Darcie, David, and Big Mac: Grand Cayman (FINALLY!)

In an effort to limit the HOURS I'll need to spend loading pictures, you can see them all over here. (Click on the colored font, Grandma)

So, as you've probably gathered from the guilt ooozing through the rest of my posts, we went to Grand Cayman over New Year's to celebrate Kyle's (my big brother's) 30th birthday.

Crap, that means 30 is coming for me too. NO!

Anyway, David and I arrived first and enjoyed some drinks with sparklers in them.

And took the first photograph (of hundreds) of a lizard/iguana/whatever scaly thing they were. They were everywhere, people. And every single time I saw one, I wanted to take a picture. Kind of like paparazzi. Only with less of a pay-off for the photos.

The rest of the family arrived, and we proceeded to do some drinking. Until Cher fell asleep on the floor. She's such a trooper!

The next day, we lazed around the beach for a while and then decided to go see Hell. Turns out, Grand Cayman has a place called Hell where you can "See rock formations and mail a postcard."

Hell was, um, a little less than thrilling.

Turns out, it was a view of some rock formations (that took about 15 seconds to fully appreciate) and a really crappy store.

Luckily, though, there were some creepy devil things. So we got that.

After that, we went down to the shopping center. I took some pictures with things, because that's how I roll.

Even David got in on the fun! Yay Senior Frogs!

That day was also Kyle's OFFICIAL birthday...so we went out to a SUPER-DOOPER FANCY dinner.

Goodness, gracious, that was a yummy dinner. They even feed fish near us!

The next day, we went to the turtle farm. IT WAS AMAZING! First we got to go snorkeling in their pond and then we moved on to turtles. I have never seen so many turtles in my life!

Big ones!

Medium ones!

Yes, we were allowed to pick them up....just the nice ones :)

And little guys (David didn't want to touch them... out came the net)!

They also had a bird flight cage...and those birds loved on you for some food.

(Yes, not a flattering picture, I know. It was vacation!)

Cher is panicking in the background of this picture. Apparently, birds and Cher do not mix.

Check out the bird keeper in the background. He LOVED these birds.

Being that it was New Year's Eve, I decided to dress up and make people take my picture.

Woo-hoo fancy outfit!

We celebrated 2010 on the beach, watching fireworks. It was heavenly...and the bed felt so nice when I finally went to sleep. Staying up until midnight was TOUGH for me. I'm so old!

The next day, we went to STING RAY CITY!

This was, without a doubt, my most favorite part of the vacation.

We took a boat out to this sand bar in the middle of the ocean where sting rays congregate.

Our guide showed us how to feed them pieces of squid out of out hands. These sting rays were HUGE. And, like the birds the day before, they were not at all afraid to beg for the food they wanted.

I even got bit by a sting ray on my upper thigh. (Steve Irwin got stung, not bit, fyi) It left this hickey-type mark about the size of my fist. Since sting rays don't have teeth, it didn't break the skin or hurt very much. However, it freaked me out so bad that I screamed and shoved (punched? maybe) the sting ray before swimming ungracefully away. I'm lucky I didn't get stung! Stupid!

We also went snorkeling in a few coral reef spots. It was beautiful. Best day ever.

At dinner that night, we used Dad's tripod to take a picture of the group without harassing our sassy waitress.

This restaurant was called Fidel Murphy's. We were all surprised that the food was awesome.

David was pleased by the massive size of his fish and chips meal. Seriously! Check that out!

The next day, we headed to the Botanical Park.

Big IGUANA!

Oh wait, it's a statue.

Hey, would someone take my picture next to some flowers?

Thanks.

I took a TON of pictures of flowers, for some reason. You only get to see one.

Some posing in front of a pond...

And then forcing the parents to pose too. Aren't they darling?

This sucker was so big and blue!

And this is as close as I was willing to go...I don't know how they attack, but I don't want to find out!

Look! This flower weed is called Darcy! YES!

After we left the botanical gardens, we were unable to find a direct bus...so, someone that worked there drove us to a bus stop. Cher and I sat in the back storage portion of a blazer.

It was totally safe.

Luckily, the bus stop was right by a pier. PICTURE TIME!