the grand cayman islands :: caribbean.

Uh yeah, so i'd say the honeymoon was a whoppin' success. Luckily, with the bad timing with school starting, the zoo and I were still able to go on a week long honeymoon to one of my favorite places in the world. THE CARIBBEAN. especially after my cruise to the mexican riviera, which dont get me wrong, it was awesome and all, but it just enhanced my love even more for the Caribbean. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the architecture of the caribbean houses and buildings which to me, are a mixture of new orleans and charleston x 10 with a tropical twist. and you know those two places really tug at my heart strings. So zeke and I found a cheap flight which was evident through our 5 layovers from salt lake, to texas, to TWO stops in florida and finally, to Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

Now, I have never been to the Grand Cayman Islands. I've been to other islands in the Caribbean such as St. Thomas, St. John and St. Martin, but never to the grand cayman. And I loved it! I will say, I didn't like it as much as the other caribbean places I have been to, only because it was very urbanized. And the history was minimal. The island was more updated with great shopping and nice cars. Lots of new real estate. I loved the other islands because it felt as though they were more set in living the ways of their culture. Its what you imagine when you think of the Caribbean. Either way, how could i complain? It was the peak week of hurricane season and the resort was EMPTY because of it. With our luck, we had perfect weather the whole entire week. I think we just found the secret time to travel to the caribbean. The resort was great, it was right on the water and towards the end of the famous 7 mile beach, so it wasn't packed with tourists at all. The Marriott had awesome pool like floats about 50 yards into the water, which was bright turquoise and clear might I add. The floats were right in front of a reef in which we snorkeled through from time to time. That was our favorite past time, to bask in the sun on those pool floats, feed the fish , and snorkel. We did this just about every day.

Our favorite food was the cheapest kind and the most local caribbean you could get. Jamaican Jerk Chicken with cornbread, mac n'cheese and potatoes. we pounded that chicken like no other. and we never stopped craving it. We would get it from our two favorite local places : Chicken Chicken! and Seymours Jerk Chicken. Seymours was awesome because the caribbean women would hack that thing right at its neck and cook it and dish it over to us like it was nobody's business. then we sat at these picnic tables in the heat with a million flies swarming about us, but we didn't care because it was kind of a fun way of living. we tried to do all the nice fancy dinners, like at the ritz, but the food was too expensive, too gourmet and too small of portions. too fancy. it's just not adventurous or enjoyable. i'd rather go cheap, lots of food, local and traditional. thats our style. the one thing i did love, was the taste of the caribbean! rum cake! it is ALL over the island. Stocked like no other in the grocery stores. everyone there loves rum cake. so did the pirates. they had all sorts of flavors : coconut, chocolate, banana, you name it.

we lived in our bathing suits most of the time and had a joy ride in the buses with the locals. they'd ask us where we wanted to go and we'd respond, "not sure, we are wanting to kind of get lost today, so take us wherever." they'd just laugh hysterically. The people in the Grand Cayman are very friendly. I loved being around them. we spent one day in georgetown where we found this really neat store of ship wrecked treasures. they had a million gold coins found in ship wreaks and pirate ships that dated back before the louisiana purchase. i love that sort of stuff. it really intrigues me. hence, my serious titanic illness.

The only adventure we went on was to Stingray City & snorkeled in the reefs. Stingray city was truly an experience. I loved it. We took a catamaran out into the caribbean sea and anchored at a sand bank that was swarming with stingrays. strangely enough, I was more comfortable allowing a stingray to swim up into my arms and hold it, and kiss it (which gave zeke and i each 7 years of good luck) rather then having them swim around me and graze my legs. i was so paranoid their tails would sting me. which of course, they wouldn't but it was all in my head.

all in all. it was an adventure that i got to spend with the zoo and we had a grand ol' time. on the way back, we had a nightly lay over in miami which i was NOT complaining about. i LOVE miami. so much to do. South Beach is my kind of spot since it is known for its art deco architecture and its retro old hollywood regency style. so i was gobbling up every minute of it. especially since, the zoo let me finally witness with my real own eyes a hotel i have been drooling over for years. The Raleigh Hotel. I am sad I wasn't able to see it in the daylight because pictures didn't turn out the best, but man oh man did i fall in love. i'll post more of the raleigh later and give you a taste of the most miraculous jcrew store i have ever stepped foot it. but for now, here was our honeymoon. i hope you enjoyed our pictures! i sure wish we could go back to the caribbean soon. as i do dream of it all of the time. luckily to keep me sane, the zoo and i just ordered some of my favorite vintage travel posters for our living room in our home. two of them just so happen to be of the caribbean, just as how i envision it. oh happy day.

so long, and have a fabulous weekend my friends!