Cruise day 5 Nassau Bahamas

Since our glass bottom boat tour was canceled in Freeport we figured we would try again in Nassau so we got up and dressed and before we went to breakfast we arrived at the excursion desk at 7:55 to find out that the glass bottom boat tour leaves at 8am. Guess we should have checked that out the night before huh? All the tours left by 9:30 and the ones we were interested in had already left so we decided to go do our own thang again. I like history tours so after we left the boat we were funneled into a building in order to actually step foot on the island. I stopped at the info desk and asked about a historic walking tour. The lady brought us to Wanita, who was an off duty police officer who offered to give us a tour for $10/each. She didn't even wait around for other people, so we got a private tour for $20! She took us to their parliament and courthouse area and explained how their government works and such, we walked to what was left of the old Flagler Hotel (the same flagler who brought the railroad to Key west). She told us about the history of the island and showed us the library which is inside the old octagon shaped prison. The cells are the rooms where the books are! She took us to the old fort on the hill. It was $1 per person to get in the fort so she waited outside while Jon and I quickly explored the tiny little fort and took some pictures then we walked up to the Queens Staircase. The staircase was built as a shortcut in case of emergency and took the slaves 15 years to cut out all the stone and build the 62 stairs. It had a cool waterfall next to the stairs. It was a very good tour and after it was over, she pointed us to the best place to get some good Bahamian food, a strip of resteraunts called "the Fish Fry" We walked towards the bus stop where the #10 bus would take us there and stopped on our way there at "the famous straw market" It was a very crowded flea market type things where just about every stall sold exactly the same things. We stopped and got the kids some souvineers. We got Ella a woven palm frond purse which the lady put Ella's name on it for her, Wesley got a carved turtle and some magnets (he loves magnets!) Jon picked out a little ship-in-a-bottle and a conch horn. The horn was the hardest thing to find, most of the places only had the shells, but not the ones sawed off for horns, the first lady with a horn wanted $40 for it, we finally found a girl who sold Jon a horn for $10. He took a wile trying all the horns to get the one he liked the sound of best. After we were done shopping, we caught the bus to the fish fry. We walked over to a little beach and took some pictures then we checked out the resteraunts. Most of them charged a bit more than we wanted to pay, but we found one that had reasonable prices and we sat down to have some Bahamian food. We had grilled grouper with veggies and Bahamian spices, fried conch, plantains and coleslaw. It was all delicious. well, except the water, which was GROSS. After lunch we stopped by a little fruit stand to try some sapodilla fruit. Wanita had pointed out a tree that had this strange little fruit on it and told us it was a very delicious fruit from the islands. So we got 3 for $1 and tried them out. Word to the wise... don't eat the peel, gross! I didn't like the flavor of the fruit, but Jon liked it a lot so he ate most of the fruit. Then we caught the bus back to the downtown area and walked over to "Junkaroo beach" We walked out on the pier thing and took pictures then stopped at the Tiki Bikini hut to have a fresh coconut. The guy chopped it open and gave us a straw to drink the milk, then he cracked it the rest of the way open and we ate the "meat" it was chewy and not at all sweet, but good! We were both tired from all the walking by now, so we decided to head back to the ship. We passed a shaved ice place on the way so I made Jon stop since I LOVE shaved ice. Then we went back on the boat for a nap before dinner. Jon wanted to watch the boat cast off so we went up and stood around FOREVER waiting for the ship to get ready. It was neat to watch the ship leave the port. Jon decided to get out and play with his contact juggling balls. He practiced out in the elevator hallway, since it had carpet and enough room to do it. He attracted quite a crowd of interested people and the rest of the cruise, if we weren't stopped and talked to for being "the dancers" Jon was stopped for being "the ball guy". He won't admit it , but he loved all the attention. We took the balls with us to dinner and he showed off his mad skills in the lobby for a while, people were most impressed! It was a wonderful ending to our last shore day.