First and foremost, Happy Memorial Day to my American friends! This is a special day for us, honoring those who have protected our freedom to the highest sacrifice. You are never forgotten and deeply appreciated.

Today, it’s all about Grand Cayman! While I wouldn’t call Grand Cayman my favorite island in the Caribbean, it still offers some of the best excursions of my cruises.

We stopped in Grand Cayman on Wednesday, the fourth day of our cruise. The day before was dreary and rainy and gloomy but Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny. It was the perfect weather for a day on the water!

Our excursion didn’t start until 10:00 but we had to check in by 9:15 so we woke up early, showered, and headed down for breakfast. (Still missing the breakfast buffets…) In Grand Cayman, they have to put down anchor in the middle of the ocean and we ride by tender to the island.

Being back in Grand Cayman felt a little like coming back home. I remembered the place so well, this little touristy area of the Cayman Islands, full of shops and tour guides shouting about great places to visit to anyone who would listen. My mom and I wandered around the shops for a while before checking in with our excursion guide. We still had a long time to wait until we needed to check in but I was being super neurotic about time that day, so we basically just stood around for a good half-hour. (My mom wanted to look around at the shops, but I was being a pain that day.)

In any event, we were off on our excursion soon enough. Our group was pretty huge, split into three different vans. We drove to Dolphin Cove, which was about a twenty-minute ride. There’s really not all that much to see in this part of Grand Cayman (aside from the stretch of the 7-Mile Beach but as a Florida gal, I have seen my fair share of beaches). We arrived at Dolphin Cove soon enough and walked through a bird sanctuary to get to the boat that would take us to Stingray City.

As many of you know, my mom and I visited Stingray City last year and absolutely loved it so we were excited to be back again. We loved it just as much the second time:

  

We spent about 30 minutes in the water with the sting rays where we kissed and held the rays, as well as got to experience feeding a stingray – which is weird! Basically, you held calamari in your fist and held your fist below the water. The stingrays would come right up to you and SCHLOP! it out of your fist. It was pretty freaky! But also so fun and cute. 🙂

There were so many stingrays where we were swimming at. I can’t even tell you how many times I would just be standing around and feel a stingray bump against my leg as it was swimming past. (Yes, it’s as freaky as it sounds. But also so cool!) And I got my requisite kissing stingray photo for the year.

Sloppy and wet! Just how I like them.

Or not. I wouldn’t know.

Let’s move on.

After our time with the stingrays, we all loaded back onto the boat to go back to Dolphin Cove. The boat ride to and from Stingray City was 30 minutes each way, which took an hour out of our day. (And I’m pretty sure the boat ride from Stingray City is where I developed a bit of a shoulder sunburn. Not a fan!) We were back before we knew it and our big group split up into three different groups: the people who had just paid for Stingray City, the people who were doing the dolphin encounter, and the people who were doing the dolphin swim.

We got into the dolphin encounter group where we had a short lesson on the dolphins and what we would be doing. And then it was time to get in the water!

Our group split into two different groups of 15 and half of that group would be in the water at one time. My mom and I were in the first group to get in the water. We stood on a ledge in the pool and had about 20 minutes with the dolphin. Our dolphin was a male named Nemo and he was the Most Fun! He swam around us so we could pet him, splashed us, and then calmed down enough to do some dancing and kissing with us!

We each had a turn dancing with him. We put our hands out and Nemo would come up so we could take his fins and do a little jig! It was so much fun! I didn’t get a picture of this because the pictures were $15 a pop and I had to be choosy. (We couldn’t take our own cameras, which one of the participants complained loudly about. Whatever. There are better things to complain about, in my book.)

Once we all had a turn dancing with Nemo, it was time for kissing! We would stand close to the edge of the ledge with our hands behind our backs, leaning forward so he could kiss us on the cheek. Once he came up and kissed us, we got to kiss him back! I gave him a big ole smackeroo and when we finished, Nemo did a little dance in the water! I was the only one he danced for after kissing, so basically, he wants to be my boyfriend. (And as a side note: the trainer asked if I wanted to kiss him or Nemo. An odd comment but, um, he was cute so… both?)

Nemo played a little hard to get with my mom when she tried to get a kiss from him but after much hemming and hawing, he did.

After the kiss, we took pictures with Nemo, where we got to hold him but those pictures turned out horrible so we only ended up buying one picture. The prices were pretty expensive ($15 a picture – and they weren’t the best quality – but no sale prices for buying a bundle of pictures. You could buy a set of ALL the pictures for $80 but that included everyone’s photos which… why would I want to pay that much for pictures of people I don’t even know?!)

We wound up on the bus back to Grand Cayman around 1:00. We were starving by that time but couldn’t find too many places within walking distance to eat at, plus the line going back on the ship was already starting to get pretty heavy so we decided to get in line and eat lunch back on the ship. (Plus, hi, it’s free!)

