Today's Towel Animal: Gary the Gorilla!
Today's Fruity Drink: Midori Sour, Rum Punch, something called a Yellow Bird...and a whole mess of other free drinks they gave me at the loyalty reception
Today's Bottle of Wine: Brancott Sauvignon Blanc
Location: Grand Cayman, British West Indies
I know I've been really bad about keeping up on this little vacation series I've been doing so I'm going to attempt to finish it up quickly...because believe it or not, I have OTHER topics I want to blog about!
So as you might have picked up from my previous blog about Cozumel, shopping was a BIG part of our vacation. Believe it or not, this was absolutely not fueled by yours truly...shopping any place where any sort of bargaining is involved makes me severely uncomfortable. This is going to make buying a car hellacious for me someday...luckily the fiance excels at the art of the haggle. Shopping in the Caribbean, where pretty much all prices are negotiable, was a dream come true for him.
Carbo-loading...he's got to be able to carry all those bags
I mentioned that JP bought me a pair of Tanzanite earrings in Mexico...well we also purchased a loose Tanzanite stone that someday I will have set into a ring. TIP TIME: If you go to the Caribbean ASK ABOUT LOOSE STONES. You can get some truly sensational gems on the cheap that you can have your local jeweler set at home... you will save a metric SHIT ton of money. Anyways, we made off like bandits from Cozumel...until we realized that the jewelry store forgot to send our loose stone back to the ship with my earrings. I won't lie...we panicked...a LOT.
Caught: The Elusive Bargain Shark. Deals don't stand a chance!
HOWEVER, because theres a Diamonds International on like EVERY SINGLE ISLAND cruise ships ever stop at we were able to get a replacement (and LARGER...over a carat baby!) stone in Grand Cayman. As I basked in day dreams of the amazing ring I was going to have made (you know...when I have some spare money...in about 15 years) I realized that the lure of good deals had sucked JP in again. He was indeed shopping for MORE jewelry for his mom.
No Joke...I wanted to jump off the tender boat and swim to the pirate ship
I won't tell you what he bought...because Mama Walsh reads this blog from time to time...but suffice to say we spent at least another hour in DI, a good hour in another local jewelry store, and some substantial time in Tanzanite International. Additionally, we HAD to go buy cigars where I received a lesson in why Cuban cigars are better than any other cigars anywhere which took up another hour. I'm not really going to complain that much...all this shopping allowed me to cash in on TONS of free gifts, win a raffle, and taste some rum! In he end he got some GREAT deals. I was seriously impressed...but then again anyone who can walk out of Kohls with a cart full of merchandise that only cost like $30 probably should be able to get good deals anywhere. We did not get to go to the beach at all though...and let me tell you the water was very blue on Grand Cayman. The kind that makes you want to jump off the tender boat as your sadly staring at the beach on your way back to the cruise ship.
GARY THE GORILLA PAID STICKER PRICE...YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!!!
I'm going to blow through the other two days tonight hopefully!!
Jill-Ron
