Option B

I guess if things don't work out with Andrew, I might have another option in India. Remember "The Boy"?
I got this email from him a few days ago...

Dear madam,

I am shashi shekhar speaking you know.

How are you mam and what are you doing now your all famely is fine mam when are you comeing my country so please tell me.

mam plz send me.reply now you know me or not and how is the mr.carl he is fine. I am Very...Very miss you mam.

Best wishes

Shashi

Day at Sea 2

We mostly just relaxed and did a few random things on our last day at sea - it was really fun.

We spent a lot of time here, watching Andrew.

The piano bar

The teen lounge

Andrew played on the championship dodgeball team.  I'm so proud!

Not sure why I ever thought ordering frog legs was a good idea.

Just to recap, the food we had throughout the week was fun (shark, alligator, frog, etc) and delicious (lobster, prime rib, fresh fruit, chocolate melting cake, pasta, and more)! Here is what it looked like when we got it. (Thanks to Amanda for taking all the pictures!)

  

  

  

Yes, they sliced our bananas for us. 

And of course, the meals were made even more enjoyable because of our staff:

Each night we also got the famous "towel animals" in our room. Amanda faithfully photographed ours, despite our inability to determine what some of them were. The boys' animals were definitely more identifiable.

All in all, it was a great trip. One of my favorite vacations, because of the awesome places and awesome people. We want to start planning a Mediterranean cruise next!

Grand Cayman

Andrew and I read online that the Cayman Islands are famous for snorkeling and shopping. We also had advice from a friend to do Sting Ray City so we chose a tour that had a stop at Sting Ray City and another snorkeling place, leaving us enough time to walk around downtown and shop.

Cayman is neat - it seems pretty Americanized (probably so all the rich Americans with houses there don't have to do without Subway and The Gap). The beaches, however, are beautiful, with soft white sand and gorgeous blue water. 

Sting Ray City was awesome! I just kept wishing Pete could be there, since rays are his favorite animals. It's basically a cove where sting rays started appearing and living because fisherman would dump their old fish there. Now, the rays are very tamed and just swim around all the time because the tourists feed them. We got to get in the waist-deep water with tons of rays that swam around and rubbed our legs and feet. Our tour guides caught several and let us hold them, kiss them, and get back massages. We also got to feed them tiny little squids, which they sucked out of our hands with massive force. The rays are amazing! The females are HUGE. All the rays have kind of a slippery velvety feel - their bottoms are kind of squishy and the tops are soft skin of bony backs. We also got to see their barbs. The water was really clear so we could see them all moving around. At first it was terrifying - I didn't want to move because I was afraid I'd step on a ray (they swim at the bottom) and right onto a barb, but it never happened :-)

After Sting Ray City we went to another snorkeling place which sadly didn't even compare to Roatan, where we were spoiled. It was still fun, though. The guides were a blast and at the last minute also decided to take us to a really neat starfish haven so we got to see some cool starfish. Andrew and I picked one up then dropped it back down and it landed on it's back. We then got to watch as it flipped itself over slowly - so cool!

We were all looking forward to the shopping but after a few minutes of wandering around realized that it was mostly Americanized stuff at higher-than-American prices. Not that exciting. But the walk around was definitely worth it when we ended with fresh coconuts!

Roatan - Snorkling Paradise!

We were so lucky in Roatan. My cousin, Devon, has lived in Roatan for the last 8 years or so. When he was 19, he decided to go on an extended trip. While in South America, many people told him to try Roatan and he did....and never left. He makes a living doing beautiful photography (Check this out), and we were lucky enough to have him send us a few shots!

We arrived at 6am local time, but Devon and his girlfriend Diana (who is just lovely!!) were troopers and woke up early to come pick all of us up. We stopped at West Beach and played around in the water and then   Devon's friend, Artly, came and took us out in his boat. We spent most of the rest of the day snorkling in an awesome reef and around a sunken submarine. Then on our boatride home, Artly took us to a dolphin show his friend runs. It was an AMAZING day - I think my favorite spot, because it was so beautiful, our "excursion" was so fun, and we spent the day with great people! Thanks, Devon!!

Snorkeling pictures. (Note, there are tons of pictures below. It was so hard to decide which ones to put in because they're all amazing!)