It's A Windy View: January 2020

Day Three: East end, caves and bats

The only scheduled touristy adventure I planned was a road trip around the East End. I mapped out little touristy points of interest and fun stops along the way. Unfortunately, Cruise Ship Patty didn't anticipate the entire planned route and stops to only take an hour... did I mention Grand Cayman isn't very big??

Queen's Monument - blew right past it.

Wreck of the Ten Sails Memorial
This is a quaint little overlook memorial of old sip wreckage offshore on the reef. There is a nice little walking path, vintage artifacts from wrecks in the area and a great overlook spot. We got there just before the cruise ship tours started arriving so we had the whole place to ourselves.

Kids thought this propeller was neat to stand next to and touch.

Nest stop - Blow Holes!

Ok, so to Handy Man and I these blow holes didn't even come close to comparing to blow holes we had seen in Hawaii... but the kids thought they were pretty cool.

I can honestly say, I enjoyed watching the kids more than anything...

That was the drive! haha

We did plan a tour of the Cayman Caves. It involved a guided walking tour of the tropical rain forest and the underground cave systems on Grand Cayman.

The tour started off in this tree house type structure where they had a little gift shop and bug spray station. Mosquitoes you say? I'll take 4 bottles please!

We were guided along a lush trail as we learned about the different trees and plants in the Cayman rain forest. We were able to venture into and explore three different caves. Each was unique and beautiful.

The kids loved climbing up into tiny little places so they could explore every inch of the caves, stalactites and stalagmites.

So many different shapes and sizes, colors and textures.

There were tree roots hanging from the ceilings in search of a water source.

In the last cave we went into, there was an underground water source.

The tour company had installed a specialized light system which had different settings and each one illuminated different features of the cave and pool. It was amazing just how complex the cave systems truly are and the depth.

The kids said they liked these caves better than the cave we visited in South Dakota.

Perhaps what made the caves so much more interesting to the kids...

... spotting and watching all the fruit bats hanging from the ceilings or flying around overhead!

After the caves we headed back to the rental and spent some time swimming in the pool. The complex also had a swimming pool!

The kids found a hermit crab.

My Brown Eyed Girl and Mr Blue Eyes tried to convince me to let them keep it confined, some way, for the rest of the week. Alas, we agreed it was better to release the crab and perhaps find him another day.

It's been about 5 years since Handy Man and I took the kids on a really nice, family vacation - just the four of us. Over a year ago, Handy Man asked me what I wanted to do for my big birthday coming up. I told him all I really wanted to do was plan a nice beach vacation somewhere we have never been and take the kids there for a week, just us. I wanted to unplug and spend quality time with my family. He said, "Plan it!" - anywhere I wanted to go.

I put on my Cruise Ship Patty hat, pulled out my iPad and started researching. The results of a year of researching and planning ended up being one of the best vacations I have ever taken in my life. And the memories we made as a family, utterly priceless!

Destination: Grand Cayman!

I settled on a VRBO townhouse on the north side near Rum Point. Research said it was the "quiet side" of the island and that definitely appealed to us. While the sugar white sand of 7 Mile Beach area looked breathtaking in photographs, I read that there are 3-5 cruise ships that disembark daily to the area. We just didn't want to deal with all of those people every day. Not to mention, a lot of the big to-do tourist items were in and around Rum Point.

Day One: Just get there already!

We elected to skip Thanksgiving this year and found very reasonable airline tickets flying out Thanksgiving morning. Bright and early we headed to the airport and the kids were ooozing with excitement and anticipation!

I was a bit stressed as our flights had been altered by the airline company a few months before leaving us a 38 minute window between our connecting flights in Charlotte. I had the airport map in hand and had prepped this kids for weeks that we would have to grab all our stuff and Home Alone the Charlotte airport at full speed! I then had to let them watch Home Alone to understand what I meant by that reference... Thank goodness we arrive about 15 minutes early in Charlotte and made our connection flight with ease.

We arrived in Grand Cayman in the afternoon and we got to experience deplaning on the runway! The kids thought it was hysterical that they got to use stairs to get off the plane. We gathered our bags and walked to the rental car office.

The moment of truth.

Grand Cayman is a British Island. Therefore... they drive on the left side of the road! Correction, Handy Man would be driving on the LEFT side of the road! I chose to assume the role as Navigator and left the potential fender-bender to him. I had studied tips and tricks for driving on the left side of the road and I even had a print out with diagrams on how to approach round-a-bouts, which are clock-wise not counter clock-wise like back home. Cruise Ship Patty at your service!

As Handyman left with the rental car gal to get the car, the kids and I waited anxiously with our luggage. Like Hawaii, there were wild chickens everywhere. The kids thought it was a hoot.

Handy Man pulled up front and I started laughing hysterically! Not only did he have to master driving on the wrong side of the road this week... BUT THE STEERING WHEEL WAS ALSO ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CAR!

Here we go! Jesus take the wheel.

Oh, and Handy Man argued with me about reserving the SUV for our trip. After loading our luggage and stopping at the grocery store, we were packed in like sardines! I am glad I went with my instincts! The kids barely made it out of Georgetown and were fast asleep. Cat napping before the big reveal of our rental.

We found our home for the next week and unloaded the car. The kids changed into their swimming suits before we could even turn on all the lights and they were out the door exploring the bay out back. Our rental sat on one of only a handful of natural bioluminescent bays in the world. The first two nights of our stay were prime time for kayaking at night to see the bioluminescents. I also made sure our rental came with kayaks for us to use. We had two kid and two double-seater kayaks at our leisure all week, as well as snorkel gear!

The kids wasted no time learning how to kayak before it got dark and we pushed off to see the night show.

Handy Man and I sat back with a cold beverage in our hands, toes in the sand, watching the kids kayak as the sun set with the quiet breeze and night sounds around us. Nothing else in the world mattered but that moment!

Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in capturing any great photos or videos of our night time kayak adventures. Maybe it was the phone, maybe the protective waterproof case... but I swear it was magical like this!

Day Two: Show me the beach!

Every morning I started my day with perfection! I drug a chair down to the waters edge, a cup of coffee in my hand and watched the minnows swim and the little crabs move along the floor of the crystal clear water.

Our fist full day we were completely unscheduled.

On the kids' agenda was learning how to snorkel. Chicken 1 and Chicken 2 were too intimidated to just jump right in and start exploring. And god forbid they got wet in the process! It was comical watching them figure everything out.

I will have to give my Brown Eyed Girl an A+ for ingenuity.

Mr Blue Eyes is our more cautious child. He likes to let sister be the crash test dummy and then either follows her successes or learns from her failures before ever attempting something new on his own.

Handy Man could only handle so much of this attempt to snorkel before he hauled a kayak out in the water to assist in their exploration and snorkeling education.

After an hour they finally ditched the kayaks...

Another 30 min and we managed to get the beached whales into the wide open water.

Mid afternoon, we walked over to Rum Point Beach on the ocean side and enjoyed lunch on the beach, a few cocktails, more snorkeling and some sand castle building