This will be my last post about my recent getaway to the Cayman Islands. I had to send off to get my photos developed from my disposable waterproof camera, and a week later I finally have them in hand. The coloring of the photos are a bit off, so they don't give a true idea of what it was like, just know that it was beautiful!
Our final excursion on for the weekend was the Waverunner Snorkel Safari with Red Sail Sports, located at The Westin on Seven Mile Beach in the Caymans. This was, by far, my favorite activity of the weekend. If you ever have the chance to combine waverunners and snorkeling, do it, you won't regret the experience!
When I was in high school, Kristalynne and I actually spent a lot of time at the lake with a group of friends from our church youth group. This was the time period that I learned how to water ski and also got comfortable on a waverunner. It's been well over 10 years since I have sat on a waverunner.
But, like riding a bike, I don't think you ever forget how to operate a watercraft like this. It was so exhilarating going fast, riding over waves, and spinning in circles to my heart's content. I had forgotten what it feels like to ride like that. And if we had just done waverunners, that would have been a ton of fun. However the excursion also involved following our guide out to two different spots to snorkel on the reef.
I have only snorkeled once before – in Hawaii about 13 years ago. I was with Daniel, the water was cloudy with limited visibility, and I felt somewhat seasick from the motion. We didn't see a whole lot, so it wasn't the best of experiences. On this same trip, Daniel and I got our open water scuba certification. The whole time I was terrified of seeing a shark. Thankfully we didn't see a shark and I have stuck close to shore when we go to the beach.
Fast forward to this trip, my fears were mostly gone. I was relishing the freedom of no responsibility and riding fast on my own waverunner. Our first spot to snorkel was in open water just off of Seven Mile Beach. Due to the recent rain, the water was a bit cloudy and not particularly calm, but we still managed to see several schools of fish. It was extremely peaceful laying in the water, watching life unfold around me.
Unfortunately K started feeling a bit seasick and decided she would head back to shore when we moved on to our second snorkeling spot.
I stayed with the group and we headed to Georgetown where we stopped right next to a cruise ship that was in port. The water color was a more vibrant blue here (the photos are not even close) and visibility was much improved. As I was searching the water below, I noticed a shark swim right under me. It was probably about 15 feet below.
I jerked my head out of the water and informed our group. Our guide said it was "just a nurse shark" and we had nothing to fear. I calmed my nerves, stuck my head back in and took a photo. Our guide swam down to the ocean floor and brought up a conch for us to look at. My parents have a conch shell that is over 100 years old, so I was familiar with it, but I was surprised at how heavy the live conch was. The Caymans are known for their conch and that night we sampled some at dinner – it was delicious!
While we snorkeled we noticed a group of scuba divers below us – down where the shark was. For the entire trip, I kept thinking how much fun it would have been to do this with Daniel and eventually my boys. I hope to do a similar trip with them in the future.
I hate that Kristalynne missed out on the better snorkeling spot. When I got back to the beach, she was enjoying the scenery. We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon – watching other people take their turns doing various excursions. It was a great way to end our girl's weekend. I'm so thankful that it worked out for me to be able to join my friend and take a break from reality for a few days.
Being that this was my first girl's trip since college (I graduated 15 years ago), I wasn't really sure what to expect. Thankfully I was with a friend who I knew well, and while being lazy was on both of our lists, doing fun activities was also important.
When we arrived at our hotel at noon on Friday, our room wasn't
ready, so we quickly changed into swimsuits, had lunch at the onsite Tortuga Cafe, then took our pina coladas down to the beach. Not a bad way to wait.
We watched as large waves rolled in, breaking as they reached shore. We were told that the ocean was typically calm here and these waves were unusual. As a result, the water sports at our resort had been cancelled for the day and visibility for snorkeling/diving was low.
Kristalynne persuaded me to
swim in the rolling ocean with her. The waves would come in and lift us up 2-4 feet. It was
pretty amazing. The water was cool but not cold, and I'm glad that I got over my initial discomfort of being too cold to get wet! After our swim, our rooms were available. K took a nap and I
hung out by pool to read and was able to Skype Daniel and the boys. Technology is fantastic – I was able to walk around and show them the beach and where I would be staying for the weekend.
Before dinner we watched the sun set (The Westin on Seven Mile Beach faces due west) before walking over to
the Sunshine Grill for dinner. We ended up eating at the bar where
we met a lovely retired couple from Montana. They were ending their vacation and we swapped stories. After dinner we walked back to our resort and crashed. I had been running all day on a measly three hours of sleep!
Which made it weird that the next morning, when I could have slept in as late as I wanted, I woke up at
5:45am and could not go back to sleep. At 6:30am I grabbed a water bottle and headed down to the beach to watch
dawn arrive. By 8am I felt awake enough to participate in a yoga class on the beach before breakfast. Sun salutations on shifting sand are no joke!
Kristalynne and I had agreed that whatever else we did, we wanted to book a Waverunner Snorkel Safari excursion, take a bioluminescence tour, and get a massage. Preferably in that order. That was not exactly how things worked out...
