Well, the third full day of our vacation here in the Cayman Islands is winding down...three more to go! The time is passing by surprisingly slowly, which is a good thing when you're on vacation. Everything is so relaxed and laid-back here on "island time." We're having a great time in this tropical paradise!
The Cayman Islands are made up of three islands, and we're staying on the main one, Grand Cayman, located south of Cuba. This is one of the most beautiful, clean, crime-free islands in the Caribbean. The beach sands are white and the water is turquoise and vivid shades of the most beautiful blue. There are coconut trees everywhere, which John loves, and instead of squirrels there are little lizards and iguanas running around.
The plane ride here on Saturday morning went quite well. It was easier than I thought it would be. Just before the plane took off, John started crying loudly, so I held him in my lap with him facing me. I was worried that the flight attendant would make him sit in his seat, but it wasn't a problem, so he was able to rest peacefully on me during take-off and then he fell asleep for two hours, which was half of the flight. The only mishap was that he peed all over his jeans (and therefore some on mine too) just before he fell asleep, which was gross, but it dried pretty quickly. Sorry to include that little detail! Everything else went very well after that.
Some of the things we've done so far: went to the beach (duh), which is right by our resort; Peter and I went for a starlit walk along the beach on Sunday night; went to a nice Butterfly Farm; went to the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Park, where I almost died from heat exhaustion and stomachache (it was fiercely hot here yesterday, too hot for a walk in the park!); went to Rum Point, the most beautiful beach I have EVER been to; we've eaten dinner at some great restaurants; went to Sacrament Meeting at the LDS Branch here; went to a Turtle Farm where we got to see the hugest sea turtles and hold some smaller adorable ones; went to Hell (I'm serious! Wait till you see the pictures of Hell!); got some famous Tortuga Rum Cakes (dee-lish!); and just in general relaxed, gone swimming, read, taken bubble baths, gotten caught up on sleep, etc.
Tomorrow we're going to the Pirate's Caves, to some historical places, and we'll go shopping in George Town, the capital here. Before leaving the island we hope to be able to get in a trip to Stingray City, a sandbar in the ocean where you can swim with (gentle) stingrays, and we want to go for a submarine ride to see the ocean life underwater. We might go snorkeling too, which would be cool.
One of my only worries is that John has eaten very little for the past two days. He's drinking a lot and his behavior is fine (he's happy and has been behaving amazingly well), he just isn't interested in eating. He's also had two bouts of diarreah (sorry for this other gross little detail). So I hope he's okay. My other worry is how am I going to fit all of the things I've been buying here in our luggage when it's time to go? There is so much cute stuff available, some of it touristy souvenir things, and some truly beautiful things. I may be in trouble when it comes time to pack my bags and head home!
