Thursday night we took the red eye on Jet Blue and flew into JFK. After a few hours we boarded another plane and traveled the rest of the way to our final destination....GRAND CAYMAN!!
There are six of us. Skylar an Sarah, Brach and Kendra, and Rick and I. After arriving and picking up our vehicles.....two jeeps and a well used mercedes convertible we stopped for a much needed bite at the Embarcadero Yacht Club. We enjoyed eating a bunch of appetizers.....pizza, oxtail ravioli, wahoo ceviche, coconut shrimp, and a salad for me:) We enjoyed all of it!
After driving to the East side of the island and getting settled in the Morritt's Tortuga Club Condos and taking a quick dip in the "quiet pool" we headed out for some local cuisine. We had read on trip advisor that Miss Vivinne's was a 'not to miss' place. We loved our food and experience there. Rick had the grilled grouper and I had the stewed chicken with rice. Fried plantains were on our plate too:)
The next morning we got up early for our morning walk. We love being together!
After our walk it was time to hit the infinity pool. Normally this is a very crowded pool but at eight in the morning it was completely empty! This pool overlooks the beautiful Carribean Sea.
After a breakfast in the room we knew our first full day was going to be a laid back one. The kids had told us that they just wanted to hang out at the beach so that's what we did:) We found a nice little spot just outside our room and planted ourself for most of the day. Right off this beach is a plethora of animal life in the water. Beautiful coral and an abundance of beautiful fish! We all (well most of us) enjoyed taking time to get some reading in! Rick was in the water most of the time and Brach was in his room finishing up some homework assignments. After a while he joined the other boys in the water snorkeling.
After lots of hours on the beach we headed over to the pool to clean the salt water off.
While we were there we got some smoothies at the swim up bar:)
That night we got to have dinner at the Eagle Ray Cafe. Good food with good company!
Sunday we got up and left by 9:00 to travel to Georgetown to catch a 10:00 church block. It felt like we were in the mission field again! Lots of new members and a good spirit there! After church S&S went there own way and B&K joined us at a local park for some pb and j sandwiches and snacks. The boys and Kendra enjoyed chasing chickens and iguanas!
After lunch we parted ways and Rick and I headed up to the northern most part of the island. I got to sleep while he drove and saw the sights:) After we returned to the condo it was Rick's turn for a nap. He found an empty hammock outside our room and got some shut eye:)
That night was really enjoyable! We girls prepared a fun mexican meal in the kids' room. We made fajitas, rice, beans, and salad. I ate waaaay to much cause it all tasted so yummy! We also made a cookie pie and topped it with ice cream for dessert!
After dinner we were able to spend about an hour reviewing Elder Oaks' General Conference talk on the family and the proclamation on the family to the world. We had a good experience talking about each aspect of that talk and sharing our feelings on what it means to us in today's world. I love these moments when we can talk of spiritual truths and become closer as a family!
To end the night we played a couple of games of big boggle (Skylar creamed us!) and a couple games of mormon bridge (Rick and I tied:)
It was a great day!!
Monday we left the condo by 8am to drive up to the north shore (Kai Bo Resort) to catch our boat ride for the morning. Big Chris, our guide, picked us up on the dock and we rode out to Stingray City to feed the stingrays. I think we were all a little bit nervous but after a few minutes in the water with them we got a little more comfortable. Big Chris brought some squid to feed the stingrays and we had a fun time doing that! There were some really big ones that came right up and kind of crawled right up the torso. Pretty crazy!! Rick was able to get video of it on the go pro!
After spending about an hour with the stingrays Big Chris fired up the boat and drove a few hundred yards over to the reef. This reef was INCREDIBLE!! It was chalk FULL of beautiful coral and all kinds of fish and water creatures! At the beginning, Rick took some squid out to feed the fish. These fish were VERY aggressive though. Rick got bit twice and me once! I wasn't even holding any bait and one still bit me. They had some sharp teeth and while mine was not too bad....Rick's drew blood! From that point on if that particular type of fish came close to me I would just punch my fist at them and that kept them away. All the other fish were non-agressive though:)
While we continued snorkeling we got to see THREE lion fish. These ones were not the normal orange and white but were black and white. Just incredibly beautiful!! I had never seen black and white lion fish before. Also, at the very end we got to see a HUGE green moray eel hiding under a rock. We never saw his face but his body was BIG!
Our last stop of the day was at Starfish Beach. It was a beautiful calm beach on Rum Point that had starfish hanging out in the water. We enjoyed spending a little time there relaxing in the warm and shallow water.
Me and our guide, Big Chris. He was quite the character. He had a very strong Caribbean accent and was a little difficult to understand but he was a pretty fun guy to spend our morning with:)
For lunch we met Brach and Kendra at Captain Herman's fish fry. Lots of yummy food!
After arriving back to the condo we took a nice long nap and then while Rick did some more snorkeling on our beach I updated my blog:) We all decided to have dinner on our on but somehow met up at Ivan's Bar and Grill just above the lobby. Rick and I shared a salad and nachos. Delish!
Our Cayman trip is half way over! What a great time it's been so far!
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