Living in Grand Cayman

This week-end we are experiencing some cold(ish) weather and some very rough seas.   No diving on the west/north sides this week-end for sure.  There is also a small boat warning in effect due to the choppy seas. They call these winter systems “Nor’westers” since they come from (you guessed it … ) the north-west.  They are remnants of winter systems in the US and mainly affect (wait for it …) the north western parts of the Island ; in essence Seven Mile Beach and George Town.

So this Sunday morning I went for a drive to see what all the fuss is about ; very choppy indeed!

Here is Seven Mile beach.   Lots of large waves and not a soul in the water.

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For your next vacation here, I hope you did not plan to stay at the former Courtyard Marriott!  The place is now simply a shell and they plan to completely tear it down and build a new luxury hotel. This place has some sentimental value for us ; we stayed here during our first visit ever to Cayman in 2005.  I even remember the room location ; window all the way to the left, second from top.  This hotel had been closed since Hurricane Gustav in 2008 so in a way I am glad something is finally done to what was becoming an eye sore.

Now to George Town.  The wave action is even more fearsome here.  This is Eden Rock ; notice the handlebars to go into the water for snorkeling.  Usually the water here is calm and crystal clear.

Here is a short video I made since the pictures do not do justice to the force of these things.  The best waves are near the end.

Meanwhile, on the southern side of the island …

This is the cloud that dropped quite a bit of water on GT and caught many runners and tourists off guard and scrambling for cover.

This system is expected to be over very soon ; so back to normal heat & sun in the following days.   Looks like diving is on the program next Saturday 🙂

In the last few weeks, I have been travelling around the USA on one of my many business trips. As I always do, I make sure to check out neat places in the evenings and week-ends when possible.

My first cool place to go see was in San Diego. I was in LA for a week, so took all day Sunday to go and see the USS Midway which is at a dock in downtown San Diego.  The USS Midway is a decommissioned Aircraft carrier.  She is now a museum.  I figured I would need +-2h to visit this vessel;  it took me over 4h in what seemed like 30 minutes. It was sooooo interesting.  The drive from Los Angeles to San Diego was only about 2h on silky smooth highways,

Here is this massive ship!

On the deck of the aircraft carrier, there were many military jets to see up close.

Here I am in the Captains chair!

This was the REAL value of the visit.  For almost all the things to see and do, there were volunteers to guide you along and provide details/explanations.  That being said, almost all of them are retired military staff ; many of them actually served on this very ship.  The gentleman below was a pilot who did hundreds of landings/takeoffs on the Midway.  Absolutely fascinating stories.

Here was my ride for the drive to San Diego 🙂

Next stop.   This was my most anticipated visit of my trip.  For many years I had wanted to visit … Dealey Plaza, the place were President Kennedy was gunned down in 1963 in downtown Dallas, Texas.

Here I am standing, in the middle of Elm Ave, at the exact spot where he was fatally wounded.   The spot where Lee H. Oswald allegedly fired his shots are from the building on the left, on the right side, 2nd window from the top.  Lets just say that it is quite far away!

There I am, like all the other crazy tourists, standing in the middle of the street, dodging traffic just for a picture. 

Now from inside the “Texas school book depository”.  On the 6th and 7th floors, there is now a museum dedicated to the entire assassination event.   Very interesting.  I took about 2h to see everything.

This is the view from (almost) where Oswald would have taken the shots.

Finally, being an true nerd, I went off the beaten path for this JFK story.  I suspect most people will stop at the museum and Dealey Plaza.   Here, as you can see is someone’s backyard in a somewhat sketchy part of town.  If you are a JFK buff, you already know what this is.  Cool isn’t it?  It has barely changed in over 60 years.  If you have no clue what this is, see the picture below this one.

Oswald and the infamous backyard photo with his rifle.

New posts about Cayman coming soon 🙂

Cayman seems to be a very quiet place right now ; and its awesome!

The holidays are over, people are back at work and everything seems to be humming along just nicely.   The weather has also been fabulous ; 27-30 every day with low(ish) humidity and very little rain.

