This weekend we had our first anniversary getaway (four weeks later than planned). On Friday I picked up a rental at the airport (pass the dutchie on the left hand side man) and when 5 O'clock hit (well actually it was closer to 5:20) we were out the door and headed to East End. Surprisingly, enough we ended up with the exact same car as we had when we first got to the island, license plate 108-210 with the same scratch we saw the first time. The resort is only 18 miles from the college but feels like a whole different world. You take the Queen's Highway and drive east to the northeastern most point of the island and you find two resorts well away from George Town and the Seven Mile Beach crowd.
When we arrived Friday evening we checked in and dropped off our suitcase. We were in the smallest suite which meant we had a room about the size of our apartment. Every room in the resort has a balcony that faces the ocean, overlooking the two pools and the beach. You can tell the resort has dredged the beach since there aren't any rocks as there are at all the public beaches. We also discovered that every morning around 8 a crew walks the beach, raking up all remains from the high tide thus the beach has a very white sandy quality to it.
Our room had a kitchen area with a fridge and microwave and basic plates and silverware. There was a stand alone shower twice the size of the typical stand up shower in the bathroom as well as a jacuzzi tub in the main suite area separating the kitchen area from the bed. The tub was huge!! Katie took at least three baths and it gave me a reason to watch ESPN.
After unpacking, we had a romantic dinner at Castro's Hideaway. It is a second floor restaurant at the resort overlooking the ocean and we ate outside with a great view of the water. We both had pina coladas and discovered at this resort they top them with hot buttered rum. The restaurant has nothing to do with Fidel Castro; there used to be a parrot who hid up in the rafters of a restaurant called Castaways and the manager of the resort decided to re-name the restaurant Castro's Hideaway. The bar downstairs, on the beach ( which looked like every bar you ever see in a movie that takes place in the Caribbean) is also called Castro's bar. After dinner we wandered over to a Fosters Express and bought some sodas, microwave popcorn and ice cream. We decided to do a evening swim but decided not to go in the ocean. We walked out a pier and could see huge fish at least two or three foot long hanging around the end. They obviously were used to being fed as they would swim upside down looking for what ever we would throw them.
After walking out the pier we went first into the hot tub then into the pool for our swim. As we left the pool we were given two coconuts still in their husks by a man who was leaving the next morning. We were able to get the husk off in our room and open the top of the nut to get out the coconut water but didn't have a big enough knife to open the nut and get at the meat. We wandered down to the bar where the bartender used a large knife to crack the coconut. While we ate fresh coconut, we shared a drink called a Cayman Colada which is a pina colada with a cherry liqueur in the middle. We headed to bed having had more alcohol in one evening then in several months combined.
The next morning we hoped to watch the sunrise from our balcony but it was overcast so we went back to sleep at 5:20 a.m. and slept in. Katie ran over to Fosters and got us breakfast (donuts and some local meat filled pastries) which we ate out on the balcony. Then it was down to the beach and a couple of hours of swimming and napping on our beach chairs. We went to lunch at a local restaurant in East End called Viviene's Kitchen. "The food was not good and the service was worse" (that is a direct quote from Katie with which I am in total agreement). We are not ugly Americans, Vernette our business office co-worker had warned us about the place but we wanted to rise above local prejudices, you know what sometimes local prejudices exist for a reason. We are also pretty sure that the fish we shared was bad because we both got sick later in the afternoon. In our three plus weeks on the island this was the first bad experience with local food we have had.
After lunch we headed back to the resort and discovered that they were painting the adjoining suite. Our maid was shocked to see us because they thought both rooms were empty. Without us even asking she had the manager on her cell phone telling her we needed to be moved. We moved our stuff and headed back to the beach. We decided to get some snorkel gear and snorkeled at the resort beach. The water wasn't clear because of high wave activity so we decided to head west toward Cayman Kai. We drove back to the beach we had found our first weekend on the Island. The wave activity was still high and there was a strong current but the water was clear. We swam for a while and exhausted ourselves fighting the currents. We then headed back to the resort and showered before heading out for dinner. Dinner was at an Italian place in Gun Bay called Portofino Wreck View. We ate out on the balcony from which you can see the remains of a wrecked ship out on the reef.
Back to the resort and a nightcap of more Cayman colada down on the beach and then a luxurious bath for Kathleen while I watched cable and channel surfed. This morning was a free breakfast as the resort welcomed all their week long guests who were just starting their visit with an orientation. Since we didn't need that we just got our breakfast from the buffet and headed out to the balcony to eat. We checked out around 11 and headed back to Newlands. We dropped off our stuff and the decided to explore George Town and West Bay which is north of George Town on the western side of the Island. We drove up to the Turtle Farm and over to Hell. We took a couple of pictures of "Hell" and it is pretty interesting but obviously a tourist trap. The gift shop was closed today so we had it all to ourselves. After driving around George Town we called it a day and headed back to the college.
A quick comment, the service all weekend was awesome. The people were very friendly and we both highly recommend the resort. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, the resort is in competition with Seven Mile Beach and is offering an alternative so they need to have great service. Listening to other conversations it was pretty clear there are people who come to this resort a lot as they were recognized by employees and recognized each other. We will definitely be going back ourselves when we need getaways.
This will be another busy week at work. Finishing up registration, lots of academic advising, we are completing a new student hand book and on Saturday have a campus wide meeting to introduce ourselves and talk to the student body (at least those who show up). My tutoring of the Business Law course has now changed to me teaching that course also by reading and conference. I drafted a syllabus last week and the course starts this week. So I will also be teaching my two courses and Katie will be trying to catch up on several months of old transcript requests and hounding professors for their grades and attendance rosters for last quarter. We will update the blog as new things happen.
