{Grand Cayman}

Grand Cayman was our next stop... 

It was a lovely morning as we tendered out to the island (the water was too shallow for the ship to dock right on the island, so we had to take a little ferry over for this port of call). 

I originally wanted to see something called "Crystal Caves" that look AMAZING - but it wasn't meant to be!  The taxi to get to that portion of the island was over a hundred bucks round trip, plus the tour of the caves was too long to allow us time to get back to the ship.  Best laid plans... luckily Marianne had suggested a group tour of the island.  Several years ago she had seen the island that way and it seemed like our best bet! 

Thought of Captain Jack Sparrow, "BUT WHY IS THE RUM GONE?!"  The liquor industry is huge here (rum, obviously).

This series of three pictures was the extent to which we used our selfie stick.  Mike was being a smart aleck with it (hence the picture with his entire arm showing that we were clearly using a self stick).  Then we could never get the angle right and I look like a midget compared to him!   So we will stick to using Mike's arm for all our selfies in the future!

This cannon was recovered from the largest maritime disaster in the history of the Cayman's.  It took place in the 1700s, and I think it was a prince from England onboard a ship that got into some trouble off of the coast.  The people acted heroically and saved the prince from drowning at the peril of their own lives.  Because of this act of heroism the people in the Caymans don't have to pay property taxes to England to this day (like the other territories owned by the British).

Queen Elizabeth the II on the Cayman $5 bill

Watching a local fisherman on the limestone formations

Enjoying the relaxing day with my handsome man! <3

Mike, in rare selfie form 😏

This was a cute little house.  I liked the bright painted fence in the front... so tropical and fun!

The landscape in "Hell" hahaha!  The limestone formations looked pretty neat!

Awesome expression by Michael... I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it! 

You can send a postcard to someone with a postmark from Hell!

Can't get away from the politics, even on vacation! 

This was the super rich part of the island.  An investor (Andrew Dart) has poured millions into infrastructure and business on the island.  It was clear from our tour guide the gratitude and admiration the people of the Cayman's had for this guy because of his investment into the island!  

The quarter had a picture of a ship, again a nod to the maritime incident that occurred in the early 1700's.

On our way back to the ship... you can see the storm clouds rolling in.  These would cause great problems for the tenders coming back to get return passengers! The waves were HUGE and I was so relieved to get off our tender and feeling quite motion sick from even five minutes being onboard the small ship in massive waves!  About an hour later the waves were so big that the lines connecting the tender to the ship so passengers could get back on snapped... one of the ferries was caught for TWO hours unable to dock to the ship but couldn't get back to shore because the waves were so huge.  They ran out of barf bags!  Can you imagine the nightmare? I am so so so glad we were not stuck on that, I would have been traumatized for life!

We watched this guy preparing fresh fish for a few minutes. People would come choose their fresh fish and then take it to be eaten at the restaurant next door to this hut.  Kind of a fun dining experience.

The Cayman version of yield sign - I thought it was cute

Well if you say so... 

Heading back to the ship after a relaxing tour of the Caymans... 

We loved it :)

{Half Moon Cay}

One of the dreamy cities we visited was Half Moon Cay. 

This is a private island owned by the Holland America line.  Truth be told, I didn't expect much out of this little island.  Being owned by the cruise line I thought it would be a tourist trap with nothing to do but sit on an overcrowded beach or buy over priced items.  

I WAS MISTAKEN!  Turns out this quaint little spot was one of my favorite ports of the entire trip.  It was a beautiful little paradise that was in immaculate condition.  Admittedly the beach did have a lot of people but considering there were two ships docked sharing the island for the day it was not bad at all.

We enjoyed walking around and just seeing what was done with this small paradise in the middle of the Caribbean.  We saw beautiful plant life, a cove full of sting rays (oh heck no), relaxed on the beach and feasted at a tropical buffet with delightful barbecue.  

The best part?  We enjoyed this romantic trip ashore sans kids as they were busy playing in the kids club with grandma and grandpa.  What a dream!

Here are a few of our favorite parts of Half Moon Cay:

This was the moment I fell in love with this cute little island!

Beach was crowded but we still found some chairs in the shade to relax and just soak in the sun :)

This picture is my favorite... Mike mumbled "good place to take a piss here" and wandered off into the foliage.  I heard "good place to take a picture" so this picture was born.  I was so confused, as was he, as to the timing of the photo... Once we discovered the miscommunication I couldn't bring myself to delete it.  You're welcome :)

Cute bright benches all around the walking trails!  So tropical & fun

The pace of life - sometimes we need this!

Sea Cucumber and a Starfish - these little guys were in about two feet deep of water.  The water is so crystal clear you almost can't tell from the picture they are even underwater!

The big stingray we saw swimming in the cove :S

Captain Morgan bar - right on the beach!

My handsome guy :)

Colorful beach cabanas 

Our ship - took this while sitting on the beach soaking in the sun - doesn't it look postcard worthy?

Ultimate relaxed mode

Heading back to our ship... sad to leave our cute island paradise but not sad to eat the most amazing food at dinner that night :)  

Don't kid yourselves - the kids were in amazing hands and enjoyed EVERY second.  Wesley went from the 7th percentile in weight at his 6 month to the 35th at his nine month... he was in HEAVEN with all the food around him!  These boys just love the simple things and loved the attention from grandparents :)

Stay tuned for more cruise adventures soon :) 

{Cruise Adventures Continued: Onboard Neiuw Amsterdam}

The cruise life is a good life.  I have been born and raised cruising - it was my parents preferred way of travel - but hadn't experienced the Holland America Line before!  This was a new type of cruise for me - and I have to say it was pretty enjoyable! 

This ship had the BEST food ever.  I seriously cannot think of one thing I didn't enjoy!  Even my pickiest eater was in heaven the entire time :) 

Swim time was an almost daily tradition, although the boys never really got into the pool - they basically just pranced around the edges and splashed (the water was FREEZING).  Cal loves the water though and so this was probably his favorite activity of the day! 

Giving the other ship a show - that's ma boy!

We enjoyed our balcony cabin - so fun to watch the ocean!

Deck three - the walking deck - we enjoyed strolling around this deck as a family and Calvin proved to be quite the shuffleboard gentlemen.  He loved to push the disk around.  Notice in the picture Mike is totally leaning against a gate that opens - good thing we didn't lose him on the high seas! :) In this particular photo we are sailing past Cuba.  

A beautiful sunset at sea.

Calvin and his 'Scout' cuddled up after a long day of fun. 

My favorite night onboard the Holland America involved a relaxing soak in the hot tub, followed by stealing these robes from the cabanas, and drinking overpriced ginger ale ... really loved the date nights with my handsome man :) 

to be continued...