Not a Merry Christmas for Everyone

Merry Christmas

Thanks to everyone who sent us cards, gifts and Christmas greetings. It is strange having a Christmas day where the low temperature will be the mid 70's. We are going for a Christmas bike ride and snorkel to continue the tradition started last year. Love to everyone, may you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Biking the Blue Mountains

One of the longest day trips we took in Jamaica was a tour out to the Blue Mountains in Eastern Jamaica. We caught a tour bus early in the morning and took the two hour bus ride east across the island. The bus ride was great all on its own to see Jamaica. We drove through several towns, saw the James Bond beach where the famous scene in Dr. No with Ursula Andress was shot and got to get a real sense of the Island. We then drove up a one lane road 3000 feet up (that was scarier than any roller coaster you could ever be on) to a cabin high in the mountains. At the cabin we had brunch and then later lunch. We drank some Blue Mountain coffee which is very rich and strong. We then drove another 1000 feet up into the mountains where we got on bikes and rode down the mountain through several coffee plantations that are on the mountain sides. The winding roads that overlooked valleys, rivers and mountainsides with incredible views made for a very interesting ride. We stopped back at the cabin for lunch then continued down the mountain to a water fall called the fountain of youth. The three hour bike ride was spectacular and we absolutely fell in love with the mountains. Although the tour took an entire day and we were exhausted by the time we got back to the resort it was well worth the time and effort.

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone.

Dunn's River Falls

Our first day trip in Jamaica was by far the most memorable. We took a catamaran over to the Dunn's River Falls and literally climbed up the falls. Its the kind of dangerous attraction that would never work in the US where the first time someone fell and broke something they would sue. Here are some photos of our climb. We sent out our Christmas stuff late to everyone so watch your mail the first week of January for our Christmas greetings.

St. Ann Mountain Canopy Tour

Here are some photos from our canopy zip lining up in the St. Ann mountains of Jamaica. At times we were several hundred feet off the ground traversing over nine gorges high up in the tree tops. The longest traverse was 660 feet the shortest was only about thirty feet but was almost straight down from one tree to another further down the gorge. It was a spectacular adventure and really got our adrenaline flowing.

Horseback Riding in Jamaica

Here are a few shots of us riding horses at the Chukka cove in Ocho Rios from earlier this week.

Jamaica Vacation

We are back on Grand Cayman after seven days in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We stayed at the Sandals Dunn's River Resort with gorgeous views of the Caribbean on one side and the St. Ann Mountains on the other. Our room was on the fifth floor and overlooked the main pool with the sea behind it. We did four different day trips, one to climb the Dunn's River Falls, two up into the mountains (one in the St Ann mountains near the resort and the other to the Blue Mountains on the Eastern end of the Island) and a day trip over to a Polo ground where we went horseback riding overland and in a cove. The food was incredible and we had a fantastic time. We will post pictures and give info on the trip and all the activities later.

While we were gone we did get some sad news. Scott's half-Uncle Ian Cummings who lived here on Grand Cayman was killed in a boating accident last week while fishing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time, may he rest in peace.

Jamaica bound

With graduation behind us we are headed to the north coast of Jamaica for a well deserved week long vacation. We are staying at the Sandals resort in Ocho Rios called Dunn's River. We have some day trips planned but mostly are looking forward to just relaxing after a long year. The graduation ceremony went very well. The Leader of Government Business (the Cayman version of Prime Minister) gave the address. Also present was the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health along with three members of the legislative assembly. Its an election year next spring so they all wanted face time. The ceremony lasted about an hour and a half and the church where it was held was filled to overflowing. With 53 graduates it was a very large class. We were both a little stiff from the half marathon earlier in the day but the adrenaline was flowing through the ceremony and that kept us going. Afterward we went to a restaurant on Seven Mile Beach called Luca and had a great dinner overlooking the beach and under the stars.

Half Marathon

In the early morning darkness we lined up on South Church street in downtown George Town for the 5:00 a.m. start to the Cayman Islands Marathon/Half Marathon. In spite of not doing nearly the preparation we should have in terms of training we decided to give it a go. The 13.1 mile route was a loop that the marathon runners do twice. At five sharp the race started and we quickly brought up the back of the pack. Walking at an early pace of seventeen minute miles we got to watch the sun come up over South Sound as we headed east along the road out to Savannah. Around 6:45 we passed through Red Bay and almost right at the two hour mark rounded the half way point and headed back west. Shortly after we rounded the half way point the lead marathon runner lapped us. Meaning we had done 7 miles and he had done 20. We kept a good 17 minute a mile pace until mile 10 where we hit the wall and suddenly the seventeen minute miles became 18, then 19 and by the end 24 minute miles. We crossed the line in 4 hours 5 minutes and 57 seconds beating our goal of 4 and a half hours by a good 24 minutes. We have graduation at 3:00 this afternoon so it will be a very long day. We are exhausted and sore but very proud that we finished. Will upload pictures soon.

