And The Adventure Begins With a Breath Taking View From a Plane Window

Ever since childhood I dreamed a dream of white sandy beaches, waters as clear as glass, and of palm trees with real coconuts. I imagined myself on my own deserted paradise, with nothing but me, a hammock, a cool drink, and tons of sunshine.

It took me close to 20 years to finally reach such a destination, and finally...finally I found my paradise, and my paradise? Well let's just say it was all delivered on Grand Bahama Island.

I booked our flight in June of 2008, and up until the day of our flight I worried so many worries. Mostly though I am sure the worries I dealt with were that of anyone who would be taking their very first trip.

My first concern was; was I expecting too much? Would the sand really be as white as websites and brochures offered? Would waters truly be crystal clear? Would I really be surrounded by palm trees? Or would everything be just as it is here in New York. Dark murky waters, sand- but more of a yellowish tint? Palm trees, only planted and not naturally grown?

I worried...would I really find paradise on Grand Bahama Island?

The flight was around 6 hours long, of course we traveled economy, and had a change in the Carolina's. The flight though offered a glimpse of the Bahamas as we grew closer. I could tell we were nearly there when the dark waters we had seen down below for so long, turned into a near glowing turquoise rainbow, with beautiful hues of green, blue, aquamarine, and every other hue of blue one could imagine. I knew just from the view down below, that paradise was soon to be discovered.

All of my worries were set aside, the moment I looked out that window.

My, What a View!!!

Once the taxi dropped us off at our hotel, I wondered if it would be a dark dank little box of a hotel.

My worries though all slipped away the moment we pulled up. We had an employee grab our bags and take them into the main lobby where we checked in.

I could not see water yet, but I could feel it, and I honestly could not wait to be checked in, and given our water view room.

Once we were given our room, I was a little hesitant, because I still did not see water. The nice man who carried our luggage went over to the large balcony sliding doors, and pulled away the curtains to reveal our dream like water view.

There before me, no less than 50 feet away stood a gigantic beach! White powdery sand? Check! Turquoise blue waters? Check! Palm trees? Check, check, check!!!

Our view was spectacular, and even though we were jet lag, we hit the beach up immediately, with our underwater camera in hand, and our scuba gear; we were ready to see what Grand Bahama had to offer; under water!

*Our view, day and night photos- above.

A Sharptail Eel

When I spotted this guy, I had no idea that I had spotted an eel that many divers, and locals of the island have never seen before. Our dive instructor who had been giving dive tours for years had never spotted one of these before, and when I showed him the picture I took, he was baffled at what the creature could be.

At first I thought I was seeing a water snake, so I stood as far away as possible, because I didn't know if it was poisonous, or if it would strike at me.

When I got home, I had to find out what this long eel like snake actually was. After hours of endless photo searching on Google.come, I came across the Sharptail Eel.

The sharptail eel is a rarer sight, and is normally found in Panama, but sometimes seen in the Bahamas, only more rare.

I felt pretty excited that I managed to see this eel up close. It's actually really pretty, with a long slender brown body, and white colored dots on it's body.

The head is the most interesting because it actually looks more like a snake, but the Sharptail Eel seems to have some sort of whiskers.

This fella was literately no more than 10 feet off shore, and he seemed to be slowly cruising around the bottom of the sea. Maybe looking for some crabs to feast on?

Unda Da Sea...

We spent hours looking around underwater, and snapping photographs of all sorts of tropical fish. Out in the distance, just about 30 feet off shore we came across a large coral reef. The hotel actually added a large buoy in the water to make it easier for people to find this wonder.

I was in love. If given the opportunity, I'd trade my lungs for a pair of gills. In the reef we saw fish that were 10 times the size of what we were used to seeing in salt water tanks. Puffer fish the size of footballs, zebra fish the size of pancakes, and schools of rainbow colored fish in the thousands would come quickly dashing by our heads.

The best thing about everything was that the fish were barely shy. Some were curious and would come close to get a look at you,

others would hide behind rocks and peek their heads out to take a look at you, others more bashful, but still didn't scurry to hide from us.

The fish were the magical, but the corals in every odd shape, size and color were the magic. The charm, the underwater rainbow of life all dwelling within the coral formations.

In the distance on the very first day, I spotted my first sting ray. This wouldn't be the last of them either. I saw a different type nearly every time in the water.