Day 3: For Reals

We were in Nassau today. Briefly. We still had rehearsing to do, but we were able to get out for a little bit. Right in the port was a Navy destroyer and there were a couple Bahaman (Bahamian?) police in fatigues and carrying machine guns. Right in the water by the port there were fish in the blue blue water. I have pics coming soon.

We basically walked around the main part of town. Lots of little shops.

It was then time to go to Atlantis…the casino in Nassau. Catching a taxi is much easier than in Chicago…and it is pretty easy to get a cab in Chicago. If you even pause on a street and look towards traffic they will start honking and asking if you need a cab. We found one and went to Atlantis. They have a cool aquarium there…there is a public part, and then you can continue to the awesome part for $32. We were thrilled enough with the normal part.

After getting some food there and checking it out we ended up in a taxi with 4 other people. Our cab driver decided to give us trivia and bits. “To our right is a development of underground condos” (cemetery) “This cemetery has been around since the 1600s. Do you know how many people are in there?” No. “All of them!” Now, I think he should have said do you know how many dead people from the 1600s are in there or something like that. He then moved on to trivia. How many islands make up the Bahamas? Over 7000. What are the colors of the flag? I said blue, yellow, and black. I know I was right, because I like flags and had noticed the flags around town…but there was also a flag sticker on the windshield. What do the colors stand for? I guessed that the top and bottom blue stripes stood for the sky and water, the yellow stripe in the center was sand. I was right on the blue stripes. The yellow is sun, and the black triangle stands for the people.

All in all…a good time.

We came back and saw a lady and her daughter or grand-daughter jump in the water…and then swim towards the destroyer (because that is where the ladder was). We thought for sure it was a) illegal and b) they would get arrested. They got out with no problem.

Every port has a photo op as you get off the ship. In Freeport there were two people dressed as pirates (one at each of the two exits). In Nassau there were people dressed in bright clothes and dreadlock wigs. There is then a whole section of the ship where you can find photos the next day available for purchase. More on these as we see them…I did snap a pic of the Rasta day.

We had a great rehearsal and really nailed down some scenes. Deanna and I managed to catch the Jean Ann Ryan Company’s other show, Cirque Bijou before dinner. Something I managed to remember…in the pre-show music a song came up from my childhood. There is a strange album that my parents had that I doubt many other people had. It is called Oxygen (might be Oxygene) by Jean Michael Jarre or something really close to that. All synthesizer. The Yanni of his day I’d imagine. I used to listen to that album all the time as a kid…and one of those songs was in the pre-show music for Cirque Bijou. I’ve looked for this album on iTunes a couple times with no luck. This gives me hope.

We had dinner in the Tsar’s Palace and a photographer came around and took pictures of us sitting at our table.

Tomorrow is the journey back to Miami. We should be able to get a mailbox and some sweet free internet access.