Grand Cayman Christmas Eve

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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 managed to find the brewery today - it’s on the “old” road on the way east, the next roundabout after Hurley’s. Had a cold refreshing glass of Caybrew; they had some snack food remaining from their employee party, and after we left we discovered the Closed sign was up. There was another family inside, and a man leaving held the door open for us (which is why we didn’t see the closed sign). It was a cheerful, informative stop.

We headed on to find the Blowhole area - and the sign is up for them. We had stopped a little too soon to start with, but eventually found the right spot. Pretty neat. We heard that Hurricane Ivan had destroyed some of them, but there’s at least one good one, and DD thought she saw at least one more.

It was getting on in the afternoon, so we didn’t stop at the Wreck of the Ten Sail. We did stop at Collier’s Beach, where a bedraggled “Blue Dragon” iguana statue is still standing. Restrooms were closed, but fun to see people kite-boarding and wind surfing (only a couple of them). Then we drove by Morritt’s and The Reef resort (kind of glad we didn’t get an exchange over on that side, especially the way the weather’s been - still pretty windy for us for swimming/snorkeling. Stopped in at the Foster’s Express for some pretzels and a paper (and they do have a restroom).

The road on the East End appears recently paved. We merged on into the road to go on toward Rum Point at Old Man Bay (where there’s an intersection with Frank Sound Road. Spotted the turnoff for the Mastic Trail, which I hope to check out later. It was about 4:30 but DD said she was okay driving back after dark, so we went on to Kaibo to look for “Starfish Beach” (Ivory Kai). We didn’t find any starfish, maybe because it was a little rough, and a little late to deal with swimsuits, etc.

We had dinner at Coconut Joe’s across the street - good fish and chips. A large lit-up float just went by on the main drag, with loud, pleasant sounding caroling. DD saw it on her return from the grocery store, where she was getting conch shell cleaning supplies.

We stopped at Rum Point for the sunset (and a restroom opportunity) - they were closing up shop, or we would have gotten some food there as well. We went back past the large property that had a lot of decorations up near Savannah on the main road, but nothing was turned on, even tho it was dark and after 6:30 p.m. We were too hungry to wait around to see if they went on a little later - maybe we’ll get back there in the evening while they’re still up. We did see several other pretty yards, with lovely lights on.

So, another lovely day in paradise. Merry Christmas!

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