January 30, 2013 Thursday

It is 16 degrees in Ames and we are enjoying a beautiful 85.  The weather is unbelievable here this year.  How can you improve upon perfect?!?  We snorkeled on the North side this afternoon in the clearest, calmest water I have ever seen.  I am so glad Brandon was here to enjoy it with us.  The water temps are in the 80s which is so comfortable.
 


This morning Brandon and Richard went deep sea fishing.  They caught three barracuda but no tuna or wahu or snappers.  I am not giving up on them, they will catch supper for us.  The day before, the three of us went out but just for a spin.  It is a nice boat.  We are renting it from a couple (Mike & Linda) who stay on the island also.  They are not here right now.







I have been enjoying our beautiful beach.  The guys did such a wonderful job on it.  There has been so much rain the past months that the trees are lush and green yet.  There are no leaves littering my sand.  The jasmine tree has tons of leaves yet and it is flowering.  This is a first for us to see.  Usually it is finished when we arrive. 






We have been jumping in the car to get places, which is great, but boy do I miss my bike!  I would have had a ton of exercise by now.  It is nice to have a vehicle, but.....  Tomorrow the bike will get used. 




The island hasn't changed at all since we were here last.  With all the rain, the inland water lakes are full.  That looks really neat.  They have not been that full for a few years. 


I tried to upload photos but they didn't work.  Darn.  I think I will get a new blog as this one now sucks!  Ever since they changed the format it is awful!!

January 28,2014 Tuesday

We arrived on Little Cayman yesterday afternoon around 3:00 pm.  It was a beautiful, sunny day of 85 degrees.  Mike and Linda's car which we are renting this season, was there at the airport waiting for us.  We piled in and made the drive to the house.  The grounds look wonderful!  The guys did a beautiful job cleaning up for us.  We are very happy.  Nothing so far has broke down and that is very nice. 


Bedtime was early as we were all wore out and our tummies very full after a delicious dinner at Southern Cross Club.  Boy, did we eat!!  As soon as we got into bed it started to rain.  It rained hard for a long time.  This is so rare!  It was wonderful!


This morning was sunny and beautiful and not very windy.  The kind of day that is perfect!  The water was just fantastic and beautiful.  I headed for the grocery store very early as we didn't shop on Grand and the store was closed here yesterday too because of that holiday!!  It sure is fun settling in again. 


This afternoon, Richard and Brandon went and got the boat.  The Sunset Cove next door is letting us use their dock so we are grateful for that.  It sure makes things easy.  Tomorrow we will try deep sea fishing. 


I am so happy to be here and enjoy this with Brandon and Richard.

January 26, 2014 Sunday

We made it!  What a day.  I woke up at 2:00 A.M. and stayed in bed until 3:00 thinking I could sleep another hour but no dice!  It has been a busy time getting ready to make the trip to Little Cayman this year.  Somehow I seem to be worrying more about everything lately.  I did everything there was possible to do to get ready for the trip this year.  We adjusted the suitcases over and over to make sure they were all underweight.  We didn't want any over charges this year.  We headed out the door a little before 4:30 to pick up Brandon in Ankeny.

Our weather has been very cold and harsh this winter and they predicted a blizzard for our flight to North Carolina from DesMoines.  Luckily, it was just 40 mph winds but no snow.  We got to the airport to check in and they charged us an extra $90.00 for overweight bags!!!  I was shocked!  We were so careful packing.  How could this happen?  Once again, I say next year will be different.  This will not happen again.

The plane ride from Des Moines was a small cramped plane that I was relieved to get off of in North Carolina.  We had an early lunch at the airport and got on our plane for Grand Cayman .  It was a wonderful big luxury ship!! It was comfy and warm too.  With the help of my new inflatable neck pillow, I even took a nap.  How nice!

Arriving in Grand Cayman was heavenly!  A balmy 82 sunny degrees!  It could not have been more perfect!  We are thrilled to be here.  We ate dinner at Casanova by the Sea.  It is an authentic Italian restaurant and all the servers are Italian.  This place was chosen as Brandon loves pasta.  I had fresh Mahi Mahi and it was to die for!!  WOW!!!  I will certainly eat there again.  We ate over the water and couldn't have been happier.

We will not be shopping this year as today is Sunday and nothing is open, not a thing!!!  Turns out tomorrow is a holiday and nothing is open then either!  There are so many things I want to buy and can't shop for a thing.  Darn!!  I guess we will have to fly over again later and shop.  This means we have to buy more airline tickets.  The adventure continues.  I can't wait to get to the house tomorrow.  

