Tag / bahamas

Mermaid with green hair and scaled tail swimming over coral reef with various fish
by Kelly Mattei

Birthday Trip Souvenir

Birthday Trip Souvenir

I returned home yesterday from a lovely week in the Bahamas with my family. We had a great time celebrating my husband’s 60th birthday. 60! It’s hard to believe, but he is, indeed, 60 years old…or young, however you want to look at it.

I might be the only one from the trip who brought home a souvenir…green hair. Yes, you read it right…green hair.

While we were there, we swam in the Sea of Abaco. We swam in pools. We visited different islands. We rode in the boat. We ate too much. We stayed up late at night talking, drinking, and laughing. And on Thursday before we returned home on Saturday, I spent some time swimming in a pool at a resort on one of the islands. We all swam in it, but I’m the only one who came home with green hair.

Frankly, if anyone had to come home with green hair, I’m glad it was me. My 22-yr-old daughter would have been horrified. Let it be me. At 58 (I’ll be 59 Wednesday!), I didn’t really care all that much that my hair had a green tint. In fact, I was a little amused by what I called my “mermaid hair.”

However, no matter what you call it, it is not attractive. It was mostly on the ends and in one section of my hair. I say “was,” because I have already remedied the situation. I searched all over the internet for the best solution, and I read that ketchup is the way to go. My brother dates a lovely woman who is a hairdresser, so I confirmed it with her before I saturated my hair in cheap ketchup from Publix. The red color and acid in the ketchup is supposed to counteract the green color from the copper/chlorine. This afternoon, I got to work. I put on a button-up shirt I was willing to part with, and I saturated my hair in ketchup and waited 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I washed my hair.

As soon as I realized I had green hair, I placed an order on Amazon for a special shampoo called Malibu C Swimmers Wellness Clarifying Shampoo for Chlorine and Hair Build Up, and that’s what I used to remove the ketchup from my hair. Just as I had been told, it worked. So if you ever find yourself or your child in a similar predicament, I highly recommend ketchup, followed by the Malibu C shampoo.

If you’d like to keep it on hand this summer when your kids are spending lots of time in swimming pools, you can get it from Amazon here. I purchased the large bottle, because we have a pool at home, and since I wash my hair regularly anyway, I might as well use this fantastic shampoo. It smells great and made my hair super soft.

Next time I go to the Bahamas, I hope I will return with a better souvenir.

***As an Amazon associate, I earn commissions for items purchased through my links.***

by Kelly Mattei

Sunglasses at Night

Sunglasses at Night.

Last week, my husband and I were on vacation in the Bahamas, and when we weren’t snorkeling, we were hanging on the beach. No one loves 80s music more than he does, so it was playing the whole time we were on the beach. One afternoon, Sunglasses at Night came on, and I was transported in time…

The year was 1985. I was a wide-eyed, naïve college freshman. It was a good kind of naïvete. I thought I could do anything. I thought I was well-equipped. I was making new friends left and right at my new college and in my new sorority. It was a good time. And to add to the good time, my whole pledge class had a retreat to Six Flags Over Georgia. But wait…there’s more! If you know anything about 1985, you know Corey Hart was still red hot after his hit single, Sunglasses at Night was released in 1984. The album it was on, First Offense, went platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in Canada (Hart is Canadian).

Soon after we learned we were going to Six Flags, someone in our pledge class discovered Corey Hart would be performing there on the day we were there! MTV was alive and well in 1985…back when it actually played music videos…and we knew Corey Hart was easy on the eyes.

Early one September morning, we all boarded a bus at about 5am and sang along to the Violent Femmes on the way to the outskirts of Atlanta. I was well-versed with Six Flags, because I loved rollercoasters, and I had been riding the coasters at that particular theme park my whole life…starting with the Great American Scream Machine, which at the time was the world’s fastest wooden coaster, when I was nine years old. To read about my first rollercoaster experience, click here.

For two hours, we sang the Violent Femmes Blister in the Sun…”when I’m-a walkin’, I strut my stuff, and I’m all strung out…” all the way to Six Flags. I’m sure we sang other things and played trivia games on the bus, but the main thing I remember about the ride? The Violent Femmes.

When we arrived at Six Flags, somehow we divided into smaller groups. We were all pretty new to each other, so I’m not quite sure how the groups formed, but somehow, everyone ended up in a group of new friends. For the entire day, we rode rollercoasters, took a break by riding a boat through the Tales of the Okefenokee ride (later renamed/redesigned as Monster Plantation and now, Monster Mansion), ate lots of junk food, and just laughed and talked…getting to know each other better. It was a memorable day.

I think we were scheduled to board the bus at 8pm, but we had all learned Hart would start playing his concert at 7pm. Clearly, we wouldn’t get to be there for the whole thing, but we could be there for part of it. A little before 7pm, we all met up near the back stage of the park. Fortunately, it was near the parking lot, so we would be able to listen right up until time to board the bus.

Also, we were lucky he started playing on time, so we were able to hear a lot. By this time, he had released another album, titled Boy in the Box, so he had new music he wanted to share. I vividly remember he played Never Surrender, and every teenage girl in the crowd swooned. He played a few other songs from the new album, and we were afraid we would have to leave and miss Sunglasses at Night, but just in time, we heard the familiar opening notes. We were able to stay for the whole song before we ran to the bus, all laughing and talking about Corey Hart. We had bonded over rollercoasters and Corey Hart…and we all remember it to this day.

So yes, for a few minutes on the beach in the Bahamas last week, I was a naïve 18-year-old college freshman again. I told my husband about the Six Flags concert experience, and we both laughed. We then listened to Never Surrender, just so I could reminisce a little more.

Fortunately, I’m no longer so naïve…or maybe that’s not a good thing? There is something refreshing about being unjaded and ignorant about the real world. But there’s something soothing about having the knowledge one can only acquire over the course of 50+ years.

It’s nice to know we can be transported by music for a few minutes, though. And if you’re wondering, I was wearing my Rayban Wayfarers while I listened to those tunes on the beach…taking me back, not only to that day at Six Flags, but also to my memories of seeing Risky Business in the movie theater for the first time.

Great memories!