Return FROM Paradise, concluded

Saturday, the day after the wedding was quite low key.  We walked around the town some seeing the local economy drivers

and saw some of the other citizens also out for a stroll

After walking around, we headed back to the wedding venue for the last time, walked the beach a little

and enjoyed a little brunch buffet while the "younger set" enjoyed the pool with their “stuff” spread about

After conversing with our new and old friends for a while, we took our final leave, thanking our hosts who were leaving the next day for birding adventures in Trinidad and Tobago and made the last drive back to the Hotel.  In the daylight, the return trip was at last mastered without visiting our favorite hospital parking lot and we had a late dinner on the veranda, and enjoyed the entertainment.

The next day (Sunday) was not only our last full day, but the only day without needing to "be" someplace at some time.  It turns out that the Caymans is a very religious country and many things we take for granted on Sunday are closed there.  So shopping, some tourism items like glass bottom boat cruises are not open on Sunday.  So, darn  the luck we were forced to don more casual garb

And I should point out that those of you who have been to continental beaches abroad, my beach clothing WAS NOT what you see hairy, overweight, "gentleman" (almost) wearing, revealing much more than you want to see..  As I’m sure you would know, the Bottom Feeder would be properly and tastefully DF’d..

So with correct attire, and shopping opportunities not available, we were forced to endure a whole day like this:

Watching the passing scene

Staying healthfully hydrated

And interacting with the local residents

Under the watchful eye of others

And so we spent the entire day!  No tours, no gardens, just absorbing the scene.  So, while we don’t have very good answers for “did you see the……?” questions about the Caymans, it was a wonderful relaxing day spent doing….. nothing! (except as noted above).  We finally retired and had a restful evening.  So the next morning we had one more breakfast

And went back to the room.   The clothes I took in case there was a DFD opportunity never saw the light of day, and went back in the suitcase

And we took our last trip through the lobby

And succumbing to heavy coercion from the staff we posed in front of “the wall”

And drove to the airport, leaving the palm trees, iguanas, and beautiful azure waters behind for…

The trip home was routine, this time going through Charlotte, which is a huge facility (why are our gates always at the end of the concourse?)  and finally we boarded the flight for the last leg back to BWI, and decided to stay overnight since we didn’t arrive until after ten.  Next morning we drove back to the digs.

Musings (you didn't think you'd escape did you?):

While we never thought we’d be taking this journey (as we are approaching our "twilight years" we kind of have adapted a "do it while you can" attitude), it was a wonderful experience (well, okay I’ll give you the somewhat harrowing auto trips “LEFT, LEFT!”).   The people of the Caymans were kind and gracious ambassadors for their country.  And a special thanks to our San Diego friends for the opportunity to see new shores (so to speak), meet new people, and experience our first “destination” wedding.  

And to the readership, that is the last trip on the books for a while, although we leave a week from today to go back to Missouri for our annual Christmas visit.  We’ve lined up a few food experiences with the FOJ’s.

After that, we can maybe return to actual food stuff, I have to recount my bout with Chicken Marsala, talk about restaurant movements and so forth.  Will try to do some of that before our trip, although the social calendar is heavily booked.

And of course through it all we will maintain our staunch commitment and mission to convert all to be

DFD

A late postscript, today saw the final shuttering of Lenny's one of the icons of early independent restaurants in the county... more later.

O K Mon!

get it?   

So after we rested for a while we set out for the pre wedding night thanksgiving dinner  to find the venue for all the activity associated with the wedding.  As I said before the Island is kind of stretched out (as a reminder)

And, as you recall the Marriott is kind of in the middle of the vertical leg, and the wedding was to be held on a property that was a bit farther east than a place Bodden Town.  I suspect you can’t see it on the map, but Bodden Town is located on the horizontal portion of the Island, kind of just past the “pink” stuff which denotes settled land sort of.  We were told it was about 10 miles, an easy drive.  Well, part of that was true, but you have to get from the “vertical” part to the “horizontal” part which means you have to traverse this area:

Which is kind of a maze, and at each intersection of brown road, there is a traffic circle.  Being a veteran of Irish traffic circles, I was not (overly) worried.  Well, turns out there is a difference between the Irish and the Cayman implementation of traffic circles (not that I’m complaining).  In Ireland before each circle is a large sign with arrows sticking out of a circle diagram with clearly marked indication of what that road would be.  That practice is not repeated in the Caymans, and road signs with the name of the road you’re on are virtually non-existent.   Plus, the GPS was reluctant to load.  We did have turn by turn directions courtesy of the Marriott Concierge lady who couldn’t have been more helpful, but they were “Take the second exit from the circle” type of thing.  Counting spokes on a wheel while trying to avoid a collision is daunting.

Well, not to draw this out, but between the “other side” driving, the helpful use of horns by the citizens, and a bit of MFO occasionally reminding me of “LEFT!” it was not a pleasant experience.  Many cell phone minutes were burned between us and our friends, with “Look for the Rubi Station”; “Do you see a Domino’s?” and eventually our friend who posted himself  beside the road as a sentry waved at us as we whizzed by.  “Hey!  That was Ed!!”  So finally we pulled into the driveway of a gorgeous house

Which had an ocean side pool and a view that kind of made you go wow!

