Cayman Trip - Day 3: Hell and Turtles

Chrystie did some research before we left Utah and found out what cruise ships would be in port in Georgetown on what days. We used this information and decided to go into Georgetown on Monday, when only one ship would be there. We wanted to go on a Semi-Submarine. What is a semi-submarine you ask – think Disneyland. Yep, it is a boat with windows under water that make you feel like you are in a submarine, when really you are just in the bottom of a boat. This was going to be really fun for the kids to be able to see the fish under water, since they were not able to snorkel.

We loaded in the cars fairly early and drove to Georgetown. I do have to say that Matt did a crazy good job driving on the wrong side of the road. We were in a backward Corolla, so it was just like our car at home, but backward. The steering wheel is on the right, and the hand controls are backward (the windshield wiper is where the turn signal should be!) Getting around seemed easy until you got into the city – then there were roundabouts everywhere; and not just regular backward roundabouts, but 2 lane backward roundabouts. But he did awesome and we never even had a close call.

Our car followed Chrystie and Preston in their SUV until we found the submarine place and parked the cars. We excitedly went inside, ready to purchase our tickets – and were told that they were not running the semi-sub today. They were running the real sub, but it cost 3X as much and the kids couldn’t go on it. Total Bummer.

Now we had to decide what to do. Since we were in Georgetown, and since Georgetown is where all the shopping was, we decided to shop. We hit some of the little gift shops there. I have realized that the stores in all port towns look the same. They have different names on the products, but they are essentially the same. But that doesn’t make it any less fun to look around. We went through several shops, and people bought stuff, then we decided it was time to eat. The submarine people were kind enough to let us park in their lot for a couple hours, but they wanted us to move our car by 1. So we hurried off to find a place to eat.
Some people in our party had seen a restaurant on the ocean not too far away, so we walked to it. They quickly seated us and we placed our orders for drinks (diet coke for me please!) only to have the waiter come back and say that their water was turned off and they didn’t have any coke or diet coke. OK, I will settle for a bottled water (I still don’t know if they charged me for that). Then we ordered food. Most of the fam happily ordered fish. Yummy ocean fish. I would have ordered fish except - see - I hadn’t met a fish I liked to eat, so I ordered Chicken. Matt got a hamburger. That turned out to be a rather big mistake.

The food came out and we all started eating. My chicken was yucky. The seasoning was good, but the chicken itself, just not good. But I had lots of fries, so life was OK. When Matt ordered his burger they asked how he would like it done. He clearly told them he wanted it well done. So we were both a little shocked when he bit into the thing and it was BRIGHT RED inside. Yucky! He was a trooper and tried to eat around the edges, but finally he couldn’t stand it and sent it back with the waiter to have it cooked some more. Meanwhile everyone else is done eating and getting ready to go. My Dad takes the kids to go pick up souvenirs they picked out while we were browsing. We wait for the burger to come back, it comes back nice and heated through, but still bright red! I don’t know what that hamburger was, but I have concluded it wasn’t hamburger. Happy to say Matt didn’t get sick even though he ate it. We hurried back to the cars and headed West and then North. Since we didn’t get to do the submarines, we were going to go to the Turtle farm.

Driving to the Turtle farm we went past 7 mile beach (which is 5 ½ miles long). This is where there are a ton of huge hotels. I guess most people stay along this part of the island.

We reached the North point of the island, and since we were there we took a stop in Hell. Yep, you heard me right, Hell. There is a place with these interesting back rocks that look like Lava (though Val tells me that they are not). Some guy built a gift shop there, and they opened a post office. So you can have your letter officially postmarked from Hell. (which we would have done but I forgot to bring any addresses with me on this part of the trip. Oops!) We took a quick stop in the gift shop and listened to the store owner and his puns, all dealing with Hell. Nice. It wasn’t a place that we were going to stay for long, so we quickly bought some stuff and moved on to the turtle farm.

