Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos

I took a brief hiatus from writing the post, thanks to Kevin for the rare guest appearance. We are now on a mooring in Hope Town harbour which we think is by far the nicest place in the Bahamas. If anyone is planning a romantic trip to the Bahamas and you only have a few days, skip everything else and just come here. They have amazing beach cottages all decked out in lovely pastel colors in a small town that can only be described as a tourist haven. (There is no monstrous mega-resort here, but we saw adorable cottages for $900/week, cheaper than most hotels). Like Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, all the cottages have names and are spaced very close together so that the roads are too narrow for automobile traffic. The facades are all very quaint and meticulously landscaped with hibiscus, cape plumbago and hydrangea. It is like a Disney village on the beach.

Many of the locals here are descended from Loyalists who left America during the Revolutionary War so there is quite an ethnic mix of black and white folks here, more so than on other islands we've visited. We had heard an announcement on the radio for live music and happy hour at a bar called Cap'n Jack's so this afternoon we wandered over there to get the scoop. An old white man with a thin patch of beard under his lower lip was standing at the bar so we asked him when does HH start and how much are drinks. When the man answered we were mortified to discover that he was, in fact, an old woman. Glad we didn't call her "sir"! But as we walked away Kevin whispered, "Hey, maybe that was 'Cap'n Jack'!" I love this man!

We had lunch at Harbour's Edge restaurant overlooking the water, and stopped in at the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum. Wyannie (pronounced why-annie, in case anyone is looking for unique baby names) was one of the early Loyalist settlers here and she founded the museum way back in 1785 to preserve the history of Hope Town. They had some interesting exhibits dating back to the Arawawk Indians all the way up through modern times. Afterward we zigzagged among the narrow lanes to look at all the cottages and stopped in at Vernon's Grocery & Upper Crust Bakery. We had heard rumors about Vernon's fabulous key lime pies and wanted to buy one. The grocery store was well-stocked, but for whatever reason the owner had all the lights off and the only light source was a single window at the front of the store. So rather than explore the spooky darkened aisles (we didn't realize we'd need a flashlight to go shopping) we just bought our pie (which turned out to be fantastic) and a loaf of bread and left. We think we'll stay awhile here in the harbour, there's a lot to explore and we just want to be play tourist for a few days.

Where we are:
Lat: N 26 32.274'
Long: W 76 57.505'