Cayman '07 Post 2

Just another day in paradise... It's been quite busy and relaxing today. Oxymoronic? Nope, not when you're in a place like this, where it seems the busier I am the more relaxed I feel. Which just goes to show it may not be the busy-ness of the rat race back home that saps my energy, but rather the surroundings...perhaps I really should check into employment on the island...

Anyway, my two yahoo's and I took a quick trip out to Rum Point first thing this morning and checked out the scene up there. This 2nd picture is of me and Brit somewhere 'tween here and there at a spot close to the ocean. The panorama at this site was quite spectacular, and the boys just had to stop so they could snap some shots of it on their cameras. I, quite unreluctantly, obliged them and we had a grand time just looking around and taking it all in. The drive along the coastal highway (which is like a two-lane, country highway back home in Indiana, except the shoulder of the road is the Caribbean...just a small difference, right?) with the windows down and the music blaring was perfect. It was one of those times I have with my kids from time to time where I just don't want it to end. I wanted the road to go on and on and on, but that's just a dad's wishful thinking, I presume, and quite impossible. It was perfect while it lasted, and I predict the memory will last a lifetime. At the Point we meandered through the island shops, eateries and walkways and wound up out on a long pier (at which I snapped the 1st pic above, of Boston) surrounded by the turquoise sea. It's beautiful in pictures, but seeing the color of the clear water in person was breathtaking. After some time we wound up back at one of the drinking holes and enjoyed some smoothies by the sea side, and watched the people parade past on a myriad of unknown adventures. It was a spectacular morning.

Upon returning to the resort we played shuffleboard (what's the point, anyone? I haven't a clue about that game...) and then headed to the pool for a spell. They swam, I read, and all was grand in my own little world once again. I'm still convinced reading is fantastic anywhere, but in the sun it is a pleasant revelry unknown to most, otherwise there'd be more books in the hands of the sun-worshippers. Try it once, you'll be hooked...

One of the things we've been anticipating for months is playing football in the sand. We have been privileged to own the world's most perfect football (bought, of all places, at Old Navy for $2.99 about three years ago), and I'd almost swear it's magical. I plan on putting it on display someday when my boys outgrow it, and I may even charge admission for folks to see the enchanted thing! Anyway, we brought it and sure enough, it's magic works here just like it does at home. With the ocean as one sideline and the edge of the beach volleyball court the other, we trudged through the sand and played a magnificent game. ESPN wasn't filming, but if they had just an inkling of an idea how great it was they'd be upset they missed it. Covered in sand and having to wash it off in the warm sea water was another euphoric hour we shared today.

After all of this activity, little tummies were growling again so I got the champs back to the room and let them shower and change while I fixed them something to eat: a bowl of cereal for Brit and some Oreo's and milk for Bos (it's a guy trip, you should've seen our shopping cart at the grocery yesterday!). While they settled in and relaxed over some Disney channel (thanks to Neil Gabler, I'll look at all things Disney with much respect and admiration), I made my way out to the hammock with my mp3 player and the much referenced Walt Disney biography. I decided to plug in Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems, for who better to serenade here than the island boy himself? With the strong sea-breeze blowing, and the hammock holding me suspended twixt heaven and earth, Kenny's songs took me away to a season of bliss rare and wonderful. Every song on the album is terrific, but I had to pause and do some soul searching when I heard A Lot Of Thing's Different. I recalled a conversation I had with a gal pal earlier in the week in which she talked about how she wishes sometimes she'd have "let go" a little more on a Spring Break from years ago. In the hammock I thought of many times in my life I'd also have let go, and a helluva lot of times I'd have held back...yeah, I'd have done a lot of things different too, Kenny. The daylight was nearly gone and the stars were beginning to creep out, and the palm trees holding up my resting spot were swaying seemingly in time to the gentle rythms of the music when I got my next lyrical jolt from this album. Never Gonna Feel Like That Again hit me in the gut. Check this out:

It was my life and it was fun

Another season of my life is done

Another race I'm glad I got to run

Another chapter of my life is over

No I'm never gonna feel like that again

Time's rushin by me like the wind

Never be as young as I was then

No I'm never gonna feel like that again

How true, how perfectly said. I have a lot of memories of feelings I'll never recapture, but thank God we're designed to be able to hold on to the remembrances in our minds. I felt connected once again. Connected to my past, attached to every person and every event I've encountered, and eternally linked to every moment of my life by a string of memories. Yeah, life is grand.

A sudden island squall nearly upended me out of my hammock, so with the wind to my back and the rain pelting me horizontally I mosied back to the room and watched it within the safety of the structure. I've lived another day in my dream world, and I'll pillow my head tonight with recollections of it preparing me for my return to the real world in less than a week. Yes, I'm not oblivious to the fact my reverie will end soon enough, but I'm trying to grasp as much of it as I can to take home with me...