A Journal, with Pictures

We depart­ed Hilton Head Thurs­day April twen­ty fifth for Sara­so­ta to spend an after­noon and evening with our NCR colleagues,the Whites,Stephans and Exleys. We arrived in time for lunch with Elton, Gordy, and Chuck, then spent the after­noon vis­it­ing with the Whites. We had din­ner with all three cou­ples and soaked in the great Sara­so­ta ambiance with our friends. Fri­day morn­ing, after one of Gordy’s great break­fast, we head­ed for the air­port and flew to Fort Laud­erdale. We spend the day with Jen­nifer and Alexan­dra, our daugh­ter and grand daugh­ter and were joined by Mike for a birth­day din­ner. Sat­ur­day was more fam­i­ly time and then we joined the COPA group at the depar­ture hotel near KFXE, for the trip brief­ing and cock­tails. The trip was expert­ly orga­nized by Joe McMonigle, Nan­cy and Jim Knol­len­berg. After the brief­ing we had din­ner , with our friends from Texas, Bob and Mary Miller. The next morn­ing we start­ed a trip that would take us to Trea­sure Cay in the Bahamas and then on to the Domini­can Republic.

The flight to the Bahamas was easy, over gor­geous water, past Grand Bahama Island into Aba­co, only one hun­dred fifty five miles. Its an impres­sive site to see 30 Cir­rus parked on the ramp. What was more impres­sive is the atten­dee’s were from as far away as Ore­gon, North­ern and South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, Cana­da and all across the Unit­ed States. We were greet­ed by the Bahami­an tourist rep­re­sen­ta­tives and served the oblig­a­tory rum or Bahami­an beer.

After the short flight, we checked into the Bahama Beach Resort, which is on a beau­ti­ful beach. We relaxed, had lunch and then attend­ed the cock­tail recep­tion at the Tip­sy Seag­ull at the Trea­sure Cay Mari­na resort, host­ed by the Bahami­an tourist bureau. After din­ner we found a very nice restau­rant and dined with COPA friends.

 

Mon­day, every­one did there own thing, includ­ing boat excur­sions, explor­ing the area by golf cart, beach time or just hang­ing out with friends. We did the explor­ing and some beach time.

The group din­ner was on the beach and it turned out to be a great evening.

Tues­day, there was a option­al boat trip to Green Tur­tle Cay for tour­ing shop­ping and lunch. Just about every­one decid­ed to go. This is a small island that was col­o­nized by the “loy­al­ist”, basi­cal­ly, the losers in the rev­o­lu­tion­ary war. It is quaint and his­toric and a great place to visit.

We board­ed the boat for a short trip around the island for lunch to a great place, the Green Tur­tle Club.

Back to Trea­sure Island and then guess what, cock­tails before din­ner. Din­ner at one of the good local restau­rants and then file the flight plan either back to Flori­da or in our case to the Domini­can Republic.

Joe, Nan­cy and Jim did a great job orga­niz­ing the trip to the Bahamas and every­one had a great time. Some head­ed west and some head­ed south, but all left Trea­sure Cay with a great expe­ri­ence and more COPA friends.

Wednes­day we got up ear­ly and were out smart­ed by the hotel tele­phone so we filed on the phone at the air­port. No big deal, we were in the air head­ed for our refu­el­ing stop on time. In the Bahamas, they want to make it a, “no prob­lem mon”, expe­ri­ence and it was. Onward!