Grand Cayman 6/8-9/15
We hung out at the condo in the morning in order to let the
rush hour traffic die down before we headed out to go diving. We finally set out around 10 o’clock or
so. After we left the condo we weren’t
very far down the road when I got a bunch of flack from the back seat
passengers for running over a bunch of crabs on the road as they were crossing,
obviously on a pilgrimage of some sort.
Our first stop was at Diver’s World. Dick and Zane wanted to get a red filter for
their Go Pro and Kati did some souvenir shopping. After we got done shopping we made our way to
today’s dive site at Dive Tec. Just
about the time we arrived there it started to pour rain. We had decided we were all hungry so we would
eat lunch there first before our dive.
They have a very nice restaurant there where they serve very healthy
organic and locally grown food selections.
Right after we got set down to order it really started to
pour rain. It rained so hard you could
barely see past the end of their dock.
Zane ordered a milkshake and the rest of us ordered smoothies and I
think everyone would agree with me that those were the best smoothies
ever. Dick ended up ordering two and
Eric had another one after the dive as well.
The food was amazing. Eric had
the chicken Panini and Kati had the chicken wrap, of which Zane ordered another
after the dive. Kati’s wrap came with
sweet potato fries and Kati and I agreed those were the best sweet potato fries
we have ever had anywhere. They were so
good we got two orders to go as well.
Dick had the grilled cheese sandwich, which was very good (including the
weeds) and I had a very tasty falafel salad, which was super good.
After we got done with lunch we got all geared up to dive
in. We each did our giant stride off the
pier and headed out to find the 17 ft. tall statue there (similar to the
Mermaid at Sunset House) called the Guardian.
After we found the Guardian we headed along the mini wall and came
across a large green turtle. Right after
we turned around and started to head back in Eric and Zane came across a small
hawksbill turtle who was very cooperative.
Eric filmed it a little bit and then I spent quite some time filming it.
After our dive we got all our gear rinsed off and packed the
car back up in order to head back to the condo.
We wanted to make sure we got back before the rush hour hit as we had
made reservations at Casanova by the Sea for dinner to celebrate Dick and Lou’s
54th wedding anniversary.
We made it back to the condo ahead of rush hour and we all
got cleaned up for our special night out.
As there were six of us, we took two cars to go back downtown. We then regrouped at the restaurant. When we made our reservation we had asked to
be seated out on the patio as it is right over the water and has a wonderful
view of the sunset and the tarpon feeding next door at Rackam’s.
Shortly after we sat down and ordered our meals, the harpist
came over and played a beautiful song for Dick and Lou to celebrate their
anniversary. We all picked a meal that
included some type of pasta and everyone very much enjoyed their choices. The food at Casanova’s is very good authentic
Italian. We had some really good bruschetta,
bread, and wine along with our amazing meals.
The clouds also cleared just enough for us to enjoy a lovely
sunset. After the sun had gone down,
around 7:30, they had the tarpon feeding next door at Rackam’s. I don’t believe it was as dramatic as Zane
was expecting. Little did he know that a
short time later the waiter at Casanova’s would bring out a tray of fish parts
and let him and a few of the other customers feed the tarpon that were hanging
around right in front of the restaurant.
Following the fish feeding, we all ordered our
desserts. Kati, Dick, and Zane ordered
the Apple strudel, Eric and I ordered the chocolate cake (of course), and Lou
ordered the lemon sorbet. Needless to
say, all our choices were amazing.
Following dessert they also brought us complimentary lemoncello. Following our wonderful meal, we all waddled
out to the car (each with our box of leftovers for the next day) and drove back
to the condo fat and contented.
I think after we got back to the condo everyone was pretty
tired so we all headed off to bed.
Today was our last full day on Grand Cayman and our last day
of diving. We headed out a little after
9 a.m. in order to avoid the morning rush hour and made our way to Sunset
House. When we arrived we got the
premium parking spot right by the dive shop and set-up point. I think there was only one other car in the
entire parking lot at that time.
We got checked in, rented our tanks, got everything set up,
and jumped in the water. Of course by
now we are all finally pretty good at the setting up and getting in routine
(now that it is time to leave). On the
way to the dive site Kati, Eric, Zane, and Dick had decided they wanted to do a
“special underwater video.” They decided
they wanted to dance to the song YMCA underwater. Each one was assigned to do one of the
letters. We had decided we were going to
do this routine on the second dive, but about three fourths of the way through
the dive, after seeing the mermaid, Kati settled down in a sandy ravine and
broke out into dance.
I saw her and started video taping and shortly thereafter
Dick and the others spotted her and joined in.
It was rather comical to say the least.
After the comedy routine was over, we continued our dive. Toward the end of the dive, after Zane and
Dick had headed in, Kati spotted some squid.
I started video taping them and spent quite a bit of time with them as
they were VERY cooperative subjects.
After our dive we rinsed all our gear and laid it out on the
wall to dry as we had our lunch at the bar as Sunset House. Of course right after our food arrived, a
dark ominous cloud appeared and we had to run out and collect up our stuff to
put in the car before it got drenched again.
Following our lunch, we headed just a short way down the
road to our final dive site for this trip (which was also the first dive site
of this trip and one of Zane’s favorites), Eden Rock. When we arrived they were actually extremely
busy, especially considering there were no cruise ships in town today.
We got our tanks rented and geared up and dove in for our
final dive of the trip. There are
actually two dive sites at this location, Devil’s Grotto and Eden Rock. The first time we did Eden Rock, so this time
we did the Devil’s Grotto area. Shortly
after dropping down the group decided to do the second take of the YMCA song,
which was again very comical. Kati has
decided that Eric actually has some pretty good moves—at least underwater.
Following our YMCA production, we continued on with the
dive. Every time we have been to this
site we have seen something especially interesting and this time was no
exception. The highlight was a VERY
cooperative sting ray who had no issues with me filming it vacuuming the sandy
ocean floor for its dinner. We also saw
a couple very pretty filefish and a large group of blue tang foraging around
the reef for algae.
We all very much enjoyed this site as the last dive of our
trip. I think the Gebhard family will
have fond memories of this site for a very long time being that this was where
both Zane and I did our first ocean dives.
Following our dive, as we were checking out at the dive shop, we learned
some very sad and unfortunate news. Eden
Rock may not be around for much longer.
There are plans to destroy this entire reef in order to build a new
cruise ship terminal. This is another
example of the sheer stupidity displayed by some in the name of a few extra
dollars in their pockets. This reef is
truly and irreplaceable treasure.
After rinsing all our gear and packing up the car we headed
back to the condo. Luckily we were able
to make it back before evening rush hour.
We unloaded the car and set everything out on the back patio to dry out
so we could pack it all up the next day for the trip home. We didn’t have to worry about finding dinner
tonight as we all had our leftovers from Casanova by the Seat. As we all ate our dinner we enjoyed watching
the videos everyone had taken today, especially the two productions of the
underwater YMCA. It was a fabulous way
to end our last full day in Grand Cayman.
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