Ode to the Beach

Ah, the beach. I've been thinking a lot about the beach lately. For one thing, days and days on end of dreary weather really makes one long for a sunny, sandy vacation. Also, although Eric and I are unbelievably excited about our upcoming Europe trip (Eric emailed me to say so this morning, and I could hardly sleep last night thinking about it), we're a little bummed that we'll have to skip a week at the beach this year. I've told you before that we're big beach bums, so although we know we're going to have an incredible time overseas, a little part of me is sad we won't get that week of seaside relaxation.

So, I decided that if I am not going on a beach vacation this year, maybe I should relive old ones. I pulled out all my old beach vacation pictures (since Eric and I met) and got to reminiscing. Then I decided I would share these pictures with you, because who doesn't like to look at old pictures? I know I do. So, lets take a trip down Beach Memory Lane!

Side note: Sorry for the poor quality of most of these pictures. All of them up until the honeymoon ones were taken with a disposable camera, then scanned - not exactly the best strategy for high-quality photos.

Beach Vacation #1: Cayman Islands, July 1999

Eric and I took our first vacation about 10 months after we started dating. He was 16 years old, and I think I had just turned 17. Eric's dad and stepmom own a timeshare at Morritt's Tortuga Club in the Cayman Islands, and in July of 1999, they decided to take the three W. kids down to the resort with them. The best part? They were nice enough to let little ol' me tag along, too! It was my first trip out of the country, first time being that far away from my parents, and first trip with a boooooy. Oooh, la la.

We had a blast, and after this trip, I was hooked. We made friends with other kids at the resort - visitors and locals alike. We partay-ed on the Dock every night. I tasted my first Cayman Lemonade. I swam with the stingrays for the first time. I rode a wave-runner for the first time. We even stayed up all night with our new friends on our last night so that we could watch the sun rise. So, so fun.

Eric and me in the hammock. Yes, my hair really is that short.

Holding a stingray for the first time!

And although it was my first time traveling with my boyfriend, I probably spent more time with Eric's sister Kelley than with Eric himself! Kelley and I had a great time.

Kelley and me before riding the wave-runner. (My hair is going for the "beachy look" here, I think.)

Beach Vacation #2: Cayman Islands, March 2003

Well, after the first trip to the Caymans I had a little Cayman hiatus. You know, I had other things to do - high school graduation, college, etc. Eric did get to go without me one time between 1999 and 2003, but the next time I was able to join the W. family in the Caymans again was Spring Break of my junior year in college, when I was 20 years old. This time, we were sans Kelley, but Eric's brother Ronnie brought along his friend Tom.

Tom, Ronnie, Suellen, Ron Sr., Me and Eric. I am loving Ronnie's bleached blonde 'do here.

As always, we had a wonderful time. There were a few particularly memorable points from this trip.

The first was the wahoo. Oh, the wahoo. Have you ever eaten wahoo? Do it immediately. Eric's dad and stepmom went on a deep sea fishing excursion with Captain Herman and caught this enormous wahoo. Then Captain Herman brought it back to our room at the resort and cooked it for us. The only ingredient I can remember going into it was ketchup. And I think there was rice. Sounds awful, yes? Oh, but it was to die for. Best fish I have ever eaten to this day. And there was so much of it! It fed all of us plus the other few people who had been on the fishing trip, and we had leftovers for days. Amazing.

The second memorable thing was the sunset sail we took. It was very peaceful and relaxing, and came with rum punch, which is never a bad thing.

Eric and me on the sunset sail

The third memorable thing was Tom's sunburn. Oh, poor Tom. I have never seen a redder person.

Unfortunately, I cannot find my full set of pictures from this trip, which contains pictures of both the wahoo and poor, red Tom. The only pictures I have are the few that made their way into my college scrapbook.

In the new infinity pool. I apologize if this is inappropriate, but how hot does Eric look in this picture?!

