Day 11 – Easter Sunday Brunch before leaving Grand Cayman

It was the last day on the island and we didn’t have anything planned, except a Sunday brunch. Since today was Easter, all the restaurants had planned elaborate lunches. The main restaurant we wanted to go to, Anchor and Den, was fully booked. Lighthouse, which was a restaurant half way to the airport ended up being our next choice. We attempted to stop by there on our first day to grab some lunch, but they didn’t open until 5pm. We made our reservation for noon.

We all woke up pretty early and started the packing and cleaning efforts. Since we had all morning, we just took our time and enjoyed the few hours we had left at the house. Anna and I got a bit of packing done last night, so at least we didn’t have to do everything today.

We headed to the Lighthouse at 11:30am. Everyone was ready to eat and we could not wait to start feeding our pie holes. The brunch was awesome! Tuna sashimi galore!!!! I believe we all had our bellies worth of grub!

With appetites satisfied, we returned our car and walked to the terminal.  We got to the airport a little after 2:30pm. The check-in was a breeze and we thought the custom search would be too. However, the local TSA agents scrutinized the heck out of Anna’s makeup bag. She had a neck wrap that caused quite a debate amongst five agents. They finally opted to let her keep it and allowed her to repack all the fluid and powered makeup packages.

Plane took off on time at 4:30pm and managed to land safely a little after 8pm. Brady picked up Olivia from the airport. He greeted her with a beautiful boutique of flowers. All safe and sound back at the house, everyone was happy to be back in their own beds.

It was a great trip and will definitely miss some of the things from the island!!

Day 10 – Last Full Day at the House

Today the wind was almost nonexistent and the water was the calmest we had seen. It was a perfect afternoon with the sun shiny brightly on the water. After getting home near 3pm, LT and I decided to go out on the kayaks one last time and see what we could pull out of the fish tank, while Olivia caught some rays to sunbathe her back. We both kayaked out to the reef and then back. We were out on the water for maybe about an hour, before heading in and switching out the paddles for snorkels.

I spent the better part of an hour snorkeling in front of the reef and in our bay just flapping the fins away. I can’t say it enough –“It is truly astonishing the variety of life in that is in the sea!” The coolest creature I saw was a spotted leopard ray. I could snorkel every day, unfortunately we don’t live anywhere near a beautiful reef like this.

Came in from the water and the kids were mac’ed out. We played around at our place for the remainder of the day. Ended up ordering some dinner from the Italian Kitchen a little after 6pm. Watched a little TV and called it a night before 9pm.

Day 10 – Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park

This morning we woke up a little after sunrise and Anna and I took out the kayaks. LT ended up going out with us as well on his own kayak, while Olivia stayed sleeping. Both Thomas and I took out fishing poles hoping to catch fish we hadn’t yet. LT kayaked all the way to the reef and stood and fish from there. It was an easy quarter mile to the reef. Anna and I puttered around the whole bay, before eventually making it to the reef. We hung out a bit longer and ended up going in about 9am.

Woke up Olivia and tried to get everyone rustled up to head out to the Botanical Park. I was looking forward to heading to the park as I knew it was going to be wonderful. One the way to the park we stopped in a liquor store and picked up some snacks and a few beers for later in the day. When we looked up the directions, even on the website it only had the road name for the park and no street number. Not every seen that before. So after driving down the road for several miles, we finally saw this shop and stop it. It just happened to be a liquor store.

Now that we had directions, we were off to the races. A little further down the road and we were at the park. There were not too many people at the park, so we pretty much had it to ourselves today. The park had all kinds of plant sections, like cactus, palm trees, floral gardens, etc… Sixty-five acres of trails and they were definitely beautiful. Luckily the weather was nice and the clouds rolled in to cool off the day. We didn’t leave the park until after 2:30pm.

 

 

 

Day 9 – No Kiteboarding, so off to Rum Point

The plan initially was to go out today on a fishing charter, but our captain cancelled due to “engine problems”. I think it was more to do with “I don’t want to go out on Good Friday problems”! Nothing we could do about it but plan for the next activity. Since the fishing was out, we headed down to the Wyndham resort just a mile down the road. White Sands Sports offers a kiteboarding class and we wanted to see if they had availability for LT today. Here again – no luck! They were fully booked. I had called the day prior late and they said that they still had some openings. Apparently between night and before opening, they booked out. Again, I think it was all the Good Friday deal.

Anna, Olivia and I ended up having breakfast at the resort, while LT played basketball. Breakfast was a brunch style and although it was good, it was sparse and mucho expensivo! Granted the food on the island has been expensive pretty much everywhere, this one took the cake for what it was. I ended up heading downstairs to go see Thomas, while the girls finished up there meal. While we waited for the ladies, LT and I tried our hand at table tennis. Young Schiffers is starting to get pretty good at the old game.

After breakfast we headed back to the house to pick up somethings and then headed out to Rum Point. LT and I wanted to try our luck at fishing the point, while Olivia wanted to get her hair braided. Mama wanted to go to Rum Point to do some people watching and hoped to listen to some live music. Everyone got what they wanted.

When we got to Rum Point, LT and I casted and casted. LT however was the only one that managed to wrangle in something on the line. Thomas managed to get three small barracudas to shore. The last one he caught ended up wiggling while he was trying to get the hard bait out and he ended up getting one of the treble hooks caught in his thumb. Not a pleasant feeling. A minute later and with the help of pliers, I pulled out the hook. He was not a happy camper.