When there just isnt time to update the blog

The last month since we got back from Miami has been crazy and the blog has been pretty far down the list of things that needed to get done. We have discovered to our happiness and dismay that Ginger doesnt have anything wrong with her but a bad attitude and so we will need to work on de-conditioning her from peeing on our couch. Graduation is this Sunday and that has meant a month of insanity trying to get everything ready. The rehearsal was last Sunday and the banquet is tomorrow.

We are less than a week from leaving for Jamaica for seven days and a vacation at an all inclusive resort so we are counting down the days. All the roundabouts on the Island now have Christmas lights up and Katie has decorated the stairs with tinsel garland and hung lights on our front window. We also have a small christmas tree up that the cats have not yet decided to knock over but we are waiting for that to happen. The storm did no lasting damage to this Island other than messing up our feeder road and requiring extensive repairs that are still on going. The rainy season still is lingering and has more than overstayed its welcome. Hurricane season officially ended Sunday so we will start taking down all the shutters at the college this next week. We took down the home shutters about two weekends ago.

We are not commenting on the travesty that is the Big XII and the utterly incomprehensible decision to let the land thieves take the place of our beloved Longhorns in the championship game. If there is any justice in the world Oklahoma will lose this weekend and the right team will get to play for the National Championship.

Home in Cayman

We flew back last night and anxiously drove home to find out how our kitties and our house did in the storm. We were very pleased to find the cats doing great and our house had no flooding. There does appear to be some water damage to our kitchen ceiling that we will need to run down and make sure it is from the storm and not a leaking pipe. There was flooding on other parts of the Island, in particular in lower valley and Bodden town. The college cleaning lady got 4 feet of water in her house. The college also sustained water damage and this morning we are going over to assess and help with clean up. The Sister Islands are in really bad shape and everyone should keep the Brackers and residents of Little Cayman in their thoughts and prayers. We had a great time with Kevin, Kristy, Kelsey and Little Scott at Universal Studios and want to thank them for such a fun weekend.

Orlando

We are in Orlando today spending time with Scott's brother Kevin, his wife Kristy and their kids, Scott and Kelsey. We drove up this morning from Miami. We have been able to find out some news from home and it sounds like Grand Cayman didn't get hit as bad as the two sister Islands. We don't have any firm news on our house and cats but the posts about Grand Harbor neighborhood seem to indicate that the flooding was limited and hopefully that means our house was spared. The big issue now for us will we get home Monday. The planes should start flying tomorrow and assuming that we don't get bumped down lists hopefully we get home Monday night. The government lets Caymanians and status holders in first followed by residents on work permit. There wasn't much time for people to evacuate so there shouldn't be a big group trying to get back. Tomorrow will be Universal Studios day so that should help us take our minds off the storm and home. Monday early we will drive back to Miami to finish up the seminar and then hopefully get our flight out.

Stuck in Florida

We arrived in Miami yesterday morning and by late afternoon discovered that Hurricane Paloma would be coming to Grand Cayman and that there was no way we can get back before the storm. We are dealing with a group of 20 very worried students but there is nothing any of us can do. This late season storm gave very little warning of rapid intensification and no warning of its path. On Tuesday it looked like it would go over Central America and even Wednesday had multiple tracks. We are just happy we put all the shutters back up just in case and unplugged all the electronics and moved the computer upstairs. Since there is nothing we can do we will head up to Orlando tomorrow to see Scott's brother and his wife and our neice and nephew. We know now the feeling of helplessness that comes with not being able to do anything about our house, our car (which is sitting at the airport long term parking lot) and most importantly our cats.

Late Season Storm

It looks like the Cayman Islands will get an unwanted visitor this weekend. The big issue is whether it will be a depression, a tropical storm or worst case a hurricane. The storm is about 227 miles south of here and is expected to move north tomorrow. We leave for Miami early tomorrow so to be safe we have put back up our hurricane shutters on the front window. If a hurricane comes it will be Saturday while we are off Island. We have someone checking on the cats to feed them over the weekend but it looks like they will have to ride this storm out on their own. There was a late season storm last year but it went well east of the Island, this ones track is not as favorable. Lets all hope it is just a depression and leaves us only rain from its visit.

Training for the Half Marathon

On December 7 (the same day as our graduation ceremony) we are running the Cayman Islands Half Marathon. Actually, walk/jogging is a more appropriate description. In preparation, we are walking most mornings and slowly building up to the 13 plus mile distance we will have to traverse. Its also not just about finishing but finishing with enough left in our tanks to go do the graduation ceremony later that day. The marathon starts at 6:00 a.m. and we are hoping to get to a pace of 16 minute miles meaning we would finish in the neighborhood of three and a half to four hours. That would give us some three hours before we had to go to graduation and five hours before the ceremony would begin. Today we did a short 4.2 km walk just as a warm up for the week. We will continue to increase our distance over the next four weeks up to about ten miles one week before the marathon then some 5k walks during the week and the full 13.1 miles on the Seventh.

We haven't gotten the tests back on Ginger so we are still waiting to hear if she will need thyroid surgery. We have moved her kitty litter onto the couch and she seems to be going in the litter so we aren't sure what to think.

