Saturday, January 26, 2013

It is so wonderful to be here at Little Cayman again.  I slept really well again last night.  It was a good thing, as we got up by 6:30 to eat and get ready for our "work crew" to arrive at 7:30.  Our place was so overgrown with weeds and small trees.  It was just unbelievable!  I couldn't face starting over after we worked so hard last year.  Two guys arrived right on time and they worked like machines.  The place looks spectacular!  I am so happy.  We will definitely use them again next year.  Richard and I worked with them so having four people working really made the job easier.  There are a few more areas we want to clear, but we can do that at our leisure. 

Tomorrow we plan on taking it a little easy.  The hammocks are hung so we will need to spend some time in them.  Richard has started construction drawing for our new storage/garage we are going to build while we are here this year.  We need it so we can store our new scooter and also the kayaks will be stored there from now on.  Seems we always have some new big thing to work on.  Life is exciting here.

The paint job we did on the inside of the house still looks nice.  The walls and ceiling look so nice and clean.  Hope it stays that way as I really don't think I like to paint that much.  It is work.

Our neighbor, Johnny, came by today.  He has been here since November.  The tenant of the resort next door is on the island so we visited a little with him.  It sounds like they will get a new manager soon.  Hope things go OK over there. 

There is a full moon tonight so it looks very bright outside shining on the sand.  What a beautiful evening.  Now this is  living! 

 

January 25, 2013 Friday

We arrived at Grand Cayman Wednesday around 2:30 in the afternoon to 85 degree temperatures.  A band was playing Caribbean music outside as we deplaned.  It was fabulous.  It sure is great to be back. 

We spent the afternoon taking care of paperwork on the purchase of our new scooter.  This turned out to be a big deal here and very time consuming.  We had to go all over town buying insurance, licensing and other money grabbing locations.  With that finally over we headed to the Wharf restaurant for the best meal of ones life.  We ate once again right on the water and watched the sun set.  There were a few giant cruise ships getting ready to set sail that we enjoyed watching too.  It was a beautiful evening.  We were in bed asleep by 8:30.  We were exhausted.  It is a good thing we are not older.  We would never be able to stay up so late otherwise.

Thursday we got up early, had a good breakfast and started shopping.  We bought a nice vacuum cleaner, bed pillows, fan, some tools.  No luck on the table lamps though.  I was very disappointed.  There was no time for art shopping or clothes.  Maybe next year.  We had lunch at the airport restaurant and it was very good. 

We arrived on Little Cayman around 3:00.  Everything was great on the tiny island.  We stopped and said hello at the store and SCC.  Then we got to the house.  Wow!  The trees and weeds took over while we were away.  The house is looking great.  Everything is in good working order.  We are so pleased.  The place didn't smell musty or anything.  We started getting the place up and running right away.  We had another 5 star dinner at SCC.  Man!  Was it good!  I was worried if I would sleep but no need to worry.  I slept wonderful.  The breeze blew on me all night long. 

We got up early and started working on everything.  I called Blossom Construction and they are coming tomorrow morning to help clear the property.  I decided that we did enough work already.  I may becoming lazy.  Thank God for ground crews!

The big news this year is the nice couple, Paul and Isabelle, who were running the resort next to us have left.  We didn't get to say goodbye.  They left suddenly.  There is a new guy and he seems very nice.  There is a girl from England who is coming soon to help there too.

Tonight I will cook a 5 star dinner here at the house.  It will shock our systems as we are now pretty spoiled by spectacular food prepared by well trained chefs.

Monday, March 5,2012

We woke up around 4:30 A. M. to the sound of a rain shower. It was a pretty good rain. There was a front coming through and they said we would have some wind all day. I jumped out of bed to close windows. It was just about 5 to 10 minutes of rain. It was windy all day though. It felt good. We did some last minute work. We chopped down a lot of trees and hauled them out. I moved some more rocks on the beach. I also managed to read and relax on the beach and Richard got some nice bone fishing done.


This is our last night on Little Cayman this year. Our flight to Grand is tomorrow at 5:50 P.M. It was so much fun to be here this year. I feel I made the very most of every minute here. I know how lucky I am. Tomorrow we will eat supper at the Wharf Restaurant on Grand Cayman. The next morning it is off to airport world. Hopefully we can have a nice long stay again next year on the island. I have my list of things to bring from home started for next year. The one thing I'll probably never forget again is my face wash. What a riot!

Today we looked up information on the little green lizards we see here that are so cute. They are called Anolis. They are only found on Little Cayman. Nowhere else in the world. How cool is that? When I talk to them, they cock their heads at me. One could have them as a pet I guess if here long enough.

