Bahamas

Baltimore and the Bahamas' Freeport have a lot in common. They're both cities with a mix of tourist areas and heavy industry, and both often play second banana to a national capital. Now the two cities are linked by a direct air service that began Thursday. Vision Airlines, a U.S. carrier known for its occasional role as a charter contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency, will offer twice-weekly service between Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Freeport, a vacation destination that in recent years has been eclipsed by bustling Nassau.

Arthur and Megan Greitzer, of Audubon, Pa., announce the engagement of their daughter, Katie Greitzer, to Cody Boswell, son of James Boswell, of Elkridge, and Carol Boswell, of Laurel. The bride is a graduate of Methacton High School in Norristown, Pa. The groom is a 2001 graduate of Howard High School. An August wedding is planned in Hershey, Pa., with a honeymoon in the Bahamas. The couple currently reside in Hummelstown, Pa.

Kamie Crawford, a 17-year-old from Potomac was crowned Miss Teen USA Saturday night in the Bahamas, making her the first contestant from the state of Maryland to win the distinction. Crawford, a senior at Winston Churchill High in Potomac, beat out Miss Illinois to win the title. The competition was held at Atlantis, Paradise Island resort, in the Bahamas. She was named Miss Maryland Teen USA in November, which was her first time competing in the pageant. As a result of the win, Crawford received a two-year scholarship from the New York Film Academy worth more than $100,000, a diamond tiara, and various trips and clothes.

The death of a Reisterstown woman during a snorkeling tour while cruising in the Bahamas has been ruled a drowning. Autopsy results released Friday by the Royal Bahamas Police Force said that Carol Olson, 71, drowned last week while snorkeling off Grand Bahama Island. Olson had been on a cruise with a group from Trinity Lutheran Church in Reisterstown aboard the Carnival Pride, which sailed April 25 from Baltimore. Olson and her husband, Harry T. Olson, were both on the April 30 snorkel tour off Freeport, which they booked through Carnival.

A 71-year-old Reisterstown woman on an ocean cruise from the port of Baltimore has died while snorkeling off Freeport, Bahamas. Carol Martin Olson was a passenger aboard the Carnival Pride, which sailed from Baltimore April 25. A spokeswoman for Carnival Cruise Lines said Monday that "a female guest" died on April 30, but declined to confirm the victim's name "in deference to their personal privacy." Olson's identity was provided by another passenger on the excursion, and a Reisterstown funeral home said Olson died in "a snorkeling accident in Freeport, Grand Bahama."

Veronica Keith and her daughter Ashley woke up early Sunday morning to shovel their Hyattsville driveway, as they had a Bahamas cruise to make and no record-setting blizzard was going to ruin it. "I'm one of the lucky ones," said Veronica Keith, a 60-year-old retiree who bought her daughter the cruise, which departed yesterday, as a Christmas gift. "I'm escaping the snow. I wouldn't want to miss this cruise for anything in the world." Catherine Gonzalez and Teresa Punjwani didn't consider themselves so lucky.

Baltimore's 2009 cruise season sets sail this week as Carnival Cruise Lines makes its debut with a six-day sailing to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Pride. Carnival is one of four lines that will be sailing from Locust Point Terminal this year. The others are Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Celebrity - altogether twice as many cruises from Baltimore as last year. Check out our online 2009 Cruise Guide at baltimoresun.com/travel. Here are five things that cruise-goers might want to do in the Bahamas.

Lately, it seems everything is free. Free pancakes at IHOP. Free subs at Quiznos. Free nights at hotels. Free days at Walt Disney World. Free tickets to Universal Studios. The problem is most of it is stuff you don't really want or need. (When is BGE gonna give me a month's supply of heat for free? In Neverary.) The other problem is you have to spend money to get to the free part. But here's a free offer that could have a happy ending and end up costing you absolutely nothing except a few words.

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Reporters for The Bahama Journal newspaper and Love 97 radio station packed their joint newsroom one recent morning and scribbled their story assignments upon a whiteboard. "Morton Salt Follow-up" referred to a union dispute between the Morton Salt Co. and miners on the island of Inagua. The "Haitian Poachers" headline related to Haitian fishermen who cruised into Bahamian waters and illegally fished the prized Nassau grouper. One topic absent from the board: Anna Nicole Smith.