Our Caribbean Adventure - continued: September 2014

. August 2014 .

Hey there!

Yes, I know. We are late again... Sorry! Now that school is back, we are having to compete for time on the computer!

There was a bit of travelling in August, mostly by Sam, but we all got away for at least a small break, which was nice. A bit of swimming and some touch pretty much sums up the rest of the month.

So, the kids are back in school after a two month break for summer. Work and life carries on.

Swimming

The last swim meet of the season! Sam made some qualifying times for the Zones meet in Fort Myers, Florida. This was an open event so she was up against swimmers of all ages. A small team traveled up for the four day meet.

The team ready to go.

Sam was looking forward to this meet but she injured her back somehow and wasn't able to compete on the first day. She improved enough to compete after that and put in a couple of good PB times against some quality opposition. In her 400 IM, she dropped about 30 seconds! Her back must've been feeling much better!

After that they were allowed a break off swimming for a few weeks before starting back in September.

Sam stayed on after the meet in Florida with a friend from school who is now living near Tampa. She spent about a week there hanging out, a bit of shopping, as well as a visit to an Aquarium and a trampoline park, before flying back to Cayman to do her washing and re-pack her bags for the next trip!

Touch

The summer touch season has been going for a while now. Michelle's team has been going reasonably well with a few wins and keeping in the top half of the table. Dave's team on the other hand is a team of novices with maybe one or two who had actually seen a rugby ball before. However they have notched up a couple of wins, much to the delight of the newer players.

On the burst!
Jake got the call up for Dave's team a few times when they were short.
He even got on the scoreboard!

Random

Jake and Dave popped down to the beach one Sunday afternoon.
This day they witnessed a few Baptisms going on.

Dai-boy (of BVI fame) visits Cayman. Dave and Jake caught up with him for a beer.

Michelle's Adventure in Montreal

The 'C' Team!

After making several qualifying times, Michelle finally decided that she would go to the 2014 FINA World Masters Swim Championships held in Montreal. There were five Cayman swimmers that ended up going, with one swimmer only going for one event but making a great holiday out of it! The event was huge - over 5000 swimmers competing over 6 days. It was very well organised. They ran two 50m pools at the same time - men in one and women in the other. There was another 50m pool available for warm-up and cool-down all day and you were given estimated times for when you were swimming so that you did not have to be there all day. Apart from the first day, events pretty much ran to schedule so Michelle managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing on some days, including having a good wander around Old Montreal, a visit to the casino, as well as the Olympic Stadium which has now been converted into an indoor zoo/biosphere and planetarium. She stayed with one of her team-mates and his family in an amazing apartment Old Montreal, close to the sights and restaurants. They were given public transport passes as part of their entrance fees which they could use the entire time they were there, making it easy to get to and from the pool and around the city. When her team mates left, she moved to downtown Montreal, staying in a small apartment close to bars and the main shopping street. She worked in the Montreal office for a couple of days, which made a nice change of scenery. She was quite envious of the location - she discovered a large mall right across the road - just as well we don't live there - could get quite expensive! As she didn't have a whole lot of spare time, she decided to do some sightseeing while getting some exercise at the same time - one day she ran up to Parc du Mont-Royal, a lovely mountain popular with cyclists, walkers and runners in the summer and cross country skiers in the winter. On her last day she took her camera and ran around downtown Montreal, stopping often to get her tourist pics! As she was in a big city, she decided to get some culture and visited the Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal - it was pretty big and kept her occupied for a good 3 hours. After that, she had to get a bit of shopping in - can't go to a big city and not shop!

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal

Pedestrian streets in old Montreal

Michelle in wonderland?!

The two girls on the Cayman team - Michelle & LeeAnne

OMG, so high up - don't fall!

A novel way of protecting your nose from the sun!

The 1976 Olympic stadium - view from the observatory

Poutine! The National dish of Quebec. Looks disgusting but is actually pretty tasty!

Quebec
While Michelle was swanning about in Montreal, Sam, Jake and Dave were packing their bags and getting ready to head on up to Quebec city. Michelle would head on over from Montreal via train.
They flew to Toronto and over-nighted there in the hotel in the airport. They didn't even get outside from the time they left Cayman until arriving in Quebec city the following day!
Anyway, they arrived in Quebec late Sunday morning, picked up a rental car and headed off in search of the train station to collect Michelle and then head off to Beaupre, where we were staying about 40 mins up the road.

