Coen Bros. on clean coal

The pictures are developed! Vacation wrap-up!

This really was one of our best vacations to date. Two weeks was the perfect amount of time to be away and relax. And, it's enough time to start missing home. Grand Cayman is a wonderful island with every modern convenience you need - even food delivery and wireless Internet! The people are the friendliest we've encountered in the Caribbean.

Highlights (in no particular order): snorkeling, fine dining, stingray city, tennis, our anniversary, and Valentine's

Sea creature count - in order of awesomeness: (1) nurse shark - twice! (2) spotted eagle rays (3) turtles (4) squid (5) eel (6) barracuda (7) puffer fish

Valentine's Day - "Private" sunset and candlelight dinner on the beach

OK - it really wasn't all that private until after the sun went down. But, we got to drink champagne and watch the gorgeous sunset...with the soundtrack of rowdy 10-year old boys and their drunk parents. Food wasn't the best we had on the island but romance was in the air. We capped off our dinner with a real Cuban cigar.


People in the background = not-so-private


Valentine's Day Sunset


Enjoying our after dinner coffee & tea


Ending Valentine's & Vacation with a Cuban Cigar

Stingray City - Second Trip

If you remember from our previous blog, we tried to go to Stingray City but the weather conditions were pretty windy and the waves prevented us from really spending quality time with the rays. So, we decided to try again when the weather was better and I'm so glad that we did!


Chris & me with a ray


Underbelly of a ray - looks like a smiling face


Lots of rays waiting to be fed squid




Krystal holding a stingray

Miscellaneous Underwater Snorkeling Photos

These are the highlights of our underwater pics.


Harris sea monster


Sea turtle - one of 3 that we saw


Spotted Eagle Ray - not the same as the stingrays at Stingray City


Krystal - swimming with the fishes


Barracuda - we saw a couple of these guys


We saw a lot of these but aren't sure what they are. They look like little stingrays without the stinger. They are cute though!


Coral and bright blue fishes

Every album ever...

More vacation blogging coming soon...

We still have some (non digital) photos to get developed. When we get those back, we'll have a vacation wrap-up blog. So, stay tuned for that.

fivethirtyeight.com: The Two Progressivisms

The Two Progressivisms

I feel like I've been in a long, slow transition from Radical Progressivism to Rational Progressivism over the last few years.

Friday the 13th is a lucky day

Two days until we head back home. And, today, Friday Feb 13th was a perfect day. Since our boat trip on Tuesday was a little rough and we didn't get a chance to really enjoy Stingray City, we decided to try again since the weather has been a lot better. We met our boat captain at the dock and we headed to Stingray City. There weren't any cruise ships in port today so there were only 5 or so boats with a small number of people in each boat. What a difference three days makes! Hardly any waves this time. We got a chance to swim with them, pet them, kiss them, feed them and hold them for about 30 minutes. It truly was a highlight of our trip. We took lots of pictures with a waterproof, old-fashioned film camera so we don't have any underwater pics yet. Here are a few from the boat though...









After our great stingray trip, we headed to Georgetown to do some shopping and have lunch. Again, because there weren't any cruise shippers, Georgetown was nice and quiet.

Then, we came back and had a little nap before we did our daily snorkel. And, I'm glad that we did! We saw a pair of reef squid and another nurse shark!! Of course, we didn't have our underwater camera so you'll just have to believe us.

- Krystal

It's My Turn

This is Krystal. It's my turn to blog. I'm sitting here on our balcony watching the sun set and thinking about our last three remaining days here and trying not to get depressed that our vacation is nearing the end. My only solace about returning home are my Hermes & Ramona. I really do miss them a lot and think about them everyday.

We took a private boat to Stingray City on Tuesday but the conditions were very rough so we didn't get a chance to spend too much time with the stingrays. But, the little time that we did have with them was amazing! As soon as we got in the water, they started to come up to us and we petted them. They are very docile and love to rub up against you. We both got a chance to hand-feed them calamari! The waves were overpowering and we were scared about stepping on them and/or their stinger so we didn't hang out long with them. I'm a little bummed b/c I wanted to play with them some more. I did get a little scratched up by their tail but nothing major. I think that I'm going to come back for a weekend in May just to see them again. The conditions should be more calm at that time - I hope!









Our captain's first mate dove down and grabbed 4 conch from the bottom of the ocean. Captain Alan then showed us how to crack it open and pull out the meat. While we snorkeled around Coral Gardens, he prepared marinated conch for us to eat. It was great to hear his stories about growing up on the island while we munched down on the freshest conch that we have ever had.



Wednesday was a huge cruise ship day (about 12,000 cruise shippers) so we opted to just hang out at our beach and do some snorkeling. Visibility wasn't great but we still saw a medium sized turtle and two eagle rays....a parent and a baby. Of course, we didn't have our underwater camera. (Chris thought that visibility was too poor for us to see anything - I almost got Chris Brown on his ass!)

Because of the huge family with their dozens of screaming children on "our" side of the beach, we have been hanging out on the other side of the beach. Two elderly couples decided to befriend us. They are from New York and are really nice. Both couples have been married upwards of 50 years. I've been picking their brain to find out the secret to a long, happy marriage. I have to say - it's stuff I already know :) It's great to hear their travel stories and we've been getting really good tips about restaurants around the island and about traveling to the Caribbean. They actually have been coming here for the last 10 years and usually stay for a month at a time. One of the couples is actually leaving here and going on a 3-week cruise around South America. I want to be like them when I grow up!

