Tourist Season 2012 draws to a close

April 30th is the traditional end of tourist season down here as the weather gets wet and muggy for the next several months.  Haven't written as much these past few weeks as we have all been sick for some period of time and between that and work there hasn't been much to write about.  My father is on island this week for some college business and heads home tomorrow.  We had a big faculty function on Saturday slightly marred by a tropical thunderstorm that dropped rain on us for about 18 straight hours and left parts of the island flooded.  We are still training for the mile swim in June though the recent rain and wind have made that difficult.  We have also decided to try the sprint triathlon in November so once the mile swim is passed we have a new challenge.  Arianna is fast approaching the 18 month mark and has really settled into her day care.  She used to cry when we would turn onto the road that her school is on, now she happily goes in (most days) and goes right to playing.  It is week five of the spring term and with both of us teaching two classes in addition to our other duties we don't lack for things to do.  The good news is, starting May 1 some of the prices here go down and we can take advantage of all the local deals offered over the summer months.

Open Water Practice Mile

This morning Kristy and I got in the water to practice the mile that we will be doing in June. (Scott is also going to do the Flower Sea Swim but he kindly watched Arianna to let me swim.)

We've been swimming around 2000 meters three times a week but felt we needed to get in the water to see what it would be like doing the actual route and to get an idea of what we wanted our pace time to be.

Swimming out to get past the swim ropes

The water this morning was rocky (it may not look rough in the picture but the waves got bigger around the 3/4 mile mark and even small waves when you are in the water make a difference). We could feel the waves pushing and pulling us. There were a number of times when a wave washed over me as I was trying to breathe and it put a stop to my pace as I tried to calm the panic.

It took me 48 minutes total going at a very comfortable pace. I wasn't winded at the end so I could have gone faster. The biggest thing for me was getting the realization that I COULD make it to the end. At the beginning, when I was doing a swim along part of the coast I'd never swam before, I kept panicking because I couldn't tell where I was. Once I hit the beach that we started the 600M swim from, I did much better. Even though we have been doing 2000 meters in the pool (which is more than a mile), I just felt like the open water was different and the mental side got to me. I need to push myself more knowing that I will still have the energy at the end to make it or if something goes wrong I can always swim in to the shore.

My goal for the Flowers Sea Swim in 6 weeks is to cut 5 minutes off that time and come in at 43 minutes. That means, for training purposes, that I need to be doing each 100M at no slower than a 2:45 minute pace. I've actually been doing that in practices so it seems like I need to get a better fix on my panic in rocky water just in case we don't have smooth water the day of the race.

RIP Uncle Hank

This morning my great Uncle Hank passed away at the age of 92.  Henry Spetter was the youngest brother of Grandma Rita my maternal Grandmother.  He was married to his wife Mary for fifty seven years and had four children, three daughters Sue, Mary Kay, Eileen and one son Donnie.  He was Grandfather to eight grand kids and leaves a legacy that affects not just them but literally hundreds of cousins, relatives and friends.  I will always remember visiting with him as a kid and hearing stories about his work with the newspaper, going to the flea market, and swimming in the above ground pool at the house in Lyons. Then continuing to know him as an adult, even a whale watching trip gone bad in the San Juan Islands will always be a fond memory of him and how resilient he was.  We will always be grateful that Arianna got to meet not once but twice her Great-Great Uncle Hank and to feel the connection to my Grandma Rita and her Spetter heritage.  We will always love and remember him and will be with his family in spirit this week as they lay him to rest.  We know that his brothers Al and Jake and his sisters Mitzi and Rita were there to meet him and take him home this morning. 

Easter in Texas Part IV

The last two nights in Texas we decided to have fun nights for each of us while the other stayed home with Arianna to get her to sleep at her normal time.  The two nights consisted of going to see the Texas Rangers baseball game for me and a girls night out for Katie with her Mom and sister to paint.  Monday night was the Rangers game and I went with Russ and 42,000 other fans to see the major league debut of Yu Darvish the new Japanaese baseball star who now pitches for the Rangers.  We started with an old fashioned Texas style dinner at Whataburger (hey you cant go home and not have Whataburger at least once).  The Rangers were playing the Mariners and after a shaky start by Darvish settled in and we got to see a great game that included home runs by four different Texas players and an 11-5 win.  It was a huge crowd for a Monday night and an exciting evening.

Tuesday was mostly a day to get deal with storage issues, finish any extra shopping and take Ariana to Gail's work so she could show her around.  In the afternoon Katie took Arianna up to Run On Sports in Coppell.  That night Katie went to a painting class at the Gnosh studio up in Plano, and added a second work of art to our collection (adding to the one she did last year while we were in Texas).

