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A Guide to the Cayman Islands, Restaurants

The Cayman Coffee Crawl

November 11, 2020January 25, 2021by Island Diaries by Kate1 Comment

Many of us have embarked on our fair share of pub crawls — but what about a Coffee Crawl?

It’s time to mix up our routine with a new non-alcoholic event that can be enjoyed while basking in our lonesome or surrounded by our friends.

How does it work you ask? Well, it’s quite simple. You start by picking three (or more) coffee destinations. Luckily, if living in Cayman, this step has already been completed for you compliments of Island Diaries by Kate! You must then consider a time frame. Do you want to visit all three coffee venues this month, this weekend, or get super hyped on caffeine and visit all three in one day?

Follow me on Instagram for my free Cayman Coffee Crawl itinerary or a customizable coffee crawl template (see left) that works anywhere in the world. This is a fun way to remember your favorite drinks and food from each place you visit and share your picks with friends and family!

Read about my first ever Cayman Coffee Crawl below and get ready to embark on your very own coffee adventure!

https://www.instagram.com/island_diaries_by_kate/

Stop Number #1: Bluestone Lane

Location: 51 Fort Street, George Town

Located only a few blocks from the waterfront in the heart of George Town, you will find Bluestone Lane on an adorable street corner across from George Town public library.

Seating: There are many seating options available both indoors and outdoors. Even during peak Sunday breakfast hours we were able to find a table within a few minutes of ordering our drinks.

Beverage: As recommended by a friend, I ordered a Flat White with almond milk. It arrived in the most picturesque manner with the steamed milk design etched on the frothy surface. Bryan, a man who favors consistency in his coffee drinks, ordered an Americano served strong and hot in blue porcelain. Both drinks were rich in flavor and kick started our day in a perfectly caffeinated fashion.

Bites: Unsure of where my appetite was when I arrived, I ordered their Vegan Keto PB Cheesecake. (I mean, who knew such a thing existed). It was delicious and large in portion, pairing wonderfully with the Flat White. Bryan went for a more traditional start to morning, ordering an Egg and Bacon Croissant Spiral. (Sunny side up egg, bacon, spinach, tomato chutney & roasted garlic aiolil). Overall, YUM.

Thoughts? I would definitely recommend trying out Bluestone Lane for a quick breakfast or coffee while in George Town. As someone who spends much of her time around the Seven Mile area, it is nice to change up the vibe and head “downtown” to grab a coffee. Nice people, upbeat ambience, and a tasty menu. Definitely check this off your next Coffee Crawl!

Stop #2: Tillie’s, Palm Heights

Although Tillie’s would not be considered by most as a place to stop for coffee, we argue that it is one of the best and should definitely be considered on the crawl! Keep reading to find out why!

Location: 747 W Bay Road

Located on the coveted white sands of Seven Mile Beach, Tillie’s provides breathtaking ocean views in a captivatingly elegant dining space. Many Cayman residents and visitors have experienced such ambience at their iconic Sunday brunch but have you ever considered stopping by for something as simple as a coffee or juice?

Seating: We arrived around 11 am on a weekday It was incredibly quiet as the staff were just starting to prepare for the day ahead. We selected a table in the sandy area under the awning, as close as possible to the pristine waters as possible. We sipped our drinks with toes in the sand and only the ocean waves as background noise. Name a better place to enjoy a late morning coffee.

Beverage: I ordered a delightfully refreshing green juice and Bryan ordered, you guessed it, an Americano.

Bites: I chose to enjoy my green juice in and of itself while Bryan ordered a small plate of empanadas. Of course, this was not the most conventional of coffee hours, but hey, anything goes while living on a Caribbean island!

Thoughts: Unexpected but optimal venue for a coffee date. We will definitely be back for more green juices and americanos. Many people frequent Tillies for their elaborate brunches and cultural nights, but I think there’s something to be said for the simplicity of ordering a coffee and juice on the beach. You could even throw on a swim suit for a post coffee dip!

