The Fall - Winter - Spring Splash 2012-13 season came to a close. I know cuz I saw the Pizza delivery guy come to the rec center.
I like how the Swansea coaches created cards for all the kids with their times from each of the swim meets and events, so you can see the progress from Fall to Spring.
Alejandra is the best coach. The kids all love her, and they listen to her. She's the pregnant one on the left there, and all the parents know she is the heart and soul of the Swansea Splash program.
In fact ALL the Swansea coaches are all great. They all show up for the swim meets and they are very organized. Not all the rec centers are like this. One will remAiN NamEless buT ThEy're those who know which CRC I'm referring.
Alejandra may not be returning for the Fall 2013 session once she gives birth, so this was a send off. None of us know for sure. Hopefully she gets bored and comes back so we can baby sit her new son while she coaches the kids again.
We missed a couple in the Fall and Winter because of b-day parties, and one ice ball. The Spring we missed 1 because it fell on Kieran's b-day party and only did part of the Finals (again due to a b-day party).
Kieran managed to get the one ribbon that he had yet to get.
The WHITE ribbon.
He now has the full set. 1st through 6th.
Imagine he didn't want all the same, he wanted ALL the ribbons!
So the kids were called up 1 by 1 to get their time cards, their team ribbon and most improved ribbons.
But mostly they just wanted the OREOs and Doritos.
This will be our first ever trip to the islands of the Bahamas. It's a group of 15 or so islands, the largest being Andros, but we were headed to Nassau on New Providence and a tiny strip just off of it called Paradise Island. We didn't even know where the Bahamas were. But Nassau, is just off the east coast of the southern tip of Florida. No wonder we were getting Miami/South Beach news and pro-Heat sports. Meanwhile I'm hoping for the Pacers to #BeatTheHeat. I don't want the Miam Heat to win another championship.
And paradise come with a cost. As in the food is extremely expensive here. Think of Airport food and add on about 30-50% more. It is cheaper if you you go off the resort, but the cost of a taxi to get there and back, will even it out. But the food will be better for the price. But it depends on what you get. Order salad and it'll be a little wilted. It's not their forte. These are islands. Fish are in abundance. So order the grilled grouper. It was delicious.
There are quite a few restaurants available to visit. Better be prepared for some sticker shock too. There are 3 buffet restaurants. If you have a BMI approaching 3 digits, or your behind is big enough to fit into the King of Atlantis' throne, then the meal plan is for you. But if not, then don't get it. Even if you have a kid. Kieran doesn't eat a lot. And we encourage him to not eat a lot of junk, because if you eat junk, you become junk. Then you can't play. If you can't play, you can't have fun. No fun, is no fun.
The value meal plan is $599 per person and it doesn't include Mesa Grill. The fine dine plan is $799 per person. And add the 15% mandatory gratuity on top of that. So either one, you'd better be able to eat your weight. Cuz that's a lot. By the end of the week, for sure you're butt will fill the throne. In any case, here are the restaurants where we ate and what we thought.
Murray's deli. Cheap-er and not all that great, but they have mac and cheese, so we ate there twice because we just weren't all that hungry and so we ordered the kids meal for Kieran and shared a salad and a Reuben. Which wasn't too bad.
Mesa Grill. We ate here our first night. We saw Mesa Grill in Vegas and I don't know why we didn't go. This one had the largest vent hood I'd ever seen. Bobby Flay is a griller. Gotta order the steak. It was good. Tresa ordered the vegetarian dish, it was too cheesy. I think we only ordered mains and 1 side. Even then it was a triple digit bill. Kieran didn't order anything. Since he had a late lunch at Plato's. I think he just had a glass of ice and some mints we got from the hostess stand for dessert. He was content with that, he's a pretty cheap date. Imagine. The value meal plan doesn't include Mesa and a few others like Carmines (Italian). To get the fine dining one, you need to fork out $1G per person. Yikes!
Mosaic. This is a high end buffet place. The food selection is great and the flavours are awesome. We liked this place over Mesa Grill. So we ate here twice. The head chef was out on the floor and I paid him some compliments. His ship was well run and the menu was well done. I found that fish cuisines were nicely done. Lots of flavours. I took small samples of nearly everything. I found the meats were just meats. So I stayed away from them the return visit. There were many different cheeses, a vegetarian area. It was amazing, I had wished I didn't get so full so soon. The desserts were very pretty. If you don't ask you don't get. The ice cream was creamy and not in plain site. It was in the back. Kieran was glad I asked.
