Back from the Bahamas

Its never easy to leave, but we had a wonderful time down in Abaco. Compared to our last trip down to the Bahamas, this trip was much more low key. Last year we went down to Treasure Cay with Melanie's folks and her brother, Andrew. It was their first trip to the Bahamas, so we spent a lot of the trip exploring the island. This time, Mel and I simply kicked back and relaxed. There were a few days of exploring, but it wasn't off to the typical tourist spots. My Dad took Mel and I out for her first bonefishing experience. Several months ago, my Dad picked up a new bonefish skiff so he could enjoy his favorite sport more often. Bonefishing is a unique sport spent out on the flats in the Bahamas. The flats are sections of the ocean where during low tide the water level drops to around a foot deep. When the water drops like this, the bonefish swim up to hunt for crabs and other food. The tricky part is the flats are by no means small sections of land, they can stretch for several hundred yard and there is no particular pattern to where the bonefish will be. In a large part, bonefishing is much more like hunting than fishing, because you really have to try and track them down. I'll be posting some of our trips out to the flats later when I have a chance.
The rest of the trip was spent on the beach and enjoying the company of my parents. By the time we arrived, they had already spent a month down in the Bahamas and loving every moment of it. I have a strong feeling that from now on, I will be hard pressed to locate my parents anywhere near Montana during January from now on. They will be leaving on this upcoming Tuesday to travel up the east coast and visit with friend for a few weeks, and will then return to Treasure Cay for a few week more after that. Our return trip from the Bahamas always seems to make it that much harder to leave, and this last time was no exception. Along with a two and a half hour delayed flight from the island, our bags managed to miss the flight to Florida. From experience, we have learned that its best to arrive a day earlier before traveling to the Bahamas, and fly out a day later once you return. We had prepared for the delays both going to and coming from the island, but the missing bag was a curve ball. After we cleared immigration, we went down stairs to claim our bag and move through customs. That is when we discovered our bag, along with several others from the flight, had not made it over. That was a little upsetting, but they told us to call the 800 number on our ticket jacket. After fifteen minutes on hold, Melanie finally got in touch with someone on the phone. By this point we were already in the shuttle in transit to our hotel. That is when we found out that claims had to be made in person at the airport, and could not be taken over the phone. So we had the distinct pleasure of traveling back to the airport to a different terminal to place our claim. From there on out things did start to pick up, but it really was an unwanted headache. They did find out bag, and it was dropped of around five hours after we got home. Well, I should finish this off for now, but I will post a few more details about the trip later. Until then, cheers!