Catch Up

It has been 2 months since my last confession . . .

I have moved away from blogging and have been consumed by Facebook (crackbook). This is just a simple fact. I’m not saying one is superior to the other; Facebook is just quicker and easier. The blog started out as a diary of our journey toward immigration. We are moving toward year 3 since we have been in Canada and I guess I don’t have much more to say about immigrating here. I’m not sure how many USians are still looking to immigrate. Maybe changes in economy, housing, Obama, etc have changed things.

So I will tell you about our latest adventure. We spent 8 days on Grand Cayman Island. I have noticed how living in Canada has changed things about the way we travel. In the past, the first thing we would have done upon arriving in another country is rent a car. Sometimes the car would not be used for several days. It would sit in the parking lot. But we knew it was there if we decided to go somewhere. This trip was quite different. We used a taxi to get to our hotel but that was it. We used the bus to get everywhere else. It is a bargain at $2 CI to go anywhere one way. The buses are all large vans. They beep their horns at you as you walk along and you wave at them if you want them to stop and pick you up. They stop anywhere. There are designated stops but they will let you off and pick you up anywhere. The Caymanian people were warm, helpful and wonderful to us travelers.

We met up with some American friends there and had a fantastic time. It was a much needed break. I spent the greater part of my time under the water. The beaches and ocean were like those postcards that you think have been photo shopped because no beach can be that beautiful White powder sand and turquoise blue water. Exquisite! The snorkeling was some of the best I have ever seen. Right off the beaches in front of the hotel were reefs and hundreds of fish. It was amazing. I took more pictures of underwater than land photos.

We took a tour to Stingray City. This is a reef in the open ocean that hundreds of stingrays visit. The photos below will speak for themselves.

Pirate ships would pass by on the ocean. Sure they were for the tourists’ eye, but hey, that was me. My friend Teresa and I posed by a corny tourist statue with a pirate, the good kind of pirate. Teresa and I went to high school together. She and her husband Jim were fantastic travel mates.

Every night the four of us would meet on our patio to discuss the problems of the world. Quite a few nights we spent trying to figure out how to live in this beautiful place for half the year. I do love my Victoria in the summer, though. I feel no need to go anywhere else once the farm stands open up and the organic markets are in full swing.

Iguanas roamed the island and it was quite common to run across them on your way to the beach or dinner.

Diane could legally buy Cuban cigars and rum for the first time in our travels. We only got a wee bit of flack from the American customs agent in North Carolina.

Now we are back into the swing at work and missing our vacation time. The next thing we have planned is Las Vegas for American Thanksgiving.

I will try to post more often but if you friend me on Facebook I post on there more often.
Thanks for tuning in.