Marketplace (breakfast buffet). Kieran's included kid's meal plan (it was promotion when we booked this trip) was only for breakfast and dinner. So our late breakfast was as close to lunch as possible. We ate at Marketplace twice (I think?) I can't recall. But it seemed to be a good idea, but not being used to buffet's we just couldn't eat the volume. And we didn't want to eat on pure volume. I did like the corn beef hash that reminded me of my childhood foods. Then there was regular breakfast fare like omeletes and bagels and english muffins and juice and waffles. It was very american. And full of americans. Can't miss them as they waddle by complaining of the slow service. We should have only done it once and tried another place.
Plato's. There was a tomato, basil and a really nice cheese panini that would be our regular, along with Kieran's 2 bowls of cereal and fruit. This would be enough for the two of us to split and for Kieran and he'd be good until dinner. It was also close to 1/2 the price of Marketplace.
Johnny Rockets. This was the diner in the Marina Village that is basically a franchise burger joint. Philly cheese steak for me and a slider for Tresa. Kieran had the kids chicken tenders. Was trying to avoid much meat but the selection was limited to burgers. So I went for the Philly. Which was good. Fries were also good. We noticed that anywhere we went the fries were golden, not dark. They must change their oil daily. Not like Jumbo Burger near our place. Where they are as dark as the dirt the potatoes came from. The staff here are great. They even entertain. And when it's pouring out, they give you a garbage bag to wear back to your hotel. It was like halloween for us. Three walking bags of garbage wading through some flooded streets.
Bimini Road. Not much for kids. Pasta, no mac and cheese. I had the conch fritters, which was like a chinese buffet chicken ball. Same concept. The piece of chicken is like hidden at the core in a planet like ball of fried batter. I didn't like it. I wished I hadn't ordered it. I had the conch salad at Mosaic and it was much MUCH better. I had a shrimp salad, and that was good. Like I said. Seafood dishes seem to be done much better than say salads or just meat.
Curlys (over at the Fish Fry). We thought we'd save a bit and head over and experience the Fish Fry on the big island. The Grilled grouper is done like how I would do fish, in a foil wrap with veggies and plantains. It was great! The salad was wilted. But that was Tresa's. Looked lousy. Kieran's chicken tenders were good. But he was too tired to appreciate them. Dinner was cheaper, but factor in the cost of the taxi and it's on par with the resort restaurant prices. If you like seafood Fish Fry is for you, if you don't, then stick to the restaurants at Atlantis. It seems a little dingy and creepy when the sun sets, but it's safe. Expect $5 bucks a head for fare. To and from.
If you are vegetarian. Any place you go to will be problematic. There's just not very good vegetarian choices.
We'd heard of Atlantis through my brother who'd been here with my nieces for a few March Breaks. But March Break is high season. My one brother said it's worse than a zoo. Because these animals have no order to them. So we opted for late May instead. Because it's warmer but the downside is that it's just getting into rainy season, but usually at the start of rainy season is typically off and on. But the on is like a down pour usually lasting for 30mins to an hour. Not very long but intense and accompanied by lightning and thunder. The middle of rainy season brings lots of rain for days. Avoid that season, unless you are from Saudi and have been parched for many years.
We knew Atlantis was a water park, but had no idea of the large aquatic life that they have there how it is integrated into the resort. It's amazing. Much of the cost visitors pay for the resort attractions goes back into the aquatic research and protection of the ocean animals. It was incredible. We even got to feed the sea turtles, got to see what is under that horseshoe crab shell (we've only ever seen dead ones or fossilized ones), touch a sea cumber (it's soft, not like a cucumber at all except maybe a rotten one), sea urchin and starfish, an aligator gar (Kieran knew what it was, it look prehistoric to me), and some baby sea horses and jelly fish. All when we got tour of the world under the resort (the fish hospital and the mechanical room), thanks to mama's chitchatting social skills.
They have feedings scheduled and all the feeders talk to you about the fish, what they feed them, what happens to them after Atlantis, how they came to Atlantis, how they integrate them into the various lagoons and aquarium tanks. It's really more than just a water park it's a large aquatic zoo and research facility. The feeding of the giant manta ray Athena was something to see. This ray is huge and she is only 3-1/2 years old. One of the feeders said that she is getting ready to be put back into the ocean because she is getting a little too large for the tank now. The previous giant manta rays that they had was Poseidon who was in the tank with Athena last year, but was released and before him was Zeus. In the little info description by the tank, the photo of the giant manta ray being air lifted is Zeus. They don't do a dump and run when the ray's are released. They track them to see how they are doing in the wild after being in captivity.
