Oxford Echoes   adventures of a physician-engineer

Our Cape Cod honeymoon, while absolutely lovely, left Leah yearning for a tropical beach. And as a pilot, I’ve always dreamed of flying to the Bahamas. At the end of fellowship, we decided to bring these ideas to fruition and make our escapade to the islands.

We flew via Jekyll Island and Fort Lauderdale to Great Exuma, where we enjoyed the quiet beach life, did some paddle boarding, and swam with sea turtles. We took a boat tour to see the famous swimming pigs and hopped a water taxi to Stocking Island to hang out at the Chat ‘n’ Chill watering hole.

After a few days in the Exumas, we flew up to Nassau, and checked in to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. There, we enjoyed the resort life, and I took a quick scuba diving trip. We made an “island hop” flight out to north Eleuthera Island, where we explored the town and took a ferry to the pink sand beaches of Harbour Island.

Finally, with our tropical beach needs sated and storms threatening to move in, we flew back to the States. We stopped for fuel in Fort Lauderdale and then parked with my brother in Charleston for a few days to wait out the weather before flying back home to Raleigh-Durham.

The play-by-play and pictures:

On Friday, June 11, we took off from Raleigh-Durham. After a quick stop at Harnett County for fuel, landed in Jekyll Island, grabbed a golf cart, and had a quick lunch before continuing on to Fort Lauderdale.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday, June 12th to fly out to Great Exuma island. The flight was beautiful over the turquoise waters, and after we landed and cleared customs, we checked in to Paradise Bay, where we stayed in a lovely beachfront hut. Saturday and Sunday, we explored the local area, doing a bit of paddle boarding and snorkeling (when a shark gave Leah quite a scare!), and tasting the fine delicacies of Big D’s Conch Spot.

On Monday, June 14th, we set out on a boat tour to ogle some private islands, snorkel Thunderball Grotto, swim with the famous swimming pigs, frolic on a sand bar, feed some nurse sharks, have a Bahamian style lunch, and visit Bitter Guana Cay’s resident iguanas.

Tuesday, we found a spot off the road to swim with sea turtles for hours! Then, we hopped a boat to Stocking Island to hang out at the Chat ‘n’ Chill watering hole and see some rays on the beach.

Wednesday, June 16th, we checked out of Paradise Bay, headed to Exuma International Airport, got our travel authorization, packed up the plane, and flew to Nassau, New Providence. There, we checked in to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, where we spent a little time enjoying the beach resort life.

Thursday, June 17th, I took a half-day of boat diving with Stuart Cove’s dive shop.

On Saturday, June 19th, we made an “island hop” flight out to north Eleuthera Island, where we explored the town and took a ferry out to the pink sand beaches of Harbour Island.

On Monday, June 21st, we flew back to the States, dropping off our life raft and topping off the fuel tanks in Fort Lauderdale before dodging some storms on the way up to Charleston. We stayed there with my brother for a couple of days waiting for the storms to blow over, and then made it back up to Durham.