As much as I love the mountains, my grandpa and mom love the beach. From the time my mom and her brothers were young, they went to Galveston, every summer. Even when they were in high school, college, married, there was a guaranteed Galveston trip. The tradition continued as grandkids came. Every grandchild, from myself in 1994 to Ty in 2007, and each in between was given a ceremonial "first dip" in the Gulf by Wally Pop upon his or her first visit. It wasn't glamorous, and it was far from beautiful (unless you're a fan of waist-deep seaweed), but it was tradition.
Our family got bigger, summers got busier, and by the time I was 15, Galveston was no longer a sure thing. Time with all 15 of us was spent in Dallas or Telluride (neither a bad option) instead. But to celebrate Gammy and Wally Pop's 50th anniversary, nothing could've been more fitting than a beach trip. We glammed it up a bit from Galveston and Brad planned an incredible week in Grand Cayman for our entire family.
I missed out on the early week activities (due to being an intern is not glamorous in terms of vacation days) but there was stingray swimming, starfish holding, a party bus, and a boat ride with the 100% British captain, Martin. I got to join the crew on Thursday at the beautiful deckhouse complete with a private beach and daily iguana visits (that's a thing there, as is chickens randomly crossing the road...really).
Thursday night was an eventful dinner featuring a tree frog and something called a chocolate peanut butter bomb so honestly what more could you ask for out of a vacation. While we were waiting on dessert to be brought out, a frog plopped out of the tree and onto the middle of the table. *screams from the drama queens at the table.* When we had sufficiently petrified the poor thing it ended up in the bush next to the table. A waiter arrived a few minutes later and scooped it up into a napkin. He held it over the table jokingly, at which point it promptly hopped back out of the napkin and onto the table. *more screaming.* "The whole island knows there was a frog at this table. It will be in the paper tomorrow." -the amused waiter who was probably really grateful for his own family at that point because he's not part of ours. By the time we left the restaurant an hour later the entire wait staff knew us as the Frog Family. Never a dull moment.
On Friday morning we got everyone out the door to swim with the dolphins. We loaded up what looks like a 15-passenger-van from the outside but actually features party lights and a mixture of Whitney Houston and Hannah Montana music on the inside. Eugene, the driver, has likely changed careers after 4 days of driving our bunch.
We arrived at Dolphin Discovery and got a brief tour before putting on life jackets and being broken up into two groups to swim with the dolphins. Our 45 minutes included hugging and kissing one of the two dolphins in our part of the pool, petting them, dancing with one, and two tricks with the dolphin--the foot push where the dolphins literally pushed you into the air, and the dorsal ride where we got to grab onto the dorsal fins of each dolphin and be carried through the pool.
These animals are 400 lbs. but so friendly and gentle. I'd definitely put this up there with tree camping as far as coolest things I've ever done.
Having terrorized the dolphins, we walked across the street to leave our mark on some innocent sea turtles. I was shocked at how huge these things were. We learned all sorts of turtle knowledge from our lifeguard friend at the turtle petting station. The three little boys LOVED the wade and hold section of the conservation park and this turtle hated me:
We got to see the nursery where the baby sea turtles hatch and move their way up through sand to become little turtles. We learned that the turtles in the petting part are the hatchlings from last season, and graduate each year to a new tank until they're big enough to be put in the huge tank at the front of the park. The turtles were really very patient to be handled by so many people, and our turtle trainer taught us how to stroke their neck to make them calm down when they start doing this:
By this point we had 15 hungry people so we headed back to the house/hotel for lunch and naptime, the best part of any beach vacation. We had burgers and hot dogs at the house that night (with nothing near as eventful as the tree frog episode) and everyone crashed after a full day of island adventures.
Saturday and Sunday were beach days! Uncle Brad reserved two cabanas for those that didn't want to be in the sun, and those of us who previously looked like Casper laid out in rafts and chairs and actually (gasp) read a book. The 7 grandkids took a ride on the banana boat on Saturday afternoon which went something like this:
Saturday night we had a beautiful dinner on the beach as our official celebration dinner for Gammy & Wally Pop's 50th anniversary, complete with champagne and the best dessert I will ever eat.
Sunday got a later start, but was still a glorious beach day. Cole convinced me to try my hand at paddle boarding while Caroline kayaked. We'll just say that's not my gift.
Sunday night we were all sunburned and lazy, so pizza was the gourmet dinner choice as we packed up to head out on Monday.
You know what's fun? Traveling with 15 people. We got all checked in by family at the Cayman airport and just as we were getting in line for security, Caroline realized she had left her pillow on her bed at the deckhouse. Having turned in the key already, the only option was to have the concierge retrieve it and ship it, but when Dad got on the phone our BFF Adrian (the concierge) offered to bring it to the airport. Nothing says high maintenance like having your pillow hand delivered by the concierge of the Ritz Carlton to the airport door. Dad made all sorts of friends in immigration and security when he backtracked through both to meet Adrian at the door, but gosh darn it Caroline slept on her pillow that night.
Things went relatively smoothly until we got to Miami. I was flying to Houston from there, while the 14 of them got on a plane to Dallas. I swear to you the Miami Airport is all the reality TV in this nation thrown into one place.
I got all boarded and as soon as they had finished getting everyone on the plane it started thunderstorming. This was also right around the time the two children under 2 across the aisle from me got unhappy and needed to share their discomfort. For two hours we sat at the gate until the lightning stopped and the plane was finally cleared to take off. I landed in Houston 3 hours later, regretted my poor life decision to gate check my bag as I stood at baggage claim for another half hour, then finally got on the shuttle to get to my car, which broke down the second it pulled in the parking lot. Turns out leaving paradise really sucks. I finally made it home by 11pm, set off the alarm, which resulted in a call from the police, and was back at work Tuesday morning.
