenger plane to Marsh Harbour. Of course, because you have to check even your carry-ons on this short flight, having the garment bag is like traveling with an infant (picture it lying on me like a sleeping baby during our 30 min flight). All's well on this flight and the views of the islands are comforting from above.

Ben & G having fun  '11

Ben and I's friend, Gustaf (from Sweden)  picks us up in his SUV (much needed and appreciated) and back at Door Prize we go (name of the house). After sunset, conch blowing, and some refreshing later, we are dining with G (Gustaf) at Wally's. They have a new chef- French but had been living in NY. Of course G is friends with him and of course we see other people we know at the restaurant. Welcome to Small town Bahamas! Dinner was great, although I really need to get used to "island time" (a.k.a sssslllllloooooowwwwwwwwwww) We were there for a long while, but the fresh snapper, seafood pasta, salads, and G's Pasta Bolagnese were very tasty. Thank you to G for this delicious evening!  Alas, we are exhausted from our travels and retire back to Door Prize to ready for our getting ready.

2:30 am and awake with anxiety, both of us. Are you ok? Am I ok? Are we ok? Is this ok? Very appropriate, yet still very emotional questions during this first night back in Abaco (for good, I remind you, not just vacation, but AWAY from the very-known to the some-what-known, for good). After some much needed emoting through tears and words, we are ready to rest peacefully; holding onto each other as we will for the rest of our lives *smile.

Saturday & Sunday: Ahh, the real settling in begins. Of course, Saturday mornings must begin with some Chicken Souse and Johnny Cake (very common local breakfast). No bloodies this am as we have things to do: we proceed with our errands of groceries, checking/cleaning the house & the boat, making our to-do lists, etc. Uneventful events...so moving on.  Thank Goodness for Skype~ a lovely late night chat with my mom and Dan catching up on the events, talking about the wedding, and laughing with each other (all in good wine spirits!) Skyping will help keep me grounded, as it helped keep Ben and I sane during 2 years of long distance!
The next day the power is off & on (common) so some of our to-do items get shifted in priorities. When back on, I start catching up on emails, try to figure out this blog thing and then I hear "Baby, Baby..." from the back and Ben has arrived carrying 3 beautiful lobster that he speared nearby. Wow. Yes. That man is my soon-to-be-hubby who has promised to take care of me forever. 3 Spiny lobsters is a wonderful Abaconian start! *smiling
So we put the tails in the frig for later and I Google lobster stock recipes, since this is my first experience. And hours later the aroma has us melting... Dinner consists of grilled lobster tail and veggie pasta made with lobster stock. Ri-dic-u-lous. *super smile

Monday: Time to make the Doughnuts! Well, not so much but structuring yourself to "get up with the sun" as Ben puts it is very important. Since we don't necessarily have to "clock in" for our days, we must stay on task and keep each other in balance. Luckily we are a very good team :)
Breakfast: Yogurt, bran, fresh papaya, blueberries and bananas (a usual for us no matter where we are) and off to work we go...
While work has a lot of manual labor and like tasks, mind you that the view surrounding is amazing. Absolutely amazing...