Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Cayman Islands

At the end of April, we packed our bags and flew out to the Cayman Islands with the whole Dial crew! We spent 9 days basking in the sun, snorkeling, diving, seeing the sites, and relaxing on this little island. We stayed at a house right on the beach. It was so much fun to be close to the ocean again.

One of our favorite days was the sailboat ride out to snorkel. Just being out in this beautiful water was a blast, but then after about 30 minutes, we arrived at a sandbar where there are stingrays that just swim all around you. I must say, it was a little intimidating at first, but such a cool experience. They are so soft and such graceful animals. Avery was even able to put on a life jacket and get in and touch one. If you ask her about the stingrays though, she will tell you that they were a "little bit scary."

After spending some time with the stingrays the owner of the boat took us a little closer to the coral and reef and went snorkeling. We were able to see some beautiful fish, crab, lobster, and some of the family even saw a turtle.

This was Avery's favorite place; the Turtle Farm. They had hundreds of huge sea turtles but also some baby turtles that you could hold and touch. She could have spent all day at the turtle farm.

The ocean water is so calm here and the perfect temperature. The waves break about 70 yards before the beach so it was perfect for snorkeling and for the kids to play in. We couldn't keep Avery out of the water.




There are iguanas everywhere in the Cayman Islands. We would be driving down the road and there would be an iguana basking in the sun. The picture of the whole family behind the blue iguana was taken at the Botanical Gardens.

We also got to swim with dolphins. That was a really cool experience as well. We were able to watch them jump, make them sing, splash, and they even gave us a kiss. We ate great food, lots of fruit smoothies, and just had a blast hanging out with the family.