Before I start, I have to give major kudos to my parents. They kept the boys for a week for us so we could go on this trip. They have given us an invaluable gift of being able to get away and not worry about the boys. They take such good care of the boys and we know they are always happy and well taken care of so while we miss them, we never worry about them. I know most people are not so fortunate to be able to leave their kids for a week and not worry about them and we are SO thankful for my amazing parents! Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!
We left Monday around noon and got into Grand Cayman around 4. We were staying at the Ritz Carlton- so fancy!!! After we checked in, we went to the hospitality room where all the Lexus reps were. They gave us sun hats, flip flops, and I got a cover up and Stephen got a bathing suit. It was so nice!
We went to our room and unpacked and just relaxed for a while and then got ready for dinner. Here was the view from our room. We also got a beach bag loaded with sunscreen and after sun lotions. We were shocked at everything they were giving us, as if a trip to the Grand Caymans and staying at the Ritz Carlton wasn't enough!!
Dinner was supposed to be on the beach, but it was looking like it was going to rain so they moved it to a balcony area where we could easily go inside if needed.
Dinner was amazing! Wonderful food, open bar, fresh coconuts that they split open right in front you to drink the coconut water. It was wonderful!
This is Reese talking just before dinner. He is the Lexus rep for the Southwest region and was so nice. He made us feel so special all week.
One thing that was so nice and you hear very, very few people say is how important the spouse are. On several occasions, Reese made sure the spouses knew that this trip was for them as well. The car business is hard on families and marriages and we do sacrifice a lot and it was nice to be recognized and feel important.
Tuesday morning we got up and had a wonderful breakfast and then met the group to head to Stingray Island. Stingray Island is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where stingrays gather. Many, many years ago (like 40-50, I forget), the fishermen started coming to this spot and throwing out their scraps for the stingrays. Eventually they got in the water with them and would pet them so the stingrays that come here are used to humans touching and feeding them so they are of no threat to us.
Here was the boat we rode on. We enjoyed sitting on the canopies in the front.
Stephen and I were not so sure about this but went with an open mind. We figured if we got there and didn't want to do it, we would just stay on the boat.
Once we got there, everyone was pressuring us to get in the water and while there were quite a few stingrays, it didn't seem as bad as I was thinking so we got in.
The guides would help people hold the stingrays like this.
No thank you! There is no way I was holding or even touching a stingray. I was also freaked out at the thought of them swimming by and grazing my leg, so most of my time in the water was spent surveying the area around me to make sure none were coming up on me.
Lexus sent us a GoPro before our trip and I got so many great pictures with it. I would just hold the camera under the water and snap away while making sure none of them touched me- ha!
I can't believe I got this picture. This thing is swimming right at me! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
We had been in for quite some time and things were going ok. There were a few close calls where I had to quickly move so one would not touch me, but it was ok. Then all of the sudden there were stingrays everywhere. They were surrounding me and I completely freaked out. I just had to get back on the boat.
Come to find out, our guides started feeding the stingrays which made them ALL in the area come over to us. So instead of them all just leisurely swimming in this entire area, they were ALL coming straight at us to get the food.
I was much happier on the boat just watching everything. I enjoy looking at animals but I don't need to touch them.
Just looking at the below pictures gives me the creeps and I can't believe I was actually standing out there.
After an hour at Stingray Island, we went to some coral to snorkel. Now snorkeling is my thing! I love to snorkel!
Our attempt at a snorkel selfie.
FAIL!!!
Double fail- haha!!
There really wasn't a ton to look at, but it was still fun.
The guy you see in the below picture is a professional photographer who accompanied us at all group events taking pictures of us. We got a really nice book at the end of our trip with the pictures he took of us and we are supposed to be able to download the digital copies of all of the pictures. I am still waiting on that and will do a separate blog post with those once we get them. He got some really great pictures of us!
After snorkeling, we had a wonderful lunch on the boat and then went back to the resort.
When we got back to the resort they had cabanas and volleyball set up for us. It was so nice. We had fruit and light snacks and could order any drinks we wanted. The guys played volleyball and we just hung out and watched.
This is the famous Ritz Carlton Pina Colada. It was SO good!!!!
You have to mix the pina colada up or else you will get a straight shot of rum!
We went back to the room and cleaned up and then met everyone for dinner. We met in the chefs display kitchen for appetizers and drinks.
The food was SO good and it was neat to watch them prepare everything.