It was a fun day in Grand Cayman and I’m so happy we did this excursion! Unfortunately, it was a long one so we didn’t have any time to shop afterward but that’s okay. Experiences > stuff, in my opinion. I thought the dolphin encounter would feel weird and super touristy, but it was actually one of my favorite moments from my cruise. The trainers were awesome and while I most definitely want to do a dolphin swim someday, I didn’t regret only choosing the encounter. We didn’t get a WHOLE lot of time with Nemo, but even just those 20 minutes were pretty awesome. I wish the picture prices were more affordable, but what can you do? It’s a tourist trap!

If you’re ever in Grand Cayman, please, please, please visit Stingray City. I know it sounds freaky – swimming with stingrays – but these stingrays are domesticated and in the two times I’ve gone there, there have been no stingray attacks. (I even stepped on one by accident this time and didn’t get attacked!) It’s such an amazing experience and just to say I’ve gone there twice is incredible to me.

In any event, it was a fun day on the island and then a relaxing afternoon on the boat. We had another lovely, yummy dinner but it was early to bed for us because JAMAICA awaited us in the morning! Bob-sledding, zip-lining, shopping, oh my!

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done while on vacation? Would you ever visit Stingray City, if you have the chance?

My mom and I weren’t sure what we wanted to do in Key West. We’d never been to the island at the bottom of Florida and weren’t sure what to expect. We also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a pricey excursion since we chose the pricier ones for Grand Cayman and Jamaica. After looking through the cheaper options, we settled on a bike tour. I thought it would be a better way to see the island and I loved the idea of a bike tour.

We arrived in Key West early on Monday morning and our bike tour was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. After a quick breakfast at the buffet on the Lido deck (side note: I really, really miss the daily breakfast buffet…), we headed off the boat to meet up with our tour guide.

It’s usually pretty easy when you get off the ship to check in with your excursion guides. They have big, white signs with the name of the excursion you picked scattered around the area you enter when you step off the ship. We checked in and from there, headed over on foot to where the bikes were held. We had a fairly small group. I think 12 people in total, including my mom and me, which is the perfect group for a bike tour, I think. Not too many people, not too few.

The tour guide was fantastic. He kept up an easy pace and I was directly behind him, with my mom behind me, and the rest of the group behind her. He stopped frequently to talk about different historical spots, beaches, and housing structures. He wasn’t too long-winded but kept up an interesting conversation flow. It was really the perfect excursion for my mom and me – I was able to get my history needs fulfilled while my mom was able to get her exercise needs met. 🙂

The tour was two hours long and took us from one side of Key West to the other. We passed Ernest Hemingway’s house and traveled through little streets and down the beaches. We passed the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States, although fun fact: it’s actually not the Southernmost Point. There’s a little hotel located close by that’s actually more southern than that landmark and our tour guide thought it was more interesting than a “hunk of rock”. Ha! So, sadly, I just got a quick snap of one of the most famous landmarks in Key West since he didn’t stop for us to take pictures.

I really recommend doing a bike tour if you’re ever in Key West. Since we had never been, it was a great way for us to get a feel for the island and learn about its rich history. (We also got a bit of a lecture from a writer of the newspaper in Key West, about how people are buying houses there but not caring about the history or culture of the island.)

After the tour, we had four hours left until we had to be back on the ship so we spent the majority of it walking around the little shops and streets, soaking in the sunshine and trying to find the perfect touristy keepsakes.

We had lunch at the famous Sloppy Joe’s Bar where we both got sloppy joes. (How could you not?) The feel of the restaurant was laid-back where you just walked in, found a table if you could, and a waiter would come to you for your order. I get nervous about those types of restaurants since the service usually sucks but this was not the case for Sloppy Joe’s. Service was prompt and friendly and the sloppy joe? TO DIE FOR. The perfect amount of spice in the meat and soggy bread in the sandwich to make it the best sloppy joe I’ve ever had.

I ended up buying a tank top and a key chain. (Key chains became my “thing” to buy at our stops. Don’t ask me why.) My mom bought a magnet. (Magnets became her thing.)

We had a really fun day in Key West and it was a pretty great way to spend a Monday. Much better than how I usually spend Mondays. 🙂 The bike ride really got us pumped to buy our own bikes when we got home. I’m hoping to buy mine in the next few weeks. We were only cruiser bikes but it was such a fun way to get some exercise and fresh air.

Key West itself was a cute little town, although I would like to see more of the real island next time I go. We spent most of our time near the ship where all the tourist shops were, after the tour. And even on the tour, we just stopped by some famous landmarks, not stopping long enough to snap more than a few photographs.

But it was a great start to our cruise and we were pretty exhausted from all the biking and walking that our next day, a day at sea, we slept in until noon and spent the rest of the day being lazy and not doing much, other than eating and reading and napping. (On a Tuesday! Can you see why I love cruising? Offers the perfect balance of relaxation and being busy.)

