When we woke up on Monday, we decided to break tradition & do other things besides sitting in the sun all day. Most mornings we woke up & went to the gym or went for a run, but this morning we waited for the girls to get up & we all played pickleball:
This was the first time Bryan & I had played but apparently the girls played at Sky Ranch. We had fun but it was hot out there:
After breakfast the girls played chess with Bryan while I went to get ready & pack us up for the day:
We ended up renting a rental car at the last minute so we decided to explore the island! First stop, Long Bay Beach so we could watch the kite surfers:
Apparently this is one of the best places in the world to kite surf. We are staying on Grace Bay, which is the Caribbean Sea ( I think) & this is the opposite side of the island with a different ocean & unfortunately it had a lot of seaweed. Thank goodness we didn't have any on our side! It was only at the shore though so it didn't stop the surfers:
From here, we drove farther away to show the girls Chalk Sound. We came here years ago & knew it wasn't far & what it looked like, but unfortunately Waze took us on a major detour. Literally, we drove for about an hour, not going very far, on a dirt road with some steep hills. We honestly didn't know if our rental car would make it! And there were no other cars around..... At one point we stopped for a moment so I couldn't help but jump out to take a picture to document this wild ride:
It ended up being worth it because we drove around Chalk Sound & eventually made our way to Taylor Bay, which ended being my favorite part of the entire trip! This bay is literally nestled amongst luxury villas & it took us a while to find it, but thankfully we saw a few cars parked on the side of the road & we found a small walkway between some houses which led us here:
It was amazing & the pictures do not nearly do it justice! There was maybe 10 people out there total so it felt deserted. There were absolutely no boats so the water was so calm. You could walk out farther than I ever have before & it never went deeper than my waist:
I mean seriously, I walked all the way out there with my phone and it was not in a wet case! This is the picture I took before I walked back to shore. There are no filters & no zoom - this is literally how far out I walked into the ocean!
We didn't stay there too long but I could totally go back! Next time I would bring beach chairs, a tent, a picnic & would be more prepared to stay for the day. Sadly we jumped back into the car & headed back towards Grace Bay. Bryan & Sadie wanted to stop in a few stores since they hadn't shopped yet & while we were out, we picked up a late lunch/early dinner & called it a day:
Tuesday morning we had another resort day. I have to mention that this is the first trip Sadie got up & exercised with Bryan & I. Not every single day, but probably every other day. She did a couple of days in the gym & a few runs outside with Bryan. I was really impressed:
After that, I have absolutely no pictures from our day until dinner. Ha! I must have really been enjoying the beach & the pool! Actually, I don't even have a picture from dinner, I have a picture of the girls playing games while we were eating ice cream after dinner. Go figure!
Wednesday was my favorite day because we woke up early to go on an excursion. We let the girls pick the boat so instead of going on a catamaran, they chose a power boat that had a slide on it. Of course!
We went to Marine National Park, which is the 3rd largest barrier reef in the world (behind Australia & Belize). I had no idea! And I have not fact checked, but that's what the captain told us?! Sadie brought her own fins & mask from diving so she just jumped right in off the side of the boat:
while Sophie preferred to walk down the stairs & enter slowly. Ha! I'm just so proud of her for going. She really took to it over spring break in Grand Cayman & now she snorkels like a pro!
We saw beautiful coral & fish. I didn't see much else because I stayed with Sophie the whole time but I believe Sadie saw an eel. A little girl who couldn't snorkel was feeding the fish doritos so we saw a ton of fish before we even got in the water:
Eventually Sophie warmed up to the ocean & was jumping off the side:
We sailed again, had drinks & snacks before our next stop:
This time we were at Iguana Island! It's really just a small, desolate island but supposedly there are a lot of iguanas there & we did see a few:
But the water was amazing! We didn't spent too much time exploring the island because we wanted to jump back in:
Lots of photos here and then the girls snorkeled again:
We sailed again, had lunch on the boat, then they stopped in the middle of the ocean for free time. You could snorkel, swim or try out the slide:
This is where it gets crazy........ We were having so much fun on the second deck sliding that we decided to jump off the second deck! I have so many videos because everyone had so much fun & I will say that Sadie was one of the first to do it out of everyone on the boat! It took a little convincing but we finally got Sophie to do it too:
Literally so much fun - in the middle of the ocean! Then we headed back to shore & they let the girls drive while Bryan & I relaxed down below:
When we got closer, I took a picture of our resort:
That's our resort on the left - the 3 smaller towers with the teal roof. The hotel next door is the new one I was talking about. Other that these 2, they are mostly smaller condos in the resort area.
After all that excitement, I will take a break. We don't have much left to share except for our last few days at the resort.........
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