Then we headed down to the docks to get on boats to take us to dinner.
We had dinner in an area called Camana Bay. It was a neat area with shopping and restaurants and offices on top. We sat right next to the water and had a lovely dinner.
We got back to the hotel pretty late and when we walked in this was in our foyer area. Chocolates!
There was a note that said to go look on our balcony for another surprise and here is what we found.
Champagne!
We were EXHAUSTED so we put the champagne in the refrigerator and went to bed- haha!!!
Here is a picture of two of the notes they sent us. Everything they did was first class and so nice!
Wednesday we had a choice of four different activities. Stephen chose golf and I chose day of leisure. I made my way down to the beach that morning and just relaxed. You can barely see them in this photo, but there is a yellow ring out in the water that is a mesh float. It was amazing! After sitting on the beach for about an hour, I swam out there and stayed there for the next two and a half hours when Stephen surprised me and swam out to me.
Stephen took this picture on the golf course. He had a good time!
They had the cabanas, beach chairs, and volleyball set up so we headed over there. I enjoyed a few more pina coladas and we just hung out until the guys finally had enough people to play a few rounds of volleyball.
We got cleaned up and headed to the going away dinner by the pool. The Lexus event was over on Thursday and everyone else was flying home Thursday morning so this was our last Lexus event. We were so glad we were staying until Sunday!
Dinner was once again amazing! Shrimp, filet, lobster! All of the food we ate in the Caymans was wonderful!
They had tables set up in the water and while we did not eat dinner there we ventured over there after dinner to just hang out and chat with people.
After dinner a group of us went to the other pool to hang out some more. It was a late night! When we got back to our room that night they had a Bose speaker for Stephen and a Tory Burch bracelet for me. More gifts!?!?!?! We were shocked! Reese also wrote us a really nice note. Everyone made us feel so special and appreciated this week. It was definitely an unbelievable trip and we have been spoiled rotten!
Thursday, someone (hint, it wasn't me!) woke up not feeling the best. He (opps guess that gave it away- ha!) may have had a little too much to drink the night before! We slept in and just hung out in our room that morning and then ventured out to the pool.
We hung out for a while and then had massages scheduled. This was also something Lexus gave us and instead of trying to fit in the other days since they were already so busy, we got ours on Thursday. The spa was so nice and had saunas, a hot tub, tea and champagne, fruit, etc. The massage was great! Stephen had never had one and was a little apprehensive, but he enjoyed it.
I wanted to go parasailing, so we headed down to the beach only to find out they had already quit for the day. So we spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach.
Then we headed into the water to lounge in the floats.
This is his, "are you seriously taking my picture right now" face. Haha! He was so annoyed with me and my pictures. That is our hotel behind him.
I asked him to take a picture of me and this is what I got.
Thanks babe!
As amazing as those pictures were, I resorted to taking a selfie.
Then asked him to take one more of me and finally got one in focus.
We floated the afternoon away. It was heaven!!!!
 |
That night we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in our hotel. We had calamari, truffle fries, and pizza. It was all SO good! This was our view from dinner. We overlooked the docks were we left from the other night.
Friday morning we ordered room service and had breakfast in our room. Oh my goodness it was so good!
I had coconut pancakes that were unbelievable!!!!
Stephen thought these tiny ketchup and tobacco bottles were so funny so he took a picture of them. I mean, really, he takes a picture of this, but can't take an in focus picture of me floating in the ocean!!!
After breakfast we headed to the beach. We made an appointment to go parasailing at 1:30 so we spent the morning laying on the beach just relaxing.
The beach chairs are the Ritz were amazing! The attendants would put a terry cloth cover on it for you and fix your shade. You could adjust this shade so that you could sit in this char and literally never have the sun on you. They were awesome! They also had a little flag on top that you put up if you wanted to order food or drinks.
At 1:30, we set out parasailing. Stephen went first.
The driver asked me if he should dip him and I said sure. Then Stephen motioned that he did not want to be dipped I relayed this message to the driver, but he said it was too late (it wasn't) and practically drug him through the water.
My turn!
I got some amazing pictures and video on the GoPo!
The different shades of water was so neat to look at.
It was pretty windy up there are and a few times I got a little scared. In the video clips I took with the GoPro I was actually giving myself pep talks saying "it's ok, don't worry". I don't remember doing that, so it was funny to hear. But I do remember being a little scared at times which I have never been before when parasailing.
