Leaping at Sunset

A big bag of cup noodles and snacks from a Costco run that afternoon, enough to last the week, went through the Sacramento airport with us on Sunday night, and we waited at the gate with our phones and backpacks.

The flight left Sacramento that night and carried us overnight to Miami, with a movie downloaded for the way. We landed a little after six in the morning, Miami time.

Nassau greeted us with a row of tall carved wooden figures in the arrivals hall, a cheerful welcome to the islands. We had eaten breakfast in the lounge at Miami between flights and landed in the middle of the morning. A taxi took us to the Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar on Cable Beach, our home for three nights.

At the entrance we stopped for a picture under the BAHA MAR sign, between two stone lions, and in the lobby for another in front of a huge feathered carnival costume. Upstairs, the first job was stocking the minibar with our snacks. Before lunch there were heart hands from a balcony above the lagoon, and more pictures on the garden lawn and by the lobby's Christmas tree.

Early in the afternoon came the beach, under cloud but still bright turquoise, and then the resort's flamingo garden, where pink flamingos waded in a pond behind a white picket fence. There was a koi pond too, where orange and yellow fish swam under two small fountains.

Then we were all in the pool. Late in the day the sky over the treetops went pink and gold outside our window, and dinner was pasta and two pizzas at the resort's pizza place.

After dark came the boardwalk above the lagoon, its fountains lit purple and blue.

The day would end with a leap on the white sand, but it began with a clear sunrise from our balcony, a hotel tower lit gold above the palms.

The morning brought a stroll down the palm-lined boardwalk to the beach, a walk out along West Bay Street to a grocery for water and fruit, and the resort's water park, with two runs down the slide.

In the late afternoon we all went down to the sand, two of us in white dresses, for pictures in the surf and one of all four of us together at the water's edge.

There was a barefoot walk hand in hand through the shallows, and then, as the sun went down, the leap: arms up, feet off the white sand.

Afterward came heart hands against a palm trunk, and a walk out along the boardwalk pier toward the little gazebo at its end. We stopped at the rail for a picture of the four of us and stayed to watch the gold and pink sky settle over the water.

Dinner was at Marcus, the resort's fish and chop house, and after dark there was a game of basketball.

A coconut that turned out sour was the only disappointment of the day. Breakfast was outside in the garden at Baha Mar, under white umbrellas.

Afterward, while everyone else stayed at the resort, one of us walked out to the road and caught the number 10 jitney, the local bus, along the coast into downtown Nassau.

Bay Street came first, under its arcades and past the T-shirt and souvenir shops, then Parliament Square, where the pink government buildings had a Merry Christmas banner up.

The Queen's Staircase was next: past a roofless old stone building below the fort's white water tower, to a hand-painted sign and a donation box at the mouth of the gorge.

The steps are cut through the rock and shaded by vines and palms. A bronze plaque tells the story: chiselled from solid limestone in the 1830s by free men of African descent, and now down to 64 steps. Higher up, a twisting branch arched over the path, the aerial roots of a huge tree hung down a cliff face, and a second plaque, a bronze shield, carried the date 1794.

Near the staircase a vendor was cutting coconuts open with a machete, and that was where the sour one came from. Then came Fort Fincastle, where a Bahamian flag and a cannon topped the curved stone wall.

At the Straw Market on Bay Street, a long aisle ran under wooden rafters past stalls of hats, bags, beach dresses and T-shirts, and a person in a blue bear costume was browsing.

Down at the waterfront a big cruise ship was docked at the end of a street. Across the harbour more cruise ships lined Prince George Wharf, and a grand hotel on Bay Street had a lobby under a painted ceiling.

After a rest at a Starbucks, the bus back was packed with people, and it was Baha Mar again by early afternoon. Later came a lounger on Cable Beach, headphones on, and near sunset someone upstairs made a heart with their hands around the low sun.

The last morning in Nassau began on Cable Beach at first light, with the phone's portrait mode to try out and nearly two hundred pictures to show for it: arms thrown wide against the sunrise, a walk along the wet sand with the beach pier and gazebo far behind, hearts made with hands as the sun rose over the trees, and finally one held around the sun itself. Back inside, the hotel elevator's mirrored gold doors made for one more.

After a last breakfast, a taxi took us to the airport, where a gift shop had a Made in the Bahamas banner over its door.

We flew back to Miami on Thanksgiving Day, and by afternoon we were in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables with our bags, beside the Christmas tree.

Then we walked to Versailles, the Cuban restaurant in Little Havana, for our Thanksgiving meal, through the shaded colonnade outside the hotel and on to a crosswalk under the green Versailles sign.

We had a sampler platter and fish fritters, and it was good. A pineapple drink came to the table too.

We took empanadas and Cuban coffee back to the hotel for later, and the empanadas were very good too.

The last morning began with an early breakfast in the hotel restaurant, where the fruit was good and fresh.

An Uber took us to Miami International and the American flight carried us to Los Angeles. There we changed planes, with a ride on an airport shuttle bus in between, and flew on to Sacramento, home by late afternoon.