Beach Vacation #3: Grand Bahama Island, 2004

We took a break from the Cayman Islands (and the W. family) for Spring Break of my senior year of college and went to the Bahamas with our friends (and later roommates) Coral and Alexis. We cruised there out of Ft. Lauderdale and stayed for 4 or 5 days, if memory serves me.

Coral, Eric, me and Alexis.
I got very, very sunburned on our first day there, so spent the rest of the trip in the shade or in a t-shirt.

We stayed at the Xanadu Resort in Freeport. Needless to say, our hotel was...um...an experience. Disappointing and weird. We had a giant living area room, half of which had no furniture. In the whole place, I think we had one working lamp. Why? I don't know. And the customer service was awful.

Other than that, we had a pretty good time. We beached, we sand-sculpted, we shopped and ate and drank Kalik beer. We even did totally smart and responsible things like buying drinks out of the back of some guy's car. You know, the kind of things that only sound like a good idea in college.

Rum in your trunk? Sounds great!

Fun with signs

Beach Vacation #5: Cayman Islands, June 2004

Although we had fun in the Bahamas in March, we had the need for more beach in 2004, so we returned to the Caymans once again with the W. family. This time, in addition to the parents, it was Eric, me, and my sister Heather. Yay, Heather got to come! I particularly enjoyed this trip because Heather and Eric are my two most favorite people ever, so to have them with me in my most favorite place ever was just too good to be true.

Heather and me on the Dock

We did a lot of fun things this time, too. For one thing, it was nice just to have a beach buddy who wanted to do nothing but tan with me. Eric is nice at the beach, sure, but he also likes to do things like play golf and volleyball and that sort of thing. I'm much more of a "sit and fall asleep in the sun" type of beach-goer. As is my sister. So, it was nice to have someone to just lounge around and drink tropical beverages with on the beach or in the pool.

Heather and me on the beach

And if we're not on the beach, we're drinking in the pool!

We also entered - and WON - a sand sculpture contest! We sculpted Sir Turtle, the unofficial national logo of the Cayman Islands. We won a bottle of rum! Hooray!

Eric, Heather and me with our winning sand sculpture

Sir Turtle, and a closer view of our sculpture. Not bad, eh?

This was also the trip when Eric and I played - and WON! - the Newlywed Game. We were still two years away from even being engaged, and we beat three sets of real newlyweds and another couple that had already been married 7 years! We won rum cakes and another bottle of rum in this one.

Eric and me after the Newlywed Game, with our winnings

I've already shared quite a few pictures of this trip, but why not a couple more for good measure? Just because I like 'em.

Heather in George Town with the statue for a famous local rum

Back in the hammock. Check out my tan - this is probably the only time in the history of our relationship that I have been darker than Eric!

I love this pic of Heather and Eric wading through the cold water in the infinity pool!

Also, not pictured: me nearly getting my face eaten by an iguana at Rum Point. Fun times.


Beach Vacation #6: Cayman Islands, August 2007 - HONEYMOON!

Oh, this was a good one! But how can your honeymoon NOT be a good one? Oh, well, actually I can answer that one, because it almost wasn't. We were supposed to head down to the Caymans the day after wedding, but Hurricane Dean had other plans. He hit the Caymans the very day we were supposed to arrive. Thankfully, we were able to postpone our plans by a week, and Dean didn't hit the Caymans directly (as he was predicted to do), so by the time we got there, all the power, etc. was back on. The infinity pool was closed because there was sand all in it, and there was some damage to the Dock, but other than that, it was all good. Oh wait, not totally. The airline also left our luggage in Tampa on the way down, and didn't get it to us until almost two days later. But other than that, it was all good!

The highlight of this trip (other than the fact that we were MARRIED, yay!) was the sunset sail we took for dinner one night. One of the resort hosts' boyfriend owned a boat and he would take people from Kaibo Yacht Club to the other side of the island for dinner at The Fisherman's Reef. The sunset was gorgeous, the food was divine (and paid for by some very generous people on our boat), and we were able to see a spectacular moonrise over the water as we ate. Then we sailed back under the stars. Helloooo, romance.

