Durbin Diary: Cruise Craziness... Part 3 (GRAND CAYMAN)

I was really looking forward to Grand Cayman. Our excursion just seemed really fun and I just KNEW the boys would love it. Plus, this was the 1 excursion our whole family planned to go on together. That's right, all 8 of our family. We'd decided months ahead of time to all go to the Stingray Sandbar and hang out with some freakshow huge stingray. Huge. Like... crazy big.

Apparently, in Grand Cayman there's no pier. I dunno why and quite frankly don't care. ::shrugs:: The only reason I brought it up was to tell you that instead of just unloading onto land and going on our merry way, we had to get in a tether boat to be taken ashore. That was interesting. Especially when it reached the dock and continuously SLAMMED into it. Anyway, we got to the meeting spot and boarded trolly buses to head out to the boat location for our trip. Once we arrived, we boarded a super cool boat that was essentially a floating greenhouse. Meaning it was encased in windows.

We got to the sandbar and fun was had by all. Dad, Scott and Carter (being held by Scott) chased baracuda around the shallows. ::rolls eyes:: Yeah, you read that right. Trenton and I splashed, played, and chased stingrays around. We got to hold them, they gave us back massages, we kissed them for good luck, we fed them and mom and I even did the "blanket". Er? Basically, some dude (who I HOPE was some sort of guide, although he wasn't with our boat) held me flat in his arms near the surface and a massive stingray LAID ON TOP OF ME. Just like a blanket. Super weird. It sucked on my neck. Perv.

When reboarding our boat to go home, mild chaos flittered about seeing as everyone was trying to dry off, get redressed, grab a drink, etc. Somewhere and somehow in the madness, one of the open windows (think thick wooden framed, heavy glass) slammed down. No big deal, right? Well sure. Not to you. But to Carter, who's fingers were resting on the sill at the bottom, it was a pretty big deal.

I honestly thought his fingers were broken initially. It cut his 4 tiny fingers on both sides. He screamed and cried. Luckily, a fellow adventurer on our boat had a first aid kit. I'd brought one on our vacation. I'm a good mom. Just not a great mom. A great mom wouldn't have left it sitting in our stateroom's bathroom counter.

Carter eventually stopped crying after ointment and bandaids were applied to his finger ("Mommy, they're RED!"). He snuggle up in my arms and spent the boat trip back to port staring at his owies.

Once back, we proceeded to shop for trinkets. Maybe it was guilt, but $94 in random crap later (stuffed stingray's, hand drum, hats, bags, etc.), we boarded our tether to return to ship.

Scott and I decided we could live in Grand Cayman. The weather was AMAZING and I could deal with being at the ocean every day. I'd force myself if I had too. ::wink::

This was Dan (one of our tour guides) handing me a giant stingray. I developed an irrational crush on him after seeing his tattoos and realizing he lives this life EVERY DAY.