Sorry that we sort of left you hanging in Arizona - obviously we made it home, and helped lead an amazing Lutheran Marriage Encounter over the weekend, and then had one day to get ready for another adventure.
The day started early, awaking at 1:30 am to leave at 2am for Pittsburgh Airport in our rental. Amazing how many trucks are on the roads at that time.
No problems checking in with all our tests and vaccinations. But of course our hearts were heavy – for we should have been traveling with dear friends, who hadnt been able to jump through all those hoops. Getting a covid test within 24 hours is really really tight, and we discovered only weeks ago that the rapid tests are in such short supply that CVS said none within 100 miles of your location, when we inquired We had used them without problem in December. Not every test is approved for international travel, and most websites are quite vague.
Planes stayed aloft and all was well. And it is always interesting to see the coastline of the Carolinas or wherever (Jean thinks there should be giant signs
The first two flights were almost full, although we never had to share seats with others. Masks were not mandatory but we wore them on the planes. We actually did Pgh to Orlando, and all the young families got off, and then Orlando to Ft Lauderdale, and then about 1.5 hours to the Caymans. And there were only 26 people on that last flight, with 3 attendants (of course, sniff, sniff, there should have been 28).
The island was under big dark clouds when we arrived! But fortunately it was not raining when we actually disembarked, for it is down a movable set of metal stairs. Would they have waited for it to slow down?
It took a while to get the rental car , which ended up being WAY SMALLER than we could have managed 4 people in, then shopped the first visit to Fosters (expensive island, this), and found our AirBnB on the southern coast (think of the island as shaped like a medieval slipper – we are along the bottom, maybe closer to the toe than the heel). It rained again for
2 cruise boats were anchored over at the capital of George Town. Thats good snorkeling, on what they call Eden Rock. We are about 40 mins drive from there. We drove past the area of our second AirBnB here, and then, continuing East, past our very first place, when we had nothing more than one bedroom with bathroom in a couples condo in early December.
After unpacking, we voted for a nap. The road in front of the place is busy, but the windows are well insulated and we werent bothered by any road noise. You can see from our screened in porch the front garden with its lovely variety of bougainvilleas, then the narrow street, some treed beach, and then the ocean. If you can see the white line out in the ocean, thats the strip of reef that protects the water from the ocean waves. We think the water there, if similar to Spotts Beach down the way, is not very deep at all, so one can get up real close and personal to things. The hosts have picnic tables and kayaks over there, and we heard from
reviews that snorkeling is good, esp for turtles, so we shall see. Its always difficult to do everything we want to do at once – tomorrow will be busy, and definitely in the ocean.
