Honeymoon Recap - Part 3

I'm finally on to the 3rd and last portion of our honeymoon recap! Our next stop was in Limon, Costa Rica!

Of course I had to take a picture of the view from our balcony as we were docked.

For our Costa Rican adventure we decided to go on a ziplining excursion through the rain forest. It was so amazing and I wish we could have gone longer. It lasted about an hour and we went on 12 lines but it felt like it went by quickly. Here are some snapshots from the excursion.

After our excursion we headed back to port and decided to stop by the shops to buy some souvenirs. We ended up buying coffee and a few other trinkets and then headed back to the ship for some time to relax before dinner. I was able to snap one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip. I thought the colors of the sunset were spectacular

As the evening got darker we were able to see some amazing lightning storms in the distance as well! It was very relaxing sailing away from port and watching the storm in the distance.

Final Stop - Grand Cayman Islands

Our final stop was at the Grand Cayman Islands! Oh my goodness it was absolutely gorgeous! I have never seen water so beautiful. Branden and I decided to do a highlights tour of the island which included going to Stingray Sandbar and swimming with the stingrays. First, however, we toured the tiny island.

Our first stop was in Hell

Our next stop was at the Tortuga Rum Factory but there wasn't really anything to take pictures of. We almost bought some rum but ended up purchasing some rum cakes and hot sauces.

Then we were off to the Turtle Farm!

 We even got to hold some baby turtles!

Our final stop on our tour was at Stingray City, which was what we were both looking forward to the most. I learned about Stingray City for the first time when this photo went viral:

Needless to say we were both excited when we realized our cruise stopped in the Cayman Islands, where Stingray City is located.

We went for about a 30 minute boat ride which took us out to the sandbar where the stingrays are located. Once we arrived at the sandbar the stingrays immediately started congregating near out boat. The guide told us the stingrays always go to the newly arriving boats because they know that they bring food.

I didn't think I would get too nervous because the stings are removed from almost all of them around but once I got in the water and they were swarming around us I freaked out a little! Eventually
I calmed down when there weren't so many around and was able to swim around and take pictures. We both were able to hold a stingray as well as kiss it and get a massage! It was such a weird feeling but really neat. Unfortunately we were too cheap to buy the photos they took but here are quite a few we took with our own cameras. Sorry for the bad quality! We took the photos with the disposable waterproof cameras you can buy at the drug store!

 One of the other people on our tour holding the stingray

 This is probably my favorite underwater photo of the stingrays

We had such a fun time on our tour but were starving when we were finished, so we headed over to Margaritaville at the port and got a late lunch. Our tour guide had told us conch was a popular food on the islands so we ordered some conch which actually tasted really good.

After we ate we headed back to the ship for our final journey back to Ft. Lauderdale. We did snap some pictures from the ship before we left though!

One of our favorite activities during our sea days was participating in the trivia sessions. We went almost every day, twice a day and played with the same group of people. We never really had a chance to win because some of the groups had so much knowledge, but we still had so much fun. However, our group was able to talk the crew into doing a sports trivia session so when they scheduled it for our last day at sea we were all thrilled. We knew we had done well but weren't sure if we would win. Well, when the scores were in...WE WON! We were all excited and decided it was worthy of a picture.

Dwight, Joanne, Pat, and Paul were great partners throughout our trip and we were very lucky to have met them!

Unfortunately the honeymoon had to come to an end. We finally reached Ft. Lauderdale, caught our flights, and made it home. We had such an amazing time exploring new things and spending time with either other with no distractions. I know I can't wait for our next big vacation, but in the meantime, we will continue to enjoy just being newlyweds and finally living in the same location :-).