Sushi on Seven Mile

We are trying to work in beaches to our date nights of late so last Friday it was subway sandwiches and stars at Beach Bay after dark. This Friday we got sushi and headed over to Cemetery Beach to watch the sunset from the northern end of seven mile beach. We are just five days away from heading back to Texas for Easter and seeing all of our family and friends back in the metroplex. The spring quarter is now two weeks in and we both know that we will blink and it will be summer. We will be heading up to Miami in May for the spring seminar and are trying to figure out if we will take a short vacation in June during the week off between the quarters. The debate is a quickie cruise out of Florida to the Bahamas or a longer trip over to Costa Rica. Since Katie is going to be doing two courses for her Masters in the summer we want a little time away that isn't work related to keep us sane until the November/December trips during our long break.

Sea Thimbles

Monday we decided to take advantage of the calm winds and do some snorkeling over at Eden Rock. As we swam out from shore we came across a swarm of small jelly fish that we later learned are called Sea Thimbles. We were amazed at the sheer number of them and today the local paper has an article warning residents about them.

http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-14529--1-1---.html

Empty House and First Week of Class

After a straight month almost of having guests this week it was just us and the cats once we put Mel, Stephanie and Johnathan on their plane home Monday. With this being the first week of class both of us have been very busy. the college enrollment is up to over 180 students so there is never a slow minute at work. We are both also teaching and Kathleen is taking another course toward her Masters so the days are pretty full. We have also both been negligent in keeping up with exercising so yet again we are re-starting our training regimen. We are going to see "Annie" this Saturday being put on by the Cayman Drama Society with our friends from France, Thierry and Marie-Claude. The cats seem to have taken the now empty house in stride though Ginger has shown her anger at the presence of suit cases by acting out in little ways that remind us she is upset whenever a suitcase appears.

Week of Playing Tourist

With Stephanie, Mel and Mel's boyfriend Jonathan in town this week it has been several days of playing tourist while also trying to finish out the Winter quarter and get ready for the start of the spring quarter on Monday. Mel and Jonathan have been diving which has really gotten us fired up to get certified and learn how to dive. Stephanie has spent a lot of quality time working on her tan and watching "Bones" on DVD. We all went out to East end last night for dinner at Portofino and tomorrow night we are treating them to Grand Old House. We have been out to Rum Point and up to Cemetery beach as well as several sunsets on seven mile beach. They head home Monday afternoon and then two weeks later we head to Texas for Easter.

Katie, Melanie and Stephanie

Some shots from this past weekend.

Hiking the Mastic Trail

Yesterday we got up early and drove to the north side of the Island to hike the two mile long Mastic trail. Since we did not have two cars that meant a 4 mile round trip walk. The trail is well known for the Cayman Parrots who live in a section of the trail and for the various flora and fauna common to these islands. We started hiking around 8 a.m. and had decided that we would turn back by no later than 9:30 since we didn't want to be on the trail after 11 a.m. when it gets really hot. The trail was very rocky and we only made it about a mile and a half in before it was time to turn around. We did see several parrots (one of which is pictured at left) and some other varieties of birds. We also got to see the different varieties of tree's and plants as well as getting in a nice hike. There weren't any iguanas out which was the one disappointing thing, so we will go to the Botanic gardens at some point to show them the island dragons. In the afternoon we went up to Queen's Monument to snorkel and then to a new site called Barefoot beach where we saw a yellow stingray, something we hadn't see before.

Katie's sisters in town

Katie's sisters Melanie and Stephanie arrived yesterday and are in town for the next ten days. We will be showing them around the Island and will post updates and pictures. This afternoon they went snorkeling and diving at Eden Rock and this evening we had sushi, which seems to have become our Welcome to Cayman meal. Tomorrow we are hiking the Mastic trail and it should be an eventful weekend.

What Kevin saw "Under the Sea"

Kevin and the Stingrays

Today our twice delayed trip to the Sting Ray Sand Bar finally happened and Kevin got to swim with the rays. Here are some shots from the trip. The shot at left was taken at the Coral Gardens snorkel site as a ray came to see what was happening.

Kevin in East End and Northside

Here are some shots of Kevin this afternoon at the blow hole in East End (bottom), the Wreck of the Ten Sail monument (top right) and with the blue iguana's at the botanic park (top left). We circled the eastern side of the Island showed him the Districts of East End and Northside. We went swimming out at Rum Point before heading back to East End for dinner at Portofino restaurant which overlooks a wreck out on the East End reef.

