Tuesday, January 31, 2017

After a great nights sleep, I awoke in paradise!  Everyday it just amazes me that I am here.  It is so beautiful.  Our little spot here is so peaceful and perfect.  I worked outside again today as it is perfect weather for that today.  It was a relaxing day of odd jobs and laying in hammocks and reading.

I am typing this a little late tonight as this was ladies night!  Us island ladies gathered this week at Southern Cross Club for dinner and fun conversation.  The fun on this island just never stops!

Richard is at the Hungry Iguana.  Iowa State has a game tonight and he will watch it there.  The University of Iowa Coach's parents are on island.  They are also at the Hungry Iguana so there is some fun conversation there tonight also.

This is a short post as it is late and I had too much fun with the ladies and must go to bed!  I need my rest as tomorrow we are entertaining friends.

Monday, January 30, 2017

I have not written on my blog for a couple days!  We have been so busy here in paradise, it is hard to keep up!

We had a great walk/run/bike fundraiser for cancer turnout here on our tiny island.  $1062.00 US dollars was raised to provide financial aid to cancer patients in need here.  After finishing the event we had breakfast at Southern Cross Club with several of our friends.  What a feast!

This was boat launch day for our deep sea fishing boat.  We had high hopes!  The motor worked great before launch and started right up once in the ocean.  Richard headed out and it died!  There was no starting it!  He was drifting with the waves into sand and rock with the anchor not holding!  Bruce drove by and stopped.  Suddenly Miguel showed up too!  They jumped right in to help.  Literally!  Richard and Bruce had to pull the boat back and get it back on the trailer.  What a sight!  We are so grateful to Bruce and Miguel.  So it was back to work on the boat motor.  Richard now agrees with me that we should have just bought a new motor instead of working on this one.  Hindsight is 20/20!

Saturday evening we were invited to friends for dinner.  Boy! What a great meal we had and so much fun visiting.  The time just flew!

Sunday was so beautiful here on the island again.  Every day has been sunny and beautiful here since we arrived!  We tried a second launch of the boat on this morning.  Finally success!

 Early afternoon we went snorkeling.  I think it was one of my all time favorite!  The water was the clearest ever and super calm.  It was the most relaxing snorkel ever!  I am so lucky to be able to be here and do this.  All of us agreed,  it could not have been more perfect!  Sunday evening we went to another friends house for dinner.  There was eight of us and we really enjoyed a beautiful evening. We have made so many nice, fun friends on this island.

  This morning Richard and Tom took the boat out to do some fishing.  Finally!  Getting through the cut was smooth but the seas were rough today.  They did  not get a fish.  We were just happy the boat performed well.  I am ready for some fresh fish, so he better get cracking!

I ordered supplies from Cost u Less and it arrived by plane this afternoon.  It was just like Christmas!
Susan and I did a joint order in an effort to save money!  Aren't we getting clever!

It is now time for ice cream and I need to beat Richard in a game of cards.  This has sure been a great day!

Friday, January 27, 2017

I awoke to another glorious day on Little Cayman Island this morning.  It is so great to be warm!  Today was another busy day.  I worked on beach clean up again this morning.  Yesterday I started but got into some nasty ants.  I just ran and never even went back!  I had welts on me that itched beyond control.  All I was trying to do was rake up the seaweed that washed up on a windy day from the Southwest.  It is super unusual for us to get wind from that direction.

This seems to be my season of being eaten alive!  I lost a day this last week being sick from a nasty brown recluse spider.  Luckily it was a small one.  I still have a scar that I guess can last a week.  I had fever, chills, nausea and could do nothing but lay there.  Glad that is over! It was a riot!

Richard and I went to the north side today to snorkel but suddenly a black cloud appeared there.  So we came back to our sunshine and took the kayaks out.  It is strange how a cloud can show up in one location on such a tiny island.  We finished kayaking and I went for a swim. It was wonderful!  Afterward I layed on a beach chair and read a little from my newest book.    I felt like a queen!

We had leftovers for supper tonight so my queen for a day routine continued!

It will be early to bed for us tonight as we are doing the run/walk/bike for cancer fundraiser tomorrow morning.  We will ride our bikes down to Southern Cross Club, where the event will start at 7:00 A.M.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

I am sure glad to be here in the nice warm weather.  It snowed back home today.  Tonight we went to a presentation at the Little Cayman National Trust about the green iguana invasion.  Our island is home to rock iguanas and our whole eco system will be threatened by the green iguana.  We have been very successful fighting the lion fish invasion and I sure hope we can also fight off the green iguana!

Today we finally have Internet service at our house.  What a relief!  It is temporary until they get "time" to finally install our permanent Internet.

Boat from Cuba!  22 people were crammed in this boat to travel across the ocean! The Mast was made of a tree trunk.

