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.

Lobsterama!

Last night, after blogging, we went to dinner for our 7th anniversary. We had intended to go to a place called Blue, which is a very fancy restaurant that was opened by a French chef named Eric Ripert. He's been featured a number of times on one of our favorite television shows, Top Chef. Unfortunately, they are closed on Mondays. So, we'll be going there on Wednesday night.

We ended up going to another very nice restaurant called Grand Old House. It was FANTASTIC! We both had great soups. Krystal's was a corn chowder and mine was a lobster bisque. Second course was an organic mixed greens salad with balsamic vinaigrette, manchego cheese and toasted and seasoned pecans. MMMMMmmmm..... For main course, Krystal had a fish trio, with salmon, wahoo and mahi. I had seafood thermodore, with lobster, and lots of fantastic fish. We took a taxi to the restaurant, so we killed a bottle of nice French wine and I sealed the deal with a nice Caribbean rum coffee. What a great dinner. We sat outside and enjoyed a great sunset with our first glass of wine. Here's a picture that our nice waiter took:



This morning, I was a little sore from snorkeling. But, not too bad. We got up and went to the tennis court to hit some balls. I played tennis when I was younger. But, Krystal is a total beginner. She cought on pretty fast and we had some nice volleys.

After tennis, Krystal made us some great chicken sandwiches. We went to the grocery store yesterday and stocked up on some goodies. It's nice to be able to have a few meals at "home".

We had decided to drive into George Town, the capital of Grand Cayman, to do some snorkeling at a spot that was supposed to be fantastic. But, it was very rough when we got there, so we kept driving. We drove all the way to the other end of the island. It was a good 2 hours + to get there and back. But, it was nice to see the whole island. Driving here is a hoot. They drive on the left, and the driver's side of the car is the right. It's not too difficult to get used to. Just remember to yield on right turns. They also have roundabouts. The important thing to remember with those is that you yield (or "give way") on the way in, and then once you're in, you just go. My biggest problem with the car so far is that I keep thinking that the turn signal should be on the left of the steering wheel. It's not. So, about 50% of the time that I signal to turn, I first accidentally turn on my windshield wipers.

When we got back, we decided to get in a bit more snorkeling at Cemetary Beach, the location where yesterday we saw the squid/octopus (still not really sure which) and the barracuda. This time we didn't see anything like that. But, we did see some very beautiful reef and fish. And, luckily, the current was flowing the opposite direction this time, so the swim back to our beach was much easier.

For dinner tonight, we went into George Town and ate at a restaurant that had some kind of all-you-can-eat lobster and all-you-can-drink champaigne special on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It was amazing!!! For about $60 each, we had so much lobster it almost made me sick. And, they had it prepared 4 ways: broiled lobster tail, lobster "Caribbean style" (with a tomato sauce), lobster curry, and lobster thermodore. The dinner also included some delicious grilled veggies and some rice and beans. It was amazing. I totally cleared my plate, but didn't have the room in the belly for any more. It was crazy because any of the four preparations of lobster with sides an appetizer and one glass of champaigne would have cost $60 at a nice restaurant in OKC. In a bigger US city, it would have been more. But, here, I got an appetizer of conch fritters, some delicious whole grain bread, lobster 4 ways, sides, and a couple of glasses of champaign. And, then they almost insisted on bringing out more lobster!! We assured them that we'll have three more opportunities to take advantage of this offer while we're here. And, I'm certain that we'll go at least one more time.

After dinner, we stopped by the store again to pick up some ice cream and some Tortuga Rum Cake. MMMM.......

I'm going to bed. I'm feeling good from the physical activity and exercise. I've got a belly full of lobster, champaigne, and rum cake. And, I've got the love of my life sleeping peacefully beside me. Who could ask for anything more?

Oh yeah.... Here are a few more pics:

These three are the view from our balcony:







And, this is what that same view looks like at sunset! Awww...



And, this is a picture of Krystal with Big Black Dick:



Apparently, Big Black Dick jumped overboard while being transported on a French slave ship. He swam to an island in the Caribbean, thought to be Grand Cayman, where legend says he made a pretty good life for himself. These statues are everywhere. I guess cruise ship tourists think that it's hillarious. I guess we did too! Zoinks!

Grand Cayman - the beginning

So, Krystal and I have just started our 7th anniversary trip. This is the longest vacation we've ever taken. We'll be on Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands (just south of Cuba), for 15 days!!! Holy crap. This is gonna be great! Especially considering we both worked our asses to the bone in the weeks prior to vacation.

So, we left on Saturday at about 5:30 in the morning. We flew through Dallas and Miami and then on to Grand Cayman. It was a long day of travel. But, since Krystal flies every week, we were able to upgrade to first class all the way. And, during our layovers, we were able to chill and relax in the American Airlines Admiral's Club areas of the airport. Very cushy travel.

The airport in Miami was kinda shitty. Most of the restaurants and shops were outside of the terminals and outside security. So, we just hung out for a few hours. We did see this, which was very beautiful and too big to get in one picture:











That was pretty cool.

So, we made it to Grand Cayman on Saturday night at around 8PM. Since we arrived after dark, we decided we better take a cab to the condo and get our rental car the next day. Driving is on the left side of the road, and the island is much bigger than the last few islands we've visited. I didn't want to tackle that kind of driving for the first time in the dark.

Man... Our condo is fantastic. We're staying RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!! It's like a luxury apartment. Here are some pics:


the bedroom


the living room


the living room


the kitchen


the hall


the TV

That TV came in really handy for the Super Bowl. We don't follow NFL football at all. But, the Super Bowl always happens on our anniversary trip. And, it's something of a tradition for us to get some lobster pizza and island beer and watch it. Problem is, all grocery and liquor stores on Grand Cayman are closed on Sundays. So, we went out to a beach bar on Sunday afternoon and talked them into selling us some beers "to go". There's also a great service here called Fine Dine In. They're similar to Oklahoma's Dining Express, except that they'll deliver from basically any restaurant on the island. So, we got our beers and seafood pizza. Check out this food:


the pizza and salad. pizza looks good, huh? how 'bout a closer look?


dang. fish, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and calamari! still want a closer look? thought so.


whoa!

Here's the Cayman beer I had for Super Bowl. Caybrew!



So, today, on Monday, our anniversary, we went out and snorkeled a bunch. We probably swam a half a mile, against the current. I'll be sore as hell tomorrow. Then, we went to a restaurant on the water to have some great lunch. We had an appetizer of conch, pounded, breaded and fried. Krystal had a grilled Mahi Mahi and Yucca fries. Yum!! I had a conch ceviche. Damn, it was good. We forgot to take the camera to lunch. But, here are some iPhone pics from the dock:





That's it for now! More pics soon!