We were able to schedule a bioluminescence tour for that night with Cayman Kayaks, but the only time available was
9pm-midnight. We asked if we could get a ride with the early group and just hang out at Rum Point – the front-desk concierge told us we could not do that and there was nothing to do at Rum Point. She then directed us to go to the water sports hut outside to book our Waverunner Snorkel Safari with Red Sail Sports. The previous day she had told us we would have to wait until this morning to book anything, she also failed to inform us that you had to book your excursion by 9am or reserve
ahead of time. Thankfully we were able to snag the last 9am Snorkel Safari spot for the following day.
We then attempted to book a
massage. After getting great service from the spa concierge, Sarah, she
had to apologetically tell us that everything at the spa was booked for
the ENTIRE weekend. Not to be deterred, she suggested we go down the
street to a Touch of Thai and
went above and beyond, proceeding to schedule our appointments offsite. As luck
would have it, Touch of
Thai only had
availability for one 90-min and one 50-min massage. It was K's birthday
so I said I should do the shorter massage. No big deal. Sarah told us we
could still take advantage of the hot tub and saunas at the onsite spa, so we
made sure to do that before
getting our massages down the street. When we arrived at Touch of
Thai, they offered to give us a couples massage so we could
both get 90 minutes, instead of me getting the shorter massage. We laughed at the situation and promptly said, "Sign us up." It helped that we have known each other for 25 years. We just
laughed at how ridiculous our "relaxing" morning had gone so far. K had a
Lomi Lomi (traditional Cayman) massage while
I tried the more intense Balinese massage. It was fantastic.
After our relaxing massages, we received a call from the front-desk concierge letting us know that two spots had
opened up on the earlier bioluminescence tour. We accepted the 6-9pm trip,
then went to grab a quick dinner at Eats across the street. As we took the hour van ride across the island, we were both thankful for the earlier availability. I don't think either of us would have been able to stay awake until midnight!
The bioluminescence tour from Rum Point was pretty cool. As the crow flies, Rum Point is about 15 miles away from our resort at Seven Mile Beach, but it took an hour to drive since the roads only go around the perimeter of the island. Three college students from Canada were on our bus and they were cracking me up with
their idealism and thoughts about life. It's hard not to eave's drop when you are stuck on a small van with strangers. K and I are so far removed from college, but I vividly remember my own dreams and expectations about life when I was their age.
Our tour started on the beach at Rum Point and we were split into two groups with about 8 two-person kayaks per guide. We hugged the shoreline until we reached a bay. Unfortunately the bay is developed and most of the surrounding houses had outdoor lights on which provided a lot of ambient light that took away from the experience. Even so, we enjoyed interacting with the lights in the water. We learned that there are over 10,000 forms of bioluminescence on our planet. I knew about lightening bugs, eels, and certain types of jellyfish, but had no idea so many life forms produced light like this. To be honest, I expected that the glow in the water would be more pronounced – the brochure certainly makes it look like that. But the reality of our tour was that the water only really lit up when our paddles moved through the water or when we dipped our hands in. On our paddles it looked like lots of tiny bubbles in the dark water. On our hands it looked like little sparks or like you had dipped your hand in glitter. It was bizarre in that the water was completely dark except for where we moved paddles or hands through it. It was strange and amazing, though I wish it had been pitch black. One of the college girls was with the other group and she evidently got in the water to swim. I think that would have been a much more fascinating experience.
Sunday was my turn to sleep in a bit. When I was awake enough to get moving, I grabbed coffee and croissant from
the onsite cafe before meeting up with K on the beach to watch the Red Sail guys get the jet skis in water.
I will write a separate post about our Waverunner Snorkel Safari excursion next week when my photos are developed. I will say that it was amazing and one of my favorite experiences.
I will also share a more detailed blog post about our meals while in the Cayman Islands. For lunch we went to a Thai Orchid on the recommendation of our spa concierge (who we loved by now!) and then had dinner at Catch
(also recommended by Sarah). After dinner we joined other resort guests on the beach to watch part of the Oscars on a big screen. After the opening I wandered down to the water to enjoy my last moments in this beautiful country.
When you have kids, your vacations become trips. While vacations for Daniel means he gets a bit of a break from work, the work of a stay-at-home-mom never ends. I adore my family, but as I mentioned before, I had been running on empty. Never taking a real break in 5 years. Never having the time to really step away. This trip was fun, but mostly it was a break that I desperately needed. I still do a fair amount of adventurous things, but compared to the me before kids, the adventuring isn't exactly the same. Getting to spend a weekend relaxing, doing fun things, and not having to worry about anything or anyone else, was just what I needed.
A few weeks ago one of my closest friends since junior high emailed to see if I would be interested in joining her on a girl's weekend to celebrate her birthday.
In the Cayman Islands.
My initial thought was "there is no way that is going to happen," but I told her I would think about it and at the very least discuss the possibility with Daniel.