The turtle farm, as Val (who stopped here on a cruise before – that is why she was our expert) remembers from a tour, was set up to help the sea turtles from all getting wiped out. They release some of the turtles into the wild, and use some for (gulp) eating. I was a little disappointed to find out that the entire thing was outside, because I was hot and still not used to the humidity at all! We paid our entrance fee, got our fancy bracelet, and went in. I was expecting a tour guide, or at least for there to be workers around, but we were pretty much on our own. We looked at the big turtles. We saw big iguanas crawling around (and climbing trees). My cute nephew Daxton liked the iguanas, and would say “Hi Guana” when he saw one. Very adorable.
We looked at the younger turtles, and these are the ones they let you touch. I helped my niece Arden with touching the turtles. She mostly liked to touch them in the water, rather than have them picked up for her, but I think she liked it. We spent a lot of time petting the turtles, then going around and looking at the other sizes of turtles. Some were really big, then there were little tiny baby turtles (sigh, so cute). It was fun. But it was hot – and so it was time to wash our hands which were covered in turtle water and head home to the blue house.
Coming Soon – Day 4: Sailboats and Stingrays

Cayman Trip - Day 3: The First Snorkel

The next day we just took it slow. I remember waking up and looking out my window. The sun was rising behind the palm trees. Beautiful – then I went back to sleep.

Once I got up it was a slow morning of reading and lounging and watching the kids play. My Dad, who is way better than I am, went for a jog. The kids played in the water behind our house. I read, and played. Chrystie went snorkeling down our inlet to where it meets the ocean. While she was gone we all played in the water and just had fun.

She got back and announced that she saw a lot of jellyfish on the bottom of the inlet. Uh Oh! Yep, they were the silly little jellyfish that look like grass (I should have taken a picture, sorry). They just sit there, in the grass and wait for someone to come along and try to enjoy some cool water and they get you. I remembered that my Dad had jumped into the water after his jog and went fairly deep. I wasn’t surprised to find him with jellyfish stings on his feet. No fun at all. They were not serious, just annoying.

Matt and I were excited to go snorkeling, we loaded on our gear and got into the water. But we didn’t get far when Matt put his hand on the ground and at least 10 jellyfish jumped off the ground and floated around in the water. I decided that there had to be better snorkeling on the island, and we got out. I didn’t want to mess with the jellyfish this early in my trip.

After a little more playing around the house (and eating lunch) Matt and I decided we wanted to go over to Rum Point and snorkel. Val and my parents came too. It was much more crowded than it had been the evening before. Boats were everywhere, and there were lots of people. But we were able to find some beach chairs together to put our stuff on and then we went out into the water. The snorkeling didn’t start out amazing. It took us a while to find some fish. But with a little swimming, and going farther out away from the beach we found some coral, and with the coral some fish. It was great! We took a little underwater camera with us on the trip and Matt and I took turns using it to record the fish under water. It was great, but you can get seasick watching the movies play back.

We had a great time. We snorkeled, then came back and relaxed and swam, and then went out again. The water was perfect, the fish were amazing, it was so much fun! Time flies when you are having fun, and before we knew it the sun was getting low in the sky. We packed up and went back to the house. We had dinner and relaxed. Some of us played cards out on the screened in porch until late, then went to bed.

Coming Soon – Day 3: Hell and Turtles

Cayman Trip - Day 2: Totally Worth It!

We woke up early on Saturday in order to get some breakfast before heading to the airport. Our hotel had a really good breakfast, with made to order omelets. I love that (ham and cheese please!) We ate and then we were ready to pack in the van and leave. We were surprised to have the same shuttle driver as we did the night before. He must have liked us.

