Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Today was a super busy, exciting day!  We got up at 5:30 A.M. to go fishing.  I guess fish like to eat early!  So we get out through "the cut" in the breakers and head to the spot in the ocean that Richard wanted to try to get the big one.  We were out there fifteen to twenty minutes and one of the polls started humming!  OMG!  We had hooked a Wahoo!  It took a long time and a lot of work to reel him in.  I took over control of the boat and Richard brought the fish in.  Talk about exciting!  I was shaking like a leaf by the time this thing was in the boat.  Richard has been wanting to catch a Wahoo for his whole life!!  Boy is he happy!  I thought we would head back after this but we kept fishing.  I couldn't believe it, we hooked another fish!  It was a super giant tuna!  We had our hands full!  Suddenly a giant shark shows up and bit it in half!  I guess the shark has to eat too!  What a morning!  We were back home by 9:00.  Of course, then we had to clean these fish!  That took awhile!  We have at least 10 pounds of meat from these fish!

We ate an early lunch and both of us took a nap.  I was very tired!  Then we headed to the north side to snorkel.  The water couldn't have been more perfect.  I had the very best snorkel of all time!  We swam with a huge turtle, saw the biggest groupers ever.  There were two barracudas that were 7 feet long and a giant shark!  I could go on and on!  Boy, were we lucky to be there to see this!

This evening we entertained guests for dinner and I am very late updating my blog.  Time is just too fast for me.

Yesterday, Richard went fishing for a short while early in the morning to get the boat going.  We had a busy day getting things done around the house and I took my kayak out in the afternoon for a long beautiful ride as the water was spectacular.  After my ride, I layed on the beach and just relaxed.  Last night was Ladies Night so I headed to Little Cayman Beach Resort for dinner with the gals!  We had a great fun time.

Tomorrow the plan is to fish early again.  What a life here in Paradise!

Richard reeling in his big Wahoo.

Here is his big Wahoo.  What a beautiful fish!

Here is the poor tuna.  More than half went to the shark.  He fought like crazy until shark got him.

Hello beautiful, graceful turtle.

Sunrise over the ocean.

Richard bringing in his Wahoo.  

Monday, February 23, 2015

Here we go again!  It sounds like a broken record to say once again how perfect the weather was.  Today was glorious!  Richard went fishing and he caught a Mahi Mahi!  He went with Brian.  We ate fish for supper tonight and was it ever yummy!  Oh my!!  I fixed it on the grill.  I also did baked potatoes and broccoli on the grill.  They finally had nice fresh broccoli in the store.

Our sign is all finished so it is official.  We are the Gecko Shack!

This afternoon Christian was unable to help put the boat in again so super nice Brian helped us.  We had serious trouble with the trailer breaking down on the way.  This can be fixed and we are looking forward to taking the boat out tomorrow.

We ate supper out on the porch again tonight.  This year we seem to be eating most every meal outside.  We sure wouldn't be doing that at home!  

The sunset was so pretty tonight.  Notice the star in the sky.  

Here is the famous sign!  It is kind of hard to read it here.  I will do a close up soon.  It was fun to make.  Natalie helped when she was here.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Of course, it is a beautiful day in paradise and I am the lucky girl who is here to enjoy it!  Richard and I worked outside this morning for awhile but I took a nice break before lunch.  We know how fortunate we are as it was only 9 degrees at home today and even colder tomorrow.

Richard still doesn't have the boat in the water.  They were going to do it today but the guy who was going to help him works at SSC and they had a fatality at the resort today.  A man had gotten back from diving and then had a heart attack.  Not a good thing to have happen to you on this little island.

This afternoon I took my floaty out and had a nice time relaxing.  Afterwards I layed on my chair and enjoyed just being on the beach.  Where was my beach guy to bring me a drink?  Say a mudslide!!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Friday, yesterday was a super work day here at out house.  At 7:30 A.M. LeRoy Brown arrived with 30 tons of sand for our driveway and road.  He brought a front loader along and as they dropped the sand he spread it down the length of our drive.  We shoveled and raked our way through it to make it nice and smooth.  Boy, did we work!  We love the finished product!

We managed to have a little afternoon time left to wash our new truck and wax it.  This is Mardi Gras weekend here on the island so we needed to have a clean truck to go out Friday evening.  Dinner this year was at Pirates Point Resort with a live band for dancing following.  They really have good bands here and everyone gets on the "floor" to have a good time to the beat!!  We had a good group of friends to celebrate with and the food was spectacular.  We got home late!

