Stingray Swim

We finally got the pictures back from the underwater cameras we took on our cruise, so I thought I'd post a few!  These were all taken in the Cayman Islands when we got to swim with the stingrays!  I must say that it was a bit scary at first (notice me & Leslie in the first picture with serious faces & about to hang on to eachother for dear life), these huge stingrays swimming at your feet, just after the guides warned us not to step on their backs or they may strike us with their barb).  But once we got into the swing of things, it was pretty amazing.

We caught a catamaran boat on the Cayman Islands which took us for a 30-45 minute ride out into the ocean where we anchored with 5-6 other boats filled with people doing the exact same thing we were doing.  It was pretty amazing -- there was this shallow sand bar in the middle of the ocean & so we all just jumped off the boat & could walk around with the stingrays!  The wind & waves were pretty rough that day, so that was my only beef about the excursion -- I wish the waves would have been more tame so I could've enjoyed snorkeling in the ocean more.

Nonetheless, getting to snorkel & view these amazing creatures underwater was spectacular!  We did manage to snap a few good pictures (it was SO hard to get good pictures with our underwater cameras!), and I only flipped out once after I stepped on the back of a stingray (which we were warned about), then managed to get salt water in my eyes while trying to get OFF of the stingray's back.  
At the end of the excursion, Justin & I tried our hardest to get a good picture together underwater.  This one & the last one below is the best we could do...
And here's a good one we snapped of Brian & Leslie above the water...
Goodbye, Cayman Islands....we truly do miss you!!!  :)