The thing was, I was feeling really burned out. Most aspects of my life didn't really feel like they were in order. I was struggling with resentment and bitterness for where I was in life. I love Daniel and my kids, and have some really great friendships, but I was running on empty and wasn't really sure how to regain balance.
Surprisingly, Daniel was on board with me taking this trip. We agreed that it really couldn't be a yearly occurrence (not on the scale of leaving the country anyways), but that I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to catch up with a good friend I hadn't seen in five years.
As Kristalynne and I made plans, it dawned on me that we have been friends for twenty-five years. A quarter of a century had passed since we first struck up a friendship in the youth group at our church. A lot of living has happened in the last twenty-five years.
The last time we saw each other, she had just had first child and I was weeks away from becoming a mother myself. She didn't have a chance to meet Jack before she moved to Houston to start her career as a doctor.
In our early months of embracing motherhood, there were phone calls to see how we were handling our new lives, and when we were sent to a Pediatric Neurologist to have Jack's big head checked out, she called and talked to me through that experience. Mostly we have kept in touch via Facebook, and her mom checks in on me from time-to-time as well.
Our friendship is one that can just pick up, as if no time had passed.
There are no awkward moments, we just catch up on what we have missed and then move on to the present.
On the way to the Caymans, it worked out that we both had layovers in
Charlotte, NC and would be on the same flight to our final destination.
Thankfully the flight wasn't full and we were able to grab seats
together.
The whole weekend was filled with relaxing, swimming, and a little adventure too. We swapped stories about our kids, and also funny travel experiences we have each experienced in different parts of the world. We laughed, we were serious, we talked about high school days and friends we wished could be with us.
We were both grateful to step away from our normal lives for a few days. We could wake up when we wanted – with no expectations. Our meals weren't spent cutting up food for kids. We did grown-up activities. We missed our families, but we enjoyed the break.
I came home feeling renewed, grateful for the time to catch up with my old friend, but also grateful to be back with my own family. I feel like I have found the balance I was missing in my life. Taking time for myself for the first time in five years was one of the best things I have ever done for myself.
On the final day of our trip, we opted to sleep in. We briefly considered trying to go tubing, but in the end we decided that we could do it another time and that relaxing is just as important as having fun.
So is breakfast.
Daniel and I really enjoy going out for breakfast {maybe I like it more than him, but he appeases me}. Going out for breakfast was actually his idea.
We went to Knight's on Main. I thoroughly enjoyed a steaming cup of hot coffee {actually I drank an entire pot} and I had eggs over-easy with country ham and potatoes. Yum. Daniel had pancakes and country ham {we should have just split the ham}. It was all delicious – though a bit expensive for breakfast food... maybe that is because we were in the mountains and everything is a luxury?
I would definitely recommend Knight's on Main. If it is cold outside, try to get a table that is not right by the door.
After two days of activities, Daniel and I were pretty tired. We decided to search for the best place to eat locally. It turned out that we had actually eaten at several of the tops picks for the area, but we finally settled on Bistro Roca in Blowing Rock.
I quickly jotted down the address and stuck it in our GPS. We had a 6:30 reservation and 30 minutes to drive. We should have had plenty of time.
Our first problem was that we took a back route from our cabin that included a jaunt on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was fine until the BRP closed 1.5 miles before we needed to get off of it. So we took the exit at hand and the GPS recalculated.
We made our way to Blowing Rock, but soon we were in a neighborhood with no restaurant in sight. Daniel had me call the restaurant to get specific directions to their location. I called and they told me that we should turn onto Laurel {which intersected with Main}. The only problem was I thought the guy said "Wallow" and I asked him twice to repeat the name {with me repeating back to him}.
Guy: "We are located off of Laurel."
Me: "Wallow?"
Guy: "Yes, Laurel."
Me: "Okay, Wallow."
Of course we couldn't find a street named Wallow.
So, we found ourselves wandering up and down Main Street in Blowing Rock {which is like 4 blocks long} and we couldn't find the correct street. We are both tired and hungry and cranky.
Daniel decided to stop and ask someone where "Wallow Street" was. Of course, that was a useless question. Then we ran into another problem. I had hurriedly written down the address, but not the name of the restaurant. Neither of us could remember the name. We thought it was something like Boca and when Daniel asked the person on the street if there was a restaurant named Boca, he got a blank stare {they must have thought we were complete idiots}.
At this point, I was ready to give up and go eat somewhere else. Daniel however, was determined to find this restaurant. So he called and was finally able to get specific directions {he had to ask multiple times to figure it out – including having them spell out street names so that we could find the place}.
After an hour of searching, we finally arrived at Bistro Roca {which was indeed located in more of a neighborhood-like area}. The place was packed, but they let us use our reservation anyway.
The food was great, though a little pricey. We like to split our dishes so that we can try new things. Daniel tried the North Carolina Trout with Grits and a Side Salad and I tried the BR Burger with Mashed Potatoes. We really liked the atmosphere, but we had a bit of trouble enjoying ourselves since we were both cranky.
