For a moment, I panic. What have I done, flying a 5-year-old (and his dad) to one of the most remote islands in the Bahamas for winter vacation? Long Island, this 80-mile long, four-mile-wide spit of land 160 miles from Nassau, has no Sea World. Kids can't dance with the dolphins here, nor can they gobble Happy Meals or slide down gigantic water slides. This is an Out Island, after all, known and loved for its remoteness from all that, with nothing to do but lie on a beach and watch the waves, or snorkel and scuba — if you're well over 5 years old.
Similar to Abaco, a better known Bahamian Out Island, where friends of mine take nothing but a bathing suit and a stack of books with them, Long Island is known for its romance. Sure enough, the only other people in the little Piper six-seater plane flying us to this island is a North Carolina couple who will be married there — deliberately without friends, relatives or cell phones so they can enjoy the whole experience alone on the beach.
What will Sam, the kindergartner, and I do while his dad goes scuba diving? Maybe we should have gone to the other Long Island, in New York, where he could at least watch television or go to a movie.
The question resolved itself as soon as we deposited our bags in our bungalow at the Stella Maris Resort and walked the 200 or so yards to one of scores of beaches surrounding the island. Each beach has its own flavor, character, and activity.
Surprising Shells
The beach closest to our cottage was empty, unspoiled, and filled with coral tide pools, each with its own collection of fascinating sea creatures or fossils. Any beach is a joy to Sam, because he lives in New Mexico and swims only in indoor pools without a grain of sand or piece of coral nearby.
 On the beaches of the Bahamas |
He rushed to the first tide pool he saw and began exploring the shells of the creatures that lived there. The beautifully patterned shells looked like colored patchwork panels of green, gray, pink, and blue. Some reminded Sam and his dad of ancient trilobite fossils.
The coral on this beach forms a natural child's saltwater swimming pool, but the waves were too big for Sam to try it on this day. They were powerful and impressive, the kind Sam's dad calls "kid-sucker" waves, and we stayed clear.
Deal's Beach
On another day when Sam's dad went diving, the owners of Stella Maris, who provide complimentary transportation to any one of the resort's eight distinctive beaches, deposited me and Sam on Deal's Beach. On the Caribbean, leeside of the island, it was completely different from the first beach: calm as a swimming pool, quiet, and filled with tiny clamshells unlike any I'd seen on my Massachusetts beaches.
Sam was mesmerized, and for several hours, crouched at the edge of the water, choosing which shells he was going to take home for a Show-and-Tell session in his kindergarten class. When we got back to our bungalow, he spread them out, counted them, chose which was his favorite, and put them in our little refrigerator for safekeeping.
"I love my shells," he said happily, confirming my belief that toy stores are not always necessary to a 5-year-old.
Board Games — Never Boring
The wind came up stronger another day. "Look, the palm trees are dancing!" said Sam. So we hung out in the main building of the resort, which houses its restaurant, bar, game room, and general socializing spot for people in the 32 villas, cottages, and hotel rooms spread over the north side of the island. Here Sam met children close to his age from
 Sam with a new find |
Germany and the U.K. "How do you say, 'Wanna play?' in German?" he asked. When I couldn't come up with the answer, he decided to play checkers with Joe, an 8-year-old from England.
When the weather calmed, Joe and his family decided to hit yet another beach near the Santa Maria Resort; we joined them. Joe and Sam, their arms flapping, tore in and out of the calm waters with joyful abandon. They looked like a couple of birds who had just been released from their cages.
It wasn't until the fourth day that Sam realized there was no television set in our bungalow. The next day he wondered why there was no telephone, not that he felt any particular need to use it. And during a whole week in the middle of nowhere, I never once heard him complain, "There's nothing to do."
For more island-vacation ideas, consider Aruba, Curaçao, Hawaii, the Florida Keys, and these all-inclusive Caribbean resorts.
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