Kevin at Wreck of the Callie

We went for an early Sunday snorkel to Wreck of the Callie which is in about 25 feet of water in George Town Harbor. Here are a few shots of Kevin at the wreck. The ship behind him in the picture above and to the right is the pirate ship that every year in November during Pirate's week "invades" George Town. This afternoon we are headed to the east and north end of the Island to show Kevin some of the traditional Cayman sites and see the blue iguana's.

Cemetary Reef

Some more shots of Kevin today snorkeling at Cemetary Reef. We headed up there this afternoon to get in some more swimming and beach time. Tonight is a rest night and tomorrow we plan to head up to rum point and the northside of the Island. Hopefully by Monday we will see a decrease in the winds so that we can do a sandbar trip to see the sting rays.

Kevin's First Day

Scott's brother Kevin arrived last night and we took him out for sushi as a welcome to Cayman dinner. Afterwards we headed over to Seven Mile Beach to watch the sunset. This morning we headed out early to Smith's cove for his first snorkeling trip of the visit (his picture is at left). We also snorkeled at Eden Rock giving him a full morning of getting used to swimming in the Caribbean. We saw a new fish called a scrawled file fish. We were supposed to do the Sting Ray sand bar but the high winds on the Island today caused the maritime patrol to close the sand bar. We are hopeful that it might open this afternoon to let us do the tour or we will try tomorrow or Monday.

Our next two years

As many of you know, our contracts with the college expire at the end of August. We have been spending a lot of time recently thinking about the next couple of years and whether we would stay here, move back to Texas or move somewhere else. In light of the on going economic issues in the US and the likelihood of our finding jobs in similar pay brackets and after much discussion and thought about our future, we have decided to seek a renewal of our contracts with the college for an additional two years (through August of 2011). There is obviously no guarantee the board will extend our contracts (though we are reasonably confidant they will) or that our work permits will be extended by immigration (though again we are fairly sure it wont be an issue). Staying an extra two years will mean that when we start trying to have kids that will happen down here (more on that in later posts). It also means not seeing family as often as we would like though we will try to get back to the States for holidays and our doors are always open for visitors. Speaking of which, we are looking forward to all the visitors we will be having this month and will post pictures and updates.

Land of the White Butterfly

Grand Cayman has been a land of white butterflies for the past several weeks. This invasion is a first for us to see. We don't know if this is because the weather is cooler this year than last but we don't recall seeing anything like the number of butterflies that are out. You cant drive down a road without seeing literally hundreds.

Miami Seminar

This past week was our Winter quarter Miami seminar and we both flew up to Miami to work the seminar and get some much needed shopping done. Scott who taught the seminar flew up on Wednesday while Katie came up Friday afternoon. Wednesday was a national holiday in the Cayman Islands (Ash Wednesday) so the seminar ran from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday morning. It was the first time Scott had taught the full seminar so it made for a long weekend. We stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott just across from Dolphin Mall which made the shopping very convenient. For field trips, the seminar students went out to an Indian Reservation, volunteered a morning at a homeless shelter and met with the Miami Dade Public School Board for presentations on Urban schools. The rest of the seminar was spent in class sessions at the hotel in a meeting room. Saturday night we completed that days sessions at 5 in the evening and we took advantage of the early finish to the day to go to something called a Cinebistro where you order a full meal and watch a movie (we saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was quite good). The seminar ended Sunday at noon and we spent the rest of the day running errands and shopping. We flew back Monday morning and are looking forward to seeing Scott's brother Kevin this Friday for a visit.

Long Saturday

Our day began yesterday with a 4:45 alarm. We were holding the college's annual Memorial Walk to raise funds for the Hugh Cummings Memorial scholarship and with sign ups and pre-walk activities starting at 6:00 a.m. and the walk kicking off at 6:30 in the morning that meant getting up and being out the door by 5:15. We have to start the walks early like that because by 8:00 a.m. it gets too hot for many people to be out strenuously exercising. We helped set up the tables and water stations along the route and then participated in the walk with Katie being in a faster moving group and Scott acting as the back end marshall having to make sure everyone was in front of him and that everyone who started finished the walk or got a ride back. About 40 people participated in the approximately 5k walk from the college campus down to Pedro Castle and back. Dubbed a walk from the birthplace of tertiary education in the Cayman Islands to the birthplace of Democracy in the Cayman Islands we raised over $1500 in scholarship money and had a great community building event for the student body.

