Livin' the Island Life

J & I just returned from our first real, kid-free vacation since having the twins! You might remember that we spent a long weekend away from them in June, but with me nursing, it was hard to go anywhere that actually required a plane trip. Mimi (J's mom) was so sweet to come & stay with Jake & Mal while we took a break & headed to Grand Cayman for five days.

Even at 5:30 in the morning, we were excited to be heading out!
Neither of us had been to the Cayman Islands before, but we now agree that it may be our favorite beach we've visited yet. This little guy welcomed us to our hotel.We stayed at the Westin Casuarina resort. This is their off season in the Caymans, so it was very peaceful. Here's our view from our balcony.
The gorgeous beach! I've never seen water so clear, & the sand was perfectly white. In this pic, the Ritz Carlton resort is the tall building on the right. It was a huge resort.
I loved the mangrove trees all over the island.
During one of our many strolls on the beach, we spotted this white sting ray near the water's edge. The other form of wildlife that we saw everywhere was iguanas! They were too speedy for us to get a picture, but there were tons of them on the paths around the pool, in all sizes & colors. I was a little (read: extremely) concerned about these little creatures before we left for Grand Cayman. I had heard that they were everywhere, & I do not like reptiles, but they always ran away from us & weren't actually on the beach, so it was okay.
For most of our trip, we were beach bums, but we did venture out for one excursion to snorkel over a reef & swim with the sting rays. Self portrait as our boat headed out:
The boat takes you to what seems like the middle of the ocean, & then all of a sudden, the water turns a bright turquoise & becomes shallow enough that you can stand. Beautiful!
Our new friends, the sting rays!

As we were about to walk down the boat's steps into the water, I saw the sting rays crowding all around the boat & told J, "We're stupid! Why are we doing this?"
The feeling of the rays bumping up against you in the water is rather freaky at first, but you get used to it, & it's so cool! They feel sort of like a big mushroom, so soft & slippery, & they're very docile. We even got to hold them!Here are some other shots from around our resort. We took lots & I had a hard time narrowing it down.




Dressed up for dinner at the Ritz!




We had such a great time & enjoyed our much needed rest & relaxation. A huge thanks goes to Mimi for coming to keep the kids, as well as Nana & Papa, who came for the weekend to help out.