While THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS' Mackenzie was out of town on a recent business trip to Madison, Wisc., her portrayer, Rachel Kimsey, was visiting a much sunnier location: Cozumel, Mexico.

The trip gave Kimsey, a certified scuba diver who's been taking the plunge since she was 12, serious sea time with her parents and younger brother as they celebrated his high school graduation. "When I left [home], he was a little kid. I got to know him as an adult and we got to bond," she notes. "He's so much cooler than I ever was. He's actually popular and has friends who call him to do things! I was so dorky."

The family spent most of its time underwater, which made the site a perfect destination. "What's special about Cozumel is that on the protected side of the island; the reefs are sponges and corals that flourish in sizes, shapes and colors unlike anywhere else," Kimsey explains. "It's a drift diving island, which means there's a very strong current, so you drop in on one end of the island and just let the current take you past all these reefs."

A first-time visitor to the island, Kimsey was especially impressed with its underwater landscape. "It's like going into caves underground with the stalagmites and the stalactites, but you're underwater," she recalls. "You can go upside down and hang underneath it to see all the little things that live underneath. We were pointing out all the fish from Finding Nemo."

All these splendors can be seen between 65 to 110 feet under the surface, which is a depth relatively simple for Kimsey to achieve. Her family members, on the other hand, are not quite such naturals in the water. "My brother and dad have some trouble equalizing, but that I can do. For some reason, I breathe better than anyone. I have so much oxygen conservation underwater," she reports. "I don't know if it's because I'm so calm — because it feels like I belong down there — or if it's yoga paying off."