Our late morning and early afternoon were uneventful but as evening drew near we dressed up to attend the long delayed retirement dinner for our past President Dr. Elsa Cummings at the Grand Old House Restaurant at Petra Plantation. The dinner and program lasted almost four hours and we pulled back into our drive way just before 10:00 p.m. and just in time to watch the second half of the Texas-Oklahoma basketball game (Horns won 73-68). At 11:15 we trudged up to bed exhausted from a long and eventful day. On Wednesday Scott heads to Miami and Katie comes up Friday afternoon. We will be in Florida through Monday morning returning early Monday afternoon. This morning we put Scott's father, John, on a flight home after a week on the Island and later in the week Scott's brother Kevin arrives and we are already planning the fun things to take him to (we hope he like stingrays because a trip to the sandbar has already been reserved).

Valentine Pizza

The past four years it has been our tradition to go out for sushi on Valentine's Day. But we have been to sushi so often of late that we wanted to do something different. So this year we decided to do our Valentine's date as a joint cooking together experience, something Katie is always pushing for. We made pizza and ice cream pie together with Scott making the meat and slicing up the vegetables for the pizza while Katie prepared the crust. For dessert Scott cut up the bananas and covered the chocolate crust of the pie, he also whipped the cream into a solid form while Katie put the ice cream and toppings on the pie after the crust was prepared. It took us a good 45 minutes together in the kitchen to get everything ready and then another 15 minutes of cooking the pizza's to make our dinner. It was a lot of fun and as we ate we watched a movie called Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day with Amy Adams and Francis McDormand, a really cute date movie that was a wonderful capper to a really fun evening of cooking together. It wasn't our traditional Valentine's date but it was really special.

We start a very busy run this week of relatives in town and trips of our own. Scott's father is in town for a week starting Sunday the 15th of February leaving on the 22nd. Then on Wednesday the 25th Scott heads to Miami to teach the Winter quarter seminar. Katie is flying up Friday for some shopping and get away time. We get back on March 2 and then on the 6th Scott's brother Kevin is coming for a visit. He will be here until the 11th and then on the 12th Katie's sisters arrive for their visit through the 23rd. We are planning lots of fun activities for all of our relatives while they are in town and looking forward ourselves to playing tourist. After everyone leaves we have a couple of weeks off before a trip back to Texas over Easter.

As some of you already know, we are currently weighing our options about where we will be and what we will be doing when our contracts expire this August with the college. We have to decide whether to renew the contracts (assuming the college offers to renew our contracts) and stay here another year or two or look for jobs back in the states starting in the fall and head back to Texas. There are a lot of factors to consider and we hope you keep a good thought for us as we decide what our next step will be.

It's cold down here

The temperature has dipped into the 60's the last couple of nights and we are getting very high winds in the western Caribbean. I know this cannot compete with what our family up north are dealing with but this almost 20 degree difference in the regular temperatures has everyone on the island sick with the flu and people walking around in sweaters. We have broken out clothing that hasn't been worn since we were in Georgia over a year ago.

Fitness February

In the past we have not been very good about maintaining our exercise regime and keeping to the good habits we always start the year off with. This year to make sure we keep on exercising and eating right we are doing a fitness February. We must workout 22 out of the 28 days, no alcohol for the entire month and a minimum of averaging 60 cardio minutes a day (which means for every rest day we have to do 120 minutes on another day). So far we have gone 2 for 2 with workouts yesterday and this morning. Today our bike ride was into a rain burst that left us both soaked but feeling very accomplished as we kept on going in spite of the shower. On Saturday we were able to run for 14 minutes around 40 or so minutes of walking. We walk to warm up then do 2 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking seven times followed by a warm down walk. We both cant wait to get our I-pods which should arrive when Scott's father visits in February. The problem with running without music is that you tend to lose focus and get in your own head. The good news is we have both seen a small but consistent weight loss every week in January and while we are still well above where we want to be, that is slowly changing

Tomorrow is Johanna Bernard's birthday so an early Happy Birthday to Scott's sister up in Chicago. We have learned that we will be getting a visit from both of Katie's sisters in March and are already planning lots of fun activities. We are headed to Miami at the end of February for our winter seminar and now have confirmed a visit back to Texas over Easter so the next few months will stay very busy. We are in a period of time where we will be making some significant life decisions about where we will be a year from now, what work we will be doing and when we will start to try to add to our family. Keep a good thought for us as we mull over and make these momentous decisions over the next several weeks,