Dolphin Cove!

I forgot to mention, to top off the day yesterday, we had a great supper, too! One of the restaurant guide books we had picked up recommended places the locals eat, so we found this small shack called "Seymour's Jerk Centre", supposedly some of the best jerk chicken and jerk pork in town! It was really delicious. They had a few outdoor picnic tables, so we tried to sit there and eat, but unfortunately, Alex was being eaten up by mosquitos, so we wound up just taking it home and eating in.

So, this morning, we walked along our beach for a while, just messing in the rocks and water. Just less than a mile up the beach is a famous beach called cemetery beach (it's adjacent to a cemetery), where there is good snorkeling and diving, so we came back with all the snorkel gear and hung out for a while in the water and in the shade of the cool trees. Ben and Daryl saw squid, and barracuda, and we all saw lots of sergeant majors and more.

brain coral is washed up everywhere

the cemetery

sea grape trees

Ben floating!

Ben had a great time snorkeling today!

In the afternoon we had booked reservations for the "Ultimate Swim Program" at Dolphin Cove, swimming with the dolphins! Everything revolves around the  cruise ships here, so whenever the cruise ship crowds are not around, business is slow. Our condo owner offered us a 2 for 1 deal if we went in the afternoon. Sure enough when we got there, a huge crowd of cruise passengers were just finishing up in the gift shop and leaving ... we were so glad we were not there at the  same time. We got so much more personal attention during our tour!

First, a guy took us to a low open tank in which he had starfish, jellyfish, lobster, conch, anemones, jellyfish, urchins, and more. He gave us a very informative lecture, lesson about each of the creatures, and then he let us hold them! He even let Daryl hold the lobster when he asked, which he does not usually let people do!

Next, a tour guide took us to the open air bird aviary. There were parrots, macaw, peach-faced lovebirds, and cockatoo. We got to interact with and hold several of them, very cool!

Ben feeding a lovebird!

Alex feeding lovebirds from his hands!

a cockatoo

 

 Then we were given lifejackets and instructions on how to interact with the dolphins! It was a small group, just us and 3 other couples! It takes place in a salt water lagoon, and we each in turn got to touch, be kissed and kiss the dolphins, then we got to take 2 different "rides", one being pushed by the feet by 2 dolphins (like superman!), and the other being pulled by holding on to the dorsal fins of 2 dolphins! Sadly, they did not allow our own photography :-( They have a professional photographer and try to sell you expensive photos at the end. Well, we still have the awesome memories and after the experience I took these few shots of the dolphins just roaming around the lagoon!

Our 2 dolphins were Lucy and Sally!

This was the lagoon we swam in with the dolphins!

It was most definitely the experience of a lifetime!! Really amazing to be so up close and personal with those beautiful animals!
Then, on our way back, we stopped in the town called Hell. It is famous for buying a postcard saying "I've been to Hell and back", and sending it to someone with the postmark of "Hell", so we sent one to ourselves as a souvenir!

I'm glad they had this message painted on 2 sides of the building! Much better!

 

Overall another wonderful day!

Stingray City!

Well, we had a most memorable first full day here on this amazing island! First we explored the beach at our condo, which had great snorkeling right off the beach! It also has cool little tiki shade huts, including several with swings and hammocks.

 

 

This is our condo with pool and beach in the photo, too.


In the afternoon, we took a boat tour out to Stingray City Sandbar as well as 2 other popular snorkel sites along the way. It was really amazing!

 

On Captain Marvin's tour

Ben trying to touch the spray off the side of the boat!

 

Once we arrived at the sandbar after about 30 minutes, there were immediately a dozen or so stingrays right there in the shallow water, ready to be touched and fed. They would glide past you and brush up against your legs frequently.. They are very soft and gently, though.

 Every passenger got a chance to hold and kiss a ray! Of everyone on our boat, Ben got to go first!

 

 Then there was also the opportunity to feed them little pieces of squid. You had to hold it in closed fist sticking up like an ice cream cone and hold it under water, since their mouths are on their underside. When they approached you, there was really intense suction to pull it out of your grip ... Daryl's facial expression in this photo really sums it up well!

Yikes!

Someone found this cool conch (it was alive!) just sitting there right where we were standing!

 

The snorkeling at the 2 other sites was really great, too. Daryl got a lot of underwater video footage on the little Contour camcorder he bought. We say a lot of beautiful tropical fish including angels, barracuda, seargent majors, and many more I can't name right now!

parrot fish

angelfish

cowfish

What a great day, the kids are having a blast and I am very proud to say so far nobody has a sunburn!

First day: Chicago to Houston to Grand Cayman!

Well, here we are in Grand Cayman Island!

We had a great trip down here. After a nice day relaxing and enjoying the company at the Eldridges (Thanks Diane, Bradd, Reece, Denae, and Gavin!), we spent last night at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, so we would be ready for our early morning departure. It was a cool hotel, with a view of the sunset over the airport! Ben enjoyed having a bathrobe in the room and the glass elevators were really fast!

This morning, we made our 6 am airport shuttle in the nick of time, and traffic, check-in, security, etc., went really smoothly. They changed the aircraft for our flight, so our pre-booked seats were apparently null and void :-(. Instead of window and next over seats 2 rows behind each other, we wound up with 3 middle seats and one aisle on our first flight. On the second flight it was even worse, Daryl and Alex had random middle or aisle seats next to total strangers, Ben and I managed (after switching with someone) to get a window and next over seats together. However, other than that, I have no complaints! When we got to Houston, TX, we walked out of gate E20 and our connecting gate was almost immediately across the hall E16 ... that never happens! Then, to top it off, just upstairs from our gate, there was a cool sports restaurant, FOX Sky Box, where we had a very nice lunch during our layover!

 

 

 

 

We did not check any luggage, so the airport was fairly quick, security, customs, walked across the street to Budget Rental Car. On our way we saw a rooster just roaming freely in the parking lot!
There we waited a little, but not bad to get our tiny Hyundai economy sized rental car.

 Boy is it ever a crazy feeling to drive on the left side of the street! The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and some of the controls are opposite of what you're used to. Daryl is the one driving, and he kept hitting the wipers instead of the turn signals! We made it safely to Christopher Columbus Condos, and checked in just before the office closed at 5 pm! Again, awesome timing!

This is our condo, and the view from the balcony!

 After getting settled in a little bit, of course we had to check out the beach and the pool. It is lovely! We took our masks and snorkels and there are lots of cool fish and other stuff (urchins, cucumbers)  right off the beach!

Then we got so hungry we had to go to the grocery store. We stocked up on some groceries for the week, and on Ben's request cooked Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for supper! The kitchen here is fully stocked with dishes, utensils, pots, towels, salt and pepper, even dish detergent and Cascade for the dishwasher! It is awesome. More photos later! Time for bed, it's been a long day!