Cayman Islands Day 3 - Rum Point

March 27th

Today JM's uncle very kindly took us out on his boat to Rum Point to go snorkeling. 

A whole bunch of Sargent Majors. 

ALL the Sargent Majors!   And white sand.

Sea fans and coral.

Look how beautiful it is.

Oooooh fishy, fishy, fishy, fish!

Wait, what's that in the rocks?

Green Moray Eel!!!!

When a fish bites your heel and it looks like an eel....

That's a Moray!

Oh, he might be angry.

That was a little harrowing.

He did not like Jim getting that close.

I think that's Sherrie in the distance.

A Bluehead Wrasse.

Swim away little Bluehead.

So much coral!

A Foureye Butterflyfish.

GIANT Hermit Crab!  

LP likes playing in the shallows. 

There was a skate and some other fun fish hanging out around the pier. 

We were there!

Walking back out to the boat.

Bye Rum Point!

We headed home and walked down to the main street to find dinner.

We found a lovely sunset.

We had a lovely day.  Thank you so much JM's uncle!

This concludes our adventures for today.

Cayman Islands Day 1 & 2 - Eden Rock

March 25th

Today we flew to Grand Cayman to visit one of my favorite people on the planet.  Hi Jenny!

 I see you blue water.

 We flew into Georgetown, where Jenny and her family met us at the airport.  

It was really exciting to see her and her husband JM. 

 After getting our stuff and rental car, we found our AirB&B and then wandered out for dinner.

 Stoic sunset!

 Artsy shadow photo!

 Actual sunset.

And then we fed the fish! 

March 26th

This morning we met Jenny & JM and the grandparents' house for brunch.  There was so much amazing food prepared by three wonderful women.  Afterwards we went down to their beach.

 LP is having an adventure.  Did I mention Jim and Sherrie are with us?  Dan told me I couldn't go to the Caymans and not invite his dad to go diving.  So we did! 

 This is great.  Can we stay here for forever?

Woo tropical beach!

 After brunch and hanging out we wandered back to our house.  Jim was eager to get in the water, and I hadn't been diving in a while, so we thought we'd get a shore dive under our belts before doing any boat charters.

Our first dive was a shore dive at Eden Rock.  We saw Scrawled filefish. 

 A Parrotfish, maybe rainbow.

A Stoplight Parrotfish. 

 So many little blue fishes.  And one yellow one.

 The coral/seascape here is very nubbly.

 Lobster!

 Jim and Sherrie.

 Me and Dan.  I think I blinked.

 Sea fan?  Also, something was dragged through here.

 There were sand groves between the nubbly bits.

 A blue Parrotfish, taking a bite of the coral. 

 Uh, oh.  Dan's been spotted!   (He took these photos.)

 Swim away Parrotfish! 

You can always tell which one is me.  I have pink fins.  Jim has the yellow fins, and Sherrie has black fins.  I think Dan's are blue.

It was a decent first dive. 

This concludes our adventures for today.

Off Roading

March 15th

 I got to something really cool.   

I got to take a whack at the Land Rover Off-Road course in Carmel Valley.

Thanks Carmel Visitor's Center.

 You don't go very fast, but this vehicle has so much high tech in it.

Also, each vehicle had a guide in it.

 A bunch of the Carmel Visitor's Center volunteers got to do this.  

 This is not a sneaky selfie.  Look at the dash and compare it to the ground outside.

The car takes you down that hill by itself, you touch nothing.

 Big mud puddle!

 Again, compare the dash to the ground.

This is what the vehicle from above looks like from the outside.  That front wheel is probably 3-4 feet off the ground.  It made a thump when it set back down.

Despite all the mud, the vehicles really didn't get much dirt on them.   It was a really cool experience.

This concludes my adventures for today.