Both of us called it quits on the fishing and head back to meet up with the girls. Olivia and Anna were sitting at the beach bar shack. We were greeted with smiles and Thomas was happy to sit and try to get over the pain of having a barb stuck in his hand. A mud slide later and young Schiffers was slowly starting to come back to life. Thomas, Olivia and I ate some of the local dishes they had at the Wreck Bar and Grill. The whole place was packed today. After the food and a few more drinks, we headed over to see LT get his hair braided. Olivia had gotten hers done while we went out fishing.

About 4pm we kicked from Rum Point and headed over to Kaibo for one last rendezvous. We had a few drinks there and goofed around on the beach before finally heading home around 6pm.

Day 8 - Rest of the day

With lunch but an afterthought, we headed back to the house and spent the rest of the day hanging out. We meet the neighbors and talked with them quite a bit. Anna and I snorkeled out for quite some time and a little later LT and I went out on the kayaks to see if we could catch a big one. LT caught four blue runners. Two he cooked and two we kept for bait. 

 

Day 8 – Ocean Frontiers

For some reason my mind decided to wake me at 3:30am and tell me I was done sleeping. I attempted to close my eyes for 30 more minutes or so, but finally gave up and got up. I spent the better of an hour going through some of our pictures and wrote several posts on the blog.

As 6:30am rolled around, I woke Olivia. Today we were going on a morning two tank dive at 7:45am with Ocean Frontiers. It is the dive shop and outfitter for the entire East End. Their main facility was local right by Eagle Rays Grill. The place is a dive resort and is perfectly suited for divers to go out all day long on multiple dives. We however, were only going to go for two dives.

First stop was High Rock Drop-off. The dive was a either a 100ft or 60ft dive, depending if you chose to go through a small narrow cavernous tunnel on the ocean floor. I decide we would not be trying to squeeze this petit figure through an even petiter passage this morning. Olivia and I opted to swim above the narrow passage. The passage swim only took about 5 minutes, so when the two people were done they joined back with us at around 60 feet.

Sea life has always amazing and fascinated me my entire life. The beauty and sheer variety is simply mind boggling. So as soon as we starting descending, my photo finger went to work. It was long before the battery died. On our second day on the island I noticed that our charger for the underwater cameras was not working properly. I attempted to repair it and thought I had fixed it, but quickly realized my repair job was lacking. Oh well, time for the mental snapshots to kick it. Luckily I was able to get a few shots of Olivia in the water and managed to get a few videos.

We dove the first dive for 45 minutes and were the last persons back on the boat. Both Olivia and I still had quite a bit of air left, so Eve (our dive master), signaled we could still stay down on the bottom a bit longer. Taking advantage of the opportunity we continued to snorkel away on the reef before finally rising back up 5-10 minutes later and starting to decompress.

Second site was Iron Station, a gorgeous coral formation sprawled out like a hand’s fingers. Olivia’s ears were bothering her on the first dive so on this dive we stayed at around a 30ft depth and decide not to go any deeper. Better safe than sorry. Like before, this was awesome, but with a 10x factor. There was so many varieties of coral, fish, fans, etc… The captain had told us this was the employee’s favorite dive site out of all the 55 dive site in Grand Cayman and I could see why.

Around 30 minutes into the dive, my tank loosened from my BCV. Olivia tried to fix it, but we headed back to the boat and were going to get one of the crew to change it out. Apparently the dive shop just had gotten these BCVs not but three days ago and they had not been broken in. Instead on going back in, we both just hung out on the boat. Swaying in the boat for 15 minutes or so, I could feel the sickness starting to drift in, but I managed to fight it off.

Arrived back at the dock around 11:30am and was greeted by Anna and Thomas. With all that exercise, our bellies were rumbling. So after taking LT back to the house, Anna, Olivia and I went to Tukka for lunch. Olivia made the best choice by ordering the daily special – Wahoo. Mama and mine weren’t too shabby either.

Day 7 – Blowholes, Scuba and the White House

The drive from West Bay back to East End is around 50 minutes. Near Bodden Town which is on the center southern part of the island, there is a stop that has several blowholes in the coral rock near the water. We had past the sign and place numerous times and decided we would stop and take a look today. It was a pretty serene place and not much is built around the area.

The bigger the wave – the bigger the fireworks of water that would be ejected through the holes. There were two holes that I notices – the main sprayer and another one that simply rolled the water out. It was like waiting at Yellowstone. You knew it was coming – you just weren’t sure how big it would be. After about a 20 minute stop, we climbed back in the car and headed home.

LT got in the water with his snorkel gear as we got home and I attempt to try my luck with some fishing. I watched Thomas snorkel way out towards the reef and slowly make his way right, eventually coming back in 30 minutes later. When he got to beach, I reeled my lines in and went for a short snorkel myself. It is truly amazing the sea life that is in the oceans!!!

Dinner reservations were at 5:30pm at the White House, near Bodden Town. We rolled up to the place just a few minutes after. Gorgeous place! The place was empty! The lady asked if we had reservations and we told her we did. Maybe we were just way too early and the rush was going to come a lot later. I jokingly told the kids I had booked the restaurant for ourselves and to our disbelief we had it to ourselves for the entire evening. The place could easily accommodate 500 people, but tonight we were the center of attention. 

LT had a rack of lamb, Olivia had a steak, Mama had a rib-eye and I ate a whole snapper.