Shark Ray Alley: The #OMGBelize Adventures

It's all fun and games until a local on a nearby boat throws a ton of chum right next to you and you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a legit sharknado.

Technically I think it'd be a cyclone, aren't those the ones IN the water? A sharkclone. Or a jackclone really, since it was 50% jacks, in addition to the sharks, plus a few sting rays.  A rayjacksharkclone. And that's my final answer.

(In retrospect, looking at that sharks eyes makes me second guess everything they said about this being totally safe)

Rewind. Way back when we first booked our flights, Whit started a Pinterest board for all of us to throw trip ideas into. That's when I stumbled upon Shark Ray Alley and it immediately became a MUST on my list.

Chelsea's MUST list: 

Swim with sharks. 

The end.

I don't believe in bucket lists, but if I did that would have been on it. None of the other girls were quite as keen on the idea of willing hopping into the open ocean with Jaws, but my power of persuasion is truly immeasurable.

Not long after leaving Caye Caulker, our water taxi docked on Ambergris and we made our way to our hostel. I brought up swimming with sting rays approximately 32 times during the trek, and swimming with sharks approximately 45. Give or take a few.

There's actually a very high chance everyone else just agreed in sheer hope of shutting me up.

Either way, on a sunny Tuesday morning the four of us set out on a boat to become live bait. Whit was the complete opposite of excited. Meanwhile, I rivaled a kid headed to Disneyland.

It was a pretty short ride out to the reef, and the water was so clear you knew EXACTLY what you were about to get into!

Throwing on our flippers and masks, it didn't take long before all 4 of us were overboard. We saw countless rays, jacks, sharks, clown fish, parrot fish, red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish. Oh and an eel. Who wasn't too enthusiastic about seeing us, and made that very clear (chalk that up as another near death experience)

I befriended this dude, who let me swim next to him for quite a while. I was sure we would end up in Sydney, but it was actually only about 20 feet from where I found him and then he got tired of our Asian peace signs and paparazzi ways.

It was so wild being in the middle of the open ocean swimming amongst these beauts. Call me crazy, but they are just so graceful gliding through the water. Although I'm a little nervous that next time I'm in the water and spot a fin sticking out I may be a little TOO eager to approach the fella.

The morning flew by, and the camera roll filled up. As we headed back to shore, I think we were all in agreement that it was definitely worth every penny we spent!

Belize is home to the second largest reef in the world... I wont lie, it's kind of fantastic having the bragging rights that I've snorkeled the two biggest reefs on the planet!



Things to note:
-All underwater photos were taken with my good ol iPhone 5s, in a LifeProof case. Expensive, but worth every penny.

-We went with Greg from Ecologic Divers, and I cannot speak highly enough of them! They were amazing, and definitely went above and beyond.

Coasting for Kids

Pulling off exit 24 Olivia started squealing about the coasters in the distance. 

The last time I had taken that exit I had a car full of friends and we were still sporting our prom updo's and sleepy eyes. It was our high school's tradition - EVERYONE went to King's Island the day after prom. This time I was in a car with a 4 year old, a 9 month old, and my brother in sister in law. The giggles and gossip were a bit different than they had been on the trip 9 years earlier (Whoa. 9 years since high school. Whoa)

Back to the story at hand... we headed down early Saturday morning to hang around the waterpark and ensure we were back at the KI gates at 8am Sunday for the Coasting For Kids check-in.

More than 100 of us traipsed around the park all day in our purple shirts, riding coasters and spreading the word about GKTW. At lunch they told us we raised over $20,000 for Give Kids the World Village, which is SO AWESOME! 

It was a great day. My sister-in-law, mom and I were easily the daredevils of the trip.... often leaving my brother sitting with the kiddos while we rode coaster after coaster. Olivia tackled every kids ride she could, eagerly eyeing the "big kid" coasters for when she grew a few more inches.

In making sure the littlest skittle got the most out of her very first King's Island experience, I introduced her to Dippin Dots, she was instantly hooked!

There were 3 main coasters that we got to ride unlimited on, the Banshee, the Diamondback and the Racer. It was pretty cool seeing the carts full of purple shirts, and realizing what it stood for.

Coasting for Kids and Kings Island provided us lunch, during which they announced the Top Fundraisers and handed out prizes, I'm happy to announce that with the help of all of my awesome family & friends I was the Top Fundraiser from the Kings Island group!

Despite a misty rain off and on all day, we didn't let it dampen our spirits. It was a great time logging a few theme park hours with my family and my inner adrenaline junkie self had a BLAST on all the coasters. I think the funniest moment of the day was when my mom & I decided to ride the Banshee front row, and it started raining. Let me tell you how painful rain drops are when you're flying through the air 70some mph. OUCH!

I can't wait to participate in this event again next year. Give Kids the World is such an awesome organization, and after seeing what they did for Liv and my brother and sis-in-law I want to help them raise every dime I can for these kiddos!

 

Left and lift. Left and lift.

He smelled like motor oil and tire rubber. A reassuring chuckle came from his mouth as he showed me the four switches I would flip to turn the car on, while double-checking the tightness of the five-point harness. 

