Port Day #6

Day 10, Friday, January 12, 2024, Bimini, Bahamas, and Heading Back to Port Everglades

Here's the story of me and Bimini. It explains why I'm happy to visit Bimini today. You probably know I'm a musician. My primary instrument is piano. As a child and young person, growing up in Orlando, I also learned to play organ, clarinet, oboe, guitar, a tiny bit of banjo, and—wait for it—accordion. I was asked several times, probably 1964, 1965, and 1966, to travel to foreign countries for Seventh-day Adventist youth conferences to play my accordion, accompanying worship services. First to Guatemala. I thought it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. I was 14. The next year, over Christmas break, the conference was on a little island off the coast of Miami—Bimini. The next year I made my first trip to Europe and I was bitten by the travel bug. I've jumped at every opportunity to travel ever since those trips with my accordion.

I don't remember much about that trip to Bimini except that there was a storm and our trip had to be extended. I was sad that my big brothers were going to be leaving to go back to Columbia Union College and I was upset that I wouldn't see them before they left. So I asked my parents if I could fly back to Miami. They called Chalk's Flying Service and arranged a ticket, and Mother drove the four hours to Miami to pick me up. When I learned the final port for this cruise would be Bimini, I remembered Mother driving to Miami and that Chalk's terminal was near the football stadium in Miami, the site of the annual Orange Bowl football game, which was played on New Year's Day from 1935 through 2014. So it seems Mother gave up her New Year's Day to drive to the 230 miles to Miami. And wouldn't you know it, she arrived in all the traffic of fans arriving for the game. That poor woman made a lot of sacrifices for me during her life.

I bought her an Irish linen tea towel with a map of Bimini on it. Various landmarks were shown on the towel, and she kept it all her life. When I moved her out of her assisted living facility and into the nursing home, the tea towel was still in her possession and now lives with me. I remember that experience every time I use it to dry clean dishes in my Ohio kitchen. So I am very excited to visit Bimini today.

Before we headed ashore, we had breakfast with Mike and Marilyn at the Pinnacle Grill. Then back to our rooms for 45 minutes before meeting at 10:00 to go ashore.

There was a free tram running from the port to the Resort World and the Hilton. Their purpose was to bring business to the hotels and casino. They didn't care anything about people getting to Alice Town and Bailey Town. My sole goal was to get to Nate's Bimini Bread in Alice Town to sample some of the coconut rolls my brother had been telling me about. And with a little scheming and borrowing, we made it happen. Everything Jerry said about that bread was true. And if only the coffee shop in the little Resorts World shopping center had a working coffeemaker when we returned there, those rolls would have been even better!

My man, Jas, looking like a child. 😃 And eating a couple rolls of Nate's Bimini Bread.

After finishing our rolls and bottles of water, we hopped onto the shuttle and rode back to the ship.

Beautiful ship. Beautiful sky.

Lunch at, where else?, the Dive In. Then to see how much organized packing I can get done before dinner.

Final cocktail hour, all six of us, in the Pinnacle Bar. Tom and Kerry had their last supper in Canaletto. When we see them next, I hope to hear that they loved it, as we do. Mike and Marilyn, and Jas and I went to enjoy dinner with the help of Hendra, A.A. and Dwinda in the Main Dining Room. We enjoyed our dinner, but the highlight was when we heard some live music beginning and the saw a stream of servers, assistant servers, and kitchen crew circling through the second and third floor dining rooms to say goodbye to all of us and soak in our applause and appreciation for their service.

Dwinda's contract ends tomorrow. She will work 1½ hours in the morning, then head to the airport to begin a very long flight to Java.

I traveled to Singapore—ultimately to Bali—in 2018. Here's what I wrote in that blog post about the international portion of that transpacific travel:
"A few minutes after midnight, we took off from San Francisco. SFO to Taipei (13:30 and lose a day to the International Date Line, 2:17 layover); Taipei to Singapore (4:27). In case you were counting, that’s almost 24 hours of flying time and 10½ hours changing planes and walking around time."

My heart goes with Dwinda as she makes this long journey and then spends two months with her family while figuring out what's next in her life. I've grown very fond of this lovely young woman during our nine days together.

Photos: Dinner. 1) I began with the Boston Lettuce Salad with Haricot Vert with pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and feta. 2) My three companions chose the Seafood Spring Roll with sweet chili sauce. 3) I had eaten those two Bimini Bread rolls at 11:00 a.m., and a hamburger and fries at 2:00, so I wasn't very hungery. For my main course, I had the spring roll. Jas, who can always eat good food, enjoyed the Braised Beef Short Ribs with pineapple pico mole. 4) Jas and I both chose the Apple Crumble Tart with vanilla sauce. It was only about 2½ inches across, so I figured I could make room for that. 5) M&M both chose the Sacher Torte with apricot preserves and a little dollop of whipped cream. It was not small!! 😉 That meal was a lovely goodbye to the Eurodam.

Our cabin always had fresh flowers. When we got back from dinner, the flowers had been refreshed, ready for the new occupants who will arrive tomorrow afternoon.

Some last minute packing, affixing luggage tags, placing my bag outside the door, and snuggling down for a good night's sleep before we head into very cold weather tomorrow.