This morning dawned right as we were pulling into Castaway Cay. They are doing construction in prep for the new ships - you can see the crane at the pier.

We arrived at Marge’s Barges, signed our waivers and took a seat.

Not too much later - they called the parasailing excursion, we were divided into three boats of sailers and we were off. I was the only repeat sailer - it was very windy and the captain told us that we had to fly as doubles for safety. This was a little bit of a bummer since I had wanted to video Chris’ flight - and he mine - but that’s ok. We took photos with those manual waterproof cameras. It was also decided by group vote that we would go first, since I was an experienced flyer - since the other people that were with us were all from one family with two little girls - one of whom was terrified. Mom and Dad thought if they saw Chris and I go and come back, then that might calm her a bit.

We landed safely back on the boat - and I think Chris is another parasailing convert! He loved it!  After the parasailing - we walked toward the family beach, taking photos along the way.

We located the family, set down a majority of the STUFF and headed out into the water for awhile.

And that is when it happened!! After we had left the parasailing boat - Chris had planned the new video camera in the pocket of his swim trunks - and completely forgot it was there. Are we headed into the water - he sank down into the warm water to relax - and jumped back up yelling!! Oh NO!! The camera! The BRAND NEW VIDEO CAMERA!! He ran up to the beach, tried to dry it off - but I knew it was D-E-A-D, Dead. Salt water and electronics don’t mix (BTDT - marine biologist, remember). ***Note for the record - we had purchased the extended warranty at Best Buy, and did get a new one - but the camera is in JAX and the memory card is with me - so TOMORROW we will see if all the video is good - including some of my ALASKA video that I had not downloaded after my return from Alaska.

Ok - so the camera is dead, Chris keeps apologizing and I decide that there is not a dang thing that can be done here - SO - ignore it for now. Chris came back into the water - we opened up the floats and settled in.  The kids came out and joined us.

After an hour or so in the water (BTW - those sun shirts are a GODSEND!!), we headed up to get some lunch at Cookies BBQ and ran into my aunt, uncle, cousin and dad. 

After lunch - the kids, Chris, mom and I were booked to go to Castaway Ray’s stingray excursion. Since Chris and I had done Stingray city - the kids had been very interested - and this was a great opportunity for them to learn. We trudged over (it was HOT!), got the snorkeling gear (for those that needed it) and after orientation, headed into the water to our feeding station. The rays are trained to stop on the mickey head target - all of us fed the rays - even grandma (who doesn’t like to do things like that).

This was really interesting - we even saw that one of the rays was pregnant.

Then, we headed out into the lagoon to snorkel with all the rays. Kevin and Jolene came with Chris and I - mom stayed on the beach.

We made it back to the room, managed to de-salt, de-sand and took a NAP!! We were wiped out. The other bad news was that we need to pack to head home in the morning. In a way the rainout was good - since it forced us to go back and begin the packing process.