Stop #3: Jessie’s Juice

Location: Market St, Camana Bay

Cafes don’t get much cuter than Jessie’s Juice in Camana Bay, a vibrant waterfront community in the heart of Seven Mile Beach. Jessie’s is the perfect place for a post workout juice, a mid shopping spree coffee, or a quick and healthy meal while out on the town.

Seating: Jessie’s, being the cute little place that it is, has very limited indoor seating. The main draw of this juice bar & café is the vibrant outdoor seating options perfect for meeting up with friends or people-watching in solitude. You can even bring along a furry companion!

Beverage: If you are one of those people who are overwhelmed by “too many” amazing options, you may have a tough time at Jessie’s. One look at the menu and your eyes will go wide with wonder. We came for coffee but as usual were tempted by the wide variety of smoothies, juices, lemonades, and kombucha. After trying a couple samples, we ditched our coffee plans and settled on two tall glasses of peach kombucha. Even people who are a little bit on the booch fence will love Jessie’s version. It is fresh, fizzy, and has virtually none of the vinegar flavor that some brews seem to contain. I totally recommend this drink especially because they let you taste it beforehand!

Bites: We settled on Bryan’s favorite pastry — the banana nut muffin. This muffin has been known to help the accountants of Camana Bay survive through the busy season! It is a light and delicious option if you are not super hungry!

Thoughts: All around, Jessie’s is one of my favorite places to go for a coffee or smoothie. If you haven’t been yet and would like to try it out, you should definitely go when you have time to sit for a while outside. Bring a book, meet a friend, or people-watch to your heart’s content. (Wear sun glasses so people don’t think you’re creepy.)

Cayman Coffee Crawl in Review:

This island offers many exciting events… but if you aren’t interested in drinking alcohol or spending a lot of money, I think the Cayman Coffee Crawl is an excellent activity to try out! Please stay tuned for future coffee crawls as I know I am only scratching the surface and there are so many places to be explored! (In Cayman and world wide!)

Connect

If you decide to try my coffee crawl or design your own version wherever you are in the world, please share with me! Also, if you have any recommendations for cafes to try in Cayman or around the world, send them my way 🙂

As always, thanks for reading! Subscribe below to receive new content to your inbox every Wednesday!

A Guide to the Cayman Islands, Restaurants

Tillies: The Brunch To End All Brunches

Featuredby Island Diaries by Kate4 Comments

Brunch has become something of a universal Sunday celebration. We’ve all been to one. We’ve all drank the mimosas. We’ve all had to rescue our dill pickles from the bottom of watered-down bloodies. But until you’ve attended a brunch at Tillies in Grand Cayman, consider yourself deprived of the complete brunch experience.

Let me preface this by saying that brunch at Tillies is not for the faint of heart. When you make a reservation for this event, you are making a commitment to a minimum of 4 hours not just eating and drinking, but also dancing and socializing. Consider it the brunch olympics. Each month Tillies announces the Sunday brunch theme. October, for example, is an homage to the 90’s. Given that I spent all of the 90’s either in diapers or in my cousin’s hand-me-downs, my understanding of 90’s fashion is lacking a bit to be desired. Lucky for me, this past weekend kicked off with “90s in the Hamptons,” which apparently means dress in all white. For me, it meant an easy theme to follow, sparing me a trip to the thrift store.

Arriving at Tillies brunch is like stepping on to Grand Cayman’s very own red carpet. Everyone is dressed to the nines, including the wait staff and hosts. There is even an award given to the “best-dressed.” We haven’t won it yet — we seem to have a lot of competition. Seeing the many unique interpretations of the theme is entertainment in and of self. Of course, there is still a fair share of people who arrive in casual dress. One legendary brunch-goer in particular can be seen at Tillies every single Sunday sporting a different sarcastic graphic tee. Even funnier than his shirts is the fact that he is known to make frequent costume changes in between stints on the dance floor. I think we should all aspire to be more like him!

