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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