Saturday, November 24, 2007

CIMA walk and Botanic Gardens

This morning at 4:30 a.m. Katie and I got up and headed over to Seven Mile Beach for a 5k walk sponsored by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority for the benefit of the ICCI library. The walk began ar 6:00 a.m. from the public beach in West Bay down SMB road to the Hyatt and back. We finished in a little over 45 minutes which wasnt bad for just power walking. We started in the darkness and finished with the sun rising to the east of us over the Island. The walk had to be early so we wouldnt have to battle the heat and also to avoid the traffic that really gets going by 8:00 a.m. The turnout was great and at ten bucks a head plus some donations, we are hoping to raise a couple of thousand dollars for the library.

After a nap and some lunch, this afternoon we headed over to Frank Sound Road and the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Gardens. The gardens are the habitat of the blue iguana though they are protected throughout the Island. We saw mostly green iguana out and about but did see one blue iguana in a pen. Katie isnt sure it was a blue iguana and it was mostly green so I could be wrong in saying we saw one. We took some pretty pictures and added another mile of walking to our day. We finished up out at the East End Lighthouse Park while a storm blew in from the south. The botanic gardens were pretty incredible and definitly are added to the list of must see places when family come to visit.

I have come out of my brief period of mourning for the tragedy yesterday. Living in paradise there are some nice things to distract you.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Although today is a work day we are having a Thanksgiving meal at work this afternoon. Katie is hard at work right now making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. I am making the corn. Others on the staff are bringing the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, casseroles and salads. We plan to stop down around three and spend a couple of hours before the students start arriving having our meal.

The quarter is over but we have a couple of classes making up missed days so we are working tonight while classes are in session. Tomorrow we are leaving a little early to watch the Texas-Texas A&M game. Last night we had pizza on seven mile beach with some new friends from Houston who are in town for the week. We had met them at Elizabeth Bezemek's baby shower last year and when they heard we were down here set up a get together.

Doesnt feel like a holiday yet but watching the Macy's parade and smelling the pies is getting us in the mood. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Key West

This weekend Katie and I had our second getaway weekend up to Florida. We flew up Friday morning and after a run to the bank to deposit money, a stop at Best Buy to get some DVD's, a stop at Staples to pick up supplies and lunch at Chili's we headed down to the hotel in Key Largo. Friday night was our night to catch up with Katie's friend Bridgette who is now living and working in Tallahassee. We went to Senor Frijoles for Mexican food and Margarita's and caught up on everyone's news.

Saturday morning we drove back up to Miami and attended a couple of hours of the Seminar our students were attending. After lunch with the instructor and another stop at Staples (we turned in over 100 printer cartridges on our last trip and can only use three per person per day), we headed back to the Keys. We decided to take the water taxi three miles out into international waters and go to a casino on a boat. The sun was setting as we headed out to the big boat and we got a spectacular view over the water. The boat had three decks and was 190 feet long. Slots on one deck, cards, craps and roulette on another and an open poker area on the top. It was Katie's first time gambling so we started out playing black jack together. We sat next to two experienced players who helped us out a lot telling us certain tips and the dealer was nice enough to let them give us help even though it broke the pace of the game a couple of times. I was distracted trying to follow the scores on a TV and see how Texas was doing against Texas Tech. The Horns won in a shoot out and Katie must have had first time luck because we won 45 dollars on the game. We learned about odds and doubling down and when you always hit and when you stand.

We then dumped $5 of that into the slots and decided to call it a night while we were ahead. The boat shines a light onto the water which draws bait fish who then draw sharks. We went onto the outside and could see the sharks swimming around the boat. At one point we counted 16 sharks some of them at least 5 to 6 feet long. They were swimming around and occasionally would strike at the fish. It was a neat experience seeing them. We headed back to the resort on the 8:30 water taxi and took our winnings to a restaurant 5 miles further down into the keys called Snappers and finished the evening with a meal on the water.

Sunday was our drive down to Key West. On the water taxi back from the casino, a local named Skip had told us about things to do in Key West (including a train/trolley tour). We stopped for breakfast at a place called Little Italy about half way down the Keys. We also pulled off at the start of the Seven Mile Bridge and did some walking around. When we got into Key West we stopped on the outskirts of town and rode a trolley train in called the conch train tour. The tour included an hour and half drive around Key West to all of the sites. It was incredible and really gave us a fell for the town.

