Earlier this April, we got to go back to Grand Cayman for a quick Easter vacation! It was such a need break, and totally delivered.. SO relaxing. We met my Uncle Ernie and Aunt Cari and their two kids down there. I think that was the best part of the whole trip. We stayed at a condo, so the first thing that we did was hit up the grocery store. The grocery store here, or market, is awesome! They are so different than here. They have TONS of fresh fruit and natural things. It's more like a health food store. They definitely don't have as much processed food as we do back in the states. I was so excited because I finally found a dragon fruit! I've been wanting to try one for forever. They're gorgeous! It really didn't have much taste though and cost $9.99 CI (Cayman Island money). That's $13.84 US for one piece of fruit. Don't think I'll be buying that again anytime soon, although it was cool to try once. Next, we headed to the condo and headed straight to the pool!
I LOVE the water in Cayman. It's so crystal clear. You can see everything. The only thing about the condo is that the beach that is in front of it is super rocky and has some reefs around, so when at the condo, I spend most of my time in the pool. It's awesome too and feels like a warm bath tub. One of my favorite things to do is to go out and back float at night checking out the moon and the stars! It's so peaceful and gorgeous. The coolest thing ever this year was when we were laying on the beach one night. We looked up and saw something glowing and floating through the sky. We didn't know what it was, but then a TON more followed. They were lanterns! Totally reminded me of tangled. I definitely want to let lanterns off like that at my wedding (no, I'm not getting married any time soon. Yes, I'm a girl and randomly plan different wedding things in my head ;)
SOOO romantic, right?! =)
The next day we hung out and the beach and at the pool, then went to eat at Margaritaville. The Margaritaville in Cayman is pretty cool because it has a water slide and pool in it. However, we didn't plan on going there when we headed downtown, so the kids didn't have their suits. We were going to bring them back a different day to swim, but the service was so bad (seemed like they had NO employees. One poor guy was running around trying to do everything.) so the kids ended up getting to slide in their clothes so that we didn't have to bring them back another time, ha.
We had one other adventure day, but the rest were spent on the beach and at the pool! Those days were great. Not a care in the world! On our adventure day we went out on a boat and went to some popular island attraction spots. We use Captain Marvins. They're great every time! I would definitely recommend them and the captains Darren and Eric. For our first stop, we went conch diving. I didn't do this one, but both my sisters swam right down, into about 10 feet of water and came right up with live conchs. It was awesome. Again, the water is so clear, so you can see everything under the water. Literally, like this...
Wouldn't that be the life??!! Our next stop was stingray city. This place is so cool. It's the most gorgeous, 3-4 ft. deep sandbar out in the middle of the sea. The rays come every day, knowing they'll get fed. They are also incredibly friendly. This was my fourth time at stingray city, and the first time that I finally got in. Listening to our captain, I finally realized how high up the rays' stinger is. I always thought that it was their whole tail. The other thing about stingrays is that they can't voluntarily sting you. They can't swim backwards, so you have to either walk into them while not paying attention, or step on the stinger. Because of that, you're safe, and you have to shuffle your feet in the sand instead of picking them up and walking. We then fed the rays some squid. You have to be careful how you hold the squid though because the rays suck their food up like vacuum (wouldn't wanna get your thumb sucked all up in there.) You can then hug the rays (holding your arms out and basically letting them swim up to you) and they will lift up and give you a "kiss" (which in Cayman legend is 7 years of good luck.. I still didn't quite do that.. Just getting in the water and shuffling around was huge for me!)
These two aren't my pictures, but this one above is an aerial view of stingray city. This is literally what it looks like every day. Huge tourist spot.
This one shows some guys "hugging" the rays. Yep, they swim right up! Our last spot before dinner was starfish point. This location is super cool. Tons of starfish hang out right up next to the shore. You can walk around and pick them up and see their beauty. It's pretty cool. One actually sucked on to Ty (my brother). He couldn't get it off for a while because he was too scared to hurt it, ha!
(Again, not my picture, but this is starfish point. I really slacked with the camera this trip. I never had my phone with me!)
After the point, we headed to Kaibo for dinner. This is the most awesome little beach bar and grill! Love it every time we go there. They never disappoint! They had some AMAZING "Cayman Lemonade."
This was our most fun day! We definitely could have used a few more days. It's always so relaxing. Who wouldn't want to finish their day laying on the warm beach checkin' this out?!
(Yepp. This one's actually mine. Real life ;)
What are your favorite vacation spots?? I'd love to know in the comments below. :)