We will get through Spring, Summer and Fall and before we know it, we'll be back on Little Cayman. Next year I'll blog again.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

We were up late last night and the party music was blaring until 2:00 A.M.  We slept great right through it.  That is what this environment will do for you.  There was no wind all day today and it was very hot.  It was a perfect day for the water.  Richard went to the tarpon pond and caught tons of tarpon this morning.  He said it was the last time for this year.  I watered the coconuts and went on a nice long kayak ride.  Then I laid in the hammock and started a new book on my Kindle.  Before I knew it I was eating my lunch. 

After lunch we snorkeled again.  We so enjoy it.  Conditions were just perfect.  Sometimes we would go through some very cold water spots.  Mostly the water was very warm.  The cold spots would be super clear also.  Almost weirdly clear.  We encountered some super large lobsters, nice stingrays, beautiful coral of course, and I could go on and on.  This is probably it for the year.  Tomorrow is going to be windy they say out of the northeast.  We'll see.  Our flight out is at 6:00 Tuesday evening.  Then we overnight in Grand.  We had a nice long time here this year but it is never long enough.   

Saturday, March 3,2012

It was another gorgeous day here on the island.  We had a nice morning trying to soak up every memory we could.  We still had the scooter luckily as I discovered I didn't have enough butter to make it to the end of our stay.  We made a quick trip to the store.  When we got back Bruce was here to pick up our scooter.  Perfect timing.  Now we are back to bikes only. 

We had our neighbors over for a visit this morning.  They actually didn't have any guests at their little resort this morning.  It was nice to get to know them a little better.  After lunch we headed over to the north side to snorkel.  It was fabulous conditions and tons of fun.  I enjoyed riding our bikes again. 

After getting cleaned up we enjoyed the beach awhile.  Then Tom picked us up.  The Columbia's had us over to dinner tonight.  We enjoyed a nice visit in their beautiful home.  Pat could be a professional cook.  What a feast!  We didn't get home until 10:45.  Johnny Johnson was having a big party at his place with a big bon fire.  We headed over there to the music and drinks for awhile even though it was 11:00.  This is a late night.  Might need a nap in the hammock tomorrow.   

Friday, March 2, 2012

We had a really fun day today.  We were up and running early.  Richard took off on the scooter and I figured he would be back much later.  He rushed back to let me know the water was nearly flat on the north side.  By 9:00 we headed out to snorkel.  We forgot our underwater camera and just when we finally found a turtle.  He was so adorable.  He seemed to enjoy our company.  We swam together for a long time.  At 11:30 we finally got back home. 

After lunch Richard fished a huge bone slick out front of the house.  I took some photos of him out there.  He had quite a time.  Then we headed out on the scooter.  We stopped at the Trust and the liquor store for a bottle of wine.  We paid up our bill at the grocery store and Southern Cross Club.  Now we are poor! 

A lot of hammock laying was done today.  We are truly enjoying just being here.  I am trying not to do any work. 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

This photo shows our beach from a different angle. That is the water in front of our property too and the brush pile that we will burn probably tomorrow. The brush pile is right above the kayaks on this pic.

The rocks you can see in the bottom corner here will hopefully be moved by machine while we are gone.

Another glorious day in paradise. I woke up early and just walked around and looked out every window of the house. It was so pretty outside. Richard went with Tom this morning to fish. He wanted to learn to fly fish. I raked the beach and took some photos of it. It will be nice to see if it looks different from last year. We cleared more jungle out so it should look different.

I finally got my Cayman National Bank account set up on-line. It was a big deal here. They seem to be very slow with this kind of thing. They have been working on it all these 5 weeks. Good heavens. I wanted to have my power bill on-line but it isn't even available. Maybe some other year.

Robin Fite (a builder) came by today to look at our roof and some other things. He is going to get us a price to replace our roof and do a few other jobs around our house. While we were waiting for him I practiced driving the scooter. They say it is like riding a bike but I find it quite different. I am getting the hang of it. I think Richard prefers a scooter to a car.

This afternoon we went to "town" to get a couple things and pick up our debit cards at the bank. They now have them and an ATM on Little Cayman. When they got the ATM there was a big party with a ribbon cutting and everything. Go figure.

I am trying to lounge around more now. I worked just a little on the beach this afternoon and tried to lay in my chair and read. Richard took the scooter to the North side to fish. I guess I could get the hang of this relaxing. I washed all the paintbrushes today and put them away. I never want to paint again. Never say never!