Note to parents...

Nobody, except you and maybe the grandparents (but probably not) thinks that it's cute when your 3 year old screams her head off. The whole "don't coddle them, let 'em scream it out" thing may be a good parenting method (what do I know? I'm childless). But, it's totally inappropriate at 8AM, EVERY FREAKING MORNING, at a vacation destination where people are trying to have a relaxing time.

Just sayin'....

I took a vacation from blogging...

Sorry... We've been taking things really slow and enjoying our time here lately.. I honestly just forgot to blog about some of the things we've been doing. And, the times I have thought about it, it kinda seemed like work. But, here's another update.

Hmmmm.... what's happened? LOTS of snorkeling! We really love snorkeling. The reefs here are beautiful and there are fish EVERYWHERE! We even saw a SHARK!!!!



That's not actually the shark that we saw while snorkeling. The one in the picture ^there^ was actually at the Cayman Turtle Farm. More on that place in a bit. The shark that we saw looked a lot like that one, though... It was a Nurse Shark. It was young and small.... probably 3 feet long. But, it was AMAZING!!! It wasn't big enough to be really scary. And, they're bottom feeders, who feed on shellfish. So, their teeth are for grinding and not tearing. But, it would probably be a real drag to have one of these suckers get hold of your finger or toes!

We also saw a stingray while snorkeling. It was beautiful! And, we finally saw a turtle while snorkeling, too! I've been dying to see a turtle for years. I've seen just about everything that I wanted to see so far. But, we still can't get enough. We're snorkeling twice a day. It's so much fun and great exercise, too!

Speaking of exercise, we've been playing a lot of tennis. Neither of us are very good. Krystal's never played. And, I haven't played since high school. But, we're discovering that we really like it. So, we'll probably dive in head first and make this part of our exercise regimen when we return. Here's what we look like pretending to play tennis:











And, yes, that is a tennis ball in my pocket. ;)

We checked out the Cayman Turtle Farm. It would be awesome if this place was just there to help replenish the declining sea turtle population. But, it's not. They do release a lot of turtles into the wild... but, they also raise them for food. Turtle steak is a popular food item on Grand Cayman. But, don't worry.... We refuse to eat those cute critters! The park was waaaay expensive for what it was. There were some tanks where you could see turtles in various stages of growth. You could even pick them up and pet them. Apparently, they like to be petted under the chin. I don't speak turtle, so I couldn't really verify this.









They also had a predator tank, with some brown sharks, some nurse sharks, and some other predator fish that were much less interesting. We got to see a scheduled feeding for the nurse sharks. They're training them to be fed by hand. It seems pretty scary. They feed on shell fish that typically live just under the sand on the ocean floor. They have a very powerful sucking apparatus. They suck crabs, conch, lobster, and other shellfish out of the sand and grind 'em up. So, it looked like it would be pretty easy for one of the biologists who were feeding them to lose a finger. It was fascinating, though... Like some live Discovery Channel shit. Very cool.
Here are some more pics from the predator tank:


brown shark


nurse sharks

They also had some cool birds:



We took a couple of posed pics out in front of the Turtle Farm. The sea was rough, and it was windy. We wanted to get some pics of the water crashing on the rocks:





We also wanted a pic of me with our sweet-ass ride:



Lets see.... What else? hmmm.... Well, we checked out a local skate park. It's billed as the largest skatepark in the world. I can't confirm that... but, it was badass... It made me want to get in better shape and rehab my bad knee properly, so I can get back on a skateboard.








That's it for now. I'll post more when I get around to it. I'm sure you understand.

Vacations are for resting

We got up this morning, had some breakfast and decided to take a walk on the beach. We walked for about 30 minutes and got hot enough to get in the water. We were gonna snorkel for a bit to cool off. But, the water was way rough. So, we bailed on the snorkeling and thought that we'd just lay in the sun for a while. After about an hour, I went back to the condo to heat up the seafood pizza leftovers for lunch.

After eating, we kicked around the idea of going to the sea turtle farm. Krystal just wanted to read on the balcony for a bit before we went. About 20 minutes later, I went out and discovered this:



I was gonna let her sleep. But, she woke up when I snapped the pic. She said that maybe this would be a good day to take it easy and just relax. So, I went back inside to read. A few minutes later, she came inside and found this:



So, it turns out that this was a perfect day for napping! It was a little windy out and the water was rough. So, we took it REAL easy today.

Tonight, we had dinner at the restaurant that we wanted to go to for our anniversary. If you remember, Blue was closed on Mondays, so we made a reservation for tonight instead. It was AMAZING. We're both amateur, wannabe foodies. And, this was honestly the best meal we've ever eaten. Here's the entrance to the restaurant:



We decided to go with a "tasting menu" with a wine pairing. It was seven courses. A tasting menu includes small portions, designed to give you a taste of what the restaurant and the chef are capable of. The service was incredible. And, every single course was absolutely delicious. I honestly can't remember every course right now. Seven courses of (impeccable) wine pairings will do that to you. Here's a picture of us before devouring the seventh (dessert) course. Chocolate 3 ways:



It was gorgeous. The whole meal was sinfully delicious. Here's a close up shot of the dessert:



Needless to say, it was a wonderful meal. Eric Ripert is one damn fine chef. He didn't actually cook the meal. But, he developed the menu. This meal was so good, that between the third and fourth course, we made another reservation to go back before we leave!

Sun, sand, sleep and gourmet food makes for a pretty sweet day!

Good night!