Tuesday, March 5,2013

I am typing this post from the airport in North Carolina.  Yesterday the Internet was not working at our house.  Our last day was a busy one.  The weather was beautiful of course.  We enjoyed every minute of our time.  We got a call from Marc at Blossom Construction and he sent the guys over to work on our place at 1:00.  We had an area with a bunch of leaves that we wanted cleaned up.  They did a wonderful job.  We were busy cleaning equipment and putting bikes away and washing our kayaks. 

I fed Ellie one last time.  She is so friendly. I took my bike on one last big ride. Richard and I went out to the Hungry Iguana for dinner and it was a really nice time. 

This morning we got up early and packed up and closed the house.  Mike and Linda said they wanted to pick us up and take us to the airport. 

When we woke up today the weather was perfect for fishing.  Boy was it hard to leave.  Our flight was at 9:15 and it got later and later.  We called Mike and he was out fishing.  Linda was going to pick us up and unfortunately, she forgot.  I went next door and Bruno was kind enough to run us over.  When we got to the airport Patti was there to see us off and Linda was there too.  I felt bad for her, as it is hard when you forget someone.  We had a fun sendoff.  Karen went to Grand also and we had lunch with her.  Janet and her hubby were on  our flight too.

I took this photo earlier with my cell phone.

This is the last picture of the beach and house.  This shows all our hard work on the beach.  We did lots of stump removal and will work on the left side next year.

Now, we are in airport world.  Until next year, when January rolls around again and we return to Little Cayman.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Today we got up at 5:00 A.M. again as Richard went fishing with Mike.  It didn't seem windy here, but when they got out past the breakers, the sea was super rough.  He came back home at 7:00.  Luckily, he saw the bone fish were feeding out front of the house.  He hurried out in his kayak to catch a few. 

We enjoyed beautiful weather here today.  The sky was clear with a few passing clouds occasionally.  It was in the low 80's.  Very comfortable.  Today I washed the bedding and it dried super quick.  I sat around on the beach a lot today. 

After lunch Richard and I went to SCC and the grocery store to pay our accounts off.  Now we are broke!  We must go home.  Tomorrow will be a work day.  We have to get everything put away.  Our flight leaves at 9:15 A.M. on Wednesday morning.  We don't get to DesMoines until 9:30 P.M.  Then we still need to get to Ames.  The reason it will take so long is because we have a 3 hour layover in Grand Cayman and then another 3-4 hours in North Carolina.  I better take a good book to read while sitting around.

Late this afternoon Marc, with Blossom Construction, came by.  He is going to check our grounds once a month and keep everything from growing back.  It will look nice when we return. 

We will make the most of tomorrow, our last day.  I am going to soak up as much warm sun as possible.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

This morning it was mostly cloudy most of the day.  The wind was blowing off and on.  It was a perfect day to get some work done around the beach.  I moved rock while Richard did serious stump removal.  He dug down around the stumps and used the chain saw to saw them out.  What a job.  The beach looks great though.  It is so exciting to watch the transformation.  I managed to do two loads of laundry today.  With the sun and wind, they dry in a hurry.  Tomorrow I'll do sheets and that is it until next year.

Richard didn't get to fish today.  It was weird having him home in the morning. 

Tonight we are invited to Mike and Linda's for dinner.  They are a fun couple who stay for three months on the island.  I am trying to use up all our food before we leave the island.  Richard will have to eat very hardy tomorrow.  Hope he'll be hungry. 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

This was an exciting day at Little Cayman.  Richard left super early again to go fishing in the deep sea with Mike.  He said he would be home by 10:00 if nothing was biting.  He still wasn't home at 12:00 so I was hoping they were having some luck.  He arrived around 12:30 with a big smile and fish.  It was very exciting to hear the fish tales.  They had quite a time!  Richard caught a Mahimahi or some call it a Dolphin fish or a Dorado and a Red Hines.  They were both huge.  The Dorado was 36 inches plus and the Red Hines was about 18 inches.   They also got three Trigger fish.  What a day. 

Of course, I fixed fish for supper.  We had some of the Mahimahi and the Red Hines.  Boy, was it yummy.  We found out, if the fish are frozen, we can bring them home.  We will do this. 

The weather this morning was very still and cloudy.  After my breakfast and exercises, I headed outside to enjoy the beach.  Then I moved three or four loads of rock.  About 10:00 a slight breeze came up from the water.  By noon it was actually windy, straight from the north.  We still have a wind and the temperature is 73 degrees.  It will be a nice sleeping night.  Actually, I have slept perfect every night.



Here is Richard with his Dorado.



Richard with the Red Hines he caught.



We re-arranged the furniture on this side.  Now the sofa bed faces the windows.



The other sofa bed is still in it's same place.  Boy, we sure love our place.

 This afternoon we worked outside a little and burned our burn pile.  Glad that is gone.  We have started getting in the mindset of leaving.  Our new storage garage is ready and we are organizing where everything will go.