Castaway Cay

oops, i realized these should have actually been posted before madeira since it was our very first port, but oh well, at least i remembered at all, right?! lol castaway cay (pronounced key - why don't they just spell it that way, then?) is disney's private island in the um... bahamas? carribean? can't remember (shows my geographical knowledge lol) anyway, somewhere south where the water is clear - i've always wanted to swim in it. it's like swimming in a giant swimming pool but with fish & stuff lol.

this pirate ship is the actual one used in the movie pirates of the carribean!

even captain jack sparrow was there! (this guy had the mannerisms & voice down pat! - kevin likes to say it's because the actor is drunk ha ha)

snorkel time!

kyle opted out of the gear, but still took a dip...

we got to feed and swim with the stingrays - totally awesome! (they are tamed, and they get their barbs trimmed so they are not dangerous)

crab races! (this was the winning crab)

kyle & zachary both took a ride down "pelican plunge"...

i don't know what exactly was going on here (kevin was alone with the boys) but the more i look at this picture, the more i can't help but start laughing! looks like kyle did something rotten, maybe, and is now running for his life?!

still to come: barcelona, paris & london!

Gibraltar

moving on, our next stop was gibraltar. it's a tiny peninsula type place attached to spain, but actually belongs to the UK.

the flat gray thing in the water is the runway for the airport. it's what separates gibraltar from spain. (the top part of the picture is spain)

sorry, i can't help myself with the flowers! lol

and, true to form, kevin can't help himself with the statues!

he even roped in my dad!

ok, this one was an actual person!

what? no kevin?! lol

this picture shows basically the whole gibraltar - just a giant rock jutting out of nowhere!

we thought our cruise ship was decent sized, until this one called the ventura pulled up next to us in port! ok, i stand corrected, we are puny!

one guess as to where they were from (hint: check out what most of them are holding)

ok, so now for the amazing thing i was talking about. on the rock live all these wild apes, and they really run the place! they will climb on your car, and even in it - the cab driver warned us to leave the windows up or they would come into the car and steal your bags!

in one area, they are somewhat tame. so the cab driver has food, and he coaxes the apes onto your shoulders to eat. awesome once in a lifetime experience! by the way, they are amazingly soft!

kyle was nervous, so kevin helped him, and the end result is a great photo!

my dad gets into it...

i realize some of you may not know, but this is my dad's girlfriend chris...

a family of monkeys... hee hee

monkey in the middle ha ha i crack myself up!

zachary coaxed this little guy onto his back all on his own...

well, if you're gonna check out the apes, i guess it's only fitting that they return the favor!

alright, now it's time for the national geographic portion of our show....

this guy was totally playing king of the hill - he swatted off any other ape who tried to get on his rock!

 grooming each other...

these last three are my favorite shots i got...

it was totally amazing! i don't think i could say that enough! lol definitely a highlight of the trip. the kids really loved it, and still talk about it!