The Bahamas are taking a big hit from Hurricane Irene today, and I can’t help but think back to the many times I have visited the islands and what a great cruise destination they are! Let’s all hope that the islands bounce back quickly from this storm. A cruise to Nassau in the Bahamas was my first cruise experience. It was 1967. It was spring break my senior year in high school, and a group of classmates banded together to persuade our parents to part with $100. Way back then, that $100 covered a chartered bus from south Georgia to Miami, a night in a hotel, and a 3-day cruise to Nassau on the Eastern Cruise Line’s Bahama Star. We even took along two carefully-selected chaperones, whose primary responsibility was to look the other way. We had four high school girls in an interior cabin that was smaller than some walk-in closets I’ve seen on today’s cruise ships. Although the ship was certainly no where as nice as those launched since then, and Nassau is not the most exotic place I’ve traveled to in the past 45 years, that senior trip cruise did get me hooked on cruising and international travel.Many Caribbean cruises include a stopover in Nassau in the Atlantic Ocean, and there are still those 3-day cruises like the one I went on, although the ship has long since retired. (But not immediately after our group disembarked.)Nassau in the Bahamas (c) Linda Garrison