Cruisin' with a Monkey

Grand Cayman

Last night was a hoot! We had Formal Night aboard the cruise ship, and it turned out to be a real party Everyone were there. At one point I saw Richard ~ Merry, Merry and Andre smoking cigars, donned in their nice suits. Andre must have done several costume changes during the evening, I also saw him swinging from the chandeliers in his red shorts and Mayan outfit. After that, though, Apondia started passing around honey mead. Being Norwegian, I love me some mjød, so things started getting a bit blurry after that. I vaguely remember dancing on a table with QueenNormaJean maybesnow?! , and possibly someone who's not a monkey tried to swing from a chandelier too—I won't mention who.

When the Mariachi band started playing 'Jarabe Tapatío', though, things really kicked off. They played faster and faster as we danced faster and faster. Drunk on margarita and Apondia 's mead, I then betted with Richard ~ Merry, Merry that I could play the Mariachi trumpet better than him, bragging that I would do great since I played the trombone in a marching band as a child. He only smiled confidently as the trumpetist graciously let us both have a try. Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008 betted against me with the Captain, who took pity and pretended he believed I was as good as my drunken bravado would have it. Brother Nature and PandaPaws Licensed VetTech were busy having a crazy dance off, and QueenNormaJean maybesnow?! was just laughing uproariously at it all. I think it's fair to say that I lost that bet quite spectacularly. Andre was the judge, but he was too busy swinging from the chandelier to swing the result in my favour (I don't think I can stand to listen to Sia for a long time after this). I guess I owe Richard ~ Merry, Merry a drink or two at our next destination, and I'm pretty sure the Captain owes Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008 a chance to steer the ship for a while. Luckily we somehow still arrived safely at our last port, which is....(Psst, do the drum roll now Andre).. .. yeah, okay, ukulele picado will do.. AND THE LAST DESTINATION IS:

George Town, Grand Cayman

Yay!!!

We arrived earlier today, and Andre and I decided to head straight for the Seven Mile Beach, north of town. It.. was.. AMAZING. Beautiful to behold, with its play of blues, turquois and whites, we couldn’t wait to get in the water. After our dolphin adventure yesterday Andre was even game for doing some diving. Finally! We snorkeled around, and saw lots of beautiful tropical fish, and strange colourful sea creatures we don't even know the names of.

Then we swam in the shallow water amidst a whole fever of stingrays (the Captain told us last night that's what a group of stingrays is called... guess I remember more than I thought). It was fantastic to play with the creatures up close.

We had a bit of a shock, though, when a menacing dorsal fin was heading straight for Andre!! I could just hear the Jaws theme in my head.. Dun dun Dun dun Dun dun... And then a dolphin jumped up, splashing water right in Andre's face! We were so happy and relieved that we were hardly even embarrassed at the screaming we'd been doing.

Turns out, it was Andre's friend from yesterday, who had swam here all the way from Cozumel! I guess it had fun too. They played more, Andre hanging on, while the dolphin raced around. We've named it Flipperino.

We would have stayed longer, but it's a hot, humid day, 86F the Captain said earlier. We were feeling happy but exhausted, and decided to say bye to Flipperino and head back towards town.

A local tipped us off about a nice place called the 'Grand Old House'. It's a nice beach restaurant that's both one of the Cayman's oldest restaurants and located in one of the oldest buildings.

We found ourselves a good table with a wonderful view, and sank down in comfortable chairs. After a lovely seafood meal for me, and a bunch of exclusive, ripe bananas for Andre, we ordered a couple of cocktails.

I'm now having a Seven Mile Breeze and Andre has convinced them to mix mashed-up banana into a Bikini Martini. Excellent service in this place. We'll just stay here until we have to leave for the ship again, this is lovely,.. right Andre? How about you, join us for a cocktail? Check out the menu:

Mudslide
Strawberry Daiquiri
Rum Punch
Gin and Tonic
Piña Colada
Seven Mile Breeze
Cayman Lemonade
Bikini Martini

Pick one, sit down and enjoy life with us!