A shrill beep came through the earpieces as he tested my radio. "Clutch in, watch my signals, listen to your spotter" he said as latched the safety net up and threw me the thumbs up. I flipped the visor down on my helmet, followed the sequence of switches to start her up and headed out on pit row for what was about to become the wildest ride of my life.

See, I've done a lot of "bucket list" style stunts. Cliff-diving, co-piloting a stunt plane (side note: how bout that hair - phew!) , but none where I was ever completely in control of what was going on. Racing a stock car was in a whole 'nother playing field. There was no one else to rely on. Aside from the spotter talking in my ear, I was completely in control of every single action and consequence.

As we followed the pace car the first few laps I started to get a feel for the car. When the pace car pulled away I tested out her speed. When I hit that first corner I became ever so thankful my spotter could only talk, not hear me as I threw out a handful of "ohshitohshitohshit"s. When I hit the apex I threw my foot down on the throttle again and lit her up.

Judging by the adrenaline rush I was feeling, I knew my brother and pops who were in two of the other cars, were also having a blast. My mom set it up for all three of us to go racing, for them it was a Father's Day gift, for me... well, I was a shoe-in since I'm always doing the reckless things!

It was easily one of the scariest things I've done. For fifteen laps I feared every single turn I entered, almost positive I was going to get loose and slam the wall. You see nothing behind you, and very little next to you. You have to have complete trust in this eye in the sky who's telling you lift and left, lift and left whenever someone is near you

The thrill of flying around that track was beyond explainable though. I have a new found jealousy and appreciation for everyone I know who wheels any type of car around a track week in and week out.

I jumped

I'm not very good at the whole "don't post on social networks when you're out of town" thing, partly because I always share pictures and videos throughout the week and partly because if someone truly wanted to break into my empty home and steal my 1994 big screen tube television I probably would applaud them and thank them gratuitously.

Anyways, if you hadn't already caught on, I was back at my second home last week. Eight blissful, relaxing days. No near death experiences this time (although I did toe the line and tempt fate here), no marriages (although Jamaican Hubs was there and this time he spent the week telling the resort about our 10 "cappuccino" babies).

I did, however, jump off a cliff. Twice. A cliff 35ft above the lagoon.

It. was. a. BLAST.

I chickened out the last time we were at Rick's Cafe a few years ago.... so this time as soon as we booze cruised into the lagoon and hopped off the boat I handed my stuff off and marched right up to the platform and down I went!


As soon as I got back up to land everyone complained that I went too quick, and they didn't even get a video.... so of course I did it again!


I highly recommend if you're ever in Negril to go jump. Rick's is sort of meh, too touristy for me - but the locals who are cliff jumpers are a must see!

Vertical spins, tailslides & flying upside-down

Have I ever told you about the time I flew a plane? A stunt plane at that. Really, I did. That picture is the plane I was in control of. I was the pilot-in-command in fact. If you know me in real life, you've probably heard me talk about this because it was honestly one of the most amazing things I've ever gotten the chance to do!

No, I wasn't some corny Bachelor thing, it was a few years ago. One of my guy friends knew someone who knew a pilot that performs in air shows all over the Midwest, Billy. We met up with Billy one Sunday and originally only the 3 boys were going to fly, but as soon as I saw that plane I knew I had to do it! So each one of us got to fly the plane with him for about an hour each. It. Was. Awesome.

Here's Billy strapping me in, there's roughly an 18-point harness, and I also got to wear a sweet mesh helmet that had a headset so I could talk to Billy (he sits behind you).

See all those squiggly lines? We weren't playing connect the dots while taxiing down the runway... those are the stunts we did.

All strapped in and ready to go! Obviously, I don't have any photos of us actually flying because, well, we just looked like a blurry speck on the pictures!


Here's a promo video I snagged off of Billy's page, Grayout Aerosports, I'm not the one flying in this... but 90% of what you see done, we did. I did! Let me explain, (and yes, you see how they're taking off and the plane is flying soo close to the ground at an angle and it looks like the wing is going to clip the ground at any moment.... we did that!)


grayout promo 1

Grayout Aerosports | MySpace Video


anyways, we got in the air, did a few barrel rolls, then Billy goes "ok, it's your turn... yah ready!? Take the throttle right in front of you, and whenever you're ready, throw it to the right as hard as you can, that will start us spinning..."And just like that, he talked me through tricks. At one point, we flew straight up into the air and once we reached a certain altitude Billy killed the engine, we free-fell (is that a word?) nose down towards the ground. We pulled 4.5-5G's throughout most of the stunts. Oh lord I hope my mom doesn't read this, I didn't tell her until AFTER I was safely back on the ground!

Oh, and no this isn't our plane bursting into flames... we did a fancy airplane burnout shortly after landing.

I am hoping to get in touch with Billy and go out again sometime once the weather warms up! For the kind of experience I had, he charges up to $225, you can take a less extreme ride for $185, and he also does tours around the city and/or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in his plane. If you are ever in the Indy area and feeling up for the ride of your life, get ahold of him!