By Scott: I am back in Cayman after my week up in Chicago. On Wednesday the wake for Julia was held in Oak Park and then the funeral Thursday in Willow Springs. Julia was laid to rest in a very pretty cemetery and then the reception was held at Nikos a banquet hall style restaurant where ironically Nick and Julia's wedding reception was held. On Friday we had a big breakfast with Nick, his brother Dean and his wife Olympia, his sister Michelle and her husband Keith, Johanna and little Nicholas, Chuck Cori and Christi at George's in Oak Park where we always meet on Sunday's before Bears games to ride the train downtown. Friday afternoon Johanna, Nicholas and I headed over to Lyons to see Uncle Hank and Aunt Mary. Hank turned 90 not too long ago and was looking good. Aunt Mary had just won over a hundred bucks at bingo so she is staying active too. Saturday was a very early wake up call for my 5:59 a.m. flight. The flight actually had mechanical difficulties and as a result I was going to miss my connection. I got moved to another flight and another connection and made it home about 2 hours later than I would have if I had made my original flights. A big thanks to Chuck, Twila and family for letting me stay with them part of the week and to my sister Johanna, Brent and Nicholas for letting me stay with them part of the week.
This past Monday celebrated Constitution Day here in the Cayman Islands. With work being closed, we decided to take advantage of the holiday by visiting some of the tourist sites we have often driven by but never gone into. Since we got on Island Katie has wanted to go up to the Butterfly Farm which is located north of George Town across from Marquee Plaza. It houses several species of butterflies and actually was a very interesting hour. We went early as the butterflies are active in the morning before it gets too hot. We toured the farm seeing butterflies in every stage of growth from caterpillar to death and food for the ants. After a home made lunch we headed east out to Bodden Town where the Pirate Caves and Bodden Town zoo are located. They are right next to the coast in Bodden Town on the main road East. We have passed the caves quite often both in our car and on our bikes and decided that it was time to see what they were actually like. We toured the mini zoo then climbed down into the caves to look around. The caves were interesting though extremely unlikely to have ever been used by pirates. They are home to bats and we kept a look out for 
any flying friends while walking through them. Having been to Carlsbad this was a huge difference and we kept having to remind ourselves that essentially this was a cave for bats to hide in and not an 8th wonder of the world so we needed to not let our expectations overtake reality. All in all we needed to see them at some point but could see why everyone had told us the Pirate Caves were a tourist trap and they were right.
August being out after noon and before about 5 is not the time to do things as it is way to hot and steamy. El Nino is supposedly going to keep down the storms in the Atlantic but it not doing anything to keep down the summer heat here in the tropics. After a trip home and a cleansing shower we headed out to the Vivendi Cabaret a new restaurant and Cabaret show on Seven Mile Beach. The show is a combination lounge singer, dancers, showgirls, and cirque de soleil style acts. The show was fantastic, as was the service though frankly the food wasn't that great especially considering what we paid for it. We would definitely recommend seeing the show but pass on the meal in the future. There are two different shows and we plan to go to the other show at some point soon and just eat a meal before we go and have drinks/appetizers at the show. 
