Grand Cayman

For our last trip of the summer we had originally planned to go to Paris. About 2 days before we were to leave, Brett's co-worker got stuck there for a week trying to come home, and the flights were not looking good for us either. So we made a quick change of plans and decided to go to Grand Cayman and Belize instead.

When we arrived in Grand Cayman we walked a good 4-5 miles to the Marriott from the airport carrying our packs on our backs. We were soooo tired and vowed we would definitely be paying for a taxi back to the airport because it was much further than we thought when we had mapped it out on google. Once getting settled into our room with a garden view (complimentary upgrade), we walked about a mile down the beach to the grocery store to pick up some lunches and snacks for the room. We stopped at Thai Orchid for dinner. If you haven't noticed, we love Thai food! On almost every trip there is a Thai restaurant involved at some point.

We had avacado, asparagus, cream cheese, sushi for an appetizer (no fish involved there), and it was amazing!

That night we went snorkeling off our beach and got a feel for the 85 degree water, as well as an awesome picture of the sunset (at top of page).

The next day we went down to the biggest city on the island called George Town. We expected it to be crowded, but there were no cruise ships in that day so we had the place all to ourselves. It was kind of eery because it was so deserted, but really fun at the same time because the snorkeling was amazing. We got to snorkel at the Ship Wreck of the Cali which was really neat to look at. This day was really surreal. The water was perfect blue as seen below, we were snorkeling with the ocean and town to ourselves with turtles, fish, crabs, etc... It doesn't get better than that.

This school of fish followed us for about an hour while we were diving around the shipwreck, they were very playful and fun.

That night we watched another gorgeous sunset while reading, eating chips and salsa, and lounging in the lawn chairs. We then took a couple mile walk down the street to see what was down there and walked back to the hotel down 7-mile beach on the sand. It was dark, but the sound of the waves coming in was so relaxing and the faint light from each resort dimly lit the waves as they came in.

Our last full day in Grand Cayman we paid Captain Marvin to take us to Stingray City. They picked us up from our hotel and took us to our boat that we rode out to the sandbar. This was my very favorite part, we got to swim with lots of stingrays and hold them and kiss them! They were all over and it was so much fun! Plus, the boat ride was beautiful with the clear turquoise water all around.

When we got back from Stingray City we went snorkeling off our beach again, but explored further out this time. We found some really cool fish that we did not see before. That is why we love snorkeling so much, because every time we go we see something different, even if we go in the same spot. We ate dinner at a barbecue place down the road and got wings and hamburgers. The food on Grand Cayman is SO expensive, even in the grocery stores, so we limited what we ate and just splurged a couple times.

The morning of departure, we considered getting a taxi as we had promised ourselves we would, but we just couldn't do it. We couldn't fork out the 8 dollars, when we could easily walk and pay no money. We had already done it once and survived, right? So we walked the long trek again with the weight a little more evenly balanced in our packs, but man that was a long walk! We died, again. Seriously, I can't believe the things we do to save money sometimes ;)

We got on the flight back to Atlanta, walked some more to another hotel, and quickly scrambled to find a way to get Brittany and Cory to Atlanta (because they had been stuck in Salt Lake City trying to get a flight all day). We ended up routing them through Omaha where they had some adventures of their own (you'll have to ask them) and they met us in the Atlanta airport the next morning.