We’ve just enjoyed a week in the Bahamas for the kid’s Spring Break. She was such a trooper about last year’s Colonial Williamsburg Spring Break that this year we promised and delivered a tropical trip.

Not knowing much about the traditional island vacation destinations we picked Atlantis in the Bahamas. We were fortunate to have very easy travel days and no flight issues on JetBlue. The resort itself is sprawling and has several gorgeous pools, a water park with an extensive lazy river, slides through aquarium tanks, open air habitats for turtles, mantas and sharks. There are different hotels in the resort complex and we stayed at the Royal, close to the park and pools. This was good for the kid but Brandon and I agreed that if we were ever to return, we’d stay at the Cove, which is quieter, more sedate, and private. However, the rooms were very quiet, the walls thick, and we heard nary a disturbing peep from our neighbors.

This year has already been pretty stressful for all of us for various reasons so we had no plans to do anything other than go somewhere warm and relax. We didn’t book any excursions or sightseeing, which is unusual for us. For most of the trip, we were parked poolside. The beaches were not busy – the waves were high during our stay and the resort staff kept people away from the water. Beach chairs went fast and the pools were less windy, closer to bathrooms and amenities. The weather was consistently excellent- warm and bright, high 70’s and perfect for poolside lounging. I donned my coastal grandmother bucket hat and white Oxford shirt and read several books. There were multiple bars and restaurants and a resort casino featuring a few spectacular Chihuly installations. And we walked through the marina, full of sleek long yachts against the almost surreal backdrop of the sun setting in the palm trees.

The downsides were standard. The resort is simply enormous and busy – Vegas on the beach. You have to plan meals and make reservations and be prepared to stand in line and pay top dollar for everything. (Luckily we eat early so we generally did not have a problem finding tables.) Pool and beach chairs go fast and people go down early to claim the best ones (again, not a problem for us, since eating early = going to bed early = getting up early. We were generally poolside by 8:30. However, we did see many late-risers wandering around sadly at about noon, looking for empty chairs and bemoaning the long lines for towels and water slide wristbands.) It is not all-inclusive so you simply bleed money. Everything is ridiculously upcharged. Case in point- although we packed sunscreen, we went through it faster than expected (hello pale Midwesterner skin) and were forced to pay TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS for one bottle from the resort store.

There was great people-watching (Brandon: “I can’t remember a trip as rich in its interface with raw humanity!”) We saw an unfortunate amount of panic over lost items poolside including one woman in hysterics over a lost phone and another over a lost passport. We saw many dead-eyed parents dragging overtired, underfed, wailing kids through the corridors. We heard many rote intonations of “get off the floor”, “my God can’t we take you ANYWHERE WITHOUT HAVING A SCENE” and even an “I WILL LEAVE YOU HERE” as kids melted down. We saw a dad push a stroller into the bar looking for his wife who was there drinking champagne only to have the kid pluck her champagne flute out of her hand and send it sailing across the bar to crash into splinters as he looked on, expressionless. We heard rumors of one part of the hotel in which the elevator lines could be prohibitively long at the end of the day, stretching down the corridor, filled with screaming children and strollers.

I don’t know if we’d go back – next year we may do a cruise or go somewhere all-inclusive – but we were happy to get away and have a sunshine break and for what we were looking for, this fit the bill perfectly. I have stored up sunshine in my bones for the remainder of our sullen Michigan spring.