Memories Worth Keeping: Welcome to Grand Cayman Islands

Welcome to the Grand Cayman Islands.

This was the 2nd stop on our cruise. We were told as were getting to the islands that the highest point on the island is 60 feet. It was a very flat island. The cruise ships can not port next to the island. They anchor out a ways and then tender boats take you to shore.

Heading over on our tender boat.

Bye for awhile cruise ship! Hopefully we will return to you before the last tender boat takes off! Please don't leave us!

There were a lot of cruise ships at this stop. It was pretty to see them all sitting out in the ocean.

We had signed up for a later excursion for two reasons: 1)They are not as crowded, 2)we could walk around and sight-see. I really liked the little shops and the colors of the buildings.

The view from one of the shops out to the ocean was beautiful! I think this picture we took looks fake because of all of the neat colors. I loved all of these ships out in the water.

We saw some interesting things as we walked around too...chickens walking around the shops.

Brett watched these two chickens for awhile and watched one of them eat a lizard! We didn't get a good picture of that though!
People parking in the bushes. I really liked these bushes! They were pretty and rubbery feeling!

This island has pirate statues all over it!

We found a super fun candy store. We thought it would be fun to take the kids home some fun candy, but after seeing the prices of the candy we decided to take them home some pictures instead! We laughed and laughed in this store because of the size of all of the candy...check it out!
One rice krispy treat-the size of a cookie sheet!

Extra long licorice...

Really big lollipops!

It was a fun store to walk through!
Our bus we rode to get to our excursion-Moby Dick tours! (If anyone goes there, we highly recommend them! They did a SUPER job!)

Our excursion at this island was to snorkel and swim with the stingrays and feed them. Our stateroom attendant had left this on our bed the night before we got here knowing that was part of our excursion!

Our bus took us to our boat where our excursion would begin. Here is our boat. The tour before us had a lot more people.

We got on our tour with 6 other people! It was AWESOME! The guides spent so much time with us.
I get nervous every time I snorkel. It takes me a little bit of time to figure it out each time I do it. I get a little panicky when I have to remember which way to breath so I don't suck in a lot of water! Brett is always so good to stay by me and help me figure it out! We took a water camera out on this excursion. Here we are ready to snorkel! (I think my face was a mixture of nervousness and excitement!)

These pictures didn't turn out like what you see in the water. They told us when you take pictures under water it can take the color out of the things you see...so you will have to use your imagination! We saw a lot of neat things that we didn't get pictures of too! It is amazing how colorful everything under the ocean really is in real life!

At one point of snorkeling Brett had seen something under a rock...wasn't sure what it was-thought it was an eel...it was so long.

He came up and told me he wanted to have a better look at it. Our guides told us we had 5 more minutes to snorkel at this point. I told him to go ahead...I would swim back to the boat. When he got down to the rock there was nothing under it...whatever was there was gone. He turned around to swim back up and that eel was staring him in the face! He said it totally freaked him out! Those things are so ugly!

He grabbed the camera to take a picture of it. He wished he would have got one when it was staring him in the face! Luckily it didn't bite him or something! I was glad I had swam back to the boat! I wouldn't have liked seeing it!
While we were snorkeling it started to rain! It is crazy how the rain there is so warm! It didn't even bother us and it only lasted a few minutes. Next was the stingrays! This part I was really nervous about before we did it. Our guides told us they would swim all around us and not to scream or get too nervous. They showed us how to hold the squid in our fingers and tuck our thumb under so the stingrays would only take the squid in their mouths and not our thumbs! Oh goody, I thought, don't want to lose my thumb on this trip! They also told us we could hold them and kiss them if we wanted! I told myself I would be brave and love this part and I DID! It was AMAZING!
The crazy part is that you are in the middle of the ocean and there is a spot that is 3 feet deep and you can walk around and the stingrays come and you feed them!

There were many boats there when we got to the spot, but those stingrays swarmed us! Our guide knew them by name and they LOVED HIM! You should have seen them swarm him when he got in the water!

Getting in the water and not panicking and not screaming was quite a mind game! (Ok, I did scream once when two swam on either side of me and tickled my legs!)
When our guide put the cooler of squid in the water even more came. That was the other trick they taught us...not to rub the squid on any part of you. They have had people get "hickeys" because they are holding the squid and they will scratch their arm...then the stingrays will go by their arm. A stingray's mouth is underneath them and their eyes are on top. They don't have teeth...they use a sucking motion to get their food...thus hickeys will form if they think part of you is their dinner!
The guide was so good to show us how to feed them! That is hard to describe the feeling of them taking the squid out of your hand! Their suction is CRAZY! It feels like a vacuum and leaves little marks on your hand-but it doesn't hurt!
Brett held one first! He was so relaxed and did great!

I debated and then I said I would do it! I probably would never have the chance again! The guide helped me and it was great! They are so soft! He says they are 6 feet wide, but you have to cradle them in your arms and keep their eyes under the water.

While I was holding it he told me to kiss it! OK, might as well! Hurry and take the picture! I think the lady behind me thought I was crazy!

Those animals swam all around us. You just had to be careful of their tales. Here are a couple of pictures we tried to take of them under water. The first one is swimming by the lady who thought I was crazy!