Cayman Islands post #2 (July 17-18)

After getting settled in Cayman on Saturday, we were ready to indulge for our week-long vacation.  The big debate for Sunday was regarding breakfast / brunch.  Ferdinand's the restaurant located on the hotel grounds, has a highly-recommended (but highly expensive) brunch buffet.  Considering most of our dinners cost about $125 American (or more), spending $60 American on a mid-day meal was a bit much to ask.  John and Charlie were the only 2 who decided to go for it - and they decided to make the most of it by wrapping breakfast, lunch and some extras all into an hour-and-a-half sit-down.  Charlie's two plates below didn't count his middle plate - or his dessert!  If you're ever in Cayman - we'd recommend this (or at least Charlie would).  You may not be hungry the rest of the day - and they have free champagne/mimosas to add to the fun.

Afterwards, it was time for some relaxation in the pool because that's what vacation is for right?  John and Sarah went scuba diving that day.  When they got back we all headed to Coconut Joe's, a local restaurant/bar, for a cheaper dinner and drinks than the night before.

We also got a visit from some pirates - not sure what their deal was, but they walked into the bar and would talk to the patrons.

The bar had a special on some "jungle punch" that was a lot more punch than jungle, but we did go on a little bar crawl on the way home to get our daily dose of booze.  Sunday was in the books!

Monday was more R&R at the pool during the day.  We took a long walk down 7-mile beach to explore the area, and had lunch at the swim-up bar again.  The plan was to go visit Georgetown - which is south of 7-mile beach and is the capital of the island.  It's the tourist hub of the island where the cruise ships stop each day.  We thought would walk around some of the many shops and then stop and have dinner.  So we hopped one of the cayman "buses" which are basically large passenger vans that you can hop on and off of for only 2 cayman dollars - they'll take you anywhere on 7-mile beach.  The bus dropped us off right in the middle of Georgetown around 5pm.  As we started to walk around we noticed that every shop was closed - Georgetown was more like "Ghost-town".  We found out later that all of the shops close when the cruise ships leave.  The cruise ships dock in the Georgetown harbor during the day but all the passengers get back on their ship for dinner.

After walking a few blocks, we found a restaurant called "Paradise".  It was right on the water and had excellent views of the sunset.  It was quite a leisurely dinner - though it might be the one restaurant we wouldn't recommend.  It took a really long time even though it was far from crowded.  Most "sit-down" restaurants in Cayman are pretty expensive, and this one fit the bill - but it just wasn't worth it as much as others.   It did offer some great photo ops, though, with the sunset.

(Yep, this is a stick-your head in picture of Prince William and Kate...with Gary and Charlie as the new royal couple)

After dinner we walked through the empty streets to Jimmy Buffet's Margarita-ville.  Unfortunately it was getting ready to close (at 10pm...again because of the cruise ships) so we grabbed a road-soda and some of took a quick dip down the water slide and made a note to come back when it is open for longer.

We finally found a bar that wasn't closing, called Rackam's.  Apparently it is a right of passage to jump off the deck at Rackham's.  Charlie, John and Gary decided to take the plunge into the Bay and Heidi decided to represent for the girls.  There is a whole school of really large Tarpon fish, but they swim away at the first sight of someone jumping into their bay.  The only hard thing about the jump was the getting back up to the bar, because they basically had to climb up these rocks which wasn't easy...but that didn't stop them from jumping off the deck multiple times.

 

Vacation... Cayman Islands post #1 - arriving on Saturday (July 16)

We're a bit behind on our posting - but only because we've been so busy!  It's hard to post on weekends when we're actually doing something that becomes "blog-worthy"- so now we're trying to catch up.  Since we moved last summer, we didn't get the chance to do an outright vacation.  We actually hadn't been to a beach since our honeymoon - so this year we decided to go to the Cayman Islands.  Charlie had been there over a decade ago with his parents, so he knew it was a nice island - and he also was excited to see it from a "grown-up" perspective.  We got two other couples to come - Katie's friend Sarah (who was her Maid of Honor) and her husband John, and Charlie's good friend Gary and his wife Heidi.  We booked rooms at the Westin on Grand Cayman for just under a week, and couldn't wait for our trip!

We left Saturday morning, July 16th.  Charlie had been in Boston at a training for work up until late Thursday night - so he had Friday off and watched Griffey all day until it was time to board him.  We were both sad to take our puppy to be boarded for such a long time :( - but it sounds like he had fun at Best Friend's Pet Care while we were gone!

Mommy - don't make me go!!!

