The trip report summary follows.
Buttons to the left get you to the pictures.

I scheduled 4 weeks for this trip as 2 weeks never is long enough.  The agenda for this trip included adding a 2nd bathroom and finishing the hurricane shutter project that I bought the plywood for last time.  And I wanted to get in plenty of water time as well.  

Carrie had been hankering to get certified so I signed her up with Nancy at Divetech.  And I signed myself up for the divemaster prerequisites, advanced open water and rescue diver.

Jay and Joy, our tenants since December, moved out on June 23rd and headed back to Canada for a few months.  They left the place in good shape and even added a ladder to the loft for me.

I had let my buddy Greg know a few months back of the availability and he arranged a 2 week trip with the family.  His kids, Jennifer and Ryan, were ready to start diving and did their classroom stuff in Boulder and their open water dives with Divetech after arrival.  They arrived June 30.

We arrived about noon on Wednesday July 10 after spending the night in Miami due to mechanical problems in Denver.  Greg and family were leaving on the 12th so we had to get going fast to do some diving together.  We started with an afternoon shore dive at Eden Rock, then followed that up with a night dive on the Oro Verde with James of Ebanks Divers.  Then we arranged an East End dive for the following morning with Cayman Diving Lodge.

Had diner at Lazy Lizard the next night and saw Greg, Valerie, Jennifer, and Ryan off at the airport on Friday the 12th.  Dave, of Dave's Construction, came over to scope out the bathroom project and get things ready to roll on Monday.

Saturday morning, Divetech picked myself and Carrie up to start our courses.  I did my advanced open water on Saturday and Sunday.  The navigation and search and recovery sessions were very good.  We used scooters for one dive and effortlessly covered lots of ground.  Did some math problems on the bottom at 100' and compared the completion time to a baseline done before the dive on similar problems.  Problems took 55 seconds in the classroom, and 45 at 100'.  Either I was more relaxed or time just passes slower underwater.

Monday was an off day for diving.  Dave and I spent the day scoping out what fixtures were available for the bathroom, and making last minute changes to the plan.

Tuesday, Carrie and I resumed our classes while Dave got the bathroom work started.  Carrie finished up her testing and open water dives.  I began the rescue diver course which was an intensive 2 days of classroom work and in water rescue practice.  It was a great course, and I enjoyed all the rescue practice on my exhausted/unconscious instructor.  Thanks Brandee!

Did a few more dives later in the week.  Dave finished up the bathroom and it came out quite nice.  Then our good friends the Hipps arrived on Monday the 22nd as we wanted to see how many people the house could comfortably accommodate.  Well we successfully had 4 adults and 7 kids stay together comfortably for 10 days!  5 girls in the loft, 2 boys in the living room, and the big kids (you know the grownups) in the 2 bedrooms.  The 2nd bathroom came in handy.

Did lots of snorkeling, went riding with Pampered Ponies, and ate out a few times.  Reef Grill still get high marks.  Also did a lot of yard work.  Bob, my sometimes wayward groundskeeper, helped a lot as well.  We cut down a few birch and logwood trees, transplanted a few coconut palms, trimmed the casuarina hedge under the power lines, and pulled lots of weeds.  Had 2 dumpsters full of stuff hauled off.

The Hipps left on Thursday the 1st of August, and Carrie and I resumed our diving that afternoon with a shore dive at Cobalt Coast. 

Friday, Dave and I drove around taking pictures of some of his construction projects.  Had lunch at Lillian's, great place for Caymanian homestyle cooking.  Meanwhile, I've put a website together for Dave, see www.daves-construction.com.

Saturday, Carrie and I did another couple of shore dives, Seaview and Sunset House, then Norma and I went over to Sam (my realtor) and Elizabeth's house on the north sound and went across the sound in Sam's boat to the Kaibo for dinner.  As we crossed the sound, we watched a tremendous waterspout snake down from the clouds and dance on the water for at least 10-15 minutes.  It appeared to be just another mile or two past the barrier reef.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but Elizabeth took a few shots that I hope to be able to scan in before too long.

Carrie and I got some more diving in with James on Sunday, and did a stingray city dive with Sara at Divetech.  Sunday night, Norma and I went to dinner with Dave and Alice at the Outback to celebrate completion of Phase II of Tim's Excuse.

Monday, Dave and crew came over to do some roof repairs and to help me with the hurricane shutter project.  They knocked out the roof work in a couple of hours and then we spent the rest of the day building the hurricane shutters for the 14 windows (3 of which are double size).  They turned out great.  One person can put them all up or down in under an hour.  Click this link for info on building this type of shutter.

Tuesday I scrambled around paying some bills and packing up.  We arrived late as usual to the airport but managed to make our flight and got home about 1am that night.  The house, Tim's Excuse, is not yet rented as of this writing, but I'm sure it will be shortly.  If not, I may have to make another trip down to help it along.  :)