Day 335: Mady's Make A Wish

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - Somewhere, Mady had heard about about a place called Atlantis, where they have underwater rooms and people swim with dolphins. When Jen and Chris, Wish-Granters from the Make A Wish Foundation, met with us this spring and asked Mady what her wish might be, she had a number of ideas... but she kept coming back to Atlantis.

Okay, it's not the Atlantis that Plato described... We did some more research, and we found that the Atlantis that Mady was talking about, happens to be located on Paradise Island, just across the bridge from Nassau in The Bahamas. What a great place for a formerly-underwater city to emerge!

The incredible Make A Wish Foundation put together a fabulous wish for Mady, and amazingly we got to go along too! It began in a trip to airport (at 5:30 in the morning) in a white stretch limousine...

No, that's not me wearing a tie in the photo... it's Bob, the very-friendly limo driver.

Mady had also considered Australia for her wish, but her docs said that was way too far away in case of a medical problem. The Bahamas is actually quite close (sandwiched between Florida and Cuba), so after a short plane ride we arrived at Atlantis and found our Coral Tower suite... complete with a giant bouquet of flowers for Mady.

The place was amazing. What I noticed most throughout our stay was the attention to detail. The developers hired true artists and sculptors to make everything look, well, like it had been underwater for a few thousand years. Much of the resort is dominated by the world's largest saltwater aquarium, which is visible all over the resort through giant sheets of 6" thick glass.

We're standing in front of one of the aquarium windows in this photo. Atlantis is particularly famous for The Dig, an "underwater" archaeological exploration that showcases over 50,000 aquatic creatures within the backdrop of underwater Atlantean ruins... it was amazing, and we walked through it every chance we got.

Water is featured everywhere. We loved The Current, a man-made river (basically a giant swimming pool designed as a mile-long loop) through which you float on tubes and traverse the entire resort, encountering rapids, underground tunnels, giant waves in a winding slot canyon, and even an occasional long drop in a tower slide! This was Mady's favorite thing, and we floated many, many loops!

The food was also sublime, and we ate well at every meal, including a morning buffet breakfast at The Marketplace that had, well, pretty much anything you can possibly imagine eating for breakfast. Mmmmmm... breakfast...

The interiors of the resort were unbelievable and full of amazing sculpture and other art commissioned specifically for this resort.

We were particularly impressed by several examples of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, a northwest glass artist whose work we have always loved. This swirling red/yellow piece in the casino was especially great.

Mady and Julia both had spa treatments and got beautiful manicure/pedicures, and we actually spent a little time in the very-blue water on one of the most beautiful beaches you can possibly imagine.

An evening view from our balcony...

The princesses of Atlantis...

Oh, and Mady did get a chance to frolic with, and actually KISS, a dolphin or two! (And yes, I know that's not a dolphin in the photo above!) We do have some frolicking-with-dolphins photos, but I haven't been able to scan them digitally yet. Stand by for more pics soon.

Thank you Jen, Chris, and the Make a Wish Foundation! The trip you put together was an experience of a lifetime, and Mady loved it! We hope to go back in a few years to celebrate when she becomes completely cancer-free!

-t