Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Today is our last day here at Little Cayman.  Tomorrow late morning we fly to Grand Cayman and on to North Carolina and then DesMoines.  Of course, the weather was absolutely perfect again today.  It was perfect yesterday too.  I spent the day yesterday just enjoying myself.  The morning bike ride was extra special and I just tried to soak in the place.  I had fun on my floaty and started getting homesick for the Caymans already.

Last night we had a guest over for dinner.  We had a good time.  The hours flew by.  We got up this morning and had our first morning with a cooler temperature.  It was 79 degrees at 6:00 but warmed up quickly.  I have been busy today getting everything ready to leave.  There is a lot to do as we will be gone for a long time.  We did take the kayaks over to Owen Island this morning.  We went around the back of the island this time.  We saw a few turtles and stingrays on the way over.  On the way back home we saw at least ten turtles.  It was unbelievable!  At one time there were five of them right around us.  What a fun trip.  When we got home, we took the kayaks out and washed them and put them in storage.  See you next year kayaks!

Richard snapped my picture over at Owen Island.  What a place!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

I woke up today in paradise.  There are only a few mornings left so I am treasuring every minute.  It was another perfect weather day.  Absolutely beautiful!  I am pretty much relaxing and just doing fun things now.  I tried not to work.  Richard got the boat out of the water today.  Another fisherman on the island helped him so that was very nice.  We were very grateful.

I snorkeled out front today and spent time on the beach.  Richard and I enjoyed the porch a lot today.  After all our hard work it is nice to sit back and enjoy it.  I've started my list of what to bring next year and what not to bring.  We went to the store and bought a pick ax today.  Every time we have a worker here they ask for one.  They wind up going back somewhere and getting one.  Now we have our very own!  They are great for digging holes and getting tree stumps out.  Sounds like we are ready for next years projects.  

Saturday, March 8, 2014

The last two days have been busy, busy!  Friday we got up super early again so Richard and Tom could go fishing.  The Wahoo were biting and conditions were great.  They headed out with high hopes!  I did my exercises and was just getting ready to go on my bike ride when I turned and looked at the water and there they were!  Heading to the dock!  I was sure they had caught the big one and were back to show it off.  This was not the case.  Turns out, the boat motor was dying!  They couldn't get over 5 mph.  Poor Richard!  So it looks like fishing is finished for this year.  He is taking the boat out of the water.  Next year we will have our own boat.  Problem solved.

I watered all the new little coconut trees and cactus and new christmas palms we had planted this year.  Richard proceeded to clean up his fishing reels.  My bike still needed to be ridden, so off I went.  It is so much fun to ride a bike here.  It was plenty early when I returned so I read my book on the beach.  What a hard life I am leading!  We ate an early lunch and headed out to snorkel.  We went to the north side to our favorite spot at Bloody Bay Wall.  We got there and our "car" died.  Unbelievable!  We finally made it to the power plant where Bujo works and lives.  Luckily, he was there and came to our rescue!  His wife brought us home and this morning he brought our repaired vehicle back to us.  Next year we will also have our own nice new car.  Problem solved.

When we returned from our car fiasco I got my floaty out and had some fun in the water here at the house.  It was hot and sunny and I wasn't ready to dry off yet.  What a day!  I did have to get cleaned up as last night was Mardi Gras and we were going!  This year they have the dinner and live band on Friday night.  It was tons of fun!  The parade was today and is impressive what this tiny island with 150 people can do.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.  We sure did!

Here we are waiting for the parade to start.  Marcia, Patty and myself.  Patty is holding their little poodle. 

 

Here comes the first float!  There was music and everything!

Our theme this year is "Our Islands Treasures".  Here is an iguana, a conch, a grouper, and the guy on the right has a turtle shell on his back.  That is coral at their feet.  

Here's another float.  There were several.  Each one was very artistic.  They worked hard on them.

