We left for our trip on Friday, September 30th for a wonderful getaway to celebrate our 12th anniversary.
Getting situated in the rental car. Mike is driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road. I was rather petrified and didn't really ever get used to being the passenger...its a good thing I never attempted to drive.
Quick stop at the grocery store before heading to the resort. $134 dollars later for just a few snacks...
entryway to the suite. we were upgraded to a 3 bedroom
kitchen area
family room
master
our balcony
and our view of the beach
headed out for dinner our first night away
Saturday, October 1st
We went on the Captain Marvin excursion to Stingray City and two other spots where we snorkeled. Such a cool experience. We then relaxed back at the condo before walking to the Ritz to get drinks. We ended our day with a little swim in front of our resort and then went to Coconut Joes for dinner.
just relaxing in our condo.
Sunday, October 2nd
We spent most of our day in the car exploring the island. We spent some time at Smith's Cove (my favorite scenic spot of the whole trip) and Spots Dock, both were known for their great snorkeling. It rained quite a bit this day, but since we had driven to the other side of the island we missed most of the rain.
just a little rainbow we saw from our balcony
Smith's Cove - we visited this spot 3 times during our vacation, the water was rough the first two times we came, but we (mostly Mike) got to snorkel the last time we came by.
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
After Spotts we headed to Rum Point, a very fun area for eating and hanging out by the beach. We had a delicious lunch and I laid on the beach while Mike did some snorkeling.
We then made our way to Starfish beach and saw tons of starfish!
On our way back to the condo we stopped at a coffee shop that was recommended to us, Cafe Del Sol. It was delicious.
view of sunset from our balcony
We ate snacks at the condo for dinner, since neither of us were very hungry and then we walked to the Ritz in hopes of watching the Chiefs play at the bar on the beach. We got there at few minutes after 7 only to learn they closed the beach bar at 7. Bummer. So we went back to the condo to watch the Chiefs.
Monday, October 3rd.
We started our day at the famous Turtle Farm. It was fun getting to hold the cute little things.
Had to get a pic of Mike with our teeny tiny car. Yikes! I prefer my monster of a car!
We visited Cemetery Beach, Mike ventured out further than me while snorkeling and saw some amazing corral and a sea turtle.
We had to stop by and see the place we were originally we were supposed to stay at 12 years ago for our honeymoon (until the hurricane wiped it out). I think we ended up at a much nicer place, but this place had an awesome beach access, right outside the door:
We went to Dukes for lunch and Mike had his first beerarita and I had a pinacoloda with a shot of fireball, yum! We then did some souvenir shopping for the kids.
Smith's Cove..again, very rough here!
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
Smith's Cove
We then headed back to the condo and ate snacks for diner again and enjoyed the sunset from our balcony.
Tuesday, October 4th
We spent the morning laying on the beach outside our resort. I loved it! That's my ideal vacation, reading a book on the beach. Mike did some snorkeling and hanging out with me.
This was my view for the morning, loved every second of it! Now that I'm older and smarter I spent my time in the shade.
A lazy pic I took of our resort.
A little while later we headed out to drive around the island. We did a little more shopping. We went to Eden rock where Mike snorkeled and found the famous shipwreck of Cali. This was his favorite place to snorkel in the Cayman. We went to dinner at Rackams and tried Conch Fritters for the first time, they were tasty!
We saw lots of cruise ships all week at the port.
This ladder is off the dock where Rachkams restaurant is . They allow people to get int he water here. I didn't leave the ladder, but Mike swam out and that is where he found the Shipwreck of Cali.
We then went and did a little more shopping.
Wednesday, October 5th
We drove around the island some more and headed to see the blowholes. Since I loved watching the rough tide hit the rocks at Smith's Cove, Mike knew I'd love the blowholes. Unfortunately the water was extremely calm and we didn't see anything too exciting.
some strange creature
We then went and drove around the Eastern side the island and stopped at Smith's Cove again to check the conditions. We had read on several sites that Smith's Cove had great snorkeling and Mike was determined to see it . We were in luck, the water was much calmer. Mike saw some neat things, but he still liked the Ship wreckage best.
a house right across the street from Smith's Cove...I'd love to live there!
Next we did a little more shopping and saw a ton of people who just got off a cruise ship and were walking around the shopping area.
We then went to Longhorn for lunch and Mike and I both agreed it was our favorite meal of the whole week. I had firecracker shrimp tacos and he had all you can eat fajahitas. Once were full we headed back to our condo and relaxed before heading to the beach.
More sunset pictures from our condo.
To end our day we went to the Marriot and had appetizers and a drink or two.
Thursday, October 6th
We decided to take it easy our last full day in Cayman. We got up and went back to the coffee shop we really liked and then went and walked around a bookstore for a bit.
Next we laid on the beach, swam, snorkeled, and did that on repeat a few more times. We spent quite a few hours doing all that.
At one point we were just hanging out in the ocean when we found an old nasty water bottle wash up toward the shore. It had been in there a while and when Mike picked it up a little fish jumped out. We got a huge kick out of this and then noticed a second fish. Once we put the water bottle back in the ocean the fish found its home again. So we had to play for a while and catch one of the fish in a beer bottle so we could see it. Sounds silly, but we rather enjoyed this activity!
getting ready to go out
We then had dinner at the Wharf and we enjoyed some lobster and chicken stuffed with lobster. We also had conch fritters and rum cake.
Friday, October 7th
packing up and heading out
We really had the best time and could have stayed for another week! This was the first time we had gone on a trip all alone aside from our honeymoon since we'd been married. 12 years was a long time to wait for this! It was so much fun having not schedule and no one needing us, just enjoying time together. We hope we don't have to wait until 12 years to do this again!!!
As sad as we were to leave, we did look forward to hugging our three little monsters!