This Thursday we are headed to Miami for two days of work on the seminar, then a drive up to Orlando to spend a couple of days with Scott's brother Kevin and his family. We return to the Island on Monday which is a national holiday here in the Cayman Islands for Remembrance Day. The Longhorns finally lost a game on Saturday, a gut wrenching defeat with literally one second to go in the game. They are still 8-1 and on Saturday we will have to find a sports bar in Central Florida to watch them play Baylor.

We are now back on eastern time with the end of daylight savings so even though nothing changed here, our tv shows on the weekend are now an hour later.

Cold Caribbean

The temperature has dipped into the low 70's here and the winds have picked up. Today it has not been at all unusual to see people wearing sweaters. Our blood must not have quite thinned enough because we are really enjoying it. They call them the Christmas winds and they apparently are coming early this year.

Ginger under the weather

For the past few weeks Ginger has been peeing on our couch and while we thought for a while it was behavioral, it became clear last Tuesday, when she pee'd on Katie and didnt seem to know what she was doing, that it wasnt. We took her to the Vet yesterday who initially thought it was a urinary tract infection. Last night we started Ginger on medication but a long night of throwing up later it was clear the medication was not working. This morning we took her back to the vet and a urine test showed elevated glucose leading the vet to think diabetes. They kept her for observation and blood tests. This afternoon when we went back for her we discovered that the glucose was normal in her blood but she has low phosphates which looks like thyroid problems and may mean surgery. We brought her home and have to keep a close eye on her through Monday. Her tail is very grey which is apparently a sign of the imbalance. We will be taking her back Monday for more tests and a determination of whether we need to get her thyroid surgery.

You would be correct in thinking that none of this is cheap. Just to send the bloodwork to the U.S. for further tests includes a $65 Biological shipping fee. That is before you pay the lab fee's etc. We have to get another urine sample tomorrow and poor Ginger has been looking at us with big sad eyes all day after several hours of being poked and prodded by the vet. Keep a good thought for Ginger, she is a cat but in the ten months since we got her she has become part of the family and someone we care a lot about.

We did have some time to watch the Horns and the 28-24 win over the sixth ranked Okie State Cowboys. Texas continues to make Scott's Saturday's fun and he looks forward to the weekly call to Gary to talk about the game and the Horns. It is still raining every day down here and our roads have huge sinkhole size potholes that are as big as our little car and make driving down Selkirk an adventure especially at night and in the dark. The flooded road also means you cant see the pothole because the whole street is under water. They cant fix the road until the rain stops and the water recedes. We are definitely ready for the end of rainy season.

Rainy October

Hurricane season still has six weeks left in it but things are relatively quiet. Omar was well to the East of us and most of the areas of interest haven't had tracks into the western Caribbean. While the hurricanes are giving us a wide berth that hasn't meant a slow down in rain and for the last month we have gotten more than our fill of rainy season. Selkirk drive which leads from the main road to our street is flooded and we have to drive in the middle of the road because the road is angled to have the water move left and right and our little car would flood if we stayed to the left. Yesterday we did a 7 plus k walk in the morning for our graduation banquet benefit and we both paid the price in the afternoon. Walks like that start at 6:30 a.m. because of the heat so that meant a 5:15 wake up call. Katie worked on her pottery in the afternoon while I went to a sports bar and watched college football.

Of course last night was spent watching the number one ranked Horns dominate Mizzou and move to 7-0. Texas is putting together a nice little run of wins and they are definitely making for some fun Saturdays. Since the game was the ABC national telecast I got to watch the game from home and freak out Ginger and Gypsy who had never watched football with me before. The pacing, the stressing out at every play, the inability to sit down, they got the full treatment. The other good news is that with each Texas win the season tickets I have with Gary and Ken back in Texas to the games are easier to sell and for more money. We sold Mizzou at a profit and had already broken even on the first three Texas home games. At this point it looks like we will be able to sell our remaining tickets for an overall profit and have a profit for the year even with attending the Arkansas game. So Texas' success is a financial boon as well as my personal enjoyment at watching them win.

Happy Birthday Katie

We celebrated Sunday night with dinner at Guy Harvey's Island Grill overlooking George Town Harbor. Today we have a lot of rain so we are having a restful morning reading and having waffles for breakfast (made by Scott supervised by the birthday girl). We have changed our work hours so we now work from 2:30 in the afternoon to 10:05 which means more time earlier in the day to do things like snorkel or go for bike rides and not have to rush home to get ready to go to work. Right now the rainy season is hitting us pretty heavily most days but once November rolls around it will mean the ability to do more before we have to get ready to go to work.

Katie in Dallas to work on her Masters

Katie is back in the metroplex this weekend to do a literature review for her Masters class. The libraries here on island are not sufficient to get her the material she needs so we turned in our airline miles and she has been home since Thursday. She has been staying with her sister Mel and using the library at UT Dallas. Tonight she is staying with her Mom and Stephanie and she flies back tomorrow morning early. There has been a lot of rain on Grand Cayman the last two weeks but no major storms (knock on wood). The fall quarter continues rolling along and we are now looking forward to a trip to Miami in November for the seminar and then a visit with Kevin, Kristy and the kids in Orlando.