Chicago and Seattle for the Holidays

This year we are spending the Christmas holidays with family in both Chicago and Seattle.  We flew up to Chicago on Wednesday taking advantage of the seasonal nonstop flight from Cayman on Cayman Airways.  The flight was only about half full so Arianna got her own seat and she did well for a four hour flight only getting restless as we got near the end of the long flight.  We have been enjoying the first part of our trip in Naperville with my sister Johanna, her husband Brent, and sons Nick and Zach.  Grandma Cummings also flew in from Washington for the holiday.  Arianna has been adjusting to the cold but really doesn't like wearing multiple layers of clothing and walks around like a mummy slowly maneuvering in the heavy garments.  She has been happily playing with her cousins though she and Zach are definitely getting into territorial disputes over who's mama and dada are whose.

Last night we left her with Grandma and her cousins while Katie and I went downtown and saw the Joffrey Ballet do the Nutcracker.  Our cousins Chuck and Twila treated us to dinner at a downtown restaurant and we got to walk around inside the loop for an hour or so seeing the lights and other Christmas attractions.  Then it was over to the Auditorium Theatre for the show.  It was six years ago now that I asked Katie to marry me at the Nutcracker in Fort Worth so this was a restart of an important Christmas tradition in our family.  Watching the families at the ballet both of us were thinking of when we would be able to come back with our daughter to enjoy the wonderful show.

This morning Johanna had an appointment so we bundled up the boys and took everyone else out for pancakes at the restaurant that the Bernard family goes to every Friday.

Then this afternoon we drove over to Lyons and visited with our Spetter cousins and got to see Uncle Hank and Aunt Mary as well as many of the Wolfe, Kaminsky and Spetter cousins.

We are here for two more days then on Christmas spend the morning in Naperville, fly out in the afternoon and the evening with the Loski family in Seattle.  Arianna will get to meet her great grand parents on the Loski side as well as a ton of cousins etc.  She will also get to meet her Uncle Alex as late next week we head up to Whidby for a day to see him and Grandma Cummings who gets a double dose of Arianna her for Christmas and then late next week for her visit.

Aunt Melanie and the ICCI Toy drive with Santa and Rudolph

Katie's sister Melanie arrived on island last night for her month long stay.  To get the visit started off right we headed up to Rum Point this morning for a first dip in the Caribbean.  Melanie will be here by herself for ten days so she is learning to drive on the left and to practice she was our driver up to the north side.  Before going to Rum Point we headed into Cayman Kai and down to starfish beach.  This time we were lucky and saw a couple of starfish.  Then, it was over to Rum Point and a couple of hours of beach and sun.

This afternoon and early evening was the ICCI toy drive with Santa and Rudolph in attendance.  Arianna was fascinated by Rudolph and followed him around pulling his tail and generally trying to hug him as much as possible.

Santa on the other hand didn't merit much interest when he came out and merited some tearful scared looks when it was time for pictures with him.

It was a fun evening though and we got a lot of toys donated for needy kids in the Bodden Town area.

We have two days with Mel before we head north for our Christmas vacation and with any luck introduce Arianna to snow.

Christmas on the brain

All this week Katie has been furiously getting our house ready for Christmas.  One of the real benefits is that she is making cookies almost non-stop leaving the house smelling wonderful all the time.  The stockings are hung on the stairwell and lights are on the window and of course the Christmas tree above the television set.  With no classes going on our schedules are a little more normal so we are actually getting evenings during the week together.  We have also started to finish some of the smaller tasks we have been putting off all fall.  We finally got around to putting up the rest of the fishy photos on Arianna's nursery wall.

The Christmas winds have started down here and for almost a week we were able to go without A/C and just the windows open.  Unfortunately that has slowed and so it was back onto the A/C late last week.  Katie's sister Melanie is coming down next weekend and will be here for a month to house sit while we head north to Chicago and Seattle.  She and Gypsy wont have to worry about being lonely though as several of Melanie's friends are also coming so the house will be full the whole time.  We get the benefit of house sitters (and some babysitting) while they get the free room for their Caribbean vacation.  Next weekend is the big ICCI Christmas party with Santa coming so we are looking forward to some cute shots of Arianna.

