Antigua: Escaping the Sun

I was so excited to swim with the stingrays on Antigua, but it was not meant to be. My sunburns were such that I thought I better give my skin a rest for a day or else I'd be paying for it during the entire rest of the trip. We anchored that morning with another Royal Caribbean ship right next to us and I thought the ships were impressive. It's difficult to describe how big they are but these shots might help. Ours is the one on the left.

We were taken to the other side of the island for our stingray outting. The managers staked out a pen out in the dark blue area of the picture, which I wasn't expecting. I thought they would be closer to shore. Our driver gave us quite the ride out and back... I was a little nervous, I will admit, since the ocean was choppy that day.

There were stingrays everywhere however so no one was disappointed! Well, except for me, but that was my own fault for getting sunburned. They were beautiful. I love the way they feel. The guides were helping everyone hold them in their arms. The females are much larger than the males so everyone held females. They were very gentle and inquistive.Keegan wasn't afraid of them but as long as he's with Dad he doesn't fear much. He enjoyed the water much better than the previous day. One of the guides was really nice and brought a ray over to those of us on the dock. So, I did get to be with the rays for a little time.
Everyone snorkeled around for a little while and Cody found a pretty shell (couldn't bring it back though).

I called it a day when we got back to the ship (see how covered up I am?). I tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible and it paid off. I felt much better the next day. I can't remember if this was the day we went to the art auction or not... anyways, we bought a painting of flowers and Debbie bought a painting of Tigger. Ali made bosom-buddies with the auctioneer and at one point they were both singing about unicorns... moral of the story: you never know who you'll meet on a cruise.