With our complimentary "Happy Honeymoon" dessert at The Fisherman's Reef

Other than that, most of the week was spent enjoying the beach and each other. We didn't turn the TV on once, and we slept on the sleeper sofa in the living area of our room, so that we could open our sliding doors and hear the sound of the surf as we slept. Glorious.

Also, I wore a big floppy hat.

Married feet

Mudslide Madness at the pool bar

Fun in the hammock yet again

Beach Vacation #7, the last one to date: Cayman Islands, August 2008

We decided to return to the Caymans again for our first anniversary. This time things went a little smoother, although our flight there was cancelled because of some mechanical problem and rescheduled for the next day. So, not as bad as the previous year, but still annoying!

I won't belabor this one because you can read a very, very in-depth recounting of our trip here. But, a couple highlights from this one were the bike ride to Vivine's Kitchen for an authentic home-cooked Cayman lunch (and the best lemonade EVER)...

Riding my bike to lunch

Eric at Vivine's Kitchen

...the return to Stingray City...

Ready to snorkel!

Smooching a stingray

...the sunsets...

Paradise

...and just being together, celebrating our first year of wedding bliss.

Anniversary kiss

More mudslide madness

Oh, and the refrigerated aloe. There was some more redness happening on this trip, so that refrigerated aloe vera was a major highlight.

So, you can see that Eric and I have had a lot of fun times at the beach together. We will definitely miss it this year. But, we are so, so excited about our Europe trip, and who knows? Maybe after traveling abroad we will be hit with the bug to see the world, and will shelve the beach thing for a while. Anything is possible!

Aaahh, the Caymans

I love the Caymans!

We're back from our first anniversary trip to the Cayman Islands! We had a fabulous time and I am so sad that it's over. I always have such a terrible time coming back from the Caymans. It's just far too nice to leave. I hope you all are prepared for a loooong recap, because we did lots of fun things! Here we go...

SUNDAY (Also known as "No Caymans for You!" Day)

As you may recall, we were concerned about Tropical Storm Fay causing problems for our flight down there. Well, our flight was cancelled. But not because of Fay! We got to the airport for our 3:30p.m. flight on Sunday, all prepared to start boarding our plane at 2:45p.m. We had time to grab some lunch and stock up on coconut rum at the duty free shop, and we were ready to go. Well, 2:45 came and went, and then 3:30 came and went, and we still weren't boarding. Shortly after 3:30 they made an announcement that there was some mechanical problem with the plane - an "inoperable part" - and they were trying to get a replacement part. So, we sat and waited for an hour. Then they finally announced that the replacement part was going to have to be flown in from Grand Cayman, so our flight was cancelled, and all other outgoing flights on Sunday were already full, so we couldn't leave until the next morning. So, I called my dad to come pick us back up and back to his house we went. Once again, it was like flashback to last year...expecting to be in the Caymans, but ending up at my dad's house instead!

MONDAY (Also known as "Our Anniversary!")

So, Monday morning we headed to the airport bright and early to catch our rescheduled flight, and this time we boarded and took off on time. Hooray! We did have to fly around Fay, which made our flight a little longer, but we got there, and that's all I was looking for! We arrived in Grand Cayman around noon Cayman time, found our ride, and made our way to the resort. 

The Cayman airport...you walk down the steps off the plane, feel the warmth of the Cayman sun, see this sign, and hear a Caribbean band playing!

 Nothing like it.

View from the window of the van as we drove to the resort

We checked in and went to our room, which was in the oldest building, furthest from the main building, which actually ended up being great. It was quiet with a great view, and our room was very nice.