The themed ensembles definitely contribute to the extravagant brunch vibe; however, the real glamour of the event lies in the location and design of the restaurant. For one, Tillies is situated quite literally on the beach. Whether you choose to sit inside or outside, the ocean is just a stone’s throw from your table. If you are really planning ahead, you could even come equipped with your swimsuit for a little mid-brunch dip. Besides the unbeatable location, Tillies has a design team that elevates the experience to a whole new level. An Aperol spritz fountain made entirely of fresh, local fruit…a golf cart elegantly piled with pineapples and flowers… a pyramid of a hundred champagne glasses… You name it, Tillies can make it happen. That is one of my favorite things about them — they always keep it fresh and aren’t afraid to take risks.

Of course, while many are enchanted by the aura of Tillies, artful fruit arrangements alone cannot guarantee a gold star review. That is where food and drink come in. Another area of this brunch that seems to be in constant flux is the menu. Last weekend the menu was “90’s Pan-Asian Craze.” I am sure this has meaning to someone out there but to me it just meant “Yay, Sushi!” The brunch menu is set for each table with vegan options available. The appetizers, seafood tower, main course, and dessert are brought to you in four waves until you find yourself completely surrounded by food and prosecco wondering for a brief moment if you have died and gone to heaven.

At an event that honors socializing and dancing as much as they do food and alcohol, it can be a challenge to find the proper balance between calorie consumption and physical exertion. What happens when the sushi is delivered at the same time that your favorite song comes on? To eat or to dance? The key, like most things in life, is to go with the flow and see where the afternoon takes you. Choose your brunch adventure! This is one of the reasons why no two Sundays will ever be the same.

You may be thinking…that’s great Kate, but how much is it? Well friends, in the world of materialism, you get what you pay for. If you want unlimited low-quality food as cheap as you can get, then sit yourself down at Paul Bunyan’s cook shanty in the Wisconsin Dells and eat flapjacks to your heart’s content. But if you want to experience something original with amazing quality on an iconic Caribbean beach, then reserve a table at Tillies! Most people working and living in Cayman would not bat an eye at the price of brunch — $75 CI per person ($92) for unlimited food, drink, and entertainment. However, I know all of my teacher friends from Wisconsin are having heart palpitations just thinking about spending that amount on BRUNCH.

Look, we all have our priorities, but in my opinion this is something you have to experience at least once if you are visiting or living on the island. Once you do, you will be hooked. It is truly the brunch to end all brunches! See you at Tillies!

https://www.tillies.ky/

Cayman Islands Lifestyle

My First (True) Week As An Islander

June 10, 2020January 25, 2021by Island Diaries by Kate4 Comments

Gone are the days of cohabitating with rodents at the Comfort Suites. I am free! And so are all my fellow travellers. Everyone at the hotel tested negative for COVID and we were released on Monday, June 2nd after 17 days in government quarantine. The staff and volunteers who took care of us during our stay were very kind and helpful but I was beyond ready to bust out of my fifth hotel room and finally see Bryan up close and not from a hotel window! Now that I have spent a full week outside the walls of quarantine, island life is feeling a bit more real to me. Cayman still has many regulations in place to prevent the spread of COVID but even so, Caribbean life has been treating us well. In this blog I will share with you what life has been like reunited with Bryan in my new home!

New country, new hobbies?
I don’t know about you guys, but I have never in my life lived within walking distance to a beach with a reef where you can snorkel. In St. Paul I lived next to a Super America which was cool. In St. Cloud I lived near a convenience store called the Slide-In Mart where they sold gyros alongside bongs…also pretty neat. But never have I been able to leave my house in a swimsuit and flip-flops, carrying only a towel and a snorkel. Well, I guess I could have if I was going to a themed party or something. MUCH stranger things have occurred in St. Cloud, MN. Anyway, snorkeling is one of the new hobbies I am referring to. I never thought it was something I would love doing ever since the Disney Cruise in the 2nd grade when I didn’t realize that snorkeling was not the equivalent of scuba-diving and I basically inhaled a gallon of salt-water. 16 years later I am finally ready to try it again and now I can’t get enough! Literally a three minute walk from mine and Bryan’s current apartment is Smith Cove — a small beach with a reef that is just a short swim from the shoreline. It boasts all kinds of beautiful marine life! As a lake girl, I kind of forgot that fish can actually be other colors than that grayish-green lake color. So far, I have seen: parrot fish, surgeonfish trunkfish, yellow jack, four-eye butterflyfish, blue tang, a needlefish, and many more! Of course prior to this week I didn’t know the names of all these. When I was leaving the beach the other day some beach-goers asked me what kind of fish I saw and I told them “blue fish” and “long pointy fish.” Rookie mistake. I went right home to explore http://www.snorkelstj.com/index.html where Caribbean fish are indexed by color, shape, and size. Very elementary but good for someone like me! I feel like I should create some flashcards and quiz myself before and after snorkel sessions 🙂