After the tour we walked from the north end of the Island the mile and half down to the south and and the southernmost spot in the Continental U.S. We stopped at the Truman "Little" White House, mile marker zero on Highway 1, the Key West Lighthouse, the Hemingway house and even the birthplace of Pan American World Airways. The picture of us at the right is in front of the house where Harry Truman would vacation while President. The house has also been used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton. It was most recently used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2001 to host an international conference. We had lunch at a cafe on the beach and key lime pie at a bakery near one of the train stops. We both agreed that the tour was the best part of the day enabling us to see everything and decide what we wanted to go back to and spend more time at. It also meant we didn't have to mess with parking. We headed out of town around 5:30 and watched the sunset in our rear view mirror. The drive back up the Keys was mostly in the dark and we were both exhausted.

We had dinner at Islamorada Fish Company sampling stuffed Florida Lobster and pasta with shrimp. We had an early wake up call this morning to drive up to Miami. The flight was uneventful and this evening we headed into the college so I could do a review session with my Business Law students. This is Final Exam week and Thursday is our last day of classes for the year. Our report to ACICS is due tomorrow and I start a conference for the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions tomorrow for three days that I will attend in the mornings and afternoon's before heading over to the college in the evenings. Katie is hard at work on graduation which is the first Sunday in December. We are headed home in December and will be in DFW from December 8-12 and Macon from the 12th to the 16th.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Swimming in an Aquarium

This morning Katie and I went over to Smith's Cove to do some snorkeling. There had been a huge rain storm overnight. The water was cooler than normal and close to shore was very murky. We swam to the outer part of the cove and the water cleared the farther from the shore we got. There were several schools of fish feeding out near the markers. We saw a new fish that appeared to have camouflage skin with green and dark spots. It had points above its eyes extending out and its tail forked and seemed hollowed out almost. We cant find it on our fish card and will be searching on the net to find out more about it. The water was pretty choppy and it was hard exercise swimming/snorkeling. After about 45 minutes we headed in and are settling in for an afternoon of NFL watching and working on the computer.

Our ABC channel was showing a New York regional game so I headed out to watch the Texas-Oklahoma State game yesterday over at Davie Jones and got to see the incredible comeback. Yesterday the Alabama and LSU fans on the island had a huge game watching party at the other end of the bar and it was interesting to watch their interaction. When the fourth quarter started and Texas trailed 35-14 I was resigned to a Longhorn loss and really only stuck around to watch the end of the Notre Dame-Navy game (when Navy won the whole bar erupted). The Horns had made it 35-21 by that point so I stuck around and got to see them score two more TD's and then the last play field goal.

We don't have the time change here so the clocks didn't change last night. We are now the same as eastern time instead of Central and so our TV is now the later prime time. Other than Desperate Housewives on Sunday and house late night on Friday on USA that doesn't affect us much. It does mean no time adjustment this week when we head up to Miami and the Keys. Katie has joined a weight loss web site and we are trying to get back into regular exercise. We finally got the underwater pictures from Katie's birthday trip developed and on a disk we will update later with some of them.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Busy Times

We got our ACICS report last week and have been working on the response for the past week. Next week is the last week of classes and the Miami Seminar. Katie and I fly up Friday and will attend the seminar Saturday morning. Final exams are the following week and the quarter ends on the fifteenth. We are also getting ready for the graduation ceremony December 2. Sometimes it feels like we just got here and then we realize it is coming up on six months.

Not much to tell of late, the schedule is pretty routine. We get up around 9 each morning, run a few errands then head to the college at noon. We work until three then take a few hours off for dinner. That usually consists of coming home, making some food and watching a DVD to get our minds off work. Then its back to the college. I teach Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. There is always more work to be done than there is time. Sometimes that is discouraging but mostly its a challenge.

We had sushi again last night and Katie tried a new martini with raspberry vodka and Saki that was very good. We are watching Planet Earth on DVD and I will abandon her again this afternoon for a sports bar and the Texas-Oklahoma State game. We are looking forward to our getaway next weekend and to coming home for a week in December. Not much else to tell, just regular routine down here (well except for watching Noel closely and making sure she stayed East of us and headed north).