The view from our room

After settling in, we changed into our bathing suits and went to meet our resort host, Jim, who was surprisingly unfriendly and seemed displeased that we arrived a day late (even though we called the resort after our flight was cancelled to let them know we'd be late). But, we were just happy to be there, so nothing could get us down! We went to the pool and enjoyed shrimp quesadillas and drinks at the pool bar. Once we were cooled off and relaxed, we left the pool and walked across the street to the grocery store to stock up on food for the week.

That evening we went out to the Dock Bar for the welcome cocktail reception. The sunset was gorgeous! We enjoyed some rum punch and CayBrew beer while watching the beautiful sky.

The Welcome Party on the Dock

Me enjoying my rum punch on the dock

Gorgeous sunset! How bad do you want to walk on this beach right now?

After the Dock party, we went to the veranda of the resort for their Caribbean buffet dinner. We dined on jerk pork, beef, and fish, plus rice and beans, bread, plantains, and salad. Mmmm! Dinner was followed by the always fun Fire and Limbo show, featuring a limbo underneath flaming bars resting on beer bottles. Impressive! Our seats weren't great for this, but we've seen it many times before so we were okay with just relaxing and enjoying our dinner.

The happy couple at the Caribbean buffet

After dinner we went for an evening soak in the hot tub (the hot tub is pretty much Eric's favorite part of the resort...especially the rush you get when getting in with sunburned skin. What can I say, he's weird). Then we went back to our room and looked back through wedding pictures and reminisced about our wonderful wedding and first year together, which was amazing. Seriously, I love being married, and Eric does too. This last year has been the best!

Then, it was time for bed. We did the same thing we did last year in terms of sleeping - we didn't sleep in the actual bedroom once. Instead, we turned off the AC and opened up the sliding doors and windows, then slept on the sofa bed in the living area, so we could be closer to the balcony and listen to the sound of the ocean as we slept. Sooooo nice.

TUESDAY (Also known as "The Sunburn Day")

Tuesday was a "Do Nothing Except Relax" kind of day. When we got up we headed right down to the beach, where we pulled our beach chairs down to the water's edge so the waves would splash up around us. We spent the better part of the day there, just enjoying the sun and reading. I actually read the better part of a GREAT book called "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. I highly recommend it to any dog-lover!

When we had tired of the beach, we went to the pool for a bit to cool off, and Eric of course spent some time in the hot tub again. Crazy boy.

Handsome husband hot-tubbing

We then went back up to our room to enjoy drinks on our balcony while watching yet another beautiful Cayman sunset. I could really get used to this!

Sunset from our balcony

More sunset from our balcony

That night we had dinner on the Veranda of the resort again. We had a delicious seafood chowder as an appetizer, then Eric had seafood pasta and I had scallops au gratin for dinner. The chowder actually really filled us up, so we ended up taking most of our dinner back to the room. We dropped our food off and then went back down to the beach to admire the beautiful moon and listen to the karaoke happening on the Dock Bar.

Having dinner on the Veranda

Moon over the water

When we got back to our room, we performed the first of many Aloe Application Rituals. We had been sure to apply sunblock periodically throughout the day (SPF 30), but either it just wasn't strong enough, or I have serious back-of-leg application problems, because the back of my legs got SCORCHED. We're talking barely able to sit down kind of pain. It was ugly. So, we kept the aloe in the fridge and frequent aloe applications became part of our daily routine! As did staying out of the sun whenever possible. Bummer.

WEDNESDAY (Also known as "Andrew Bacon Day")

We started Wednesday off with the usual aloe/sunblock application then went to meet with Resort Host Jim to get ourselves set up with reservations for dinner and other things we needed to do for the week. We then went over to the pool bar for another round of shrimp quesadillas for lunch, some quality reading time in the shade (I finished my book!), and the ever-popular Mudslide Madness. We weren't at the really "happening" pool, so although there were mudslides, there really was not much madness. That was okay by us, though!