Olympic Beach Volleyball on Seven Mile

This weekend Cayman is hosting the NORCECA Olympic Qualifier for beach volleyball at Seven Mile Public Beach up in West Bay.  Saturday morning Arianna and I drove up there to catch a little of the action.  They had three different volleyball courts set up and we managed to catch a little action at all three.

We got to see the men's teams from Cayman and Barbados play a match that went three sets with Cayman pulling out the win 18-16 in the third set.  The top five men's and women's teams in this tournament advance to another tournament where there will be five more teams and the winner there gets an Olympic invite.  It is a way to guarantee that a Caribbean team makes it to the 2012 London Olympics.

Arianna was clapping with the crowd after every point and was genuinely fascinated by the action for much longer than I expected.

Christmas Decorating

If she had her way Katie would start decorating for Christmas in late September.  To avoid overload we have a family rule that we wait until after Thanksgiving.  This year we had a third helper as we set up the decorations and tree.

Arianna loved seeing her penguin from last year and danced with it to music but really liked her new Rudolph.

Goodbye Hurricane Season

Today marks the end of hurricane season 2011.  For the third year in a row we have not had to put up our shutters and with Arianna going through her first full season this year that was a definite blessing.  Six months of not having to daily check the NHC site are now ahead of us and with the weather turning markedly colder yesterday we actually turned off the A/C this morning and opened all the windows.  In a few weeks Katie's sister Mel arrives for her month long stay (with lots of babysitting in return for a free room) so we are already counting the days to the next house guest. 

Hughes Family heads home

Chuck and family head home today after a fun week in the Cayman Islands. Sunday saw them heading up to Rum Point and touring East End to see the "Caribbean" part of the island. Yesterday they went for a snorkel at Eden Rock (where the above shot was taken) and then did some shopping in George Town.  Cory and Christie are now unofficially Arianna's older sisters and we have already asked Chuck and Twila if one of them could stay but unfortunately were turned down. They fly out this afternoon back to colder climes.  Meanwhile Arianna continues to be under the weather and we are watching her closely for bronchitis as she has a very chesty cough.  This is the last week of the fall term so we are in very busy mode for work to finish out 2011.  It is hard to believe that Christmas is just a few weeks away!

More Touristy things with the Hughes

Cori, Christie and Arianna with
Poof the Magic Dragon at Camana

Arianna has been under the weather since Thanksgiving evening so for the most part the last two days have seen us give the Hughes directions to things while we stayed with her.  Chuck and family have done the iconic Cayman trip, the visit to the stingrays:

Christie was a little freaked out!

They have also been to Pedro Castle, the Botanics and Arianna was better enough last night to go with to Camana to play in the fountains again and have a sushi dinner at Yoshi's.

It has been a great visit and with two full days still to go promises more fun to come.

Happy Thanksgiving

The second full day of our visit from the Hughes family began with a visit to Governor's Beach on Seven Mile for some sun and snorkeling.  There were four huge cruise ships in and they provided the scenic backdrop to a gorgeous Caribbean day.  We spent a couple of hours on the beach then made a quick trip to the college to show them ICCI.  After a lunch of sandwiches and patties we went back to Smith's Cove for some more swimming.  Around 2:30 we made a run over to Chicken-Chicken to pick up a full Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans and of course pumpkin pie. The meal was great and having family to share it with made it truly a thankful time. 

Some shots from the morning:

Smith's Cove and Camana

After a good nights sleep following their long day of flying yesterday, we took Arianna's God-Father Chuck and the rest of the Hughes clan for their first swim in the Caribbean at Smith's Cove on the western side of the island.  The water was very calm which made for a great introduction to snorkeling around Grand Cayman.  The fish also  accomodated us coming close to shore so that we started interacting with them almost as soon as we stepped in the water.  Arianna loved the water and loved being in with her cousins who she is already viewing as her two big sisters.

After a lunch at the Foster's buffet we headed over to Camana Bay so they could play in the fountains see the Christmas tree and watch a sunset from the observation tower.

Scott had to work in the evening so Chuck also got his first experience driving on the left as he drove the van home. It was a great first day on the island. Today we plan to have a Thanksgiving dinner early before Katie goes to teach and get some more snorkeling in as the girls need to practice ahead of their stingray trip on Friday.