Then there's the resort itself. All the towers are connected. So if it rains you are covered all the way from the Beach Tower to the Cove Tower. There's a gym with a lap pool. The gym pass is by far the best deal going. It was 50.00 for 7 days. Man that can't even buy you dinner for one person.
There's a daily newsletter that you get every morning that lists all the things going on. Movies, feedings, activities, games for kids, for teens (18+), you name it. It was a very useful resource. So study it. There's a AKA (Atlantis Kids Activity center). Kieran did a cooking course there on Friday. He made frozen treats! He was actually the only kid. Probably because the rest of the kids were doing the water park and then heading to Ben and Jerry's. Why do they need to learn anything, when they can just buy it. Money grows on trees in America. The world knows that, sic.
The slides, the pools and the river rapids and the lazy rivers are what most come to Atlantis for. And it was fun. Kieran and I did every slide in the resort. Even the Leap of Faith and the Abyss. I asked him if he wanted to do those two water slides again and he said 'no'. Ya...they were pretty scary. The Leap of Faith takes you thru the shark tank, but you barely see anything because you are going so fast. Plus I had my contacts on so even though I brought a spare I didn't want to be a one eyed pirate. The Abyss is in the Power Tower and that is a vertical drop in the dark and you end up in a cave under the Power Tower. I thought that was probably the best slide there. Scary by fun. Kieran knew to cross his feet and arms on his way down the slide like being in a pretend cocoon, but once he went over the edge he broke out of the cocoon and became a spider. I heard the spider do a scream too on his way down. It was fun just to watch people go down and hear the echo of their screams. I am glad we chose this time to go. It's not that busy, but busy just enough that the lines flow quickly. It's not super crowded that you cannot find a spot to put your stuff. There's plenty of kids there to make it fun.
The River rapids ride was fun. It looks at first like a lazy river, but that's on the other side of the beach tower. This has some rapids that can send you tumbling for your sunglasses. This river ride also has a detour up the Power Tower where you can do the Abyss or any of the 3 other inner tub rides. Tresa surprisingly did 2 of them only because she didn't know what to expect. Just remember to keep your bum up. Or the ride will roll your pizza dough of a bum out and leave you with some pepperoni bruising. We didn't find the the other rides at the top until the next day, we didn't realize there was stuff at the top. Glad we rode all the rides during the week, because once Saturday hit, the cruise ships came in and the line ups were much, much longer.
I wished I had a waterproof camera or case, because I can only describe the rides, I didn't take any photos. But I don't think the pics would do it justice. You gotta experience it for yourself.
If we go back, we'd have to save up cuz we used a ton of points on this trip. For us this was the costly city of Atlantis. Maybe that's why it sank?
At least we wouldn't have to do the Dolphin interaction again, although it was free for Kieran (trip promo), we had to pay for the adult to accompany him. This is great marketing. Kids are free but you have to pay for the adult, even the kids meals that are free, require an adult meal in there too. So we chose something small so we could eat somewhere where we wanted. Even if Kieran wasn't free, his meals for the week were about 15% of the bill. It wasn't much. We didn't do too badly, even though this was our first time here.
Keep your eyes open all the time, because aquatic life is everywhere, even at your feet. Kieran was at the beach searching and collecting shells, Tresa said a boy had found a large conch shell the day before. Kieran thought he was picking up a small conch shell, instead he picked up a little fella.
If it isn't a fish, a crab or gecko, or a retired LPGA hall of famer (Laura Davies you'll see the photo of her at the aquarium, I spoke to her she's very nice), then it's someone selling you something. Like the cigar rolling Honduran.
It was still pretty light out when we arrived at 8pm. Nice! Love these long sun lit days. It was the Festival of Lights at Kieran's school. I think was to raise money for a trip or something.
It became chilly as the sun began to set, and getting darker by the minute. These two looked like they were trying to start a fire or something with their glow sticks.
Note to self - don't arrive any earlier than 8pm. There's nothing going on until then. There were hot dogs, veggies, hummus, some other dips too, apples, chips and 3 huge bowls of popcorn. No poutine! My Singaporean source who shall remain nameless said there'd be poutine. That's gonna cost her some samosas.
Kieran didn't eat much, just some veggies and popcorn. I had spent most of my time hanging around the food table chit chatting with one of the parents. I had just come back from my club ride and was hungry.