Enjoying our mudslides in the pool

After finishing our mudslides, we went over to another one of the three pools for "Yoqua," which is basically yoga in water. It was fun! Our Wii Fit yoga had really helped us prepare!

That evening we went to the resort next door, The Reef, because the former entertainment coordinator from our resort, Andrew Bacon, was going to be leading "Name That Tune." We loved Andrew Bacon when we worked at our resort, so we were excited to see him in action again. He actually recognized us, too! We didn't do really well at Name That Tune (although I did get one point for "I Will Survive!"), but it was fun nonetheless. We also enjoyed drinks and conch fritters, and watched the impromptu limbo contest that followed the game. Once the limbo craziness was done, Andrew played some music so we could all dance, including my two favorite Caribbean dances: the Dollar Dance and Swing Engine. It was a blast! And, in honor of our anniversary, Andrew played "The Way You Look Tonight" so Eric and I could slow dance. Awwww.

Music video for "Swing Engine!" I dare you to listen to this and not dance.

Us with Andrew Bacon

We then returned to our room for snacks and drinks, and watched the Olympics a bit. Then it was time for more aloe and bed!

THURSDAY (Also known as "Stingray Day")

Thursday was a fun day! We got up early and met some new friends of ours in the lobby. We were all carpooling together to Rum Point to catch a Catamaran to Stingray City! Our new friends are named Angel and Adriana, and they live in New Jersey and are very willing to welcome us to New York. They were so friendly! And they didn't mind at all letting us hitch a ride to Rum Point, because we had no other way out there. So it was a great setup.

We got to Rum Point around 9:30a.m. and hung out for a bit before boarding the catamaran. Then we were off to our morning of snorkeling and stingray fun!

Me at Rum Point - the bus stop for Stingray City

Hooray USA! (In the spirit of the Olympics, of course)

On the catamaran

Our first stop was a reef for snorkeling. It was really interesting, because on the side of the reef where we were snorkeling, the water was only 10 feet deep. However, if you crossed over to the other side of the reef, it dropped to 4,000-6,000 feet! Wow! We spent some time snorkeling here, and some people saw some neat things like jellyfish, sharks, and eels. I saw a rainbow fish and a couple schools of fish, but not much else. I enjoyed it though! I hadn't been snorkeling in quite some time.

Ready to snorkel!

Eric snorkeling

Cayman coral

After snorkeling at the reef, we got back on the catamaran and headed over to the Stingray City sandbar, which is really unlike anything else. Apparently, years ago, fishermen would stop on this sandbar to clean or cut up their fish (or whatever fishermen do), and then would throw the scraps overboard, which brought the stingrays to the sandbar. Over time, the fishermen started feeding the stingrays, and eventually it evolved into a tourist destination, with thousands of people going there to swim with the stingrays each day. There are just hundreds of stingrays swimming all over, brushing up against you and swimming right by. You can pick them up, pet them, and feed them. It's amazing.

I really enjoyed this part of the day, although you might not have known it if you saw me there. Whenever a stingray came near me, I tended to scream and run away. Seriously, they kept chasing me, and my response was certainly flight as opposed to fight. But, I managed to stay the whole time in the water, and I even petted, held, and KISSED a stingray! I was so brave. 

Me on the catamaran at Stingray City (note the stingray swimming behind me!)

One of the many stingrays!

Eric holding one

Smooches for the stingray! Supposedly it's 7 years of good luck if you kiss one. Here's hoping that's true, because it was slimy.

After Stingray City, the catamaran took us back to Rum Point, where we enjoyed lunch with our friends. I had a delicious blackened mahi sandwich, and Eric had even better jerk pork with rice and corn on the cob. 

Happy after our snorkeling and stingray fun!

Picnic tables at Rum Point

After lunch we went back to the resort, and Eric and I enjoyed some rum cake on our balcony before heading down to the disappearing-edge pool for drinks and cooling off with our friends. We ate dinner that night in our room, and then went back out for another late night swim/hot tub. Then it was back to our room for more Olympics before aloe and bed!

