We woke with the alarm and crawled out of bed. Since we'd both gotten some sun on the snorkeling trip, we took special care to sunblock ourselves thoroughly before going out. We spoke to the El Greco hotel's manager, Terry, about our ruined clothes, but didn't reach any resolution. Then had our continental breakfast: since they didn't have fruit or eggs, Jer just had a cinnamon raisin roll and tea, while Jess also had cereal.
Thus fortified, we headed for the harbour and boarded the glass-bottom boat before the hordes of cruiseship passengers. The boat ride out was interesting, as the guide pointed out various sites of interest (like the Cloisters, as well as the homes of the rich and famous, on Paradise Island). Then we reached the Sea Garden, a protected marine habitat off Athol Island. When it was our turn for glass-bottom viewing, we saw many types of fish (grey snapper, yellowtail snapper, grey angelfish, midnight parrotfish, rainbow parrotfish (Jess's favorite) and grouper, as well as little fish that might have been damselfish. We also saw yellow coral, brain coral, sea fans, golf ball coral, finger coral and loads of sea kelp. The views weren't anywhere near as good as when we snorkeled, but we did get to see some new things.
Once back in Nassau, we headed straight for the Pirates of Nassau Museum. It consisted of scenes from pirate life, reconstructed as life-size dioramas with waxwork pirates (much like the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre tours, but without the barrel-ride). It was cheesy, but fun and informative. One interesting tidbit: when pirates took over a ship, they would often judge its former captain, torturing and executing those who had mistreated their crew. Since many pirates were former military or merchant sailors who'd turned to piracy for better treatment and conditions, that's perhaps not surprising.
Passing up a chance for an overpriced drink in the Marlborough Arms (a/k/a the Pirate's Pub), we headed back to the harbour and sat onboard a water taxi, waiting to cross to Paradise Island. On the trip across we were treated to another "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"-style tour where the guide pointed out the homes of stars past and present, from Charlie Chaplin to Mick Jagger. After 10 minutes, we found ourselves on the Paradise Island ferry dock.
We set out to find the Green Parrot Bar & Grill at Hurricane Hole, one of Paradise Island's few reasonably priced eateries. After a bit of wandering and asking for directions, we finally located the restaurant poolside at the Hurricane Hole Hotel & Marina. We chose a table next to the boat slips. Jer had a blackened fish sandwich and Jess had a cheeseburger; both were tasty, but far outshined by the crispy, delicious seasoned french fries -- the bartender agreed that they're addictive.
After lunch we decided to look for Cabbage Beach, on the north side of the island, where the guidebook indicated that we would be able to rent a pedal-boat. We set off in that direction and found ourselves at one of the many entrances to Atlantis. Since this seemed as good a time as any to find an ATM, we went inside. We were directed into the casino, which felt a bit like Vegas, except that there was a Dale Chihuly sculpture and the exits were clearly visible. After locating the ATM, we got directions to the beach and set off down the long shop-filled corridors to the Beach Tower. There, we located the small aquarium that's open to the public (you have to pay $29 per person to see the main aquaria, unless you're staying at Atlantis). The free aquarium was much more interesting than we'd expected, with a sea turtle pool and a large tank, viewed from below, containing small hammerhead sharks, stingrays, parrotfish, tangs and many other brightly-colored fish. We were stuck next to the tank for a while, as a sudden storm hit, but quickly passed. At the end of the tank was the beach bar, where Jess used the bathroom to change into shorts and remove her shoes before heading onto the beach.
We set off down Cabbage Beach, a long stretch of powdery white sand facing on the Atlantic Ocean. We found jetski rentals and banana boat rides, but no pedal-boats; the jetski guys told us the pedal-boats rentals were in Nassau. We were disappointed but not shocked -- the Fodor's guidebook is not the most accurate we've ever used.
We wandered a bit further along the beach, until we reached the One & Only Ocean Club, a ritzy (but not glitzy) beach resort. We used their outdoor showers to rinse off the sand, then walked around their grounds until Jess's feet were dry enough to put her shoes on. As Jess remembered that the Cloisters (which we'd seen from the dive boat) are owned by the One & Only Ocean Club, we asked for (and received) directions from the staff. The Cloisters were imported from France by A&P heir Huntington Hartford (when the Club was his private home). We wandered through the Club's formal Versailles Gardens before reaching the Cloisters, set on a hill overlooking Nassau harbour. It was easy to see why it's often rented for weddings.
Deciding that we'd had enough of Paradise Island's poshness, we caught the water taxi back to Nassau (our tour guide wasn't as good as the one we'd had earlier, but he pointed out a few new sites, like the hospital where Anna Nicole Smith had her daughter). Jer had planned to go snorkeling when we got back to our hotel, but the seas got rough as we were docking. The line holding the stern of the water taxi to the pier snapped twice, but everyone was eventually helped to dry land. So, after we returned to the El Greco hotel and took quick showers, Jer sat outside on the poolside patio writing postcards while Jess read a book and wrote in this journal.
After a while, Jer got hungry so we set off to find some dinner. The Greek place, Athena Cafe, was closed for Easter Monday, so we ended up at Conch Fritters, a beach-themed restaurant that's popular with families. Jer had tasty blackened grouper (which Jess kept stealing), with french fries and fresh veggies (in this case, carrots cooked in sugar syrup with onions). Jess had a loaded baked potato, because she wasn't hungry enough for a full meal. We split a big slice of key lime pie for dessert, as Jer didn't want to wait 20-30 minutes for the guava duff to come out of the oven. The pie was delicious, with a thick, tart filling and crumbly graham crust -- we had to scrape off the chocolate syrup that they'd unaccountably drizzled over it, though.
We returned to our room, and Jess read while Jer finished writing out postcards then read for a while. Eventually, we both got sleepy and turned off the lights.