Richard and I made a drive to Point of Sand this afternoon.  It is the Seven Mile Beach of Little Cayman!  We were the only ones there today!  That is why we chose Little Cayman instead of Grand Cayman.  Twenty two Cubans made a trip to freedom and landed at Point of Sand a couple months ago.  The people were rescued and the boat still sits on the beach.   What a site to see!

Here I am enjoying the Seven Mile Beach of Little Cayman!  It's Point of Sand!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

We had another busy day here on Little Cayman.  I haven't posted since Saturday.  We will be glad to hopefully get our Internet installed at the house tomorrow.  Saturday evening we went to the Hungry Iguana to watch the football playoff game.  We had a hefty supper before we went but while there I had a big order of their fabulous french fries!  They have the best fries in the world!  I am still thinking about them!  HaHa!  Of course, I had a mudslide to go with!  What an evening!

Last night we had guests for dinner.  It is so fun to catch up with island friends.  The last two days were windy here so we had good days to clear some more areas on our property.  It sounds like we like to work.  It really isn't hard to do when in this paradise!

Today, was just a relaxing day mingled with some property work.  The wind was down and it was just so peaceful.  I still am in awe to be here.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Another fun, fabulous day in paradise!  This morning I worked on spiffing up the entrance to our property and cutting back over growth along the driveway.  Things grow like crazy around here.  I don't know why biologists don't mix the DNA from Island Sea Grape trees with human DNA.  These trees can regrow after they are dead!  Totally amazing!

After lunch Richard and I went snorkeling on the north side on Bloody Bay Wall and Jackson Point.  The water was so calm and beautiful.  Of course, we saw tons of fish and beautiful coral, a huge shark, stingrays, barracuda, and the sweetest turtle ever!  What a day!  We are having so much fun!

Here is our beautiful nurse shark.

This was the nicest turtle.  It let us get so very close and swim along with him.

Relaxing after a great swim.  The water goes forever!  Next stop: Cuba!

Richard snapped this just as I got in the water.  Right after this was taken, I saw a huge barracuda! Yikes!

Friday, January20, 2017

Today was so wonderful!  We worked hard in the morning cutting and hauling trees.  So that was my exercise!  We got another load of sand delivered this morning so we can do touch up work on the driveway.  I am calling that my exercise!

This afternoon Richard, Tom and I went lobstering!  We got a giant lobster and I even saw one but he escaped.  The water was warm, super clear, and perfect! What a day!  I fixed him for dinner and we ate on the porch watching the sunset!  I feel like I am living at a five star resort!

After I am finished typing, we are going to Beach Resort to see if they are having Friday night trivia!

What a fabulous day!!

Showing off our yummy lobster!

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Today Richard and I woke up around 6:30 A.M. which is 7:30 Iowa time.  How we slept that late is amazing as by 7:00 last night Richard was snoring and I was by 8:30!  We were exhausted!

This morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and started to work. We discovered the window blinds we bought the day before on Grand were the wrong size.  A.L.Thompson had already sent them to Thompson Shipping so I asked them to pick them up and refund my money.  They did not have the size I needed.  So I called another small store and they have my size.  I tried to purchase them with my credit card but they said I had to come in the store to purchase them.  It took me all morning to talk to a manager and convince them to sell me the blinds and put them on the barge to Little Cayman. Such silliness!

Our Internet did not get installed.  They will come next Wednesday now to do it.  We have had our order in for two months.  They got busy and told us we had to wait.  It is so strange not having e-mail or facebook and also no TV!  Thank heavens we are too busy enjoying paradise to pay attention to technology!  Thank you to Southern Cross Club for allowing us to borrow their Internet this evening.

We had our dinner on the porch this evening as well as lunch.  The sunset was so pretty and the weather is beyond perfect.  All the effort and exasperation melt away when you are here relaxing while you work!

They are busy cleaning and closing up the little resort next door to us.  They painted all the buildings and it looks very nice.  I wonder what will happen there in the future.  Johnny, who lives on the other side of us is not here this year.  He had surgery.  So Richard and I are all alone in the world.

Today an island friend stopped by to see us.  It is so fun to get company.  I am excited to catch up with everyone here on island.  These first few days we seem to concentrate on just settling in.  Then we can party!

January 18, 2016

We have arrived!  What an adventure getting to Little Cayman was this year.  We were flying on Monday the 16th on the 7:00 A.M. flight out of DesMoines until the night of the 15th.  We received a call from American Airlines that our flight was cancelled due to a mean ice storm we were experiencing.  They rescheduled us for the Tuesday flight at 7:00 A.M. So I lost a day of sunshine!
We immediately tried to reschedule our flight from Grand to Little but had no luck.  They finally got us on the Wednesday morning flight that turned out to run almost two hours late! Of course!  We are so grateful to be here and grateful to be safe!

Everything at the house looked great!  We didn't have a hard time getting settled at all.  I was amazed how clean the inside of the house stayed too.

Last night we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Wharf on Grand and then watched the waves crash on Seven Mile Beach.  What a wonderful evening!

Today was 88 and blue sky!  I am not complaining!