Diving in Grand Cayman, 2022

It's been THREE and a half years since John, Glo and I have been diving anywhere, let alone Grand Cayman.  I keep a detailed dive log book, and the last two entries from 2018 record John getting the news that his privileges were being revoked at Chelsea.  In the three and a half years since then:

• John fought the hospital for ten months in legal proceedings and lost.
• He lost his job.
• We packed up and sold our home in Dexter, not knowing what would become of our lives.
• We lived in a two bedroom apartment for almost a year.
• Glo served a mission.
• John found a new job in Dearborn ("the best job I've ever had"), and started working for Geisinger in PA again
• We bought a home with a pool.
• Hannah graduated from BYU, lived with us for a year and a half (serving as RS president in the AA YSA ward), and begins PA school in the fall.

I wish I could go back to myself, standing on our front porch crying into the shoulder of Amber Barney when she just hugged me and held me, and tell myself that it's all going to be okay, and it's actually going to be BETTER.  John hated his job at Chelsea, and he hated the Chelsea ward (and the AA stake in general), but now he loves his job, we have a nicer house, and the ENT I found with our new Beaumont insurance helped lead Hannah to being accepted into PA school.  And to boot, John is working less and making more money.

We saw many tender mercies in our lives over the past three and a half years (the largest being that we were paid through the legal proceedings), and we know Heavenly Father was with us every step of the way, but it was still really difficult.  I'm thankful we made it out on the other side.

So,

being back in Cayman was surreal.  We could remember the exact spots of the impending doom, but we tried to just create new memories.  Some things John won't forget, and he didn't want to go to those places, but that's okay.

But being back with Mac and Lisa?  I don't know that I've ever gone that long, being away from really close friends, and it had honestly been too long.  We picked up though right where we had left off, and they got to meet the only Kennedy child who hadn't dived with them yet.

Lisa recommended that we stay at Locale when I told her I was having trouble finding a place.  John and I wanted our own room, but it was going to cost us $500 a night to make that happen.  Locale worked with us, putting the reservation in Mac's name which gave us the Permanent Resident discount.  It saved us literally thousands of dollars.  It was brilliant.  The rooms were the nicest rooms we've stayed in on island.  The pool was clean and basically ours for the entire week.  We got free breakfast, and the hotel was close to so many other restaurants.

In fact, we made a point of visiting a new restaurant each night, and we didn't find one that we didn't like.  Seven Mile Greens, Seven Mile Burger, Sunshine Grill, Lloyd's Smokehouse, Cimboco.  Everything was so fresh and tasty.

  

The most memorable night though came at Hard Rock Cafe.  I'm so thankful it was still open, because according to my pre-trip searches, it was closed.  John invited Mac and Lisa, so as soon as they dropped us off at the beach, we took showers and met them there.  Such easy fun conversation.  They never ask us about ourselves (which I know is tough for John sometimes), but it's okay.  About an hour in (and after Mac had downed his first alcoholic drink and eaten his "appy"), a band showed up.  I'm not sure what they were thinking because it was already late, and there were few people in there.  They were a sad little bunch of Filipinos.  Well, you can't put professional musicians and a former rock band drummer together without sharing some harsh criticism.  Glo and I were mostly going after the fact that they just kept "rehearsing" and not really playing, but Mac could sense there were going to be problems from just their set-up.  In fact, he called what he thought would be their first song...and he was right!  It was just sad.  So, in my fashion of always wanting people to showcase their talents, I told Mac to go up and show the drummer how things are done.  He didn't want to because he respected the fact that they were even trying, but Lisa agreed with me, and in standard friendliest-person-on-the-planet fashion, she asked if Mac could try to play.  

IT WAS INCREDIBLE!  Mac sat down, told the band to start playing, and he was off!  And it was perfect.  And John was singing and dancing, as were Lisa and the girls.  I don't know what it is, but moments like that make me so incredibly happy.  It was a highlight of our trip.

The diving.  As John put it, it was some of the best diving as well.  I always like to go diving in the spring when the animals are mating, because they are just more active on the reefs....but we always seem to go in November.  We saw eagle rays, up close and far away, small turtles, big turtles, moray eels freely swimming (multiple eels in a day), spotted drums on every dive, lemon rays, sting rays.  It was unbelievable.  

I was happy to discover that on Thursday, I was going to hit my 150th dive.  That's quite an accomplishment...along with a reflection on how much money we spend on diving.... But Mac made sure to record it underwater, and I was so thankful.  Really, I didn't know I could care about two people so much that I pay to be my friends ;-)

As for Hannah, under a doctor's direction, she was able to dive without pain which means she now loves diving as much as we do.  It was beautiful seeing how good she was at buoyancy and air maintenance and everything.  She's as much a natural as Glo.  And thankfully Mac didn't limit our dives by her Open Water certification--she got to go as deep as we did.

 

And another blessing?  I may be gaining weight and losing my hair on biologics, but having no nasal polyps allowed me to dive with minimal steroids.  I've never dived for that long without all kinds of complications from steroids, not to mention the pain in my sinuses and face at the end of the week.  Nothing like that happened at all.  I could sleep at night, I wasn't on edge, and I felt relaxed.  It was wonderful.

We tried to walk along the beach (Glo requested it), but the beach has been washed away because of so many shore walls being erected.  It's almost like Seven Mile Beach doesn't exist anymore.

Last moment on the boat :-(

Sometimes I think I would want the beach life, but then I think I would get tired of it, but then I get home, and all I can do is think wistfully of my time there and wish I was there again.  One thing is for sure: it won't be another three and a half years before we dive again.