grand cayмan Madeleine
When February comes each year, I’m thrilled to travel to Grand Cayman! Every February, my dad and his side of the family goes on a vacation to the Caribbean. The island we visit is Grand Cayman. The weather is extremely warm, which makes the day’s fun and entertaining.
In Grand Cayman, right as you make it there you feel welcomed and at home. The trip is just so consoling and relaxing. I’m always so stimulated every year to go back and be willing to take risks and try new things.
Sometimes, we’ll fly down together at 3:15AM on a breezy Saturday or Thursday morning. If not, the rest will leave before us and we’d go a couple or days after. As we land and get off to a magical paradise, Cole and Grampy cordial us as we get off the second plane. Noticing them on the small balcony is not that challenging since it’s an undersized airport.
The flight attendants escort us off the plane towards customs. When we arrive there, the officers guide us and make you wait in line until your turn is up. As we wait in the tortious line, we talk quietly amongst ourselves.
The officer then says “next,” and we walk towards him/her as we hand them our filled out immigration form.
They may ask us some questions. Some could indicate us being legal or illegal immigrants. Following that comes our bags at the carousel. The last step to depart from the airport is just making sure we have all of our belongings. A tough and strong man takes a quick glimpse for any sign of unusual behavior between customs and luggage gathering. Now we can finally go forth to our condo.
Then, our driver pulls up and loads the luggage into the car and drives off.
“Away to the beach we go!” I commonly express.
We stay at Casa Caribe, the best place in town according to us. As we arrive, we greet the housekeeper. Her name is Delorès, and she is a very kind and generous woman. In addition, she does a great job cleaning.
As we place down our luggage, we look out onto the beach and seeing the sun glistening on the calming ocean makes us know why we come here every year. We immediately search for a bathing suit and go swimming with our cousins. As soon as they see us they yell,
“C’mon look at what we made!”
We’re just so happy to see what they’re going to reveal at this time! My grandparents ask how the flight was.
“Mostly smooth, but at some points a little rough.”
We exclaim as we head towards the water.
At about 4 o’clock (every night), the parents gather around a stereo and have a glass or two of wine. They sometimes might include: carrots, hummus, pretzels, and lemonade for the kids. Since we are down at the ocean we stay in our bathing suits and horse around. After we have that evening snack, the family plays a game of either football or ghost. Both are very fun! The kids offer to the neighbors, on the beach, to join in the game and mostly they participate.
After we play around on the beach, we clean up and go inside to take a shower and get dressed. Our grandparents will either decide to go out to dinner or just order and pick up from Chicken Chicken or a Chinese restaurant. If we go out to dinner the only place we go is a nice restaurant on the beach called The Reef Grill.
“Dis is delishious,” I attempt to say with food in my mouth.
Every time we go to The Reef Grill, I order a steak fillet with french fries and a coke with a lime. It’s one of my favorite
meals! They prepare it so well which makes the experience of eating there five stars!
Last year they remolded the patio and deck where we usually eat. They renovated it so the front there’s now a pool that has flickering lights of various colors. The owners did that so guests can enjoy a drink while relaxing in the pool. In addition, the lights will set a mood for the outside seating arrangements and reflect on the bottom of the pool.
It is pretty much a tradition to go there every year. We sit at the same table since it can seat twenty and go mainly on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Sometimes we will even go three times on the vacation! It’s only one or two times because it costs about $1,250 each time! When all of us go, we walk along the beach since it’s not far from our apartment.
During the days, we go swimming, build sand castles, and play sports on the beach. For Hunter’s birthday we will do a big activity. In the past years we have gone swimming with dolphins, swimming with turtles, snorkeling in the sand bar, and last, visiting the stingrays at Sting Ray City. I find it very fascinating since it is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean and these wild stingrays don’t bite.
On 7-mile beach (which is the beach where the building sits) there is a country club and surf shop not too far from Casa Caribe. Red Sail Sports is where all the fun and games happen! It is an endless amount of fun! We go banana boating, shopping, parasailing, and last, jumping on the water trampoline! When we get back to Casa Caribe, Dusty will sometimes pick us up on his dive boat, and take us to a
calm spot in the ocean. We go about sixty feet under the clear, sky blue, waters.
“Its gorgeous down here!” I say with my hands.
You can take your mask off for a second but you can’t breathe in any water or else you might be in danger. Otherwise, if you keep it you must act it out instead of saying it. For me, it’s like charades! You could also just go:
“Uuhhmmmmm…”
Or tap them. I try to yell like that and my sister and cousin hear me since there’s nothing else that’s loud underwater.
After the endless amount of fun during the vacation in February, we can’t wait for the upcoming trip! When we leave this tropical paradise and go back to a cold winter wonderland, it’s depressing that we can’t just walk out our patio onto the hot sand and feel the nice, warm sun beating down on us. Grand Cayman you’re our home away from home!