Getting There-Grand Cayman

We were scheduled to leave on the 17th for Grand Cayman.  We had a super early flight out of Fayetteville (yikes 6am!) and after a little stress made it to Atlanta.  Once there we had to sort out some minor issues with Mara's ticket.  When you fly internationally with an infant in arms you still have to pay the tax on the ticket.  We knew this but there is literally no way to do that on Delta's website.

Helping mama take buddy to a friend's house

Anyways we got everything sorted and made our way to the gate expecting a smooth trip the rest of the way...wrong.  When we went to board the plane, Josh's passport was rejected due to it's poor condition.  We wouldn't be getting to Grand Cayman that day.

In Grand Cayman!

Slightly discouraged we made our way into Atlanta to the consulates office.  The rest of the day was spent getting everything needed to process an immediate replacement passport for Josh.  It wasn't all discouraging as Delta was amazing through it all.  They got us on a flight for the next day and provided us with a hotel room for the night all at no cost to us.  Only downside was they wouldn't release our bags so we were stuck with the clothes on our backs and our carry-ons for the night.

The next day things went smoothly getting to Grand Cayman.  The flight was slightly delayed but it worked out as Mara slept the entire way.

As we stepped off the plane we were hit with the heat and humidity.  We were on vacation!!  We got our bags and rented a car.  It was off to check into our hotel and get settled in for the night.  We had to arrange the babysitter for Mara for the next day and grab some staples at the grocery store before it closed for the weekend.

Enjoying the hotel pool

Having too much fun

Our second day in Cayman started early as we originally thought we would do some diving that morning.  Josh made a lot of calls and finally found us a boat going out to the USS Kittiwake that afternoon.

In the morning we took Mara and headed to a high end mall area called Camana Bay.  We went out on this small island and let her play in the sand and hammocks.  She also got to run through the water fountains which ended up being an activity we let her do again and again.  It took her a bit to warm up to the idea but she loved splashing through the water.

A little mickey in the morning

That afternoon the babysitter stayed with Mara while Josh and I headed out to dive.  We knew that later on in the week we wanted to do some shore dives but I wanted to go with a company for our first ones to get familiarized with my gear before we tried this on our own.

Relaxing at Camana Bay

Our first dive was a deep reef with three swim throughs.  This was my deepest dive to date as our max depth reached 102 ft!  The coral was beautiful and our dive master let us do about half of the dive on our own after showing us the layout.  This turned out to be extremely helpful in getting our feet wet in buddy team diving.

Playing in the fountain

More fountains

The second dive of the day was the USS Kittiwake.  In it's prime it was a sub mariner rescue vessel working a lot in the Caribbean.   It was sunk off the coast in 2011 in fairly shallow water which is really unusual for wrecks.  The first three levels are open to divers and they have even taken care to cut out large portions of the hull so that there is always easy access to open water.  I have never dived a wreck and it was pretty amazing to swim along side this one.

When we got back to the hotel we cleaned up and got ready for dinner.  We had made reservations at a local place and had planned on walking on the beach a little beforehand.  On our last vacation Mara hated the beach so we didn't have high expectations for this trip.  Surprisingly though she loved it (after a little warming up of course!)  We met another couple and their little girl on the beach and I think that was just the encouragement Mara needed to plunge right in.  Before we knew it she had sand everywhere.  She was grabbing handfuls and making piles.

When she gave in

Not wanting to leave

When it was time to go we brushed her off as best we could and headed to the restaurant.  The place was pretty casual and we ordered an appetizer to share along with a pizza.   Food was pretty expensive on the island so we tried not to go too overboard.