Hello from the Hickmans!: March 2006

MIAMI and THE CRUISE

The view from our deck.

MIAMI HILTON
Here we are the night before the cruise!! We are so excited!!!!

Preston and I, along with two other couples we were with hired a boat to take us out snorkeling. It was great because it was just us and they let us jump off the top of the boat. One of the guys that works with Preston went on a Spanish speaking mission so we were well taken care of. The guy behind me kept trying to scare us with promises that we would see sharks. We didn't see sharks but we did get stung by invisible jellyfish or something like it.

GRAND CAYMAN

I was fascinated by this island because the only tropical places I have experienced outside of the US(Florida) has been Mexico or the Dominican Republic. I was very surprised to see colonial buildings and extremely clean streets. It was a wonderful change not to be attacked as you pass by a souvenir store. I wanted to go to the Museum but it was closed so the next best bet was to talk to the lady at the Museum gift shop. She was really nice and we learned as much as we could in the time we had there. The Cayman Islands are under the Queen which means they speak English and drive on the left side of the road! I loved this Island! I hope I get to come back some day! :)

GRAND CAYMAN - Pirates and Sting Rays

Here we are at STING RAY

CITY! It is a sandbar and the sting rays have been hand fed for years so they swim right up to the people. We aren't in the water yet but you can see my hat. :) I got to feed and kiss a sting ray. They say it is good luck to kiss a sting ray. (all of the dark spots n the water are sting rays) It was kind of scary but really cool!!! We also went snorkeling in a coral bed and I saw a whole bunch of the Dorie fish from Nemo! It was incredible! I have never seen so many colorful fish in my life!

This Island in particular had a lot of Pirate stuff to trap the tourists. We were told later by the lady at the museum gift shop, that they really do have a problem with pirates. She also made the comment that the pirates were the ones in the 3 piece suits during the day.

JAMAICA - getting ready for the canopy tour

I'm so excited!!!

The girls made it back from our adventure in watering the vegitation. All three were successful, dispite the man with a machetie, hacking at the vegitation about 15 feet away.