Wednesday morning was time to head home flying from Dallas to Houston and then on to Grand Cayman.  The flight to grand Cayman wasn't full so we were able to use the car seat in a seat just for Arianna instead of her being in our laps.

We had a great vacation and want to thank Melanie, Gail, Russ and Stephanie for a wonderful time in Houston and Duncanville.  We are already looking forward to Cayman Airways starting the nonstop to DFW so it will be cheaper and more convenient to get home more often.

Easter in Texas Part III

Easter Monday is a national holiday in the Cayman Islands but just another workday in Texas.  That was a benefit for us as we needed to meet with our accountant to sign our returns as well as our disclosure of foreign bank accounts.  We headed over to Fort Worth for the meeting and had a full day in cow town planned including a visit to Overton Park, lunch at Uncle Julio's and an afternoon at my favorite place in the metroplex, the Fort Worth Zoo.  After meeting with the accountants we headed to Overton Park to get in some play time before lunch.

Arianna of course headed right for the swings which she thoroughly enjoyed riding with some help from her aunt Stephanie who was along for the day.  We had a Tex-Mex lunch at Uncle Julio's and after a nap for Arianna that consisted of driving out toward Weatherford and then back through downtown Fort Worth, we headed to the zoo.  Last year we had not gotten back to the Texas Wild exhibit with her so this year we started our visit by heading back to that part of the zoo.  The first area of Texas Wild is a petting zoo and Arianna was only too willing to pet the animals and give them hugs.

Then it was time for the rest of the zoo and Arianna was really able to see, understand and interact with the various animals this year.

Penguins

Kangaroos

Turtle

White Tigers



We had a great day at the zoo and drove back to Duncanville feeling like Arianna really had experienced a zoo for the first time where she really knew what was happening and what she was seeing. It was a full day in Fort Worth and it was great to be back in the old stomping grounds.

Easter in Texas Part II

Easter Sunday morning we got up early and after breakfast we headed to services with GG and Grampa Russ.  Gail had sewn special purple dresses for Arianna and Katie so they matched for church and for our pictures that we planned to do later in the day.  After showing Arianna off to all their friends at church, we headed down Interstate 45 to Ennis for the bluebonnets.  The fields were in full bloom and Arianna had a great time walking among them though we had to keep telling her not to pick them.

The weather cooperated perfectly by threatening rain but only ever giving us overcast skies which protected us from the sun and gave us less shadows for the pictures while we were at the lake.  Then, as we were leaving it started to rain and we had a strong early afternoon thunder storm that would have ruined our outing had it come an hour or so earlier.  Sunday afternoon we left Arianna with her grandparents and Aunt and went out on a date.  We had both read the Hunger Games over our Christmas holiday so we went to see that and then went out for steaks for dinner. Since we had a full day in Fort Worth scheduled for Monday we called it an early evening though and headed back after dinner. Arianna had somewhat cooperated with her Aunt during bed time routine but had wheedled extra stories and singing before going to sleep.  For this trip we had rented a crib instead of a Pack n Play and she slept through the night for the second straight day, something she had never done on any of our previous trips where we had used Pack n Plays confirming that from now we will rent a crib as she sleeps better in them and without the multiple wake ups.

Easter in Texas Part I

On Good Friday we headed home to Texas to spend Easter with Katie's family in both Houston and Duncanville.  Because of the strange flight times for United we actually overnighted in Houston Friday as part of a longer than normal 18 hour layover.  This gave us a chance to stay with Arianna's Aunt Melanie and also to visit with my friend Gary and his family.  We had a fantastic Saturday morning breakfast at a restaurant called Baby Barnaby's and then headed over to Discovery Green where Arianna got to play in fountains as well as at a great play park right in the middle of downtown Houston.  We only had the morning as we had to be at the airport by 12:30 but we packed in the time and Arianna definitely had a wonderful start to her Easter visit.

Bezemek and Cummings Families

We picked up a travel car seat that had been shipped to Mel for Arianna.  It attaches to suit cases while we walk through airports and will make future traveling a lot easier as we wont have to arrange to have a car seat everywhere. 

You might not be able to tell but the car seat is attached
to the back of one of our suitcases here

We flew up to Dallas Saturday afternoon and got to spend Saturday evening in Duncanville with GG (Grandma Gail) and Papa as well as Aunt Stephanie.  It was a quiet night as we knew Sunday was going to be packed with lots of Easter activities.