Chutes d Montmercy. This was an impressive waterfall close to where we stayed.
Taller than Niagara but not as wide.

The Cable Car was closed because of an electrical storm, so it was up the millions of steps for us!

View from the top

There was a ski-field on the hill behind us which turns into walking/mountain bike trails in the summer. Being the active people we are we took the Cable Car to the top and back! But we did do a little walk around one of the trails while we were up there.

OK, which way now?

Once we got back down we found another trail that supposedly led to some waterfall.

We wandered down there to find a little river in the bush and then a waterfall about two feet on height. We thought we'd been had!

But a little further along there were some steps leading down the side of the hill. A lot of steps! On and on and on!

But there wasn't one waterfall. There were three! All of them quite high and similar.

Although there were kids swimming here, the water was a little fresh for us lot!

Sam especially loved the walk back up. All 480-odd steps!

At the local aquarium

Whale Rider...

Jellyfish and Sea Horses were cool.

We went into Old Quebec City for the day to wander about and do the tourist thing.

Sam and Jake thought that this guy wasn't real...until he came to attention.

And the rain came down!

Happy (and wet) tourists!

Cool mural on the side of a building

Some Poutine and Nachos!

Poutine seems to be one of the National foods of Quebec. It is french fries with gravy and cheese curd. It doesn't look, or sound all that flash, but actually tastes OK. There are a bunch of variations as well, such as adding pulled pork, bacon and even Maple Syrup!

Big old hotel in the middle of town

We managed to get tickets for the Cirque du Soliel show (Hipnotyk). It was in a huge marquee down on the waterfront. The weather was still chucking it down, but you couldn't tell once inside.

It was an awesome show, with lots of acrobatics and bodies being twisted and bent and thrown all over the place.

Flexible!

We also checked out a water park. It was pretty busy, especially because of the summer holidays. There were some cool rides there. You'll be able to see a couple if the videos work!

Jake takes the Right Hand slide.

Michelle, Sam and Jake are in the three tubes on the left.

Michelle takes on Mt Everest in the freezing rain!

By the afternoon, the weather had changed and it was bucketing down - and cold! We made a very fast exit and had to put the seat warmers on in the car to warm up!

We went to see another waterfall. This one at Mont Sainte Anne.

There were some wooden animals on the track.

Oops!

Oh, ok.....

It had been raining for a day or two so the waterfalls were extra impressive.

Sam was traveling up to Vancouver later in the day, so we dropped her at the airport (see next story) and headed back to town - since it wasn't raining.

Woohoo! Haven't been this high up for a while!

On the top floor of the building there is a walk around display on the history of Quebec.
Dave is sitting listening to an Indian Chief talk about life a few years back. When you sit in those chairs you can only hear what is directly to your front. No surrounding noise. Be great for watching the Rugby on TV at home!

View from the top looking back to Beaupre.

As you do...

Streets are a little bit nicer when it's dry!

What do you call that?
(Moose Coq?)

I found Santa!

Not sure if he's in Prison or about to go into the operating theatre.

We went for a hoon at the go Kart track. They had decent karts with plenty of go in them. Unfortunately it was raining and that made the cornering a little dicey!

Jake found himself spinning out on several occasions. Dave clocked the fastest lap and the overall best average speed, closely followed by Jake, who probably would have won if he'd managed to stay on the track, and then Michelle, who was a bit of a grandma in the wet weather!

After the karting, it was time to head across the river to Il d'Orleans. An intersting little island in the middle of the river. It has a few wineries, cafes, chocolateries and fruit farms.

Wow

The rain came down again so we drove a lap of the island and then stopped in at a micro-brewery to sample some of their wares.

Hmmmm.... there's something wrong with this picture.

There are some cute little houses on the island.

So, it was back to Cayman for Michelle, Dave and Jake while Sam spent some time hanging out with her Canadian Foster Family.

More Pics from Quebec #1

And some more pics #2

And even more pics #3

Sam's Trip

Sam flew up to Vancouver and was met by our good friends, the O'connors - who used to live in Cayman. Sam and Skyler are good buddies. In Vancouver, they went to PNE which had rides and a roller coaster; they also went to a water park and even a concert in the park to see Phillip Phillips.

They also went up and spent some time in Whistler which is a pretty nice place. Sam was kept busy with biking, and swimming in the lake.