Grand Cayman

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Grand Cayman with some friends for a much needed vacation.  Avery went to her grandparents for the week so that we could have some down time on our trip.  The Arrants and the Morrises joined us for some fun in the sun, or so we thought.  

On the plane- can you tell we are excited?!

It turned out that there was some sort of tropical storm system hovering over the island.  Bill had been watching the weather for the week leading up to the trip giving me updates.  Weather.com was saying rain every day on our trip so I went into it cautiously optimistic.

We're here!

There were chickens and roosters walking around everywhere.  Very bizarre!

The sun peaked out at the rental car place, and Bill wasn't going to let this opportunity for a tan go to waste :)

Our condo, The Beachcomber, was awesome.  I had absolutely no complaints.  Here are some pics-

Once we got settle in, we hung out for a while on the beach and then headed to The Sunshine Grill.  We ended up eating there twice on our trip because it was so good.

Photo op before dinner

The weather the first day was amazing!  We all got lots of sun and soaked up every minute we could.  This resulted in burns for us all (some worse than others!).  

We went to an Italian place called Rigazzi for dinner that night. It was soo good too!

On the third day there, second full day, the weather took a turn for the worse.  It was really cloudy so we headed to another part of the island for some site-seeing.  We had heard about some blow holes that were supposed to be pretty neat.  

It turned out that there was only one blow hole.  The sign was a little misleading!

Next, we headed to Rum Point.  The had a neat little restaurant on the beach that we ate lunch on.  After eating, we snorkeled around the pier and then headed to this area where you can actually pick giant starfish up from the water in your hands.  It was really neat!

I realized just how cheap I am on the trip.  I can't stand spending way more on things that I could get for so much cheaper at home.  So I decided to take a picture to document my expensive drink at lunch. 

The next day, the skies started to fall down on us and depression set in (a tropical depression as Dan and Bill put it).  We decided to head out to the mall for something to do but it ended up being closed because of some island holiday. 

Driving around

So sad!

We decided to walk through the Ritz Hotel that was right by ours.  We found this little gem at the gift store.  

Not for us!

Here are some pictures before dinner that night-

 

The next day was pretty rainy but that night the rain stopped and the clouds parted a tiny tiny bit.  You would have thought the sun was beaming down or we had just won the lottery based on our reactions!

Yes, I took this picture at around 6:30 at night. That's how excited I was to see the rain gone!

The next morning, the sun was out again (for about 30 minutes)!  Hallelujah! 

Soaking up the rays!

Then these puppies came rolling in.

I had been wanting to paddleboard while on the trip so we decided to still rent one even though the waves were a little intense. It was a little difficult due to the weather but so much fun!  I would definitely do this again!

Our view from the patio that afternoon.

We decided to go to a nice dinner for our last night on the island.  We chose Calypso because we had heard so many good things about it.  It was so, so good.  We decided to try out their specialty, sticky toffee pudding for dessert.  I was a little hesitant but it ended up tasting more like a cake with butter and toffee poured all over it.  How can that not be good?

The next morning, I read on the beach and even though it was completely overcast, I enjoyed every minute of it.  

After checking out, but before heading to the airport, we decided to take a trip to Hell (there really was a place called this on the island!).

It turned out to be a cool little area. It was named after these rock formations.  

Despite not having the most ideal weather conditions, we made the best of our trip and had a great time.  It was so nice to spend time with friends and just relax.  I absolutely want to go back to Grand Cayman.  It probably is my favorite vacation spot that I've ever gone to.  I loved that we could travel around the island without worrying about whether we were safe.  I also don't think we went to a single restaurant that we didn't like.  We may get some trip insurance next go round, though, in case this were to ever happen again!  

One of the best things about vacationing was coming home to our sweet Ave!