Our group arrived at the airport nice and early. The shuttle driver suggested we get there early, and my dad (and I) are always happy to make sure we don't miss our flight. Matt and I checked in electronically, the rest of the group was forced to stand in line to check in. Unfortunately we were standing in the international line. This line was especially long and slow moving due to the volcano in Iceland (I think it was Iceland) that had all flights into northern Europe canceled. So we waited and waited and waited. Finally they reached an agent, and we waited and waited and waited some more. I didn't stick around to hear what the problem or resolution was (I was playing with my niece and nephew) but finally we were set free from that line and moved onto security.

I am happy to report that we moved very smoothly through the security line and made our way to the gate. We dropped our stuff and Matt and I headed back to the food court to get some drinks from McDonald's. By the time we made it back to the gate they were boarding (it was still 45 minutes before the flight.) So we grabbed our stuff and smashed onto the plane. Again we were unlucky and someone had booked the seat between us. She moved to the aisle, and we took the window and middle. Nice and cozy.

This flight was sadly not equipped with the individual TVs for each seat. I started to watch the movie, but it was boring, and my niece Arden wanted to come back and play with me. She moved back into my lap (which made it even more cozy) and we colored and played with stickers and read books until she was bored with me and returned to her seat. I need to add that I was expecting a shorter flight to Grand Cayman. I assumed that Atlanta and Grand Cayman were on the same time. Come to find out they are in the same time zone, but that Cayman doesn't do daylight savings. So what I thought was a 1 1/2 hour flight was a 2 1/2 hour flight. Not cool!

Anyway - we finally make it to Cayman and get of the plane. Right away I am wishing I was not wearing long pants and real shoes. The heat and humidity are screaming for me to be in shorts and sandals! We made it through all the customs and such. I received my FIRST ever stamp in my passport (pretty cool).

The next step was to get our car. Matt and I rented a Corolla, which is considered a full size car in Cayman. Also catching a ride with us were my parents and my sister. Unfortunately our luggage wanted to come with us too. We got the car and started loading our stuff in and new instantly we were going to be uncomfortable during the ride. This whole time we were waiting, waiting, waiting for my Brother in Law to get his car. Turns out the wait was worth it. They were out of the small SUV he had rented and had to give him a bigger one. Why was this good news? Because we were able to fit all of our stuff in his car! Way better than riding with luggage in our laps.

Then we were off and driving - on the wrong (left) side of the road. We were trying to find somewhere to eat, since the kids (and many of the rest of us) were hungry. A little bit of driving and we found a Wendy's. That sounded nice and fast so we pulled up and got our lunch. It was nice to stop and sit and not be in an airplane or a car for a little while. It was a nice Wendy's with an upstairs so it was OK if the kids wanted to run around or scream a little (I know I wanted to!)

Lunch ended and we were off to find our home for the next week. We drove along most of the southern coast and then up the center of the island to the north. We followed the north coast to Rum Point and then just around the corner there it was! A Beautiful, large, BLUE house! Our house!


I jumped out of the car and hurried into the back yard to check it out. I was not disappointed at all in what I saw. There was a beautiful beach in the back yard with a hammock and beach chairs, a deck going out into the little inlet, a screened in porch. It was heaven. Here is a video of me running around like crazy - so excited about what I was seeing.

The house was amazing. There were three bedrooms upstairs. A master bedroom (Chrystie and Preston and family took that one). A 2nd bedroom with a kind size bed (me and Matt) and a pink bedroom with 2 twin beds (for Val an Arden). The rooms had decks. It was Awesome.

We unpacked and got ready to head to the beach. About a 5 minute walk up the street and we were at Rum Point. This is a beautiful beach. One of the prettiest I have ever seen. The water is so clear! Here are a few pictures we took on the first day there.

We all got in the water and played for a while. We saw some fish and a ray right there! So amazing. We didn't have a lot of time to play before the sun started to go down and we had to dry off and go back to our blue house.

I am not sure when it was, but between the beautiful house, the wonderful beach, and the amazing water I realized that all that travel was TOTALLY worth it!