Snorkeling is definitely the safer and easier of the two hobbies Bryan and I have been trying out in Cayman. The second hobby is…(drum roll)… Skimboarding! It might as well be called “skin-boarding” as my legs have not been this scraped and skinned since my soccer days playing on artificial turf. A skimboard, (pictured below), is basically a shorter, wider version of a surfboard. But instead of starting in the water like a surfer would, you take a running start on the shoreline. To be honest, the end-goal of skim-boarding has not made itself apparent to me. I think you are supposed to stay on your board long enough to catch a little wave and hopefully not fall in the process. We have been watching some YouTube tutorial videos and hopefully can gain a better understanding in the coming weeks and months. But for now it is kind of fun just to run and jump and fall in the water (if we are lucky). The scraped skin has been the result of falling on the sand and pebbles on the beach. The best part of an afternoon of skim-boarding you ask? Rewarding yourself for falling 50 times by watching the sunset from Veranda Seven Mile Beach accompanied by some cocktails and ceviche. Worth it!

Not ALL new

Moving to a new country doesn’t mean you have to reinvent yourself. My preferred form of exercise is still going out for a run. However I have traded Mississippi river views for ocean views. And instead of running in a comfortable, cool climate, I am powering through 90 degree tropical heat. That means running a quick 2 to 3 miles instead of 6+ … Cayman does have a marathon in December and I am contemplating signing up. But after only 25 minutes of intense sweating, I am wondering how in the world I will ever adjust and run 2-4 hours straight on this island. I have until the end of August before they hike up registration fees, so we shall see how I progress this summer!

Being that I am not working (in the traditional sense) this summer and international travel is still closed indefinitely, there are no major upcoming events to anticipate and no set schedule I need to follow. This means that my days will be filled with snorkeling, reading, and spending too much money at the grocery store. Not a bad way to spend a summer, right? One thing that IS on the agenda for Bryan and I is moving to a new, BIGGER apartment on July 1st that is MUCH better suited for two people (AND for visitors…wink-wink, nudge-nudge)! We are both very excited about this new place as it will be great for the both of us as far as location and amenities are concerned. Until then, I will be taking full advantage of our proximity to Smith’s Cove and filling my days with sun, sand, and booze…oops, I meant books. See you soon — much more to come! 🙂 Happy summer my beautiful friends and family <3

My Story: Moving to Cayman

Return of the Mice + COVID Test

May 30, 2020January 25, 2021by Island Diaries by Kate1 Comment

Hi there. Thought I wouldn’t be posting again until I was released from isolation BUT writing proves to be therapeutic for me and the last 48 hours have been quite traumatic for someone with a recently self-diagnosed rodent phobia. While I thought I was safe in my new room, I couldn’t hide for long. That’s right. The mice struck again. And this time…not just one.

The clock struck 11 pm, seemingly the hour in which mice like to wake from their slumber and scavenge for vegan leftovers such as chickpeas and sweet potato. I had just brushed my teeth and was heading for the bedroom. I had tried so hard for the past few days to correct my sleep schedule and I had my sights set on a solid 8 hours of sleep. The mice had a different plan. I turned the corner to the living room and SCREAMED. NO! NOOOOOO. A mouse scurried in front of me, his little tail flapping in the wind. F*CK!! I sprinted across the living room to the bed room, slammed the door shut, and stuffed towels underneath the door. Safe. I was safe…or so I thought. I called Bryan practically in tears and directed my obscenities and “why me’s” at the phone. I began to calm myself and sat down on the bed, ready to call the front desk yet again. And then…ANOTHER ONE!?! I jumped up on the bed, any feeling of tiredness had gone out the window. I wished the mice would do the same.

