Wow.... I've been remiss on my blogging duties.
Yes, it's true. The Cayman Islands trip came and went. I can't believe that it ever happened. The flight was much better this year though..... I am amazed that we had just as much fun the second time as the first. We visited some of the same beaches as last year (Garbage Beach, Little Garbage Beach with Poo renamed to Dragon Fly Beach, Rum Point, The Barkers, Seven Mile), but we discovered new ones too. Over on the East end of Cayman (where Hurricane Paloma missed by a mere 40 miles or so; more on that later), there are some very nice spots for a family picnic and swim. It is really astounding that we were always alone.... with the exception of Seven Mile, we were often the only people there. A Caribbean paradise all to ourselves.
Favorite destination: Our favorite new destination is Cemetery Beach – wicked snorkeling.
Snorkeling: The best snorkeling this trip however, had to be when my wife and I saw an 8ft very green Moray Eel swim within 10 feet of us! We were snorkeling right off our Condo, very extreme sound end of Seven Mile.
Funny but really sad: It’s funny but also sad when the guy in the liquor store knows you by first name…. AND he had lived near Victoria for a while to boot! Very small world.
Hurricane Paloma: So here we are, packing for or trip and being the freak that I am, I have been begun monitoring this Tropical Storm that has developed near the Nicaragua / Honduras border. Sure enough, it develops into a Hurricane as it turns north-east toward Cayman. We start to get nervous when it becomes a Category 2 and on a direct path to nail Georgetown. The Condo where we stay is 2 miles north of Georgetown. Needless to say, it's in the path for a direct hit as well. We could not fathom the damage that it would cause to this island, never mind our selfish thoughts about a vacation ruined. We were to leave on Sunday and on the Thursday night is when it was still forecast to go straight over Grand Cayman, although to eastern side (we're staying on the Western side - yes still having selfish thoughts). I told my wife that according to my tracking models (thanks Google Earth), it was going to miss Grand Cayman, but nail the sister islands. We were to meet friends on the Monday in Cayman, they were in a remote resort on Roatan, Honduras. They knew of the storm, but we had no way of contacting them. The resort they were staying in had phones only in the office and no internet access. So given the pending hurricane, we had no way knowing what they were planning to do. Therefore, I spent all day on the Friday, trying to locate alternate destinations because we were certain that the people of Georgetown and Grand Cayman did not need helpless tourists getting in their way while they clean up Paloma's carnage. While surfing the 'net, I was streaming a Georgetown radio station, keeping an ear on the preparations.... It’s amazing that the station was providing half hourly updates, but playing upbeat, Christian songs in-between(=0). By Friday night, we were preparing for a Saturday of being on the phone and computers trying to re-book non-refundable airline tickets, without trip cancellation insurance, aaagghh. I'm stressed out just thinking of it again. We sat on our couch, drinking a few drinkee poos, listening to the cayman radio station, flipping from one Cayman on-line weather station to another and to the Hurricane Forecasting Center, reading blogs from the brave people who stayed on Cayman for whatever reason. Yes, there were a few bloggers that would keep us all updated as the night wore on. An interesting thing started to happen, we noticed that, yes, the wind speed in Georgetown had increased during the evening, but it seems that it has started to decrease. Even on the East end, it was decreasing. I was right! Although Paloma was now a Category 3, it had missed Grand Cayman. There was minor wind and water damage in the Eastern districts, but Georgetown was unscathed. We went to bed knowing that we were likely going to Cayman after all. Back to our friends in Roatan...we hadn't heard anything from them, until I checked our voicemail at about 10am Saturday (how we missed the phone call I don't know). On a very crappy line, barely audible, our friend said that he had already spoken to our condo manager and was told that everything is fine and they'll be looking forward to our visit. So officially, we were heading to Cayman!
The rest is history. Sadly, we think this will be the last visit to Cayman, but then again, you never know…

Cayman Islands Baby!

So we're heading to the Cayman Islands and couldn't be more excited. We went there last year and stayed at the Grandview condominiums right on 7-mile beach. The Grandview is an amazing complex, beach-front, large pool, well appointed 2 & 3 bedroom suites. There are no crowds at this end of the beach, we were often alone watching the sunset.I don't know why were ever afraid to travel with our kids. We thought it would be a nightmare flying a 4 1/2 hour 'red-eye' to Atlanta, then another 2 3/4 hours to Cayman after a 4 hour lay-over. It sounds like a nightmare while writing this, but the kids were awesome. The littlest one fell asleep in Seattle, before we boarded the flight to Atlanta, and didn't wake up until we were disembarking the plane. Something is nagging at me saying that we will not have that luck again...The older one slept most of the way as well. Wish us luck this year.The one thing I can say that I cannot stand, is the airport food. I was really astonsihed at the lack of healthy choices for food in airports. In the Seattle and Atlanta airports we had to wait for our flights. In Seattle it was a late dinner, but there was nothing other than the typical fast food joints, or bars that could not / would not accomodate young children. When we arrived in Atlanta, it was breakfast. The only place open was McDonald's. How disgusting that was......
This year we are looking a little harder for the healthy choices that will not make us ill before we arrive in Cayman.

Croquet in Victoria?! It's true!

So I have been playing Croquet for three years now and all I can say is – FUN! The lads have been playing since they were teenagers and I am still considered the young upstart by most. We hold tournaments throughout the year on a variety of courses. We play two flavours of the rules, depending on which course we are playing. What we call traditional rules, or “Windsor” rules, are played on the typical 6 wicket course, laid out in the traditional Rectangle. These rules are modeled after the Traditional rules, but made simpler for the novice players in our group. They really level the playing field, making it fun and competitive! Now our really competitive style of play is called Jungle Rules! This is where we will go to a beach, park, forest, dry river bed or wherever and lay out a course of 6 wickets in any pattern. It can be over a very large area where it might take a couple of whacks to get to the next wicket….. Good times and lots of beer. This style creates a lot of arguing as the rules often change mid-game and at the whim of any player…. I will use this area to post about coming tournaments and results including the Power Rankings, because we are that competitive…. Here is the summer schedule and Wrap-up tourney details:

We are always looking for fresh blood, please contact me if you would like more information!