Cayman '07 Post 1

My first night and day in the islands with my boys is in the bag, and Paradise finds us in a sense of wonder and awe at how splendid life is here. As I write this I'm sitting on our beachside back porch, looking out over the Caribbean and enjoying the brisk but pleasant ocean breeze. It's a perfect 83 degrees and the outlook is for a remarkable week.

The trip didn't have such an auspicious beginning, though. Upon landing in Ft. Lauderdale, FL to connect to our Cayman Air flight we were told that the airline no longer hosted flights to Grand Cayman. Nice of them to tell us, I thought. No, we couldn't fly out of Ft. Lauderdale but they'd be happy to let us fly from Miami a little later in the evening, they said. Great, I continued thinking to myself, we'll just hitchhike down I-95 and hop a jet outta Miami, then, no problem. Besides, it's smack dab in the middle of rush hour, getting the 30+ miles down the road should be no problem at all. Whatever! Well, long story short, a hefty-priced cab ride and a whole lotta testing of my peacable, quiet, patient manner later had us in Miami, and we caught our flight...just three hours later to the island than expected. I thought it was all better once we got on board, and was making my plans on picking up the rental car at the airport and driving the 45 minutes to our resort. Wishful thinking that, I would soon find out. After disemabarking, hustling (surprisingly!) through Imigration & Customs, and venturing out into the beautiful Grand Cayman night I strolled over the the rental car counter. Yep, they were closed...and had been for 2 hours. What!?! Luckily, one of the guys at the competitors counter had come back into the office, bedecked in a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped out lookin' more like he was ready to ride his bike across town than rent me a car, and kindly hooked me up. The drive was magnificent, and I thought to myself at least 63 times about how much I really want to live here, no Wal-mart notwithstanding. We arrived at Morritt's around 11 p.m., and alas, the pearly gates had been opened.

So here we are. The pic above is of me and my yahoo's, Boston (10) & Britain (8), at one of the resort's 3 pools catchin' some rays and ready to get wet. I'm kind of a camera hog most of the time, so it's rare I make it into any pics, so I was sure to get my brother Cory to snap this one before I got completely outta control with the digi-cam. The boys are havin' a terrific time, and I'm finding the relaxed pace is giving me plenty of time to catch up with them.

It's been 3 years and 1 devastating hurricane since I've been here, but I was thrilled to look out the back window and see that the hammock I spent so much time in back then is still around. It may be a different bit of material, and perhaps even different trees (for all I know), but the location is close if not exactly the same. I've spent time there again already, and there'll be a "jeremy" print in it before the week's out, I'm sure. I brought 3 books: John Grisham's latest (and first non-fiction legal thriller) The Innocent Man, the Gabler biography Walt Disney previously mentioned in another post, and then, of course, my current Harvard Classic volume. Boston told me earlier today: "C'mon, dad, quit readin' and get back in the pool...you're on vacation, don't ya know!" I replied: "Son, reading IS a vacation for me...", and then got in the pool with him because there's nothing I'd rather do than hang out with him and his brother.

So, there you have it. Day 1 & 2 has supplied me with a cargo ship full of reflections, and I've narrowed it down to the realization that I relish most the simple things in life; relationships, reading & roamin' close to the sea. I may just have to do some job-hunting while I'm here...