Our direct flight got us in a little after noon Cayman time, and after we got through customs we took a cab to the hotel.  Charlie had been thinking of renting a car.  They drive on the "wrong" side of the road there,  though, so that idea never came to fruition.  When we got to the hotel, our room wasn't ready, so we just changed into bathing suits and went out to the pool.  John and Sarah had already been there for almost 2 days, and Gary and Heidi had beat us there on their flight from Dayton.  So we had some catching up to do as far as taking in some sun.  We got lunch and drinks from the Westin swim-up bar, and got our first taste of Cayman Island prices!  The food was very good, though.  And we met some of the locals...

After a relaxing afternoon at the pool, we went out to stock up on supplies for the week.  This meant that the girls went to the grocery store, and the boys went to the liquor store.  For some reason, the guys determined they shouldn't go to the liquor store until they'd had a drink at the sports bar right next door, so the girls beat them home.  This actually was a smart move by the gents - as they got some good tips on where to go from the locals.  We then got ready and headed off to our first Cayman Island dinner - Decker's Bar and Grill.

Decker's had an all-you-can-eat lobster special on Saturdays and Tuesdays.  John seemed most excited - he was shooting for 10 lobster tails.  He fell a bit short, but he was the only one to order seconds from the first order of 5.  Charlie can't eat shellfish, so Katie doesn't usually eat shrimp, but she made an exception and went for the all-you-can-eat special.  Charlie seemed a bit confused by the menu and asked if the "chilled banana soup" was cold - though he ordered it and liked it.  He also got the pan-fried snapper over risotto (Sarah had that as well, they were the only two who didn't get the lobster special) - and thought it was excellent.

Don't eat me!

We had gotten a late start and were tired from the day of traveling, so we walked the half-mile home and called it a night!

More to come about our week in the Caymans in the next few posts!

A Visit from more Columbus friends!

On Friday July 8th, our good friends Lisa and Matt from Columbus were visiting NYC for a long weekend and we met them in the city for a night out in the City.  We met them for dinner at Monte's Trattoria a little Italian restaurant on MacDougal Street in Greenwich village, pretty typical New York Italian restaurant with really slow wait-staff but delicious food.  After dinner, we had tickets to a comedy show at the Comedy Cellar, which was just a short 2 block walk.  A tiny cramped place in a basement (guess that is why they call it the Comedy Cellar) but there were pictures of many famous stars on their walls that have done shows there.  There were 4 comedians for our show and a really annoying "host" who tried to also be a comedian.  I can't remember their names...one of them was the guy that hosts "The Marriage Ref" tv show and another guy was on "Everybody Hates Chris"...he was really good.  It was definitely worth it.  After the show, we found a great little crepe restaurant on MacDougal Street.  It is more like a "stand" than a restaurant, there is a just a counter where you order and then everyone just stands on the sidewalk eating the delicious crepes. They had all sorts of amazing combinations, but we opted for the very popular "smores" crepe....mmm my mouth is watering while I reminisce.

It was awesome spending some time with Matt and Lisa.  We made our way back to Jersey, but they had quite a weekend planned for the two of them; with a trip to Yankee Stadium, the broadway show - "How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying" which was starring Daniel Radcliff (aka Harry Potter) and come to find out they were in the audience on the same night as Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy (aka...um I don't know the actor's real names) and of course a trip to the Kardashian's store in SoHo.   For those of you that know our friend Lisa, enough said!  

    

A patriotic 4th of July weekend - Annapolis

This year for 4th of July, we had a jammed packed weekend for Charlie's very good friend Jon's wedding in Annapolis, Maryland.  Charlie was a groomsman in the wedding, so we drove to Annapolis on Thursday evening to fit in some touristy stuff before the wedding festivities.

Friday morning we went on a walking tour of Naval Academy...a beautiful campus and learned all about the history and traditions of the Midshipmen.  Charlie stumped our tour guide with our favorite trivia question ... There are only 4 universities that can lay claim to having a super bowl winning quarterback and a U.S. President as a graduate.  See below for the answer!

Answer to the Trivia Question = 1. Obviously the Naval Academy is one of the 4 schools who had Roger Staubach and Jimmy Carter, 2. Stanford - John Elway and Herbert Hoover 3. Charlie's parents' alma mater: Michigan - Tom Brady and Gerald Ford and Number 4 is our favorite school of all....MIAMI - Ben Roethlisberger and Benjamin Harrison!

After the tour, we explored downtown Annapolis which has lots of shops and restaurants right along the Chesapeake Bay.  One of which is famous from the Food Channel's "Man vs. Food" TV Show.  So we went to Chick & Ruth's Deli, home of the 6 pound milkshake.  Charlie and I refrained from getting the over-sized milkshake and just sampled a small one - which was quite delicious.  We met up with friends that night and were excited to learn there was a Jimmy John's in downtown Annapolis - the sub shop is a midwest staple, but we never see it out here on the East Coast.  So it naturally became the late night food stop.