Coming soon - Day 3: the first snorkel

Cayman Island Trip! Day 1: Georgia on My Mind

Like all good trips, this one began with a trip to the airport. I have said it before on this blog, and I will say it again: I hate flying. I hate airports. I hate airplanes. I hate the cramped seats and the yucky airplane smell. But I love going places, so it is a necessary evil. For this trip Matt and I decided to car pool with my parents. We drove to their house and were about 10 minutes behind schedule. Not too bad for us really. We quickly loaded into my parent’s Jeep and we were off to pick up my sister Val. Jamming all of us and our stuff into the Jeep was going to be good practice for when we all had to jam into the rental car in Cayman.

Finally we are off and headed to parking. It didn’t take too long to find a place for the car to sleep while we went on vacation. They were on the spot with picking us up and it was all going great! We got to the airport and checked in. We lucked out again in that my brother-in-law is a super frequent flyer with Delta, and since everyone (but me and Matt) was booked on his reservation they didn’t have to pay bag fees. So we all got checked in through to Atlanta. We make it through security just fine and then have an hour to burn in the Salt Lake Airport.

It was a perfect time to eat – especially since you don’t get food on an airplane anymore. We grabbed some quick yumminess from the food court, and of course a large Diet Coke for me. Then we made our way to the waiting area by the gate. I have to wonder why they never have enough seats for people in the gate area. It seems that we are always fighting for a place to sit – especially if we have a large group that we want to be together. Oh well.

My sister Chrystie and her family arrive and we are all ready to get on the plane.

When we picked our seats Matt and I thought we were brilliant. On 3 of our 4 flights (the other one was full) we booked the aisle and window seat. We hoped that no one would want to be assigned a middle seat, so unless the flight was totally full we would have a little extra room. Unfortunately, the flight was totally full! We moved over to the window and the middle seat and settled in for a long flight to Georgia.

The flight was probably my favorite of the trip. We somehow lucked out and ended up on a plane that had little TV’s in the back of every seat. Not only did it have TV, but it had a free trivia game that everyone on the plane could play against each other. I never did win, but it was a lot of fun.

We reached Atlanta at about ten Eastern Time; which meant I wasn’t sleepy, but there wasn’t anything to do. We took the shuttle to the hotel, barely fitting everything into the back of the shuttle. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the hotel. We unloaded and looked around. It was a really nice hotel, with a fountain in the courtyard in the middle. We got settled into our rooms and the Matt and I headed out for a walk around the place. I needed to stretch before I could sleep. We walked around and ended up at the restaurant when we saw my mom and sister Val there, we decided to join them. A giant plate of nachos later I was ready for bed.

Sleep wasn’t very good that night. There were several groups of teenagers staying at the hotel, and they were having a good time in the room next to me. I plugged the ipod into my ears and tried to sleep the best I could.

Coming soon – Day 2: It is all totally worth it!

Michael Buble

My cute husband got together with the other men in my family and arranged to give me and the girls (my mom and sisters) tickets to the Michael Buble concert. I was excited at the time, but the concert wasn’t until the end of March, so I pinned the tickets to my bulletin board and forgot about them. But then – before I knew it – it was the end of March! Time for the concert!

I looked at the tickets, for probably the first time and realized the concert was on a Wednesday, and didn’t start until 8. I knew that was going to leave me tired on Thursday, but that didn’t matter, I was going to a concert! So much fun!

The concert was at the E-Center in West Valley. I hurried home after work and met my mom at her house. It was snowing, so we traded cars and took the Jeep to my sister Chrystie’s house. We picked her up and then headed out to the venue.

I received an email prior to the concert warning me that it was sold out and that they recommended people show up more than an hour early if they wanted a place to park. We heeded this advice and parked our car about 6:30 for the 8:00 show. The next step was to find somewhere to eat.