Music was playing. I thought it was music music. Like from an iPod or something, because I was hearing Nirvana, U2, Eurythmics, etc. Boy was I mistaken. Kieran had been asking me to go up to the playground area and
I didn't record the whole thing, but there's a drummer behind the guitarists too. It was kinda dark at the Festival of Lights.
So there's a group of girls singing into a mic, several boys on guitars and a drummer. Why does the drummer always get the raw deal?
No matter what anyone says, the Tooth Fairy does exist. And leaves behind something in exchange for the baby tooth that fell out.
This isn't the first tooth, but I think it's the 3rd now and our change purse gets lighter every time. What a coincidence.
Very early this morning somebody came in to our room, half asleep, completely surprised and excited that the tooth he'd left under his pillow was gone.
We were surprised too. Cuz it wasn't us. Perhaps, bedbugs were mutating and on top of hair and skin. They needed calcium for growing exoskeletons.
Nah, that's only something you'd see on the SyFy channel. It must have been the Tooth Fairy.
Mother's picking up their sons and daughters had a surprise on Friday. It was a series of performances that the students of Aneta & Giovanna's Elementary D class had put together for the moms. One dad was there. No it wasn't me. I heard that kids asked why he was there. Ha. Ya, man, get out! This is for the moms, not the dads.
The kids arranged and set up all these performances on their own. Maybe a little help from the teachers and assistants, but initiative and arrangement is all their own.
Kieran wanted to wear his suit for the concert. He wanted to look sharp. And he did. Although he did need help from the girls with his collar and he could've tucked in his shirt too. Oh well. Still looked good, regardless, sort of.
I wish I had gone too, but meetings prevented me from attending. But kids may have gone into an uproar with two dads there. Like we were crossing a picket line or something.
Kieran even lost a tooth that day.
He's looking more and more like Plants vs. Zombies. Not a good sign. But goes to show that mothers will love their own, no matter what they look like.
Here are the performances.
There was music, dance, poetry. Everything. It was like being at Stratford Festival run by kids.
It was Kieran's GR1 Recital at Slovenska Sola a few weeks back. Yep, back to back to back stuff. All you parents to be. This is what life is like. Better do what you can now, before it's all over.
Because life goes on overdrive from here.
The days fly, then it's weeks, then it's years.
It was the singing of the Canadian National Anthem.
Then the Kindergarten class.
Then Kieran's Gr1 class.
I'm not actually sure what the skit was about, but I think he and the other boy were foxes.
Everyone else was a bunny rabbit, cat, chicken or pig. But I'm not sure.
And they're supposed to be in that house, but they couldn't all fit.
Especially the pigs.
There were several other skits and plays.
Once Kieran was done, he was translating for me and telling me what was going on. Because I had no clue.
I just thought it was great!
This is Tresa's heritage, her background, and he's embracing it. As long as he's enjoying doing it, that's all that matters.
There's an opportunity here.
An opportunity to learn a language. To learn. period.
For some reason this year seemed shorter than the previous. But who knows. There was coffee and dessert afterwards. And I got to have some cremschnitte - this vanilla custard flaky cake. It's really yummy.
And when it was time for the old folks to head home for dinner and a nap. Kind of nice there were some people that stuck around, in particular one kid that helped put the chairs away, without asking.
To be honest I was ready to skedaddle, but Kieran started stacking the chairs, and I couldn't leave him there (unless he got time-and-a-half).
I had just come back from my club ride Saturday. And I had just sat down to get a bite to eat.
When I noticed something unusual with Fishey.
Fishey was at the bottom of his tank, on his side.
I was sure that Fishey was alive when I left that morning.
I hadn't fed him yet, but I had noticed lately that he wasn't swimming up to me when I was about to feed him, not like before.
It used to be that when I'd drop the little pellets in the water, he'd jump to them. But in his last days he seemed to look disinterested, and noticed him not moving so much. It didn't help that Kieran knocked his tank over this week (vacuuming) and then filled it with warm water, but that could be a coincidence. The tank has a little crack, but isn't leaking. Glad I didn't buy a new tank before he went belly up.
This was Kieran's fish. Given to him by Sam, Jess, Char & Trish our neighbours. We didn't know how long he'd live. People said between 1 week to 5 years. After the 1 year mark, we thought hey he's doing better than most other Beta fish.
Although it was Kieran's fish, I took care of this fish. Fed it, cleaned it's tank. Cleaned the algae from the fake plant and bridge. It was a good swim Fishey. May your bubbles go on forever.
I was not sure whether to flush him or bury him. So we buried him in the back, underneath the chinese warrior statue. Kieran said we should leave the tank there so we know where he is.
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