On Saturday, the boys all played golf while me and some of the other girlfriends/wives did lunch and some shopping.  Charlie played in a foursome with his friend Ryan.  The other two were one of Jon's co-workers, now dubbed "the big Samoan", and Jon's parents' neighbor.  Saturday evening we had the rehearsal dinner which was really cool at the Annapolis Maritime Museum.  It featured speeches from Jon's family, a nice slideshow of the newlyweds, and even a pie in the face incident!

And then Sunday evening was the wedding...a gorgeous ceremony and a reception on the Chesapeake Bay.  They had a live band and we had a really fun time with lots of the Theta Chis.  And, naturally, the reception featured the standard "jump rope" dance and a late night at the hotel bar.

This chug off required a photo finish....it was neck and neck...who won again ?

Chicago and a visit from Katie's parents - Week of June 20th

For the week of June 20th, Charlie had to go to Chicago for work...this time he was teaching new audit seniors and afterwards he stayed the weekend to visit with some high school and college friends that live there.  He got to see many of his friends - Kris (known best as "Roadkill" to many of Katie's Labyrinth friends) and his wife Tina, Craig - who had driven up from Cincinnati on the way to Wisconsin and stopped in Chicago for a night, Jon "Kiess-ring" - who now lives in Miami but was also visiting Chicago that weekend,   "Big Jay", Tommy aka "Tomas", Jason - his best friend from high school, and others.  Charlie spent Friday night beer ponging with Jay, Kris, and Craig into the wee hours of the morning at a bar near Kris's house, then went to Jason's on Saturday.  He spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with some of Jason's friends, then met Jon, Tommy, Jay and others at one of Chicago's many summer festivals.

While Charlie was away, my parent's (Bob and Sue) decided to come visit and keep me company while baby-sitting our dog.  Bob and Sue made the 10 hour drive from Ohio all in one day and arrived in New Jersey Monday evening.  I went to work each day and Griffey got to show them the neighborhood.  We all think he really enjoyed being out of the cage for a week; getting several walks a day by mom, taking naking naps on the couch with my dad and laying in the sun in the back-yard while Bob and Sue helped make the yard a bit more presentable and safer for Griffey.  A little bit about our New Jersey yard...I believe in one of our first posts we sent pictures of the house and yard, basically it could be a really nice yard but it has been let go for so long that it is over-run with poison ivy, an above ground pool that has been partially sunk into the ground with a fairly decent paver patio around it, which all it does it collect rain water and leaves and junk on the cover that from time to time we clean off just so the cover doesn't get too full and a rotted wooden children's play-ground equipment.  The play-ground area of the yard is one of Griffey's favorite parts of the yard..probably because it is so gross and muddy and this area has the worst of the poison ivy, so we always struggle to keep him out of this area.  So my dad had an idea to buy some chicken wire fencing and wooden posts to block off this area.  On Sunday my dad and I put the fencing up and completely blocked off this area...it looks pretty ghetto ...but heh it's Jersey...and the yard is hopeless anyways.  Unfortunately, one side effect of putting up this fence was that I happen to get too close to the poison ivy and unknowingly got some on my legs.  For some reason, the rash did not really show up on my legs until 2 weeks later ...right in time to go on vacation to the Cayman Island's (more on that trip and the poison ivy later).

Other than helping clean our house and yard and baby-sit our dog, I showed my parent's a few of our nearby favorite restaurants in Allendale and Ramsey and on Saturday we took the train into the City for the broadway show "Mary Poppins".  We had orginally wanted to see Jersey Boys...but it is the most expensive ticket in town, so since I am an only child and loved Mary Poppins growing up, my dad decided to suck it up and go see it.  Although we happened to sit right in front of 2 kids who would not stop kicking my dad's seat (Carico luck as he would call it)....we all really enjoyed the play (including Bob).  Afterwards, we walked through Times Square and then took the train back to Ramsey.  

Charlie returned Sunday evening and the 4 of us went to eat at Brady's in Ramsey which over-looks the train station and had a great time catching up with each other.

On Monday, Charlie and Katie had to go to work, but Bob and Sue drove up to West Point Academy which is only about and hour from our house.  Charlie and I had previously gone on the West Point tour last summer with Charlie's parents and we knew my parents would really enjoy it.

It was sort of sad to see them go, but one good thing about being far away is we all really appreciate the time together a lot more.  Thanks Mom and Dad - for all your help around the house and taking care of Griffey.  He sure does miss all the walks and attention.