Chuck, Twila, Cori and Christi arrive

Last night the Hughes family arrived on island for a week long visit.  Even though it was after her bed time Arianna woke up and yelled to come down and welcome her visitors to Grand Cayman.  We are looking forward to a great Thanksgiving with them and lots of snorkeling and beach time.

Chuck and Family Visiting this week

This week will be an exciting one as Scott's cousin Chuck and his family are visiting for Thanksgiving.  We havent been snorkeling or to a beach in over a month and this will give us a great way to reintroduce ourselves to some of the wonders of Cayman.  The term is almost over with just this week and next to go before the big Christmas break for December.  Yesterday we went to the last of the one year birthday parties for Arianna's friends and Arianna got to play in a bouncy castle which she decided was the coolest thing ever.

Home from Georgia

This past Wednesday as we celebrated Arianna's first birthday, we headed to Georgia for the fall seminar in Atlanta.  The seminar was a great reason to have Katie and Arianna come with and see her Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kristy as well as her Grandma Maryanna who flew down from Washington state to see her granddaughter on her birthday.  There were only 20 or so people on our flight to Atlanta and that meant Arianna could walk around, have her own seat and generally have a fun time for the two and a half hour flight.  We opened up birthday presents and she did great flying.  We spent Wednesday evening at Kevin's house in Warner Robbins and then I headed to Atlanta to teach and Katie and Arianna got in a lot of family time and a chance to see several of Katie's old college friends in Macon.  Katie and Arianna came up to Atlanta Sunday and we flew home yesterday.  It was an early morning wake up and this time Arianna slept most of the flight but did wake up for the last 45 minutes and talk constantly to make up for lost time.  We have just three weeks left in the fall term.  Next week our cousin Chuck and his family are visiting and that will give us a great chance to play tourist with them.

Quiet week following Halloween

The last remnants of Rina gave us some rain on Halloween but any danger by then was long gone of further flooding.  By Wednesday the waters had receded and as the week ends the island is just about dried out.  On Thursday basically our entire campus with a few exceptions was dry enough to walk on and it was time to put away the sandbags we had gotten for the south end of Friends Hall.  Arianna got to break out her costume two more times this week, first on Halloween to go to Hurley's for trick or treating and then on Tuesday for the Post-Halloween baby group.  We crossed the 51 week mark on Tuesday and it is hard to believe but in just a few days Arianna will be one year old.  This year has really gone by fast. 

Arianna with an early birthday present

 

Rina dies out but the rains continue

Yesterday we got some welcome news as Rina died out after brushing against the Yucatan and her projected turn east and then south never happened.  We continue though to get rain from the remnants of her as well as the remnants of 97L.   We were going to take Arianna to a Halloween trick or treat festival at Caymana but that got postponed because of the rain.  Instead we went to a party with the other babies in her baby group.  Ironically yesterday afternoon and evening were rain free and this morning the sun is shining.  Hopefully that helps some of the flooding on island to recede.  We did put up sand bags on the southern end of Friends Hall Friday as an emergency measure just in case we had massive rains over the weekend.  Turns out they weren't needed but we would rather be wrong and overreact then under react and flood half that building.  Here are some shots from yesterday of Arianna is her Ladybug costume.

Presents from Rina

Although now well to the west of us and menacing the Yucatan, Hurricane Rina continues to give us a ton of rain and now some incredible swells as the picture below, that I got off the web, of George Town Harbour shows.  She is the storm that keeps on giving and our campus is a virtual lake with islands of buildings and parking spaces.  It has gotten so bad that we are almost to the point of sand bags for the southern end of Friends Hall as the water is close to cresting the sidewalk.  There is no where for the water to go as the ground is so saturated so now we have almost a foot and a half of standing water surrounding the eastern, western and southern parts of Friends Hall.  Only the northern part is dry and that is because the building sits on a slight slope from north to south.  Rina will be turning back east tomorrow and then perhaps straight south this weekend so we are continuing to watch her closely.