With a quick trip to the well equipped

The travails of the road soon melted away, and we had a great Thanksgiving dinner and met all the relatives and soon to be in-laws.  Quite the evening.

The trip BACK to the hotel provided more adventures.  Turning the directions upside down we set out (now in the dark) and after a while found ourselves god knows where.  (I thought it said the third exit!).  The road we were on kind of led us into a Hospital parking lot.  Not a bad thought.  Anyway, MFO went inside and soon appeared with a helpful person who gesticulated and pointed the way, we got back on the right road (after going through a gas station as directed) and got back to the Hotel without further incident. 

The next day was the Wedding day, to take place at sunset, so we had the morning and most of the afternoon to ourselves.   We had a lovely breakfast in the Marriott, and it turned out the food was very good, eggs as ordered, plenty of smoky bacon, and the hash browns had a little cheese in them which raised them above the commonplace.  A pleasant surprise

And looky who made the butter!

After breakfast we enjoyed a restful time at the beach (under an umbrella)

The hotel provides guests with any number of water diversions, snorkeling, kayaks, sailboards, catamarans, etc., including something I’ve never seen before.  You apparently strap on some boots that had an water jet on the bottom, and the guy in the chase boat regulated the air power to elevate you up in the air

Now, anybody knows that any system with a forcing function at the “bottom” of anything is pretty much inherently unstable (why rockets have fins) and this was no different, as most of the experience was this:

However, this individual eventually got the hang of it

Why that’s fun escapes me, but whatever. 

We had lunch on the veranda, preceded with drinks

In this case, a margarita for MFO and I branched out with a “Gin Julep”, basically a mint julep made with Gin.  Was fresh muddled mint and quite refreshing, and there were no umbrellas in the drinks.

Our food was a quesadilla and a lobster taco

And again, a pleasant surprise, quick service, and the food was fresh, hot, and nicely presented.  Quite the nice experience.  (Cost?  Ptooie!)

So after lunch and a quick rest we got ready for the big ceremony.  Some relatives of our friends were staying at the same hotel, and we gave them a ride to the wedding, this time traversed expertly and flawlessly giving the mistaken impression I was a veteran (a lucky one).

Won't dwell on the wedding, but it was lovely, certainly a memory maker for the bride and groom

Quite different from the Michigan State University Student Chapel that saw the Flutters getting hitched lo these 52 years ago.  After the ceremony we had lovely food and even music supplied by some of the guests

It certainly was a memorable experience. The groom’s mother baked the wedding cake, quite the experience in a far away place.  She is a terrific baker (and cook) as is her daughter.

And we even had one more experience on the way home again demonstrating the kindness of the Cayman Island folks.  

We finally had to take our leave, and at least we’re consistent, we wound up in the same Hospital parking lot, but this time we said “Hah! We can do this!’ which we did until we fetched up against some yellow tape that was fencing off part of the road we used on the previous evening, they were having a street festival.  A young lady whom I assume was a volunteer came over and said that I would have to turn around and where were we going?  Back to the Marriott.  “Ah, that’s easy, just turn around and go back to the first circle, take the second exit, go to the next one, straight through until you come to another round about being careful to…..” At this point she paused and said “Sir, you look stressed”, well, yes I am to tell the truth.  She said; “wait right here” which I did, and soon she appeared in her auto and said “Just follow me”, and this unbelievable good Samaritan led us all the way back through those circles to our hotel which was a good 15 minutes of driving.  Once in the parking lot, she just waved and went on her way.  In this time of terrorists, bombing and shootings, it’s good to know there are real people out there.  God bless you young lady!

Once back to the hotel, we headed for the bar, and I had another dose of resort reality.   I thought I deserved a special drink since our “duties” were pretty much performed and were looking forward to a day of recovery.  So I said:  “What scotches do you have?” and was kind of surprised that the answer was Johnny Walker types, Dewar’s, and oh yes, we have Chivas.  I suppose there were some single malts, but I didn’t got there.  Okay I’ll have a Chivas.  12 or 18 year old, sir?.  What the hell, eighteen, and you might as well make it a double (knowing the penchant for um, well, er, thimble sized pours.  MFO asked about a Gimlet, and sure they could do that.   Fine Sapphire please.  Fine.  Soon enough we had our drinks (we wanted to take them back to the room and sit on our little balcony) and I was presented with omnipresent piece of paper to sign for the drinks.   52 Dollars!  What can you do?  Thanks mate… and off to the room.

Quite the day, and we didn’t really have to get

DFD

Tropical shirts sufficed…

More travels!

We recently had the somewhat unexpected pleasure of expanding the Flutters travel horizons to include a portion of the Caribbean that we have not visited before, specifically the Cayman Islands, and more specifically Grand Cayman itself.   The island(s) are about due south of Miami, and also just south of Cuba.

