A Tuna Christmas

Did anyone go to this show when it came to Seattle and Portland? I've seen it live a few times, and we used to watch the VHS tape (!!)  every Christmas Eve. Two actors play 20 some parts surrounding a Christmas yard display contest in the tiny town of Tuna. One of our favorite lines is from Petey Fisk, animal lover, who says, after adopting a coyote "You just give nature some space and it won't try to kill you!" He's all bandaged up from said coyote, so it's particularly funny. And appropriate for today, as our adventuring took us to Stingray City in Grand Cayman. 

Originally we had planned to go snorkeling, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get myself back on a catamaran (I LOVE catamarans), and so we sort of begrudgingly booked this excursion. Honestly, it seemed so...obnoxious - the pictures showed so many people in the water... Cruising at its worst?  But we went! I will happily be wrong often when the results are such a great day!

Stingray City is in the North Sound off Grand Cayman Island. It's in a natural channel between two barrier reefs. Because of the reef, the water is relatively shallow. At Stingray City it is 3-5 feet deep; elsewhere in the area it's only as deep as 25 feet. Stingray City is only accessible by licensed charters, but there are plenty of them! There were around 20 boats of varying size in our circle. So many people!

But look at the water! Doesn't it look like a pool? It was beautiful and clear, and pretty warm. Not to mention that the sun was shining!!

Yes, there were stingrays. And you could hold them, feed them, take a picture with them... They come to the area because they are fed, and apparently don't mind being celebrities for awhile. One of them wrapped its loooooong tail around my ankle in the first several minutes, and I was pretty much done after that! I kept one eye peeled for their shadows, and then we just bobbed around the ocean for the rest of the time. I didn't want to hold one, or touch the squid mixture that was available, but it was pretty cool that they were just swimming around; some of the females were truly huge! We love the ocean, in almost any form. But we don't bob around in our ocean, we just appreciate it. Being in this water was pretty magical! Oh! You know what else was magical? I got out of the water largely without incident. ;) 

Then we went to a shopping center before heading back to the boat. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to and had an amazing lunch. Truly, this was  the best food I have eaten in a very long while. We both had a shrimp dumpling appetizer and the shrimp ravioli. I can't imagine the situation where one of you is at the Camana Bay Shopping Center, but stop at Abacus if you are there!

And now we are Aruba bound! :)