From KATYpillar to Butterfly: What's the Coolest Thing You've Ever Done?

A few months ago, my sister and I were at Target, and our cashier asked us this question.

Cashier: What's the coolest thing you've ever done?

Mallory & I: *blank stares* Uuuuuummmmmm............

We couldn't come up with a single 'cool' thing we've done! Well, thanks to our excursion in Grand Cayman, we have an answer to that if anyone ever happens to ask again!

Sea Trek in Grand Cayman!

Below is the description of the excursion from Carnival's website.

On this excursion you will:

Take a fun, educational and interactive tour of Grand Cayman’s reef ecosystem.
Experience a zero gravity stroll undersea wearing the specially designed Sea Trek underwater helmet.
Keep your hair dry and breathe comfortably without the use of a regulator or mouthpiece. Have air pumped to your helmet from a compressor system located at the site.
Be guided through an undersea garden pathway while observing the ecosystem around you.
Enjoy exceptional underwater visibility and colorful coral gardens.
See a vast variety of tropical marine life, including Jacks, Sergeant Majors, Grouper and the occasional turtle or stingray.

Once we got off the Magic, it was a short walk to the boat that would be taking us to where we would go underwater. The Sea Trek excursion is made for small groups of people, so we had 10 in our group plus our guide, Kurt. It was nice having a small group excursion instead of one with lots of people.

Kurt (in the red shirt) and a few members of our group

On the ride out, Kurt went over all the safety issues and other pertinent information we needed to know.

Kurt said the scariest part would be the descent 30 feet down because of having to pop your ears. He was right! I would stop every two or three steps and pop my ears each time. I had a minor stressful moment towards the bottom because my mouth was getting dry, and it was hard to swallow and make my ears pop. If I ever do this excursion again, I will be sure to take some gum with me to chew. I think that would really help!

After we made it down, all my fears disappeared. The view was amazing, and seeing the variety of sea life that lives in those waters was an unforgettable experience!

We saw several types of fish, and we had the opportunity to hold a shrimp and a sea urchin. The sea urchin would grasp onto your hand, and then you could turn your hand upside down, and the sea urchin would hang out there for a few seconds. So neat! Thankfully, we didn't come across any hungry sharks!

Holding the sea urchin

Look closely, and you can see the shrimp in Mal's hand

Mallory feeding the fish

I'm not sure how long we were down there, but I could have stayed all day! After we finished, Mallory and I could not stop talking about how much fun we had and how ready we are to do it again!