12/28/08, Sunday - At leisure in Grand Cayman. The resort has an intro program on Sunday morning at 9:30, with refreshments and activity vendors visiting. No cereal or muffins this year, just juice and coffee. There is more staff here than at the first place we stayed. There’s a lobby with a desk that is staffed until 11 p.m., some groundskeepers working throughout the day, an activities director, a restaurant and bar. The host this morning said he is the new manager, named Mike. Vendors included the on-site dive shop/tour arrangers, Pampered Ponies (horse rides), waverunner/kayak concession out by the water, and our favorite, Gilbert “Big Joe” who always brings along a couple of iguanas and tells us about his shop and services. DGS got to hold the large iguana for a long time, and also ... read more

12/26/08 Friday: Iguanas and Blowholes on Grand Cayman Leisurely start to the day; DD and DGS had some pool and ray time while she was doing a load of laundry and I did some tidying in the kitchen (can’t get away from housework completely) and made lunch to take along for the afternoon. We headed to the East District again, and went to the Mastic Trail. It goes into what is still a scrubby natural area on the Island. The northside trailhead was a little tricky to spot - it’s right beside a house that has a front wall marked Beware of Dogs; I had thought it was at the end of Further Road, east of Old Man Bay, but it’s at a right-hand turn a little over half-way in. It starts out in a tall, ... read more

Wednesday, 12/24/08 - Christmas Eve DD and DGS went to the pool for early morning rays after bkfst; I posted some photos, etc. Then we went did a little shopping, mostly for a few extra things to get through the coming two holidays. Had lunch at the condo. Then drove through town to head to east side. Six enormous cruise ships in town - an expected 17,000+ people; it was elbow-to-elbow along the sidewalks in the shopping district in town. The smallest of the ships is the Disney Magic, that DD and DGS got to cruise on with DD’s grandmother as a college graduation present - they enjoyed seeing it in port. We stopped at the National Trust office at Dart Park again to walk out to take photos of the ships and the Park. We ... read more

Dec. 21, Sunday - Moving on down 7 Mile Beach - This is the Life! We went to Eats Café for breakfast, using the Cayman activity guide coupon - had two books, so got two CI$3.99 one egg bkfsts, and one blueberry fluffycake bkfst to share with DGS and among us. No coffee or juice so came out at about CI$16-17.00 with tip. (That’s really inexpensive here, but we just had water to drink, and ordered carefully to see if we could get by doing that). Pretty good, with good service. It’s straight across the street from the Westin and traffic wasn’t too bad on Sunday morning to run across (no crosswalk). Were able to spend about an hour on the beach before we had to pack up to move. The water seemed a little cooler ... read more

Next up is our holiday trip back to Grand Cayman. We fly out from Charlotte this year on Friday, 12/20 -- should be much less stressful than last year's experience with the Atlanta airport. I'll also be doing a trip report on the Cayman activity guide site, but I hope to be able to add more details here. Why, you may ask, do people who do no scuba diving want to keep going back to Cayman? After all, the Cayman Islands are known most for their spectacular diving. Well, we do a little bit of snorkeling -- even though we don't venture very far from shore, there are still fish to see. If you look at the weather map of the U.S. right now, you'll see that most of the county, including our little bit of ... read more