Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018

I can't really remember how I brought in 2017 but I knew I wanted to end it on a high note, and what better way to do that than by going to the Maldives? Going to the Maldives has been on my bucket list for quite some time now, you literally cannot find a bad picture of it and I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't enjoy their time there. Now, if I had known beforehand that getting there would require 4 different kinds of transportation I might have chosen a different resort but it was an adventure I'm glad we had all the same.

So, because we live in Al Ain and the nearest airport is 90 minutes away, our journey started with a coach bus (provided by the airline) to Abu Dhabi. I think I've pretty much got traveling with a baby down to a science, or at least I thought I did until we lost Rhys' bear in the airport right after this picture was taken.  I'm pretty sure I was more upset about it than he was but I've learned to keep anything important in the luggage until we get to where we're going.

After the coach bus and the airplane, we had to take a seaplane to get to our resort which was its own island. I didn't think there would be as many people on the plane as there were but luckily it was only a short 45 minute flight. I don't mind flying normally, but taking off and landing in such a small plane made me nauseous.

When we finally got to the resort, we landed in the middle of the ocean. There was a small bit of dock that folded up right there in the water that didn't look big enough to hold much more than a few people. Just as I was wondering how we were going to get to the resort, which I could not see, a small boat came speeding up to take us, one other passenger, and the two pilots to the resort. I didn't get any pictures of that because it was either that or keep hold of Rhys.

The resort itself was amazing, there are no other words to describe it. The island took about 5 minutes to walk the entirety of. There were two restaurants, a spa, and about 40 villas. I love being surrounded by the ocean, the sound of waves crashing is so soothing to me. With the resort being so small, it was easy just to do nothing and enjoy our surroundings. Each morning we could see nurse sharks in the water from our breakfast table and little crabs on our walks to the beach. In the evenings, we would go watch old movies in their theater room since our room didn't have a tv. The weather was nice for most of the week but we did have rain once or twice which was a nice change of pace.

After a week in paradise, it was time to go home a little fatter (from all the yummy food), a little darker, and better rested. I never usually want to visit the same place twice but the Maldives is definitely worth a second visit.

On our way home, I did manage to get a few quick photos of our boat in the middle of the water as we waited for the seaplane to land and pick us up. They're not the best quality but you get the picture.

My guy is becoming quite the little traveler :) Our next trip will be to Goa, India in March.