Way too active late October

Hurricane Rina (which is to the south and west of us right now) is giving all of us stomach acid as it does a long slow semi circle around us.  One little move and we are in the cone and on alert so we have to watch each update closely.  And now invest 97 L in the eastern Caribbean is beginning to form and its track takes it toward us as well.  The first map below from NHC shows the two storms with Rina already formed and 97L the orange circular area.  Right now it has a 30% chance of forming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.  The second map shows the semicircle track of Rina.  We are the island in the southern quadrant below Cuba with the 5 day uncertainty cone basically going across the tip of West Bay.  Whether we actually get hit or not we continue to get a ton of rain with nowhere for it to runoff.  Our parking lot has two large lakes though so far at least our parking spaces aren't being affected too much.  The house is 4-5 feet above the parking lot so it hasn't had any issues either.  The college is a lake with any area that isn't built up underwater.  The buildings are fine so far but other than the buildings and the raised sidewalks and parking lots everything else has at least a 1/2 foot to 1 foot of water and the field has a couple of feet.  Yesterday egrets and ducks took advantage of Lake ICCI as a temporary home.  Classes went on as normal last night but we are now day to day. Arianna is taking it in stride sleeping through a loud thunder and lightning storm late last night just doing her normal every three hours wake ups.  I still remember her mommy sleeping through the loudest parts of Dean and Gustav without an issue so hopefully she inherited that from her.

Update with new map that gives a good idea of distances:

Tropical Storm (now Hurricane) Rina floods Cayman

The depression to the south of us finally formed into a tropical storm and while its path takes it toward Cancun and the Yucatan, we are in the upper right quadrant from it which is the area that gets most of the rain.  It was a long rainy night and we awoke this morning to flooding all over the island.  TS Rina (which became a Hurricane Rina this afternoon) won't bring us anything more than the rain so the three year streak of leaving the hurricane shutters in the back is still safe but there were some anxious moments over the weekend as we waited to see what the path would be.  It looks like Rina will go around us in a half moon like track, starting below us as it heads west then turns north and finally then above us as it moves back east after an expected turn just before it hits the Yucatan.  Yesterday we attended the first birthday part of one of Arianna's baby buddies, Brayden.  The party started outside but had to head inside as the rain got going and never let up.  All the babies from the baby group were there and Arianna was definitely in her element.  She is very social and had to play or talk with everyone.  Her birthday is just a few weeks away and we are hosting her party the Sunday before over at Camana Bay so yesterday was a food day to take notes also on things to do.  Here are some pictures from before the rain drove us inside.

Wet and Rainy Late October

As we reach the final days of the month of October, rainy season and a cold front have made the past few days wet and cool.  That beats the heck out of wet and hot but means that there isn't much stuff that can be done outside.  It also means a wary eye to the south where possible late season hurricanes form.  This week we have a close watch on a system down by Nicaragua.  In 2008 we got hit by Paloma with only two days notice since it formed in the Caribbean to the south of us.  The problem with this weather is that Arianna gets bored easily when stuck in the house so we are always looking for opportunities to get out and this weather is making that tough.  Yesterday a trip to A.L. Thompson hardware store became her outing so she could wander up and down the aisles, stare at all the fans and make some future decisions about a new bathroom or kitchen.  It was also cool enough to put her in the Texas track suit my sister sent down and here are a few shots.

Guest Lecture by the Premier of the Cayman Islands

This week has been an eventful one on campus.  Yesterday we were visited by the local commission that is charged with doing a national survey on the relationship of the UK to its overseas territories in the greater Caribbean region.  They were in a number of classes to talk to the students and discuss the implications of the survey and the input desired.  This evening we received a visit from the Premier of the Cayman Islands, the Honorable McKeeva Bush, who came to do a guest lecture.  Under the new constitution, the Premier is the leader of the majority party in the legislative assembly and is the leader of the government.  Only the British Governor holds higher office.  He spoke to a combination of three classes out in the new classroom building for a good two hours doing both a lecture and a question and answer session on the current Cayman economy and the role Cayman plays in the greater world economy.  The college is apolitical and interestingly the instructor who invited the Premier, Joey Ebanks, is actually associated with the other political party but it is always good to get government officials out and on the campus.  A reminder of the role ICCI plays in the Cayman Islands.  The premier is the holder of an honorary degree from ICCI and he mentioned that during his lecture lauding the college for its role in helping the Cayman Islands over the years.

Greeting the Premier upon his arrival

Listening to the Lecture

With Premier Bush and Joey Ebanks