FRIDAY (Also known as "Bike Day")

Friday was also really fun, and full of things we had never done before! When we got up, we got dressed and rented bikes from the resort. Then we set off on our bike adventure!

Eric on his bike

Such a scenic ride!

Our first stop was Vivine's Kitchen, which we have been hearing about ever since we started going to the Caymans but we've never been there. Apparently, Vivine cooks literally out of her kitchen in her house every day, and serves the food in her back yard. You walk up to her house and place your order through a back window. It's supposed to be some of the best local fare on the island, and the menu changes daily depending on what she has available. We were so excited to try it, and it was GOOD!

Our lunch destination

Eric at Vivine's Kitchen

Drinking the best lemonade I have ever tasted.

My lunch: fritters, fish and coleslaw

Eric's lunch: rice, fried fish with peppers and onions, potato salad, fried plantains, and a sweet potato

We had planned to head back to the resort after lunch, but we were having so much fun on our bike ride that we decided to continue on and explore a little more of the East End of the island. We had  a great time! We saw all sorts of neat things we hadn't seen before: remnants of shipwrecks, a memorial commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Wreck of the Ten Sail and the Queen's visit to that spot, the East End lighthouse, the public library, pretty cemeteries, chickens, and of course, the usual gorgeous scenery.

Awww, poor Ten Sail.

Me at the Ten Sail Monument

The super-fancy East End Lighthouse

One of the seaside cemeteries...they're all decorated with so many pretty, bright flowers like this

After our bike ride, we went to cool off in the pool and then cooked dinner in our room. Later we went for an evening walk on the beach, then back to the pool and hot tub. We finished up the night with our usual routine: Olympics, rum cake on the balcony, aloe application, and bed!

SATURDAY (Also known as "Do We Really Have to Leave???" Day)

Saturday was our last day (BOO!). We decided to make it another relaxing day, but we wanted to hit all of our favorite relaxation spots: the beach and two different pools! We started at the beach, and spent some time under one of the little tiki cabanas which was so very nice. We also checked out the hammocks.

Our cabana

Eric in the hammock

After the beach we went back to the Premier pool bar for - you guessed it - shrimp quesadillas. Mmm, I love those shrimp quesadillas.

Eric and the deliciousness that are shrimp quesadillas

After lunch we did a little souvenir shopping at the shopping center down the street, then went to the disappearing-edge pool for swimming and hot tubbing until we had to head back to the room to get ready for dinner.

We had dinner at Portofino's, which has always been a Cayman favorite of ours. We actually even sat at the same table that we did last year when we went! We both had conch chowder as an appetizer, then I had the Caribbean Mix (shrimp, scallops, mahi, salmon and lobster) and Eric had filet mignon stuffed with lobster. It probably goes without saying that it was soooo good.

Before dinner

At Portofino's

After dinner we went back to the resort and had drinks in our room, then went out to the pool and hot tub for the last time. Then it was back to the room for rum cake, packing, and looking back over all of our pics from the trip. By that time it was nearly 1:30a.m. (Cayman time), which we were waiting for so we could watch the Men's US Basketball team play Spain for the gold. We had planned to just stay up until the US started really blowing them out, but that never really happened, so we ended up staying up for the whole thing - until 4:00 a.m.! Then we immediately crashed because we had to get up early to go to the airport the next day.

SUNDAY (Also known as "I Really Resent All Those People That I See Just Arriving in the Caymans While We Have to Leave" Day)

We were up at 8:00a.m. to finish packing up and catch our ride to the airport. We got to the airport with plenty of time to do some souvenir shopping (read: stock up on liquor and rum cakes) before our flight left at 11:30 a.m. Before we knew it, we were back in Tampa!

It really was a fantastic trip. I can't wait to see where our SECOND anniversary will take us next year!