Issue # 66 - The February Freeze!

 . February 2013 .

Previous Blogs (2007 - 2012) - Click here

Hi there!

Welcome to February's edition.  It's been a very hectic month, even by our standards. Plenty of travel as well as Swimming, skiing, beaches (with the odd wee party thrown in there too!), Gaelic and Rugby and Multi-sport fill in the gaps! Some of the pics are doing a few funky things - or maybe it's just us. Anyway....

Read on!

Modelling the new swim caps for the Stingray Swim club. Can you work out what SKY stands for?
(We'll tell you a bit later)

News
The big news this month is that Sam qualified for and got selected for the Cayman Swim team to compete at the CARIFTA games in Jamaica at Easter. Sam is pretty happy about that and is currently in training mode to get the times even faster for the meet.  They haven't confirmed which events she will swim in but they will most likely involve 50 and 100 Freestyle and Back (maybe!), her favourite events.

'Sam 'n Ella' both made the team

Stingray held a four day meet recently. It was the last chance for swimmers to make the qualifying times for CARIFTA, or to improve on what they already had. Both Sam and Jake put in some good swims and posted plenty of PBs. By the way, Jake is too young for CARIFTA - he has to wait a couple more years due to when his birthday falls - you have to be 11 at 31 Dec to qualify. His birthday is in January.

OK. The SKY stands for:
 S = Stingray, and the KY is (interestingly) the postal code for Cayman.

Island Air Party
One of the biggest events on Cayman's social calendar is the Island Air party. It's hosted by a guy Dave plays rugby with and it is always a big affair.  Lot's of Audis, Private Jets, flash boats, motorbikes and big name Jewelry made up the show.

Off for a spin...

It was a great night, as always with plenty of people (about 1300 we're told), all enjoying the bubbles, the rum, the beers, the great food and just a real good party atmosphere.  So, if you are looking for someone to look after you and your Jet next time you are in Cayman, Island Air will sort you out!

Waitangi Day
Waitangi (NZ) day is in February and the Kiwis in Cayman got together at one of the cuzzie's places for a few beers and some kai!
We also had some wine tasting (Kiwi wine of course!).

Sam won the Raffle - a bottle of 42 below, some Jaffas, Pineapple lumps and some Jet planes!

And out come the Poi!

Let the wine tasting begin!

More swim meet pics:

Jake shows off his new hat (not to mention the ever impressive physique) at the swim meet

Jake and his failing face paint

The two sides of Sam 'n Ella

Michelle entered in a couple of Masters races as well.
She took away the honours in both races.

Beach
Marianne from the BVI popped over to hang with us last weekend. It was great to catch up, share a few laughs, reminisce about old hurricanes and have a couple of drinks to boot.
On the Sunday we headed down to Governor's Beach for a couple of quiet ones.  The generator, the blender, some ice and some Bailey's, Vodka and Kahlua also made the trip. So it was Mudslides all round!

I think she likes them

They were queuing up for the muddies!

CANADA!

We finally got organised enough to head up to Canada to spend some time with our wonderful friends, Russ and Tonya (as well as Keegan, Skyler and Garrett). They used to live here in Cayman and moved back to Vancouver last year.

Hadn't seen snow or ice for a long time!

We left on the Thursday afternoon - and just happened to be on the same flights as Russ, who was down for work.  We flew direct to Toronto from Cayman and then connected on to Vancouver, arriving around 1 am or thereabouts.  Tonya was there to collect us all and off we went to their house for the night to sleep!

The next morning (err.... late morning... maybe) Tonya took us to check out the local Capilano Suspension Bridge and forest. It was pretty cool with a walkway up in the trees as well as some other pretty impressive stuff. We have a stack of photos and they can be viewed here. (<-----That means click on the blue bit).
Later that day we went to the 'Hollyburn Country Club' with Tonya and went for a  Gym session while Sam completed her swim session for the day with Skyler. Meanwhile Jake and Garrett sat watching TV, playing games and ordering sushi...

 On our first real night there (Friday) we went Snow Shoeing up on a ski field just above Vancouver.
It was a blast! Although we were pretty well wrapped up in all of the winter clothes it soon got hot with all of the walking and sliding around.

And as luck would have it, after we'd been wandering around in the dark for an hour or so in the snow covered trees and mountains, we stumbled across a small pub, in the middle of no-where!
Perfect! It was nice and warm. The beers were cold and the food was hot!

The Snow Shoe Crew!

Saturday was 'off to Whistler day!'
We packed up the truck and squeezed everyone (plus a mountain of warm clothes) and headed up to Whistler. We stopped at a couple of spots on the way up. Awesome scenery! We even went past the Golf Course where they filmed part of Happy Gilmore.
Tonya and Russ had arranged this great place for us to stay, just down the street from Blackcomb.
We got there in time to go and organise skis and stuff for the next day before chilling back at the place with a few quiet ones and a nice dinner. Meanwhile Sam was at the local pool keeping to the training schedule provided by her swim coach. Fortunately, the pool was inside...

