We rented an eight-passenger van to cart everyone around in. It was a Suzuki four-banger of some sort. It did the job.
Driving in the Caymans was a little different than the U.S. For one thing, the steering wheel was on the right side of the car. For another thing, people drive on the left side of the road. I really didn't have much of a problem adjusting to the steering wheel or left side of the road. I did have a problem with the windshield wiper and turn signal arms. They were opposite of an American vehicle. Without fail I would turn the wipers on when I wanted to signal for a turn, and vice versa. Every time the wipers kicked on, my passengers erupted in laughter. They just thought that was the funniest thing ever. (Quick side note - there were a bagillion roundabouts on the island. I loved it!)
On our first full day (Friday) on the island, we made the hour drive to 7 Mile Beach. Don't let the rain cloud in the background of this picture fool you. It didn't rain on us. That cloud passed by quickly. We spent most of the day in blazing sunshine and glorious heat. I spent about 45 minutes digging the hole we're all in. Yes, we're standing up.
When we were done with our pictures, I converted the hole into a hot tub. I dug a trench that channeled the water from the waves right into the hole.
We celebrated Abby's 28th birthday on Friday night. We broke out some mint chocolate chip ice cream and put a match in it. (We improvised.)
Then on Saturday we chartered a boat and went to Stingray City. Our Captain, Blair, was a hoot.
We're about a mile off shore in this picture, and, yes, we're standing up. The water was pretty shallow at Stingray City.
They call it Stingray City because of all the stingrays. At any one time, it seemed like there were 50 stingrays near us. Not to worry, they were extremely friendly. They bumped up against us like dogs begging for food. We were able to pet them and feed them. In the picture below, on the left, I'm picking one of them up. It was AWESOME!
Keeping with tradition, we had our annual linen night. It's been a part of every Memorial Day weekend trip we've had, five years running now.
A new tradition we added last year was the "jumping pose" picture. We really had fun with it this year. We literally took 50 pictures and spent more than an hour jumping in and out of the pool. We had to time it just right. We laughed and laughed and laughed and jumped and choked and laughed and jumped and laughed. We were exhausted at the end and threw ourselves down on the pool deck.
There's a great story behind the picture below. I'll try and keep it brief. Blair, on the far right, and our captain from our boating trip to Stingray City, took us for another spin in his boat on Monday evening. (We must have made a good impression on him during our first trip because he invited us to take a ride with him.)
Here's how it happened: We were sitting by the pool relaxing, waiting for the time when we had to leave and take Brett to the airport - an hour long drive. Blair rolls up to check on the pool; while he's there, he receives a phone call from a friend whose boat has broke down.
Blair says, "you wanna go with me?"
We're like, "We can't, we have to take Brett to the airport."
He's like, "Not a problem, we'll boat to the other side of the island near the airport and then we'll call a taxi for Brett."
We're like, "Brett, it's up to you."
Before we responded, Blair says, "I'll meet you at the marina in 15 minutes." Then Blair leaves.
As you can tell from the picture, we totally took the boat ride.
We had some time to kill before Brett needed to be at the airport, so we parked the boat and went to a local hotel with a swim-up bar. That was Abby and my's first time to a swimp-up bar. So cool. The taxi came a little later and picked Brett up. It worked out really well. On the way home, Blair hit 60 mph in the boat. That's the fastest I've ever gone in a boat.
We stayed in a place called Rum Point. The sunsets were awesome.
There's one other thing that happened on this trip that I can't leave out. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to help tell the story. We flew out of Seatac Airport on Wednesday at 11 p.m. Abby, Tim, Jessica and myself were all at the airport waiting for our flight. It was about 10:30 when we got up to board our plane. Up until that point we wondered where Anne Marie was. When we called to find out where she was, we got no answer. We assumed that she was trying to get through security or something like that. She called back a minute later.
We said, "uhm... where are you?"
She said, "It's tomorrow night."
I was like, "uhm... no, no, we're here at the airport boarding the plane."
Again she said, "It's tomorrow night."
I said, "Are you messing with me? Are you here in the airport tricking us?"
I quickly looked around to see if she some where nearby laughing. Nope.
At that point I handed the phone to Abby, who confirmed that our flight was tonight and not tomorrow night.
You'll notice that Anne Marie is in our pictures above. Amazingly, she flew standby to Grand Cayman Island the very next day. She arrived only a half-day later than we did. Truly amazing. This will go down as one of the most legendary stories ever!
Memorial Day weekend trips with friends: Where amazing happens!
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