Next up on our cruise was Grand Cayman, where we had a fun-filled day planned: visiting Stingray City and playing with dolphins!

Have you ever visited Key West? What did you think of it? Have you ever done a bike tour around a city?

Growing up, vacations were few and far between. I can only remember one long vacation when my parents were married and that was a god-awful trip to Ohio. We basically visited all of my dad’s childhood friends which, for a nine- and ten-year-old isn’t very fun. And there was a lot of fighting on that trip, which was my parents’ usual M/O. (I do remember some kick-ass games of Sorry! with my aunt, though.)

When I was in middle school, my mom, brother, and I accompanied my grandparents and twin cousins on a week-long road trip to Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia where we visited family, and my brother and I skied for the first time ever. That was probably one of my favorite vacations, mainly for the family aspect and being someplace completely different.

There have been weekend trips to Orlando and a few week-long stays on the beach throughout the years but last year was the first time my mom and I took a Big Vacation. It was my first time on a cruise ship, my first long vacation, and my first time leaving the United States.

And it was the first time I realized what a gift traveling is. I had some of the most incredible experiences through that cruise – snorkeling in crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, kissing sting rays, touring ancient Mayan ruins – that I began to realize why people develop a passion for traveling. And I definitely developed a passion for cruising. While maybe I don’t get to spend a ton of time in a new country or get to feel the truly authentic way of life of the place I’m in, cruising allows me to travel to different countries in the span of a few days and get just a taste of the flavor of that country.

My second cruise was just as amazing – if not more – than my first one. It was filled with meeting new people, having incredible experiences in different countries of the Caribbean, and perhaps doing my fair share of kissing. (More on that later…) There’s something about looking out my window and seeing nothing but the deep blue ocean that opens up a part of me I’ve kept locked up inside for the past year. It shows me that I do have the courage to try new things. I do have a spirit of bravery and I can try things other people are too scared to try to do. And that I need to grab hold of that spirit and take it with me into other areas of my life.

When my mom and I began looking for another cruise to do last year, I knew I wanted to travel to Jamaica. I’m not sure why the country appealed to me so much but it did. There’s something about the untamed wildness and lazy island feel that called to me. And we found a cruise ship that would travel to Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The views were breathtaking. The tour guide sang to us while taking us to our destination. The people we met were open and happy and in love with what they were doing.

Well, I guess *I* would be in love with what I did if my job was to zip line through a rainforest in Jamaica…

There’s something about being completely away from the reality of everyday life that refreshes a person. It felt completely natural to be disconnected, away from the pressures of blogging and work and social media. I was so ready for this vacation. So ready to connect with myself again. I’ve been so busy lately, keeping up with work projects and Bible studies and blogging schedules and crazy health challenges that I barely have time to just be. To fall completely in the moment and not let myself get caught up in what’s happening next.

It’s so easy to get caught up in real life. It happens. There’s nothing wrong with being busy. There’s nothing wrong with getting caught up in all we have to do. But I think we always need to make sure we’re taking steps back. Re-evaluating. Making sure we’re living in the moment – even when that moment may not be as amazing as moments are during vacation. It’s very easy to be in the moment on vacation, but not so easy when we’re fraught with stress from real life.

All this to say, my vacation was amazing. It was such a great getaway, something I absolutely needed. I plan on fully writing about my time at the different stops, as well as my time on the ship. But I learned a lot about what I crave in life from this trip. What I need to fully live out my passions. I learned about how overwhelming it can be to be around loud extroverts and how I can easily make conversation in a small setting but get lost in the shuffle in a larger setting. I learned I’ll never be a late-night owl – not even on vacation. (I stayed up until 1am one night and was super proud of staying up that late! I had a pair of tablemates who stayed out until 4am on a regular basis. So. Not. Me.) And I learned that I may be twenty-four, but going on vacation with my mom is still incredibly special and memories I will cherish forever.

And I’ve now done things other people think are crazy. I’ve kissed a sting ray, let one eat calamari from my hand, danced with a dolphin, snorkeled in the deep ocean of the Caribbean, zip-lined through a rain forest, rode a bob-sled, flirted with a Jamaican, and survived two attacks by pirates.

OK. Maybe the last one isn’t true. But almost!

I want to take this crazy attitude into other parts of my life. I want to do crazy things, outside of vacations. It’s so easy to be crazy on vacation. But it’s even more important to be crazy and brave in our everyday life. I’ve been living life small. I’ve been scared to take chances, so terrified of what will happen if I put my heart on the line. I’m slowly learning that in order to live the life I love, chances have to be taken. I have to jump off mountains, soar off cliffs, stop staring over that ledge, and back away.

It’s time to start putting those crazy plans in place.