Grand Cayman: 2010

I had grand thoughts of blogging while I was in GC, but we really didn’t have too many, off-the-chart hilarity to document… that is, until we left. We’ll get there soon enough, promise.

My mom and dad came into town on Thursday. House sitting & dog watching in our family are no easy tasks. On top of normal things, they had to give 2 daily insulin shots to Spud, feed smushy food to Callie, and clean up poop that Riley just happens to drop wherever he may be. I can’t thank them enough for taking care of our most treasured possessions. (NOTE: Mom and Dad, after this week, have decided that they will not be getting another dog. Yep, it was THAT much work.)

Although we were seriously dreading the flight to the island, it wasn’t so bad! Let me tell ya’, if you want to shoot through an airport, grab a few old people and a wheelchair or two, and the lines just disappear! We didn’t have to wait in line for anything in the Raleigh, Atlanta OR Grand Cayman airports. Checking our bazillion bags was a bit of a task, mind you, but the act of moving around was much easier than I had expected. We navigated the security checks will little drama. Mabel and I also had the pleasure of the body scan in Raleigh – no sweat.

 

The family stayed in a beautiful home, Far Tortuga, on the North side of the island. This picture, from their website, must have been taken from the roof of the house across the street because the house is right on the road. Also, the house across the street must feed the roosters and hens that roam all over the island – those crazy cock-a-doodle-doos woke me up at 5:15 each morning. Cursing the chickens each time did me no good.

 

 

There was a little discussion about where everyone was going to sleep. My MIL/FIL stayed in the master bedroom (pictured right). Chip and I shared a small room that is just left of the garage. We slept in twin beds, on shaky bed frames, with the AC blowing straight down on your face. I was asleep by 9:30 each night, but didn’t really get a good night’s sleep. Between the shaky bed frames, the air conditioning, and the roosters, it was taxing.

We had two great ladies come in and cook dinner for us 4 nights. Ms. Marie and Ms. Rachel sure can cook. It was a little hard to understand them, but it was easy to smile and stuff your face. We had fried plantains, fresh grouper & mahi, ribs, chicken, beans & rice, pork roast… all yum-o.

The whole family crammed in the 2 cars we rented and spent an afternoon at Rum Point. We had lunch, swam, and drank WAY too much, and ended up with a bill of $900. Have I mentioned how expensive things are there? MY GOSH!

We also drove across the island one morning and visited a sea turtle farm. I had high expectations, and wasn’t disappointed. There were SO many turtles! The turtles swam around in pools and you could pick-up the small ones and get a good look. Needless to say, the more I thought about it, the more distressed I became. They were too many in each tank, and the larger turtles all had nasty looking bite wounds on their necks. I kept thinking about all the nasty things on people’s hands (lotion, perfume, food, germs…) and how they were passing that along to them. After some coaxing, I did grab this little fellow so I could get a good look at him, but I felt bad about it.

OK, here’s the meaty drama file you’ve been waiting for:

• Matthew (nephew) tried to catch a bottle of vodka with his foot, as it was falling from the freezer, and ended-up in the ER. No broken bones, but it was clearly really painful.
• Kim (SIL) smashed into some coral while we were snorkeling, and got a big ole bruise & some lacerations on her leg. We cleaned it with tequila.
• We went out for a nice dinner on Friday night. We tried to guess the amount of the bill. Mabel thought it would be about $300. It was $1200. Mabel said, “Well, we won’t be eating here again!” I think she is right.
• We left the Cayman house at 10:30am, and didn’t get back to our house in NC until 2:30am. Talk about being tired!
• My MIL had some issues in the airport that had to be rectified by getting in the handicap stall with her, with onlookers.
• Aunt Mabel got really sick Saturday AM (a cold) and coughed all the way home. Guess who is sick now – yep, that’d be me.
• Delta Airlines managed to place my MIL’s walker on a completely different plane, and we had to wait for it in Raleigh for what seemed like 2 hours.

That’s the long & short of it! My apologies to those of you that checked the blog each day, but now we are caught up.

If you want to see all the pics, click here –> Grand Cayman 2010 Pictures

On to Christmas! (Ugh)