Oh, yes. Here we are. So, vacation, vacation... what to say... how to say it... well, it was... booooooo (or poooooo as Brian would say :) ) We went to Grand Cayman on Tues (the 4th). When we got there and made it to our hotel, let's just say it was definetly lacking.... Moving on, Wednesday it rained all day so we decided to take a drive around the island to check it out and look for our buddy Stuart's house (he invited us over... yep, met him on the plane!). When we had finally made it about 1/2 way (30 minutes!), we decided to stop and have lunch since the rain had let up a bit. We stopped at this place that was supposed to look like a lighthouse that sat right on the edge of the water. It was nice. When it was time to go, it had started raining again but Brian assured me it was just a "little" rain and that I should suck it up and run to the car.... I tell the owner no thank you for her umbrella, I'm sure it's not that bad.... HA! When we both jump in the jeep we are soaking wet from head to toe! Nothing little about that rain! So, on we drive seeing all the beautiful places and beaches yet unable to get out of the jeep because of the rain... This is also the trip in which we learned that chickens roam the streets freely... like rats in NYC! ... and we hear on the radio that there's a tropical depression south of the islands that may become a tropical storm before it gets to us the following weekend. Anyway, we head back, get dinner, and that ends our exciting day 1.
Thursday, day 2.... after breakfast, we headed down to the conceirge determinded to do something fun today even though it is very cloudy since we figure it will be cloudy the whole time. Well, we informed there will be no more trips (snorkling, fishing, jet skiing, booze cruise, under water submarines) at all until after the storm because they have started taking the boats in to safe harbor. This is wear we say BOOOO. So, the lady takes pity on us and finds us one last snorkling trip out that afternoon on a different company's boat. YEAH! Luckily, the rain held off and we were able to snorkle a little and go to Stingray City and pet the stingrays. Because of the weather we didn't get snorkle on the barrier reef because there were waves and the water was very choppy... but I saw some fishies and Brian kept his breakfast down so Yay for us!! After our trip, we head back to the hotel to find out that the storm is now a hurricane and headed our way fast! The hotel assures us it's no big deal and we should stay put.... (ya, thanks for that). We decide, rather than waste our money on several nights for a hotel in the rain we should head home and try for a later vacation. So, you know how airlines are.... after 2 hours we finally get a flight out for Friday morning....
Friday! We pack up and head out to the airport around 7:30. The streets were insane, people were everywhere, rain was coming in sideways, and the gas stations were out of gas (bad if you have a rental and have to pay $8/gallon for Avis gas). We make it to the airport (soaked of course) and stand in line... a very, very long line... for about 30 minutes before they cancel all the flights! Oh goody! Since we now have no car, I find a security guy that kindly hunts us down a taxi and we make our way back to the luxurious hotel we loved so much... booooo.... Friday, we basically hung out in lobby and watched the hurricane (now a category 3) roll on by us. It passed us around midnight.
Saturday was still very choppy and overcast. I can't even remember what we did. Sat by the beach and tried to get in, but it was freezing with no sun....
Sunday, everything was still closed so we decide to head up the coast to the turtle farm. It was neat, they raise turtles and let them go and keep a lot too. There were 500 full grown adult sea turtle in one big habitat, they just swam on top of each other.... They also had little baby ones we could pick up and medium ones that you could try to pick up but those things must have weighed 100 pounds! They also had a shark tank and you could watch the feed them. Before the storm, we could have brought snorkel gear and swam in this man made thing wear you can check out all kinds of fish... but it was closed. They also had a pool. Then we did the bird aviary... about the size of my living room, but we got to let them land on us so that was cool and there were tons of iguanas... those things are fast! Afterwards we headed back to hotel to hang by the beach and watch the sunset... so pretty. Atleast it was sunny most of the day.
Monday was our last day so we went to town Monday morning to hunt down sea shells for Emily... I was told to bring some back for sure (even though there are no shells in the Caymans because of the reef)... Then we ran back to sit by the beach one last time before running out to catch our plane. weeeee.....
So that was our trip.... no pirate ship, no underwater sub, no water sports, and no perfectly still clear blue water.... We talked about whether we'd go back again and I don't think we will. The island is nice and the people are friendly, not at all pushy like Jamaica or Mexico, but all the things we wanted to do we could do elsewhere where the landscape is prettier. It's a very small and very flat island. We prefer to hike and explore rather than sit at the beach all week and there just wasn't enough unique things to do. So, I'm afraid it's back to Maui we go.... well, maybe in a couple of years :) Any takers?
Here are some of the pics. We have some video too and as soon as I can figure out how to get it onto my computer, I'll post it too.... Brian was trying to be the next Geraldo Rivera in the hurricane!