So what to do on an awesome week-end and the in-laws are in town again?  Rum Point of course.  Funny thing is I only seem to get to that place when we have guests over.  Last time I was there was probably for my dad’s visit in the spring.  I should be ashamed 🙂

Rum Point in all its splendor.

One cannot come here and not take a picture of the pier ; even though I must have 100 taken over the years, I honestly never get tired of this sight.

Now, this is something that has certainly got my attention and has peaked my curiosity.    When I was a kid we used to see these kind of contraptions on TV ; a jetpack!  Flying around with thing on your back : awesome.  Well, it has now come to Cayman in a watered down (pun intended) version.

Here it is along Seven Mile Beach.  How  it works is quite simple.   You strap on the jetpack and instead of shooting air out the downward nozzles, it shoots out water.  To get the water to you (you can go up to 30ft in the air), there is a tube that goes to what essentially looks like a small jetski. In the jetski looking device is a 200hp engine that sucks up water and sends it to the jepack.  Quite ingenious actually.

Anyway, you may be reading about this more in the future 🙂 If anyone is on islands and wants to take one of these for a spin, the website of http://www.jetpackcayman.com

A few days ago, I went diving with Ocean Frontiers in the East End of Grand Cayman.  Both dives were great ; tons of fish, some lobsters (very big …), a nurse shark and amazing visibility.  All-in-all, a great time.  However, little did I know, the best was yet to come.

On the way back to the dock, the captain suddenly turned around.  I had no idea why.   Turns out he had spotted a large Manta Ray.  So he doubled back and found it once again. It was swimming at the surface so was somewhat easy to spot assuming you were wearing polarized sunglasses (cuts out glare/sun reflection on the ocean)

Here is the Manta Ray as we get close to it.  My estimate is 7ft across.

Here the boat is stopped and its right next to us.

This is now the best part.  Since Manta’s are essentially gentle giants, most of us on the boat grabbed our fins, masks and snorkels and jumped into the water with it.   I don’t have an underwater camera (I know, I know … ) so thanks to Simon who was on the boat with me.  Here it is ; notice the snorkeler behind.

Close up shot

Underneath shot

and finally what is probably the best shot of all:

The episode, amazingly, lasted about 10 minutes.  The Manta ray was obviously not afraid of us and even double back a few times when it got too far from us.  Almost as if it wanted to play.  It got so close we could have touched it.  Of course, all on board are animal lovers so we abstained from doing that, even though it was tempting.  This was definitely one dive outing I will remember for a long time.

In the past I have mentioned the Cayman Islands Humane Society (similar to SPCA) ; as anyone who knows me, knows I adore dogs.  Here in Cayman, I really like the fact that many people when they want a dog (or cat for that matter) go to the Humane society to find their new best friend. Unfortunately, this place is constantly overflowing with pooches ; either because of new litters or people abandoning them.

There is good news though. Every Sunday, a bunch of volunteers take the dogs and give them some basic training.  This week-end and last I tagged along with my good friend Lorene (who goes pretty much every week-end). The idea is to get the dogs who are in need of a new home out for some fun, get them socialized and also give them some basic training.   At this weekly event, the local “dog whisperer”, Kenneth who does an awesome job with the dogs is always around to assist with the training.

Last week, it was on Seven Mile beach.  Here are some the dog handlers and the doggies. (I was also one ; was assigned “Flint”, a cute black dog.)

Kenneth, aka the Dog Whisperer giving us the marching orders.

Here Kenneth assists one of the handlers (as we are all called during the training – I like it, sounds sorta formal) with her pooch.  SIT 🙂

After all of the sits, heel, turns and walking around, this dogs gets some TLC. Seems quite content!

The sad part is at the end.  The doggies have to go back to the Humane Society.  Hopefully most get adopted in short order and don’t stay there too long.  In any case, with the walks they get + Sunday training it should give them a better chance of finding a good home.   Here they are getting loaded into the van for the ride back.   All of these doggies were awesome; makes you want to take a few of them home with you.

Unrelated to the event, I saw this guy just before the dog training.  Quite impressive since this dog looks only a few weeks/months old.  I walked along the beach for a while and this little guy only fell off once ; the whole time he was going back & fourth between his owners legs.  Very cute.