It was a quick week but a fun week in a beautiful place. The beach is a tradition in this family, and we were fortunate to get to spend time together in such a gorgeous setting. Even if we were the family with matching T-shirts and hats.
*Thanks to Holly and Mom for the pictures I didn't have to take :)
I missed out on the early week activities (due to being an intern is not glamorous in terms of vacation days) but there was stingray swimming, starfish holding, a party bus, and a boat ride with the 100% British captain, Martin. I got to join the crew on Thursday at the beautiful deckhouse complete with a private beach and daily iguana visits (that's a thing there, as is chickens randomly crossing the road...really).
Thursday night was an eventful dinner featuring a tree frog and something called a chocolate peanut butter bomb so honestly what more could you ask for out of a vacation. While we were waiting on dessert to be brought out, a frog plopped out of the tree and onto the middle of the table. *screams from the drama queens at the table.* When we had sufficiently petrified the poor thing it ended up in the bush next to the table. A waiter arrived a few minutes later and scooped it up into a napkin. He held it over the table jokingly, at which point it promptly hopped back out of the napkin and onto the table. *more screaming.* "The whole island knows there was a frog at this table. It will be in the paper tomorrow." -the amused waiter who was probably really grateful for his own family at that point because he's not part of ours. By the time we left the restaurant an hour later the entire wait staff knew us as the Frog Family. Never a dull moment.
On Friday morning we got everyone out the door to swim with the dolphins. We loaded up what looks like a 15-passenger-van from the outside but actually features party lights and a mixture of Whitney Houston and Hannah Montana music on the inside. Eugene, the driver, has likely changed careers after 4 days of driving our bunch.
We arrived at Dolphin Discovery and got a brief tour before putting on life jackets and being broken up into two groups to swim with the dolphins. Our 45 minutes included hugging and kissing one of the two dolphins in our part of the pool, petting them, dancing with one, and two tricks with the dolphin--the foot push where the dolphins literally pushed you into the air, and the dorsal ride where we got to grab onto the dorsal fins of each dolphin and be carried through the pool.
These animals are 400 lbs. but so friendly and gentle. I'd definitely put this up there with tree camping as far as coolest things I've ever done.
Having terrorized the dolphins, we walked across the street to leave our mark on some innocent sea turtles. I was shocked at how huge these things were. We learned all sorts of turtle knowledge from our lifeguard friend at the turtle petting station. The three little boys LOVED the wade and hold section of the conservation park and this turtle hated me:
We got to see the nursery where the baby sea turtles hatch and move their way up through sand to become little turtles. We learned that the turtles in the petting part are the hatchlings from last season, and graduate each year to a new tank until they're big enough to be put in the huge tank at the front of the park. The turtles were really very patient to be handled by so many people, and our turtle trainer taught us how to stroke their neck to make them calm down when they start doing this:
By this point we had 15 hungry people so we headed back to the house/hotel for lunch and naptime, the best part of any beach vacation. We had burgers and hot dogs at the house that night (with nothing near as eventful as the tree frog episode) and everyone crashed after a full day of island adventures.
Saturday and Sunday were beach days! Uncle Brad reserved two cabanas for those that didn't want to be in the sun, and those of us who previously looked like Casper laid out in rafts and chairs and actually (gasp) read a book. The 7 grandkids took a ride on the banana boat on Saturday afternoon which went something like this:
Saturday night we had a beautiful dinner on the beach as our official celebration dinner for Gammy & Wally Pop's 50th anniversary, complete with champagne and the best dessert I will ever eat.
Sunday got a later start, but was still a glorious beach day. Cole convinced me to try my hand at paddle boarding while Caroline kayaked. We'll just say that's not my gift.
You know what's fun? Traveling with 15 people. We got all checked in by family at the Cayman airport and just as we were getting in line for security, Caroline realized she had left her pillow on her bed at the deckhouse. Having turned in the key already, the only option was to have the concierge retrieve it and ship it, but when Dad got on the phone our BFF Adrian (the concierge) offered to bring it to the airport. Nothing says high maintenance like having your pillow hand delivered by the concierge of the Ritz Carlton to the airport door. Dad made all sorts of friends in immigration and security when he backtracked through both to meet Adrian at the door, but gosh darn it Caroline slept on her pillow that night.
Things went relatively smoothly until we got to Miami. I was flying to Houston from there, while the 14 of them got on a plane to Dallas. I swear to you the Miami Airport is all the reality TV in this nation thrown into one place.
I got all boarded and as soon as they had finished getting everyone on the plane it started thunderstorming. This was also right around the time the two children under 2 across the aisle from me got unhappy and needed to share their discomfort. For two hours we sat at the gate until the lightning stopped and the plane was finally cleared to take off. I landed in Houston 3 hours later, regretted my poor life decision to gate check my bag as I stood at baggage claim for another half hour, then finally got on the shuttle to get to my car, which broke down the second it pulled in the parking lot. Turns out leaving paradise really sucks. I finally made it home by 11pm, set off the alarm, which resulted in a call from the police, and was back at work Tuesday morning.
It was a quick week but a fun week in a beautiful place. The beach is a tradition in this family, and we were fortunate to get to spend time together in such a gorgeous setting. Even if we were the family with matching T-shirts and hats.
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