Dinner at Roland's Garden, Friday night

I had researched places to eat online before we left and a lot of people recommended Roland's Garden if you are adventurous and not a picky eater. I emailed about a month before we left asking about how to get reservations and he responded we are set for Friday night. I guess we are going to Roland's! Jason and I were guests of his for dinner in his garden...it is not a restaurant, there is no menu, you get what he cooks, you pay him what you think dinner was worth, you don't like his humor--ignore him...and oh yeah--when I confirmed the reservation he reminded me to bringing lots of liquor because he doesn't have a liquor license.





After driving up and down the road trying to find the sign, we found it, parked on the road and started our adventure. Sir Alex the guard dog looked up at us from his nap, barked, and then went back to sleeping. We were promptly seated, had our wine opened and our appetizer delivered. The first plate was huge and we couldn't remember everything that was on the plate! It had ham, turkey, pate, cheeses, spicy sausage, oysters, shrimp, water chestnuts, salmon, artichoke hearts, german potato salad, and much more with a plate of homemade bread chips. Roland made sure to tell me not to eat too many--there was a lot more to come...Jason could have as many as he wanted. After we were done with that, he brought out a plate of spicy sausage and cheese quiche. Then bacon wrapped scallops in a hollandaise sauce. Then some crackers with Feta Cheese and spices...



Next came our salads...and a trip to Roland's restroom to put on bug spray because we were getting eating alive. For once, Jason was getting it worse that I did...we would only know how bad a few days later. After our salads came the main entree. Roland has cooked at various restaurants all over the island and is an excellent chef. It has a german influence but was an excellent meal.

Dinner was a sampler platter. We had pork loin, beef in a horseradish sauce, mahi-mahi and Chicken in a Ginger & Mango sauce. We also had risotto and german cabbage. It was all excellent but the beef and chicken were my favorite--probably because of the sauce.

After dinner was dessert of tiramisu, chocolate mousse and whipped cream. It was so good I forgot to take a picture of it until the plates were empty! We visited for a little after dinner.


Roland's son Julian is a paramedic at the hospital...he stopped to visit as dinner was getting over and brought his 10 month old puppy. This dog was huge! I couldn't believe how big he was and he is 10 months old! Alex seem to come alive and started playing with the puppy...We were the first to arrive and the last to leave.




Signing off until tomorrow...

Friday afternoon of geocaching...

Ok, so I need to download the pictures off of the other camera before I can do Friday morning's update...so I am skipping ahead. After lunch, we decided to head out and try to find our dinner place for tonight and then get a few more geocaches. We were unable to locate Roland's but were able to find the trailhead for the Mastic Trail. It is a trail they use to use to get from the North Coast to the South Coast.

Jason starting down the trail...and then we realized how muddy it was going to be...


We decided to wimp out on the trail...it is a total of 2 miles one way but it wasn't that exciting, we got the two geocaches along the way and then turned around. We wanted to go back to the caves geocache from yesterday. We came prepared this time...flashlights and I took pictures of the computer pictures on our camera. There was a very distinct rock formation or something that was in every picture of people who had found it. We were positive that if we found that rock, we would find the cache. So after the Mastic trail, we headed down there. We did get turned around twice so it took 14 minutes to get back to the caves today. We went right to the cave that we knew was the right one...looked all around with the flashlight...got freaked out by the bat flying around...no geocache. No rock...grrrr...turned around to the caves across the way. Then I hear leaves crunching...A SNAKE...ok, I quickly jumped backed and decided I wasn't going there, even if the cache was there. After 20 minutes, Jason was done. I re-read the log sheet to him and kept looking. He kept reading the sheet and then said what about over here? BINGO! The second we walked in, we saw the rock. We quickly signed the log because the mosquitos were eating me alive! We left a Bad Hair Pin from Phoenix...thought it was appropriate. We were very hot and sweaty...took the trail back out to the car. Had to get back to clean up for dinner at Roland's...he serves you in his garden and there is no menu. You get what he cooks...Jason isn't so sure but I think it will be fun!

Thursday afternoon spent geocaching...

So, we got done with the dives and decided to try to get this really cool sounding geocache...Cave's of the lost Pirates Booty. There are some caves on the island and someone created a geocache to get back there. You have to go thru a lot of prickly stuff, caves with bats, tree limbs with thorns. We were all set in our long pants, keens, camera, GPS and water. We got off trail about 3 times and had to backtrack. Along the way we came upon a hole in the ground...

That was actually the opening to the cave below. You could see thru the hole and see the tree roots, etc. in the cave. You could go exploring if you wanted to...they provided a rope to get up/down. We both passed on the opportunity to find the geocache.



We continued on and came to this really cool area. There are all these caves with all the tree roots showing. We had to go thru this one cave that had bats in it...I didn't believe it until we were thru it and on the other side...then I saw all the things flying. Yikes--and the best part was that I either had to climb up this really sharp rock...and since I am slightly afraid of heights, wasn't going to work...or go back thru the bat cave. I chose to run thru the cave and thankfully, the bats stayed where they were. Here are some of the cave pictures...


In these pictures...it is the same tree. It was huge!


I decided to try to find Jason on the other side of the cave...I went thru tons of stuff since there wasn't a trail. I passed a few more caves on the way to find Jason. We were looking for step 3 out of 5 for this geocache. I finally found Jason and we were unable to find step 3. I said to just forget about it and go to the last step...he said the GPS was pointing over there...right were I had come from. We get back over there and realize that there is no way we are going to find it without a flashlight so we call it a day. We also realized that there were ribbons on the tree all along so we were able to get out in 10 minutes.

We decided to continue on our geocache list. We hit a few more...
barefoot beach...

and the Wreck of the Ten Sail

and the lighthouse


We then went down the road to the blowhole. Our final geocache for the day...the hint was Harry Potter's first room. My sister-in-law said that was a room below the stairs...my brother, Mr. Engineer, clarified it was a cupboard below the stairs. They use some elaborate signs in the Caymans...and I am pointing to a Cairn...just like my necklace.




This is one of my favorite things I have seen...they have actually painted arrows on the road in the lanes indicating which way you are suppose to go. And another picture of our huge car...that seems to have a muffler problem. It rattles all the time


Ending with a very windy self-portrait