Prior to seeing the second mouse, I had (for a fleeting moment) considered riding it out in the bedroom until morning. I thought about what my mom and I had talked about. That part in the Green Mile when he befriends a mouse and names him Mr. Jingles. Could I adopt the same mentality? There were some similarities in our story except of course the part about being on death row for a crime I didn’t commit. No… sorry Mr. Jingles. We couldn’t be friends, you had been too intrusive.

So, I repeated the same routine as a week ago. I sprinted back and forth across the room, packing up, throwing things in garbage bags. Security came up to deliver yet another key to a new room. Upon arriving at the new room, I did not feel any sense of relief. It was on the same floor, directly across the hall from my first room where there was a mouse. This is so ridiculous, I thought. After a bit of complaining, the next morning the facilities manager proposed that I be transferred to a new hotel. YES!!! Please!! Nope, just kidding…that was not a good idea after all. But, they could move me to a higher floor. Sure…I mean I was already packed. My entire life was still on the luggage cart inside my room. So, later that day I moved to the third floor where I am apparently the only person on the floor. In room #4 I shoved towels into all the crevices where a rodent could possibly enter. I sprayed the room with clorox (kills viruses, deters rodents?) I forced myself to eat all the food they delivered (they provide huge portions) so that I did not have any residual food smells in my room. I couldn’t understand how this seemed to only be happening to me! I guess I am just the fan favorite.

Being that I hadn’t slept well in days, I was actually tired enough that I felt I would fall asleep without problem. If you have ever stayed in a hotel, you know the frustration of getting into bed when they tight-tuck all the sheets and comforter under the mattress. Well, when you are being actively pursued by a gang of vegan mice, you find comfort in being securely tucked in. So I slept for almost 12 hours and awoke with a clear mind and less anxiety. I concluded that if I went to bed before 11 and didn’t get up for anything, there is no way I would see a mouse. So that is my strategy for my last night of quarantine!

It is now 10:40 am, I am awaiting the call to go take my COVID test. I put on mascara and everything. I simply could not be more excited to have a swab stuck up my nose!

[Update] 11:30 am, May 30th

COVID test has been taken! Funny that we had to wait 2 weeks for a 2 second test. For those who haven’t had the test, they basically stick an extra long q-tip up your nose, but like, really far up there. I wouldn’t say it hurt but it was definitely a weird feeling that I continued to feel even after they removed the swab. The staff was very kind and tried to calm my nerves. If they only knew what I had been through the past two weeks. Hehe.

I returned to my room, celebrated the completed test, now awaiting the results. The staff here is confident our results will be back by tomorrow morning and we will be able to leave sometime later in the day. (I am knocking on wood as I type this.)

This time, I really hope you do not hear from me again. PLEASE let the next 24 hours be uneventful and blissfully boring. See you on the other side!

My Story: Moving to Cayman

10 Things I Learned in Cayman Quarantine

May 28, 2020January 25, 2021by Island Diaries by Kate1 Comment

I guess I don’t actually need “Happy Hour” every day. At the government isolation center (AKA Comfort Suites), alcohol and other drugs are strictly prohibited. They neither serve alcohol nor do they allow outsiders to deliver any. That being said, it will be 15 days or so for me without drinking. I mean, don’t get the wrong idea. I am hardly an alcoholic. However, like many throughout this pandemic, I have enjoyed the more than occasional at-home happy hour with my parents. Indulging in a Bloody Mary or whatever spiked seltzer is trending at the time. (My fav is still Press even though it is so last summer). Arriving to quarantine knowing these happy hours were going to be on hold from 2+ weeks was a bummer. Nothing like arriving in paradise and being denied both the beach and the piña colada that comes with it. I mean THE TORTURE… Anyyyyyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. I don’t “need” happy hour. Or do I? Jury’s still out.