Here is a photo of the "crowd".  We gathered in the parking area of Iggy's for the judging of the floats.  There was also the drawing for the raffle.  I tried to win an I-Pad Mini.  All the profits from the Mardi Gras go to the Little Cayman Trust.  

Thursday, March 6, 2014

We are back to normal here on Little Cayman.  Beautiful blue sky, perfect temperatures, nice breeze and most importantly, I'm here!  We were up before 6:00 again this morning as Richard went fishing again.  Getting to be a daily thing.  I think he is "hooked".

I was lazy today.  Did my exercises and a bike ride and then hit the beach.  I did rake the beach so I get a little credit on the work card.  The island birch tree has started losing some leaves and litters them on my sand.

Today we paid off all our accounts here on the island.  That is a sure sign our departure date is looming.

I am posting some photos of our street side of the house.  We finished spreading out that giant pile that I thought we would never finish!  We did it!

This photo is taken from the porch.  This is what I see when I walk out the door to go down to the car.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

After a late night watching the ISU game again at Iggy's we just got to sleep when we were awakened by the sound of rain.  We rushed to close windows while breathing the fresh smell.  Another early fishing morning got us going again.  Everything was dead still!  Not a blade of anything was moving.  The water was like glass.  Richard had high hopes of catching the coveted Wahoo.

While he was gone, I did some exercises and got my bike ride in.  The sun was hot and there was no breeze.  Once home again, I sat on the beach to read while the laundry was being washed.  I love this life.  I began to notice a few nasty looking clouds coming in.

Richard and Tom returned with a nice tuna.  Life is good.  We got that fish cleaned up and I still was wondering if I should hang out my laundry.  The clouds were moving in on us.  Suddenly I noticed a nice cool breeze and then the lovely smell of rain.  Sure enough, it started to pour!  It rained for hours!  Our cistern was refilling.  This is unusual to have rain like this in early March.

We caught up with friends this evening at SCC for Wet Your Whistle Wednesday.  It was fun to hear what everyone did on a rainy day in paradise.  I finally hung out my load of laundry around 2:30 in the afternoon.  As I type this, I just remembered it is still on the line.  I forgot to get it in.  Hope it doesn't rain again tonight.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Thank heavens, I woke up in paradise again this morning.  We had perfect weather here again today.  I sound like a broken record, but it's true, the weather is just always wonderful.  Richard and I worked on projects around the house early and then took it easy.

After an early lunch, Richard went shore diving with the guys.  They went to our usual spot over at Bloody Bay Wall.  They had a great time and saw lots of big fish.  While he did that I worked on an area along the driveway until I got too hot.  The water lured me in.  Boy, did that feel good!  I stayed out there way too long.  I think I could have even taken a nap right in the water.  A turtle came over to check me out.

We had a good supper and are taking it easy tonight.  A gentle breeze is blowing in the windows and I feel content that I made the most of my day.        

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Where do I begin, to tell the story... (theme from Love Story).  I have been humming that song all day today.  That song popped into my head, I am sure, because I am so in love with Little Cayman.  We are just so happy to be here.  Today we slept in a little.  Last night was a late night as we watched ISU play basketball.
The game was on at The Hungry Iguana.

There was a very large barge yesterday that we spotted out in the water heading it appeared to Brac.  Suddenly it turned around!!  It appeared they had cable trouble.  It came precariously close to the reef when the tug finally managed to push it out a ways.  It tied up to a buoy into the night but when we got up it was gone.

Yesterday was a fun day with lots of play and a little work.  I finished painting the front of the house.  Glad to complete that project.  Today we finished spreading our crushed rock pile.  I worked a couple hours on it this afternoon and then Richard took over the shoveling and I spread.  That pile was so huge, it seemed we would never be finished with it.  We are so pleased how everything looks.  We also cleaned up and organized the area under the house.  It looks great!  Richard has the steps finished that he made out of rocks and cement.  What an art project!  We are feeling pretty proud of ourselves right now.