Living in Grand Cayman

With Ernesto barely gone, we now have another system to deal with.  Still unnamed, but likely to be called “Florence” in the next day or so.  Already, tropical storm watches have been issued for many of the Lesser Antilles (Dominica, St.Lucia, Barbados, etc)

Its quite obvious that this will now come into the Caribbean basin. Once there, who knows what will happen.  One thing for sure (or almost for sure) is that it will gather strength.  The reason being is that these systems “feed” on warm water, and water is much warmer in the Caribbean than in the open Atlantic.

Will probably post another update on Sunday ; by then we should have a much better fix about where its going.

Two days ago Ernesto seemed heading pretty much our way.   As of Sunday morning, Ernesto decided to stay on a more southern route.  A tropical storm warning is now in effect for Cayman (just raised a few moments ago) and for Jamaica but will likely be lifted later today or early tomorrow.  My guess is that this was done in an abundance of caution, since by looking at the path I dont see how it could affect us in any significany way.

It will likely effect Nicaragua and the Yucatan peninsula who probably get a direct hit.  Although with a TS or weak category 1, should not be anything devastating.

This is unfortunately only the start, since the “statistical peak” or the hurricane season is +-September 10, so we will likely see quite a few new storms being formed in the Atlantic in the next 8-weeks or so.

So August is here and I am unfortunately not making a post about Ernest Hemingway or some trip to Cuba, but of a looming storm.   From my memory, the last storm that actually threatened (or hit) Cayman was Paloma in 2008.  Since then, its either just been “lots of rain” or the storms have turned north heading mainly towards Bermuda or out to the Atlantic.

So here is what I am talking about.  As you can see, the computer models put it the center of the system close to Cayman sometime Monday afternoon or late in the day.

As of right now, everything is calm. People at the grocery seemed to be buying a bit more, but no panic or anything like that.  The general feeling seems to be that we will get something, but probably just a lot of rain or at worst a Category 1 hurricane.  From my now 5-years of experience with this type of weather, Cat 1 is sort of OK (but still no fun …) and anything above Cat 3 all bets are off.  The US National Hurricane Center forecasts, as of right now, at most a Cat 1.  Not taking any chances ; supplies are purchased and may go to my office if needed. Anyway, the next 24-36h should give us a much better idea of what will happen.

Stay tuned for more updates this week-end.

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As my long time readers may recall, I always go to Las Vegas for a conference each year. I always try to go for a quick road trip after one of the conference days. Vegas is fun, but I also find it great to leave the action and see something else. This year, on a recommendation from my sister, I decided to check out the “Valley of fire”, which is under 1h away from Las Vegas.

As in previous years, my awesome buddy Mathieu, who I only get to see 1-2 times per year joined me in Las Vegas.   So here we are!

As usual, the roads were immaculate and as expected, the scenery was really pretty.  Lots of reddish mountains, hence the name!

This view made it all worth it!

This arch, which is simply called “Arch rock” was definitely one of the highlights of this trip.

Oh … so we are in the desert and its July.  This was the hottest we saw.  For non F people, this is +-44c.   HOT!!!!!!

Back to the madness of Las Vegas and all its evening traffic on The Strip.

So here is the trip ; Las Vegas to Valley of fire via a northern route and back via Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  Makes for a really nice and surprisingly quick Las Vegas road trip.   Definitely worth it.  Make sure to bring plenty of water with you ; if you get out of your car at anytime, dehydration could come really fast.  Note that you will also cross 2 national park which will incur 2 x 10$ fee (per car)  Well worth it anyway.

Just recently with my dad we saw lot of great things. (see previous post)  I kept this visit as a separate post since it is something I had personally not seen and it is definitely worth a bit more detail.

In 2010, a local individual, Andreas Ugland (who apparently is a really nice fellow) opened up the Cayman Motor Museum.

The museum is located in West Bay, just past the Turtle farm in a dedicated building.  Here is the spot.  Nicely done in my opinion.

To be honest, I had seen a few pictures of the place, but did not really know what to expect.   I was delightfully surprised! This is what you see when you first enter the “room” where the cars are located.   Needless to say, for a small island like Cayman, the collection (and what you see below is only +-1/2 of it) is quite impressive.   There are many Ferrari’s (essentially all the red ones on the left and 1/2 of those in the right)

Here is one of the Ferrari’s.   Each car has an explanation as well as some history about the specific unit when relevant.  The fact sheet also gives the original price tag for that model.  Makes for interesting reading.

For those more into “old school” cars, there is a whole section of Rolls Royce and the likes.   I’m more into the Ferrari type rides, but I still found it very interesting.

If you are in Cayman and like cars, this place is definitely worth a stop.  We read pretty much every car information sheet and spent +-90 minutes in there.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.caymanmotormuseum.com