This picture shows how the colors of the water change. It was so pretty up there and I was trying my best to just focus on the beautiful scenery.
We had lunch on the patio once we got back and just relaxed in the water the rest of the afternoon. Such a rough day- ha!
Stephen had to literally drag me out of the water. I truly think I could live in the water, it is just so relaxing!
We wanted to venture out of our hotel for dinner and got a recommendation for a hole in the wall restaurant not far from our hotel. We walked over to the Sunshine Grill and had a wonderful dinner! We were told it would be a 45 minute wait, so we grabbed a drink and hung out by the pool.
This margarita was unbelievable! So, so good, but very, very strong! We ended up only waiting about 20 minutes.
One thing we did not know about Grand Cayman is that they are known for their amazing food. Anytime we were talking to anyone about restaurants they would mention the rank of the chef or that they won an award for a certain dish, etc. The Sunshine Grill won awards for their burger and fish tacos. We both went for the burger and it was very good and after a week of fancy food, it was exactly what we wanted.
Friday night when we got back to our hotel we had a note telling us that there was the Caymans Flower Swim the next day and it started at our hotel and part of the beach at our hotel would be closed starting at 1. I was disappointed since it was our last day. I had also seen them taking in the floats so I was really sad I wasn't going to be able to float the day away in the ocean as I had planned.
Saturday morning we woke up to clouds again. The entire trip was very cloudy and there were a few rain showers every now and then. The sun would peak through occasionally, but for the majority of the trip, it was pretty cloudy. We were told that this part of the year is very hot normally and is actually their slow season because of that, so we were actually thankful for the clouds.
We headed down to the beach early only to find that the entire first row of chars had been taken. Everyone was getting there early to get a view of the swim that was happening later.
I decided to snorkel some since I couldn't float.
So much to see!
Haha! Or not! There was really nothing to see unless I wanted to go really far out, but I was scared to do that by myself and Stephen was too busy working (we got wifi on the beach) to get in the water with me.
So I just took pictures of myself since there were no fish to see.
The sand was really neat though the way it rippled.
I snorkeled and just floated (without my beloved float) for most of the morning. Then we had lunch on the beach and I had one last pina colada. They were SO good!
Then it was time for the swim! It was a one mile swim and there were all ages swimming and some olympic swimmers.
I got an awesome view of the staring line.
I think my mom and I should train for this and swim in it next year!
We just watched them take off and swim a little and then headed to the pool. We spent a few hours in the pool and then went up and changed for dinner. We wanted something easy, so we decided to head back to the Sunshine Grill. We wanted to try something else, it was a short walk from our hotel, and very reasonably priced.
The restaurant is located in the Sunshine Suites around their community pool. It started out as their pool grill and then the manager started learning some great recipes and by word of mouth the restaurant became incredibly popular.
There was a short wait when we got there so we played this game for a little bit. You swing the ring and try to hook it on the hook.
I got the shrimp tacos this night and they were SO good! I wish I could eat these again!
Stephen went for the chicken tenders which were actually really good as well. We did not eat one bad thing on this entire trip. Everything was just incredible!
Stephen snapped this picture as we walked back to our hotel. It is one of the smaller entrances. Our hotel was huge with a lot of different entrances.
Sunday morning we packed our bags and headed down for breakfast. We had an awesome breakfast buffet and sufficiently stuffed ourselves (which was good since we had a long travel day nd didn't eat again until 7pm!) and then took one last picture before heading to the airport.
This was truly an amazing trip and we were so blessed to be able to get away and relax and reconnect. We get such little one on one time, so spending 7 days with my husband is a huge treat! But we were so ready to be home and see our boys.
One last thing. When we checked into the hotel on Monday, Stephen had a message at the front desk to call his boss. He called him and he was told to call the Regional Vice President. We knew that this meant he was getting a GM job. Once we got to our room, he called the RVP who confirmed that he was being promoted to a General Manager and it was in Houston!!!! So exciting! We were thinking we may have to move so being able to stay in Houston is huge! Stephen is now the GM of Sterling McCall Hyundai. It is a small store, but I know he will do amazing and this is just a starting point for him. He makes me so proud! It is really incredible to think about how much he has grown in the past 10 years. I am so proud of you Stephen! Thank you for working so hard for our family!
So that wraps up our trip recap. I am also making a video with all of the clips I took on the GoPro, which is going to be really neat, but it is time consuming, so give me a few months- haha!!
