More from the Caymans

Here is one of the iguanas that we saw the other day. . .he was about 4 feet long. . .pretty impressive.
We found a new cave to explore in the middle of the island. Not too many people have been in there. We had to crawl in on our backsides to be able to get in there. It's called Nani's Cave. Really beautiful formations.
Here is a picture taken from the property that is Bob and Brad's. This is the south side of the island.
This is a picture at sunset over Little Cayman taken from the porch of our house. Little Cayman is about 5 miles away.

Cayman Brac

Here we are watching sunset over Little Caymanfrom the patio at the house. The island of Little Cayman is only 5 miles away and it was relatively untouched by the hurricane. Congrats to the owner of the place for not living here fulltime and still being able to get it pretty well fixed up (new roof because the old one blew off in the hurricane in November - Hurricane Paloma was a category 4 plus hurricane that devastated the island. The last time a hurricane did this much damage was in 1932. This time there were no deaths.)
We are enjoying breakfast on the patio. It is pretty hot but the tradewinds are blowing so it is staying comfortable.

Here is one of the homes that was pretty heavily damaged.

James, the iguanas are alive and well after the hurricane. This one was about 4 feet long.

We went snorkeling because we couldn't find a dive shop that was open yet. There were about 5 dive shops on the island before the hurricane, but now there is only one that we could find that even had air for diving.

The Chinese-American Connection

About a week ago, 20 students from a high school in Sichuan Province in China came to visit in Duarte. They were selected to come over here based on their academic performance, low income, and courage in the earthquake last May. Almost all of them had relatives that were lost in the earthquake. The Education Foundation decided to host a cookout at our house for the students. Within 24 hours, we put together a "real American barbeque" with hotdogs and hamburgers and all of the accompanying dishes. We had about 50 people for dinner, including the students, teachers, administrators, and boardmembers. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful evening. In the first picture, some of the students are shown sitting by the fire pit with foundation boardmembers, Ed and Helen Ferguson.
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After dinner, the students performed some Chinese songs for us. They did a great job!

Some of the students went swimming. They thought it was pretty cool to be able to swim in the winter - in their part of China, that wasn't an option.
Three of the girls wanted to hold baby Elise. They didn't have siblings and they thought this was great fun.

Happy 55th Birthday Brad

Brad celebrated his 55th birthday by having dinner at his favorite restaurant, Old Towne Steak. Bon Appetit and Happy Birthday!

Softball and Space Shuttles and Manatees. . Oh my!

Erin and Helen went to Orlando last week to visit Jeannie and the Academy softball team in their annual Spring Break tournament. In the four years that Jeannie has been playing softball at the Academy, this is their best record during this Orlando tournament. In addition to seeing their team play some great games, we enjoyed some of the other attractions that northern Florida has to offer.


We drove to the Kennedy Space Center, spending the afternoon touring the facilities. This outstanding tour gave us a better understanding of what is involved with each space shuttle launch. The girls were all set to watch (from quite a distance) a shuttle launch on Wednesday evening. However, several hours before the launch, it was scrubbed. The Kennedy Space Center is located in a nature reserve and we loved seeing the alligators, armadillos and great variety of birds. We learned that outside of Alaska, Florida has the greatest population of bald eagles. And we saw an eagle sitting on it's nest.

Erin has always had a love for manatees and we were able to see some in their natural environment. We drove to Blue Spring State Park, just north of Orlando, on the St. John's River. We learned that manatees hang out here during the winter months since the water temperature in Blue Spring is a constant 72 degrees. Manatees cannot survive in water temperatures of 60 degrees of below. They are beautiful animals, very slow moving and docile. But curious when we approached the beach area. This one seemed to have a scar on his back, probably from an accident with a power boat. This was a great area to view these creatures.

(Almost!) Ensign Crump Reporting For Duty

Jeannie just received her billet assignment last night. This is where she will be stationed for the next 2 - 3 years. Jeannie is excited to be calling Portsmouth, VA home, which is very near Norfolk. She will be assigned to the 270ft. USCGC HARRIET LANE. This is a medium endurance cutter (Google USCGC Harriet Lane to find out more).


And as you can tell, Baba is very excited to be moving to the mid-Atlantic area also. She is tired of the New England winters. Smooth sailing for you, Jeannie as you finish the semester and look forward to graduation.