We started the trek down the restaurant street just like all the other groups of people attending the concert. First stop, Ruby Tuesdays. 45 minute wait, but we put our name on the list. Next stop, Applebee’s, also a 45 minute wait. Next stop, the sports bar, there we would have had to wait until someone decided to leave. None of us liked that idea so we wandered back to Ruby Tuesdays and waited our turn. My sister Val met us at this time. She lives in Salt Lake, so she didn’t want to car pool in. We found a place out of the snow to wait for our turn to eat. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen at a restaurant. Probably 3 out of 4 names called for tables were not there. I would guess it took about half an hour from the time we put our name in until we found our table. Then it was time for yummy food (I didn’t realize how hungry I was until we were sitting there waiting for our waitress). My short review on dinner is that the food was good, but the service was, well, not really there. (All I need to be happy with my server is to not have an empty Diet Coke for half my meal. Oh well).

We finished eating just before 8 and walked over to the concert. Getting in and finding our seats was super easy. We probably missed one or two of the opening groups songs, so not bad timing. I really enjoyed the opening act. They were called Naturally 7, and they were an acapella group that simulated their own instrument sounds. They were funny and talented, and I enjoyed them. (look them up if you want, they were really good).

There was a short break between the opening act and the main show. This was a good time, I thought, to take a quick bathroom break. Unfortunately, everyone else thought the same thing. You can guess the ratio of women to men at this concert was not conducive to having a short line at the women’s bathroom. I grudgingly got in the back of the line when I heard a West Valley police officer nearby telling everyone that there was another bathroom down the hall a ways. He was told that the other bathroom was behind the barricade and that the usher wouldn’t let them past. The officer turned to go investigate the situation. I had a good feeling about that and told Chrystie to “follow that guy”. We fell in line behind him, along with 3 or 4 other women from the line. He marched us to the gate and asked the usher if the bathroom on the other side was out of order. When the usher replied it was working just fine the officer pushed the gate out of the way and gave us access to a bathroom with no wait! I must say that was one of my favorite parts of the night. It was my first ever police escort to the restroom.

We made it back to our seats with plenty of time before the main concert started. I was pretty excited when it did start, but not as excited as the girl a few rows back from us that couldn’t stop screaming (it was like he was Elvis). The concert was great. It was way more high budget than the last time I saw him in concert (2006 or so at Abravanel Hall). There were video screens and fireworks and all sorts of good stuff. Michael Buble did a good job of not just singing songs from his new CD, but of mixing it up well and singing some of his older stuff and standards as well as mixing in some newer stuff, and stuff I have never heard before. It was a really good concert, and I think we all had a great time.

Then it was time to go home. The concert ended about 10:30 or so, and we moved to our car. Then we stayed in our car, in the parking lot, for another hour or so! There was no order and no one was moving. We were stuck. Finally my mom found a line that was moving and we made our way out and home.

I didn’t get home until after midnight, (which is late for me on a weekday) but we had so much fun. Thanks Matt and the guys for giving us a Great Christmas present!

Handy Matty

We moved into our house over a year ago with great confidence that we would be able to fix all the “little” things that were broken. One of those little things was the water faucet on the outside of the house in the back yard. Last year we realized that the handle was broken off and we couldn’t turn the water on. No big deal right? Well, it was broken below the regular handle, so we couldn’t just add a new handle. I figured we would be able to unattach the nozzle and put a new one on. What I didn’t realize is that it isn’t just a nozzle on the outside of the house, no, it is stuck to a foot long pipe that goes through the wall and into the house where it is stuck to the rest of the plumbing.

So, in order to get a hose hooked up in the back yard, we now had to cut a hole in the ceiling of the basement, but the copper pipe, make a new fitting that went around all the bends and turns in the ceiling, hook it all back together (thank goodness for the new Shark Bite connection) and we still have to put the ceiling back on.

Good thing I am married to such a handy guy. He did the entire thing while I was at work, I didn’t have to deal with the water being turned off! But it just goes to show you, what appears to be a nice and easy little job can turn into a crazy huge project, just like that.