Monday December 18th
The week before Christmas is a good week for a vacation
for a lot of reasons. No one in their right mind really wants to be shopping,
the kids are out of school and very few people are traveling for business or
pleasure. This combination has meant a trip in each of the past three years for
us. Mary Lou's requirement is that wherever we go should be hot and not involve
huge amounts of time on airplanes to get there. This year we went to Grand Cayman,
part of the British West Indies in the Caribbean. It is located just south of
Cuba and just west of Jamaica.
We got to our hotel just in time for dinner and a
quick look around. We had a room on the second floor just above the pool
about 40 feet from the ocean. That's me in the second picture below just behind the palm trees reading
a book on
the balcony.
Tuesday December 19th - Hot, Hot, Hot!
Our first full day was
also the hottest - over 90 and very humid. Not knowing it would get cooler later
in the week, we chose that day
for a long walk into town from the Hotel. We discovered various shops and
restaurants along the way and had a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We started
to acquire a taste for good rum cake that followed us for the rest of the trip.
On the way home we stopped to take a shot of the sun setting behind an old
shipwreck. The kids took a late night swim in the pool just below our balcony
(last picture above).
Wednesday December 20th
This was our day to rent a car and see the
sites across the island. The reason that was a big deal is that on Grand
Cayman they drive on the left side of the road. Undaunted, I rented a right
drive car and off we went. Our first stop was the Turtle Farm. This a farm that
both protects and farms green sea turtles. From there we drove to a city called
Hell. The landscape inspired the name, which they now use for a theme with
tourists.
From
Hell, we drove across the island to an old pirate treasure hiding spot made up
of natural caves. We continued the trip to some blow holes at the beach at the
far end of the island. From there we made a quick stop at the Botanical Gardens,
but the mosquitoes were causing us a lot of grief by then. We finished the day
seeking some Caribbean entertainment, but settled for a good dinner just a short
walk up the road.
Thursday
December 21st
On Thursday we hung around the hotel to relax and did some walking
along the beach.
Friday December 22nd
We headed back into town on
Friday to try to take a submarine ride out to the shipwrecks. Because of the
storm that had been hovering in the Caribbean all week, the water was too cloudy
to see anything. We did some shopping around, then bussed back to the hotel for
some swimming and relaxation. That evening we did a pirates dinner at the hotel
with Caribbean entertainment that proved to be a real highlight of the trip.
Saturday
December 23rd
Our last day turned out to be the best beach day of all. The
storm off-shore had passed and the water was crystal clear. We spent the morning
in the ocean and then headed out to the airport for the trip home.
(This row scanned from film prints)