Saturday weather was perfect to work on some little outside projects and sit on the beach.  After lunch Richard announced ISU was playing a game that we should watch at Iggy's.  We decided to do that and immediately got a call from Mike and Linda.  The parade for Mardi Gras started at 4:00 and they asked us to do a float with them.  They have a perfect vehicle for the MASH movie/show and Linda is an artist.  She transformed their SUV and we came up with costumes with materials on hand.  Boy!  We had fun!  I made crutches out of brooms and foam, towels wrapped around arms and legs were casts. Heads were bandaged and blood was spray painted on us.  I carried an IV pole made of a water bottle and rope and old broom handle.  Mike was the doctor chasing after "hot lips" from the show.  We had the music playing from the show.  FUN FUN FUN!  We won second place in the residence float category and first place in the group category.  The theme of our Mardi Gras this year was Hollywood.  There was a big Casablanca float, a Wizard of Oz float and a Bollywood float.  The Hitchcock float was awesome.  Needless to say, we didn't watch the game!  ISU won anyway!

I made a late supper of tacos and we are both tired and going to bed early.  Tomorrow will be another big day I am sure.

Trucks and sand arrive.

I'm barefoot'n in the sand while I work!

Finished product!

Our lovely entrance.  That big bamboo pole on the left will be the site of my new sign!

Richard and I with Linda and Mike at Mardi Gras.

Some of the Mardi Gras crowd after parade.

This is our driveway entrance when we purchased the property.   What a lot of work!  Compare to above photo. 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

This morning we woke up to rain!  What a surprise!  We had a lot of things to do this morning so the rain fit right into our schedule.  We needed to go to the bank.  When we got there they were closed.  Turned out their plane was late as the windshield on the plane broke.  Good heavens!  We seem to be having issues with our plane this year.  It turned out LeRoy Brown was on the same plane.  We were waiting for him to do our sand delivery.  He arrived and started working on Johnny's road first and tomorrow at 7:30 am he will be here in our driveway and road.  How exciting!  Things are coming together here.

We got our tickets to Mardi Gras.  The dinner is tomorrow night and the parade is Saturday.  Should be fun!

Today the tide went way out.  I took pictures of it as it was so alarming!  I don't believe it has ever gone out this far before!  What is going on??

This shot is to the south.  All the brown is seaweed that washed in.  The water is normally way up near the beginning of the kayaks.

This is to the north.  The water should be way up where the seaweed got deposited.   The seaweed doesn't usually come in either.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

We awoke to another beautiful day here and boy are we glad to not be in Ames right now.  It is only 2 degrees for a high and brutal wind chills.  Today we have only a slight breeze and it is hot!  We worked on cleaning up our new truck this morning.  We wanted to "clean it our way".  We made a trip to the grocery store and picked up the rest of our things from the barge.  I had ordered a bottle of vinegar and expected to receive a little one (16 fl oz).  They sent a huge thing (l.32 gallons, 5 liters)!!
Why would they do this? Obviously, it will last me a life time!

 This morning we discovered the air conditioning in our truck does not work.  We are awaiting a call back from Vampt Motors.  They are the ones we had make sure everything worked on our truck before shipping it to Little Cayman.  I am sure they will make it right.

We ate an early lunch and headed to the north side to snorkel.  When we got there, Tom and Patty were already there.  We didn't even plan it like that.  I saw a huge turtle and swam around with him for a long time.  I am always looking for turtles.  They are my favorite snorkel buddies.  I also saw a nice ray and the biggest parrot fish ever!  The size of a cruise ship!  ha ha ha!  Then I discovered I was way too far out in the sea.  This is why the fish was so large!  I was very alarmed and tried to hurry back in but there was a strong current and I felt I was swimming and not moving forever!  Boy, was I ever tired after that!  What a fun afternoon!

Tonight we went to Wet Your Whistle Wednesday and had a wonderful time!  Lots of friends were there.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Needless to say, it is another glorious day here in paradise!  Richard went deep sea fishing this morning with Mike.  I took the opportunity to wash bedding.  It smells so good when I bring it in off the line.  I ate a leisurely breakfast on the porch while watching all the water action.  One cannot help but relax when looking at the Caribbean waters.

After all that hard work I had to settle in a beach chair and read for awhile.  I was feeling very good!  Richard got back from fishing so I moved to the hammock on the porch and tried to read there.  Good grief!  I fell asleep!  Lunch time.

This afternoon I trimmed up some greenery around the side of the house.  Trimming is not hard, it is the removal of the trimmed goods that is work.  I was sweating immensely!  As soon as that job was done I put on a swim suit and got in the water.  Wow was that refreshing.  We tried to stay here at the house today as we were waiting for the barge to dock.  Our truck was finally going to arrive!  It finally showed up at supper hour.  We took the scooter to pick it up and I drove the truck home at last.

Tomorrow we have a busy day planned and it is for sure going to include going snorkeling.  It is going to be another grand day in paradise!

This little guy was on the side of our house when we came home tonight.  It is a tree frog.  Isn't he cute!

Here is the truck!  Interesting that we have a red truck and a red scooter.  We also have a photo of the barge but it is too blurry to post.  Darn!