Atlantis - Better Late Than Never

I have been working on this post for quite awhile now. I finished the text several weeks ago, but it took me forever to download all the pictures. Then I tried to get the pictures placed where I wanted them in the text but found I couldn't move the pictures. I tried both computers but still nothing would work. So, here is our trip review, however, as you read the text you will have to scroll back up to find the pictures that match but oh well.

Jeremy and I were invited by the CEO of his company to attend The Presidents Club trip. Apparently, every year as an incentive for the sales reps they take the top sellers on a trip. As an engineer Jeremy would not normally have this opportunity but the CEO will periodically invite a few others to take part as well and this year we were invited. The trip was to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. I was so excited just for the chance to have a relaxing week with Jeremy but when we got there I realized just what an amazing place it was. Not only is it a fabulous resort right on the beach but it also is an incredible waterpark and huge aquarium. I have never seen so many fish and sea creatures before.

Jeremy had a couple of meetings to attend with the other invitees and we had a welcome reception and an awards dinner but other than that the rest of the week was ours to do with as we pleased.

The resort had so many options available -- all at a cost of course. We could have swam with dolphins or walked with sharks. We could have gone deep sea fishing on a yacht or jet skiing or parasailing. We opted not to do any of those things. We spent most of our time reading on the beach. For someone who loves to read it was fantastic! We would get up in the morning and head out to the beach. Lay out and read until we were too hot and then we would jump up and head to the lazy/rapids river. It was a mile long river that you rode on tubes. The rapids parts were fun and then there were sections where we could lay back and relax. From the river you could veer off and be carried to a set of waterslides never have to leave your tube. They were like roller coasters sending you down a hill and then pushing you up a hill with water. I wish I could have taken a picture but the camera wouldn't have liked the ride. Those waterslides would dump back into the river so you would have to get out at all if you didn't want to. They had other slides that you had to walk up to, but were equally exciting. One set of slides, one that used a tube and one that didn't, slid down a Mayan Temple right through a shark tank. The portion of the slide that went through the sharks was clear so you could see the sharks swimming beside you. They were amazing! We would play in the water until we were cold or tired and then we would head back out to the beach to warm up.

Everyday we had lunch on the beach. They had several outdoor grills where we would grab lunch. The food was great but the prices were astronomical! By the end of the week I found myself thinking that $5 for a bagel was a good deal.

When we found ourselves needing a break from the beach, we would go visit the aquarium. It was fantastic! I kept finding myself thinking, "the kids would love this!" everytime we saw something new. They had every type of fish you could imagine and some of them were huge! We saw sting rays, manta rays, many different types of sharks, eels, lobsters, jellyfish, etc. The main aquarium was called The Dig and it was located just below the lobby in the main towers. Floor to ceiling clear walls looking right into the sea creatures. It was designed to look like you were looking at the ruins of the actual lost city of Atlantis under the sea. It was amazing! From the balcony off the lobby you could look down into the water and see the same animals from above. We loved to walk along the balcony at night and watch the huge manta rays swim (it actually looked more like they were flying) along. The Predator Lagoon was another one of our favorite places. That was where the sharks and other predators were located(except for the sharks at the bottom of the Mayan Temple). Again you would go underground so you could see them face to face. Here they even had a tunnel that was see through that went right through the middle of the lagoon. As you walked through it, the sharks would literally swim beside you and above you. During the day it was neat, at night I found it a little creepy. Up above they had signs all over reminding people not to swim in the predator lagoon. We found them quite humorous.

In another part of the resort was Dolphin Cay. Apparently the dolphins that were displaced by Hurricane Katrina came to live there. We didn't pay the huge amounts they wanted to be able to swim with the dolphins although it looked amazing. We watched from the sidelines but were still hugely impressed with the dolphins and all their jumps and tricks.

We had our first experience with snorkeling on this trip -- well, at least I did. I don't know if Jeremy has snorkeled before. It was almost scary to be in the midst of so many fish. We were even able to reach out and touch some although they were amazingly fast and would move away quickly when we would reach out. We even saw a sting ray and some jellyfish swimming around. It was pretty cool!

We also tried kayaking in a glass bottom kayak. The kayak did have a see-through bottom although it was pretty cloudy. We could see better by just looking over the side of the boat. Sadly, we didn't see much. I think total, we saw three fish. Oh well. It was fun just paddling around the lagoon.

A few days before the end of our trip we ran out of sunblock and had to buy some there. On our last day I was using the new sunblock and Jeremy looked over and mentioned that my legs were looking red. I decided that they did look red so I applied more sunblock. A little while later we had the same conversation and I applied more sunblock. This happened several times before I realized that the red spots on my legs were raised. It wasn't a sunburn at all! The new sunblock was giving me a rash. Since it was the last day, I just figured that I would be ok without sunblock for the rest of the day. Luckily the rash went away in a couple days but it drove me crazy because I was itching all over. I would have rather been sunburnt!

It was a fabulous trip and we hope to be able to take the kids back there someday. How lucky we were to be invited!