The BobLog, Wednesday, January 14, 2004.
Today, we arrived in Grand Cayman, a British territory. We could
see the island from our breakfast table. Notice all the little
boats in the area. Some were the "tenders" from our ship taking
people to the island.
We were next to another ship, a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship:
I decided to go ashore, and check the place out. They had a
touristy village of shops right by the dock:
I had wanted to go on one of the tours the ship was offering, but based
on the advice from our fellow dinner-mates, decided to see what I could
find on land. Indeed, the same tour that was going to cost $49 on
the boat, I was able to find for $15. It included going past the
Govenor's mansion, the Turtle Farm, and a place called Hell. The
governor's mansion was really no big deal, as we couldn't go in, just
viewed it from the gates:
Next, we saw the "7 mile beach". This is a long stretch of white,
sandy beach, but only parts are accessible to the public. There
are some private residences on this beach, probably with significant
monetary value. This is the view from one end of the 7-mile
stretch:
(This would do nicely for Bob's winter home:)
While on this tour, I met some fine people from Canada who were on
another cruise ship, the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship.
Here is Valarie, myself, and Rosa (boy, I think I am remembering her
name correctly!) And here is Maggie.
I ended up running into these ladies later on, as their ship was
stopping at the same ports that ours was.
Here is Valarie posing in "Hell", which was our next stop:
I did send off one postcard to Pauline, postmarked from here at
Hell. This place got its name from some explorer a long while ago
who saw the unusual rock formation in this one spot, and remarked how
it looked like what hell would be like:
The next stop on the tour was the Turtle farm, one of the few places
turtles are bred and raised. This man grabbed one of them out of
the pool by the front, and passed him around. The turtle was
saying, "I believe I can fly!" hehe. Right after I was done
holding him, I gave him to the lady on my right... just in time.
He kind of went nuts on her, and I think pooped on her shirt. The
sucker -was- heavy - perhaps 25 lbs or so.
More shots from the turtle farm: (yes, there were more than just
turtles!)
Reptiles, too!
It was getting time go head back, but a quick pose by the welcoming
sign with our little group:
Another shot on the way back of the pretty water, sky, and the
island. The weather was beautiful the entire trip.
This evening was special, because it was mom's birthday! I had
forgotten to mention that this morning, there were balloons outside out
cabin door, with "Happy Birthday" written on them! Tonight, mom
got the special treatment (singing from the waiters), and a special
dessert:
At dinner time, Ken and Marty (our dining partners) decided they were
going to have their long-talked-about Blackjack game in the casino at
10:30PM. We stopped by to see this grand event - both were losing
to the house. Oh well! (The dealer on the left, then Marty
and Ken, with mom in the background.) Ken ended up walking away
later that night with more than he started with, but Marty's luck
wasn't quite that good.
We saw the movie "Seabiscuit" - a neat one. Unfortunately due to
the timing of events, we were not able to see the Comedy Juggler.
That's it for another night on the Princess! Don't forget, you
can right-click on any of the pictures, and select VIEW IMAGE to see a
more high resolution version.
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