Our long time friends who now reside in San Diego invited us to the wedding of their son over the Thanksgiving weekend.  It was our first, first hand experience with a “destination wedding” where everybody picks up and goes someplace spiffy, in this case the aforementioned Islands.  Although initially envisioned as a “small, family only event”, it soon mushroomed into a much more expanded occasion, and we were invited to attend if we wished, and of course we gratefully accepted.  What a great opportunity.  So, planning on a rather rapid (for us) basis mapped out a trip with the aid of the always capable folks at Cole travel.  Before advancing farther, a couple of sort of editorial notes are in order:

 1.  The Feeder apologizes to his loyal readers for the lack of my annual “Thanksgiving” edition, wherein the Bottom Feeder relates this year’s schemes on how to take a plain fowl without much inherent flavor and turn it into….. well, you know.. “Best Ever”, etc.  MFO suggested perhaps a Christmas edition might suffice, or maybe one will appear out of the blue in your in-basket one day.

2.  Having never been to the Caymans, we related to the travel arranger person we deal with that we needed to go to the said Islands, outlined  \the plan (arrive ASAP Thanksgiving Day, need lodging through Sunday night, need a car) and fix us up.

Maybe a little geography lesson would be in order for those of you who don’t jet off to the Caribbean every winter.  Here’s (a not very good picture of) the general layout of Grand Cayman.

It is kind of spread out, with most of the Humans occupying the left end and southish around the bend.  The vertical strip on the left is known as “seven mile beach” where most of the resorts and shops and stuff exist.

Okay, that’s our destination and arrangements were made such that we would arrive on the Grand Cayman Island early afternoon on Thanksgiving day.  Well, you don’t just pick up and go there, you have to connect flights (in our case in Miami) be at the airport ahead of time, yadda yadda.  That resulted in us saying overnight near BWI in order to catch the first flight in that direction which had wheels up at 0700.  Yes, that is seven hours after midnight.  So we had a leisurely drive up Wednesday night, relaxed and prepared for the journey the next day.  Well, after being rudely awakened, my 

And the image sort of accurately reflects what was seen with the naked eye.   Anyway, we grabbed our pre-packed suitcases (we didn’t sleep in our clothes, by the way) and took the Shuttle over to BWI airport, which surprisingly enough, was pretty busy at that ungodly (but necessary) hour.  Made our way through security and got to the gate, and the little electronic board assured us that we were at the correct location for our flight down to

Soon enough, we boarded the flight and were on our way. You might remember that my usual practice is to show you some pitiful airline food like material, but there are none here because there was no pitiful airline like food material unless you were willing to pay for it (which I wasn’t).  No window view, we have taken to request (thank you travel agents!) that we get aisle/aisle seats.  Traveler’s tip:  If you fiddle enough, you can find a little latch that will release the arm rest next to the aisle.  Makes in and out much easier. Also, these days like everywhere, the minute the planes take off, heads bury into some device, and more often than not, the window shade goes down (the person next to the window “owns” control of the shade, regardless what you might like).

Anyway, we arrived in Miami pretty much as scheduled and walked through the airport to the gate for our flight to the Caymans. Miami is a pretty slick airport with many food vendors, some offering more international flair and some with better known products

we didn't notice Joey Chestnut by the way

Was only about an hour and a few minutes to the Island and we landed at the small airport near George Town (always two words) and walked across the tarmac into the airport 

Once inside the “terminal” we had the first taste of the climate (kind of pun intended) of the friendliness and hospitality we would experience throughout our stay from everyone on the Island.

“customs” was quite easy and relaxed. (notice nobody in the rat maze)

Now, we knew going in that being “British” in nature, people on the Caymans followed their practice of driving on the “other” side of the road.  Having experienced this in Ireland, I wasn’t particularly concerned about it.  We made a short walk over to the rental car agency, and were reminded of Ireland when the agent walked us around the car pointing out “existing” scratches, dings, and scrapes from confused American drivers that were also common in Ireland.   The other feature that carried to this side of the “pond” is that there are many round-a-bouts, but again, I was a veteran and not particularly scared knowing what to expect.

Our hotel was located about halfway “up” the seven mile beach, and you can see the little airplane icon so we had to traverse that distance to check in to the Hotel.  With a little help from maps and the agent’s direction and MFO shouting “left” occasionally, we made it without many close calls (there is liberal use of horns from other drivers to help you).  We stayed at a lovely Marriott resort, the first of its kind for us.  That experience will probably rate a whole column on its own.  It is quite and experience.  From the minute we drove into the entrance

(note the traffic arrow on the pavement)

We were treated kindly with people appearing immediately to help with the bags, and even giving you a little tropical drink (you need some rum in that sir!) upon walking into the lovely lobby which featured a gorgeous wall

Our room overlooked the courtyard which also contained a little water feature

After a bit of recovery time, and before leaving for a late Thanksgiving dinner at the place where the wedding party was staying, we took a quick look at the ocean side of the resort.   Just gorgeous (did i mention that it was 81 degrees and gentle breezes?)

And of course there were all the amenities one could wish for  

Anyway, we retired to our room preparing for the Thanksgiving spread with the wedding party, and didn't really worry about getting

DFD