More Bahamanian fun!!

Hey all,

Well it’s Saturday morning around 6am and I am in line to get tickets for this evening’s game.  It’s still first come first served and while we moved over a bit yesterday to a different section, it was also right behind the Villanova bench and they had a lot of lookie lous (loos?) that stood.  Mainly the 3 walk-ons at the end of the bench…their biggest cheering section.  Sam and Tam came down here at 4:30 yesterday and no one else showed up till 5:45.  We figured 6 would get us some more people in front of us, moving us up a bit, but when I got here at 6:10, there was only one other guy here.  Guess the game last night took the air out of the sails of the “faithful”.

Enough of that for now, let’s go back to a couple of days ago!

We dove Thursday morning for our last 2 dives.  I think we all probably would have been content with ending out diving with Wednesday’s shark dive but we booked before we came down here and who know it would be relatively sparse on the dives.  Sure we know NOW, but that doesn’t really help.

The first dive was at a site called DC3 where, you guessed it, a plane…or at least part of one, was sunk.  It was used in the movie Into the Blue with Paul Walker and Jessica Alba, a not very good hidden treasure movie with bikinis.  From there we went along the wall in that area before coming back.  Not a ton of stuff seen except for a turtle!  That was pretty cool. 

The next (and last) dive was at the Anthony Bell which was another wreck dive.  A big tugboat that was intentionally sunk to create a reef.  It doesn't have a ton of coral on it yet, but still made for an interesting dive.  That was a pretty decent dive with a cool little spotted moray, a couple of reef sharks (or maybe the same one twice) and, based off our friend Google, two Jack Crevalles.  Hey, now is a good time for pictures!

 

Turtle!

Sam stalking the turtle!

Spotted Moray

Anthony Bell (I assume that's the spelling)

Jack Crevalles  For perspective, they were about 3 feet long or so

Parrot fish

Another Lion fish (they are everywhere)

And it wouldn't be a dive day without a little
dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun duh nuh na

After the diving, we hurried back to the room and took showers before heading to the game.  That game against Wake was a pretty good one…of course mainly because KU won.  They didn’t play that well, but a win is a win.  We had baseline seats 4^th row near the Wake bench.  I have heard I am now an international TV star having been seen by at least 2 people that I know.  Autograph requests will be filled on a first come, first served basis.  For Thanksgiving dinner, we did a buffet here at the Atlantis.  It was $50 a head and was okay, I guess.  Everything here is sort of expensive so we have been going out to dinner most nights (still expensive, but more variety) and making our breakfasts and lunches in the rooms.

View from our seats Thursday night.  Really cool to be able to see the players faces as they dunked and what not.  Of course, the goal post/stand blocked the left side of the court from our view but sacrifices sometimes must be made.

Yesterday was a nice lazy day.  It was overcast so couldn’t really enjoy the waterpark.  We did end up going to dinner at a pretty good Italian place in Nassau before heading to the game against Villanova.  It was….crap..L name…I keep wanting to say Luigi’s and that is not it…Luciano’s.  That’s the ticket.  I had the blue crab ravioli.  Mmmm good.

The game last night was a tough one.  I would have preferred it to come out differently (like with KU winning), but it did help expose some areas where work is needed.  For sure.  Tough game to come back from being 10 down for most of the game to up by 1 before that killer 3.  Dang.  It was sort of funny to see the ~50 Villanova fans in attendance storm the court.  Act like you have been there before, friends.  Even saw one old timer cut through the handshake line to clap one of the ‘nova players on the back.  Stay classy.

 

View from last night's seats.  Not bad.  And that is Jay Wright (Vilanova head coach) there on the left of that group.  Interesting to see his reactions to what was going on through the game.  Interesting tidbit: they apparently have a team priest...at least one was sitting with the team.  He clapped happily when Bill Self got the T.

Vilanova fans (all 50 of them who made the trip) storming the court

I guess I will try to do one more blog so we don't end up with a picture of a Vilanova victory as the last image to this trip.  UTEP is the opponent tonight.  Their coach is Tim Floyd!  Who knew.

Huh…I thought I would ramble much more than I did.  I guess there really wasn’t a whole lot to update on.  One more day in paradise before heading back tomorrow.  We go through Charlotte and Phoenix on the way back to Portland (US Air).  One cool thing is customs is done here in Nassau so the hour layover in Charlotte shouldn’t be a problem.  We only have 45 minutes or so in Phoenix, though so I am sure we will get boned by US Airways with that connection.  I hope they make me eat my words.

It is still our time, the people’s time so I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!  Let the Christmas music begin!!!

Jim