Day 4 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman

We anchored in Grand Cayman at 7:00 a.m. I say anchored, because this is a port in which you have to tender in to the island. The water near shore is much too shallow for a ship, but then about 300 yards out, the sea bottom just drops off "like a mountainside," according to one local. We weren't in a big hurry to catch a tender as our excursion was booked for 11:15 a.m., so we ate breakfast and made our way off the ship about 9:30 a.m.

Grand Cayman is everything we hoped a tropical island would be. Beautiful weather, gorgeous water and great, clean shopping areas. And we felt safe. And not scared. We looked around here for the things we'd buy later and then headed on to our excursion. I had booked a tour before we left home with a private company. We had been looking forward to it with great anticipation. Why, you ask?

Stingrays, baby!

We boarded a shuttle which took us (and the other passengers) to a dock on a canal. We got on a boat and they took us through this canal where, apparently, all the multi-millionaires have their vacation homes.

Then we went 4 1/2 miles out from shore and went snorkeling at the Coral Gardens. These pictures were taken with an underwater camera and they just completely do not do justice to the colors and clarity of the water, so I apologize.

We snorkeled for about 30 minutes and then headed over to Stingray City. This was the highlight of my trip, hands down. It just boggles the mind that you're 4 miles out in the ocean, but can stand up in only 3 feet of water on a sandbar. There are stingrays EVERYWHERE and they're tame because they are so used to tourists coming and feeding them. They began showing up because shrimpers would dump all their debris in that spot and over time, I guess, the stingrays saw that there actually is such a thing as a free lunch and decided to stay.

But I digress. There were probably 40-50 stingrays swimming around and they'd brush right by your legs. We had squid to feed them which they'd suck right out of your hand. Our boat driver gave us lots of personal attention, showing us how to hold a stingray (named Emily by him -- he's there a lot and they have great affection for one another) and kiss a stingray. Their wings and body are soft and slimy, but their tails are like sandpaper. They were very gentle creatures.

Now Tim was a little freaked out by all of this. Ever since the Steve Irwin tragedy, he's been skittish about the whole idea of being anywhere near a stingray. He never would feed one, but we finally got him to play along and kiss one. The videographer on board reasoned that his wife was going to kiss one and he was going to kiss his wife, so really, what was the difference?

Lane loves all things oceanic and the whole time I was there, all I could think about was how much he would love it. We'll try to go back and take the kids some time.

Then we got back on the boat and headed back to shore. Tim and I did some quick shopping and then stood in a very long line to tender back to the ship. There were FOUR cruise ships there that day, all lined up in a row. We'd love to go back to Grand Cayman. It was the best!

Towel animal of the day:

The dinosaur's cute and all, but we were kind of disappointed. We felt sure it would be a stingray!