Cruising in the Caymans - Day 4

When booking our cruise, I was silly with excitement to learn that the first port of call was to Georgetown, Grand Cayman Islands. This was the first country I visited as a child, the first time I was out of the country, and what possibly sparked my love and excitement for international travel. 

Bear with me, as with this being our first port, the girls FIRST time off the US mainland...AND the themed Pirate Night back on the ship, this post will be picture heavy. I just can't help myself. ;)

Below, Elliana is displaying we are finally off the ship and onto dry land. Beautiful, sunny and 80+ degree dry land. In January. Life can't get much better than this!

With over 50,000 residents, Grand Cayman is approximately 76 square miles. On our day at port, I counted five massive cruise ships docked at our wharf, though not once did I feel the island was crowded or overpopulated. People quickly dispersed to the world-known beaches, the famous Sting-Ray city and scuba adventures. We chose to browse the up-scale shopping instead as our girls are too young just now to join us in our passion for SCUBA and underwater activities. 

 We quickly found a local craft market, where Elliana and I browsed the jewelry and local crafts. Elli quickly fell in love with a handcrafted wooden turtle which now sits proudly in her room.

Once we left the main drag of Louis Vitton, Rolex and other high end retail stores, we came across several native lizards. Elliana was enthralled and chased them only to wave "hi" to them and see how fast they can run. In the photo below,you can see the lizard in the far left side of the photo and Elliana waving hello on the far right. That is about as close together as they actually got ;) 

Maya was cool to chill in her stroller or cuddle up next to Mommy or Daddy while we all browsed and explored the island. Here she is gnawing on some beads a local Caymanian gave her. Something new to chew on made this munchkin's day :)

Back on the tender boat, we marveled at the many blues the ocean contained, the school of fish that swam right next to the boat and planned out the rest of our day. 

Back on the boat, we enjoyed a crowd free pool, swimming and a movie on the top deck while we ate lunch. Maya was LOVING being out of the stroller, and just crawling around the empty deck. We all swam and splashed in the infant splash ground. Unlike Elliana...Maya LOVES getting her face wet. She repeatedly stuck her whole face directly in the faucet. Silly girl. :) 

After naps, we all had fun at Pirate Night where we dressed the part. Even Daddy, despite his wishes, dressed as a pirate and gave lots of pirate sneers. What a good man! 

We capped off the day with our towel monkey and our pirate princess posing with it. What a terrific day!