Hurricane Irma - September 12, 2017

The flight wasn't until after lunch but I needed just a little cash to pay for the taxi to the airport. I tried too early. I was eventually successful and we arrived to the airport. There were no delays in Nassau but when we landed in Charlotte, there was a 2 hour delay. All thanks to Hurricane Irma and the flight crew being delayed elsewhere. We eventually made it home. And when we arrived to work the following day, we were heroes for surviving the hurricane. It was exciting, adventurous, and stressful but ultimately, we were never in any danger and we had a good time. I will be back next year twice to enjoy the Bahamas again. And if there's another hurricane, I will be slightly more prepared.

Hurricane Irma - September 7, 2017

This day was packed with activity! It was a very long day.

The hurricane was supposed to arrive the following day. Here we are at the airport and this is the host, Noel Turquist. It is 8am. I am spending lots of time on hold for American Airlines, trying to get out of the Bahamas. It was at least a 30 minute wait.

American Airlines had cancelled our flight on Sunday September 10th but there was no return flight scheduled. I couldn't get us out of Nassau this day with American. I had to abandon the hunt because our flight off Long Island arrived early. When we landed, I called Mr. Delancy and he came to pick us up. Once we settled into his other property, I was able to get us a flight with American for the following day, right before the hurricane was likely to arrive.  So, we agreed lunch was a good idea.

There was a little bar just down the road from us and they served decent burgers. While we were eating our lunch and watching the weather, the bartender told us that the airport would be closed tomorrow. I thought she was joking since American had us booked for that day. We decided to double check her facts when we got back to our room.

Oh yes, the airport was closed tomorrow. Everyone needed to get out today. I tried to get us a flight with Air Canada but it was also booked. Our hearts sank (and there was some mild cussing), as we realized our fate was to ride out the storm at this location. We didn't rent a car and now realized that we needed supplies to get us through the storm. I called us a taxi from the airport because that's how you get a taxi in the Bahamas.

The grocery store was definitely packed but the shelves weren't empty. We were able to purchase all the needed food for a relatively unknown period of time. We watched the weather and played yahtzee until bed time.

Hurricane Irma - September 6, 2017

We got our last use of the kayak today and Noel picked us up for lunch. When we arrived at Max's Conch Bar, we finally had access to wifi. Our phones were blowing up from our friends. They were trying to reach us regarding Irma. The storm was quite large at this point and it was headed towards the Bahamas. At this point, I was trying to find a place for us to stay Thursday night. I called several hotels but there was no availability. I called the owner of the island, William Delancy, and he said that he does have a place for us to stay.

Sad. It was our last day on the island and our trip was cut short. When we got back to the island, we enjoyed the rest of the fish and as much beer as we could drink. We also got started on packing. The next morning was coming early because we had to be at the airport by 8am.

#GOALS

I'm challenging myself to a 7 day list of goals.

1. Complete myfitnesspal entries every day. 

2. Blog every day. I do have things to write about. It's all in my head right now. 

3. Keep up with my bible reading plan. 

4. Register for Global Entry. 

5. Work on marketing Ryan Christopher Art every day. 

Most all of these goals are something I will need to do every day. Except for the Global Entry. I'm pretty sure that nobody reads my blog anymore since I've renamed it. I'll have to get on that as well. 

Ryan Christopher Art

Final Paris recap

The last day was an adventure of traveling in the winter time. I'm not sure I want that type of adventure again. We took a taxi from the hotel to the airport and I snapped cool (and not cool) pics. 

That Ferris wheel is giant and it is on the edge of the Christmas markets. 

Found the Louis Vuitton store!

We never made it to the Arc de triumph but here it is from the taxi. 

Since I didn't see it, I couldn't bear to delete the out of focus photos. 

It looked cool and huge. Traveling with just backpacks meant we could bypass the airline counter. The airport was fairly easy to navigate. There was a security checkpoint and border control. Then we went to Starbucks to buy another mug and get coffee. Our flight was delayed by about 40 minutes which meant we were going to miss our flight to OKC. I managed to get rebooked while at the airport in Paris. It's an 11 hour flight and we were traveling back in time. We left 

Paris at noon and got to Dallas at 4 pm. 

There was lunch, ice cream, and a hot pocket snack. They offered all the free beer and wine again but I drank club soda instead. When we landed we had new plane tickets waiting for us, for the following day.