Sam Tonya and Michelle taking it easy

Great spot!

Our first morning of skiing wasn't all that successful. But we came away relatively unscathed and survived to ski another day.

Never seen so much snow!

After the first day! Ready for some apres skiing!

Peak to Peak Gondola which links Whistler and Blackcomb at the top.

It's never too late to dream... .

Had to check out the tubing!

Jake takes on the locals on the ice. After a shaky start he did pretty well!

Warming by the fire

We went back to Vancouver on the Wednesday and checked out the Science museum there. You could spend hours and hours there, but we had places to go, people to see!

Sam goes all electric on us

Massive birdies at the Olympic village in Vancouver

Some of the sights in down town Vancouver

The next day we headed up Grouse Mountain for some Grouse skiing!  The weather was a bit busy and visibility was an issue at times, but we had a great time skiing there as well.  The Gondola to the ski field is probably only about five minutes from Tonya and Russ' place,  Awesome! In fact I'm sure Tonya said her Dad built the Gondola, and also some pretty impressive bridges and tunnels in Vancouver too!

Grouse Mountain

Michelle and Sam flew out that night. Bound for Jamaica and a swim meet!  There are photos of that further down.
Meanwhile Jake and Dave got the royal tour of Vancouver with Tonya. We spent most of the day touring about on bikes which was a really cool way to see the city... and get some exercise!

The local reservoir

And the spill way from the reservoir!

Checked out the local Rugby Club!

We biked all the way around Stanley Park, as well as part of downtown Vancouver.
Roughly 20km!  No wonder Jake was tired! Some really cool views though.

On the Aqua Bus with our awesome tour guide taking a break before lunch.

Vancouver's answer to the 'Little Mermaid'.

Cool little boats!

We had lunch at the Granville Island market which had food for everyone. Jake finally decided on some Orange chicken from the Chinese shop and then a chocolate and banana crepe for desert. Just as well, as he had some more biking ahead of him!
Tonya had to head off to do the Taxi service for the kids. Meanwhile Russ took over and we checked out a couple of bars on the meander back via the ferry.

Hmmm.... not sure how you can get a pie from that Gas station

On our last day, Tonya took us down to the waterfront for a bit of a wander about and to show us a few more sights around town. When searching for a Beaver we (OK Tonya) spotted a turtle!
 After that it was off to the 'Country Club' to watch our first ever "Ice Hockey" game.  Garrett was playing so we watched that and enjoyed the game. I think Jake would probably want to have a crack one day!

Tonya dropped us at the airport and soon we were heading south... at least we think it was South. From Vancouver to San Francisco of all places. Then across to Newark, and finally back to Cayman.  Long trip!

Welcome!

View from the top of Whistler. I think this is called 'Black Tusk'.

Jamaica!
Sam and Michelle traveled through the Thursday night and arrived in Jamaica about lunchtime Friday. Sam swam in the Fri night session and then the Saturday and Sunday sessions.

Michelle also swam in the Masters events. Coming away with four wins and (just to match her daughter) two meet records!  Woohoo!!

Sometimes Sam's pre race psych routine can appear deceptively relaxed...

The very focused and serious relay team...

Oh dear....

Some more Canada pics!

Tonya and Michelle (and some annoying little bugger)

Tonya and Russ were such great hosts. Tonya did so much running around and driving us places and cooking and being tour guide, camp Mother and all-round good sort. We were totally spoiled.

Thank you!!!!

Hmmm...Moose!

Off the Beaten Track

You could be mistaken for thinking that this looked remarkably like the Cross Island relay team.  In fact it is, but we didn't get a pic of the "Off the beaten track" team and most of this lot were in that too.

It was a very different race - the routes are different every year, and you only get them one week before the race. You get vague directions and a map and you are supposed to go around it to check the course beforehand - if you don't you are liable to get very lost. Michelle spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out the first mile or so of her route! They all ran really well (especially Lisa - she managed to come out first in her leg, beating some very good runners - she may have gone a slightly different route to them but that's how it sometimes works!)  The team were the first female team and came 6th over all, which was pretty good!

Gaelic

The only photo we could find from this year's Gaelic games was one of Dave's black eye from the first game.

We'll try and do better.

As far as results go Michelle's team have won one and lost two. Dave's team has won two and lost one. Interestingly, both of their teams won the week while Michelle and Dave were away. This last week, when they were back... both teams lost. Oh dear, doesn't bode well for the rest of the season...

And more photos from Feb - click HERE!

And looking forward to March's edition....

Hmmmm... you'll just have to wait and see!

:)