Bahamas - 2006

Michelle and I took a little excursion (without the kids) to Atlantis in the Bahamas

There are effectively three hotels at Atlantis and we were lucky enough to stay at the Royal Towers ... here's a view of the lobby area.

Atlantis is really beautiful but is also very expensive.  The aquariums and general architecture are incredible and worth seeing but I would definitely only recommend staying for a few nights and then finding another hotel nearby (unless you have recently hit lotto)

Above is a tank with moray eels.

Here's a lobster tank that you actually walk through!

There is an enormous manta ray in the tank which must be (literally) 12 feet across if not more ... stunning creature!

Here we are at the beach, we spent most of our time at the many pools but we had to at least swim in the ocean once.

You can almost make out me waving at Michelle from atop the Aztec pyramid from which the 4 water slides come down.  I actually did the leap of faith which is an almost vertical drop of 6 stories.  My Dad (physics professor) will tell you that mass has nothing to do with the speed of a falling body, however, the momentum that I developed far exceeded the stopping power of the splash-down pool and I came shooting out at great speed and did summersaults ... quite amusing to everyone involved but yours truly.

Here's me on a "less exciting" water slide which sets you on an inner tube and comes out for a leisurely ride through the shark tank.

The sky bridge is supposedly owned by Michael Jackson and is rentable for $10,000 per day but you must book for a full week at $70,000 total.

There is beautiful art at many locations, here's a piece by Seattle's famed artist, Chihuly.

Here's a shot from the marina looking back at Atlantis.

There were some great hats being woven by hand with palm leaves.

We spotted the actual cruise ship that Michelle and I had been on to Honduras and Cayman, the Norwegian "Spirit"

The Straw Market offered some local crafts and general shopping.

A man carving a parrot