Our flight was canceled due to weather and cue the hours of confusion. Do we go to the gate? Do we rent a car and drive? Do we get a hotel? On and on. We even went to the rental car spot but changed our mind when friends said weather was not looking good. It was 2am in Paris. We got a hotel and went to bed at 7:30 pm Dallas time. The next day we went to our gate to find out that 40 people were all on standby for the same flight. Fortunately, we were near the top of the list and made it to OKC in the morning. We landed at 9:30 am and found no shuttle. I guess we needed to call them since our flight changed. We took a taxi home because I didn't want another day taken from my vacation time. And I wanted to check on my kitties. 

They act like they don't love me but secretly they do. We came home to a sheet of ice. I immediately thought coming home was not a good idea. 

Paris recap, day 7

This is the last full day but I have one more post on the trip after this. 

We went to the Louvre and we got there before opening. There was no line so we went into the Starbucks that's inside the Louvre's mall. Yes, underground the Louvre has a mall with a food court, Starbucks, and an Apple Store. There were other stores too. 

When we were done, the line was stupid long. We stood in it for about half an hour. Looking back on the trip, we only had three lines to deal with and two were the Louvre. Madness. The inverted pyramid is cool looking. There were way too many people to snap a good selfie. 

I managed to snap a selfie with some cool vases. 

We were done with a lot more Louvre at lunch time and went to the food court. It was international with cuisine from all over the world (but America.) We couldn't quite figure it out and hangry was setting in. We ended up at McDonald's for nuggets. That took time to figure out because there was a machine to order from and I thought it was a jerk. It wanted my credit card before my order. 

We missed Montemarte and went back for one final amazing meal at a different restaurant. The server took F.O.R.E.V.E.R and eventually another showed up. Just in the nick of time too because we had been sitting for about half an hour without a hello and we were gonna leave. 

The server recommended this wine and it was fabulous. I must try and find it here. 

Mussels, French onion soup, and bread. It truly was a feast!

Then of course we needed coffee.

From there we went to the Experimental Cocktail Lounge. That was a cool hole in the wall bar that serves top notch drinks. 

Only the freshest ingredients will do. 

We spent too much. 

We drank too much. It was a final hurrah before we had to leave the next day. I had a lot of fun. Max is the manager and top bartender. He was great to chat with. He spoke English and French fluently because his mom is from England. We walked 23,700 steps partially because I was on a mission to find a certain chocolate shop.  

Paris recap, Christmas Day!

Starbucks was the right start to our holiday. From there we made the long climb up to Montemarte. All the restaurants were open and we had plans for a good big meal. 

First is the wine and bread. 

Then we split the French onion soup!

There was a leg of lamb on this plate. I ate it before photographing it. #oops #bloggerfail

Double espresso rounded out the feast. 

Nice little sunset. 

On our way back, we stopped for a beer and facilities. 

I was looking for bread at the time and a lot of places were closed. 

Before heading back to the room, we made another pit stop at Hard Rock Cafe. 

We had a good time! I'm not sure how I managed to takes selfie with my eyes closed. 

We were successful in finding croissants and we enjoyed our Christmas present. This is top notch champagne. We had a fabulous Christmas! We walked 17,500 steps. 

Paris Recap Day 5, Christmas Eve

We took a long walk to the Eiffel Tower. I'm guessing breakfast was forgotten or ignored. There's no photo. 

I was scared of the heights. 

The views were spectacular!

There's two sets of elevators and a final set of stairs to get to the top. I made it to the end of the elevator and that was good for me. 

After walking passed the dudes seeking the mini Eiffel towers for a euro, we found the first restaurant and dunked in for lunch. 

Duck was in our sights. 

Wine of course. 

And coffee. 

On our way to the Christmas market, we bought our Christmas present. 

At the Christmas market I found hot wine and fell in love. 

The market was way too huge but we walked a good distance away from our hotel. 

I was enamored with taking selfies with the Eiffel Tower. I preferred that to being at the top. 

The Hotel Konfidential gave us chocolate for Christmas. It's delicious!

For dinner we snacked on escargots and duck pâté. No doubt, bread was involved as well. 

Duck twice in a day? That's a good day! Today we walked 24,300 steps.