Sometimes you just have to turn off the news and binge 48 hours of Sex and the City. Nothing like hours of dysfunctional relationships to make a day fly by. Again, don’t get me wrong. Of course the news is important. Especially now with constant virus-related updates. But sometimes, the trials and tribulations of Carrie and Big’s on-again, off-again romance take precedence. Hopefully I didn’t lose any readership with this one. (**This news hiatus happened over Memorial Day Weekend. A lot has happened even since then that does require our attention)

3. Maybe a rodent in your house is a blessing in disguise? All I know is that after the mouse encounter, life in isolation improved markedly. 1. I got a bigger room 2. I got a hot shower 3. I got a new view which allowed Bryan and I to reunite via the window! Guys, I am the real life Rapunzle. Except my hair isn’t long enough to let down. Maybe next time?

Education and training is required in the culinary arts of vegan desserts. Let me start by saying that I am very satisfied with the food here and overjoyed that vegan options even exist. Wherever this food is coming from, I give them 5 stars. HOWEVER. The vegan “desserts” they have given me, if you can call them desserts, have been utterly confusing. One night they gave me a cup of rice pudding with corn and an unidentifiable yellowish syrup. Another night they gave me this lump of solid green gelatin? Which is not vegan at all actually. Gelatin is made from prolonged boiling of skin, cartilage, and bones from animals. So that is VERY confusing. Another night they gave me a cooked plantain with frosting. (That one I ate). In conclusion, just give me the damn chocolate chip cookie.

Vegan Banana Pancakes (my favorite breakfast so far)

Literally any space can be used for movement. For example, the recreational space they provided for us (a stretch of a parking lot and a little bit of grass), is not the ideal space to run long distances. ALAS, I have run the mile multiple times in that area during the 20 minutes they allot us. Granted, they are the slowest miles I have ever run but hey, it’s still an accomplishment! Have to make due with the space you have and move your body in any way that you can! Also, thank god for YouTube and its endless library of free workout videos.

Jamaican juice is delicious and addicting. With most of our meals they give us a bottle of water. However, every once in a while they give us a juice box instead. Which is really funny to me. I am one of those annoying people who reads the label and nutritional contents of food and beverages and I was not surprised to find this little box of juice contains 24 grams of added sugar…about the same as a can of soda. BUT, it is from Jamaica. Which, I don’t know, somehow makes it a superior juice box. So… after hoarding them for a few days, I finally broke down and had one. And guys. This juicebox was EVERYTHING. I have never tasted anything so miraculous. I guess these make up for my rice & corn pudding desserts.

In the absence of squirrels, chickens are just as fun to watch from your window. That is all. I just love them.

I guess I like puzzles. I guess I do! My friend Emily, basically my only friend on the island besides Bryan, was kind enough to deliver a few of her puzzles to me at the hotel. I did them in record time and loved every minute of it. What a relaxing, mindless activity. Almost as mindless as Sex and the City.

Good ideas can come to you when you take time to unplug. This has been such a revelation for me. Never has writing come so easy to me as during this quarantine. I hope that even when I leave here I can maintain this clearheadedness. It has helped me hugely in the creativity department. Not just with the blog but also in working on my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) store. In a society that equates productivity with success, I have learned that it’s actually quiet time and headspace that give way to really great ideas and energy! And allow you to be even more productive when the time is right! (The time isn’t always right. Sometimes what you need is to watch chickens from the window while draining a Jamaican juicebox).

We depend on each other. Take time to appreciate others! Not to be overly didactic…I am going to make this short and sweet. But seriously, as independent and strong as you may be, you couldn’t survive for very long without the support of others. I’m so grateful for all the people who made sure I got here safely, for the volunteers who deliver my food and water everyday, and for the friends and family who check in with me to see how I am doing. We all make up a small part of the whole! One day you are the one helping and the next you are the one who needs help. We’ve got this!

So, as you can see I have learned a lot during my time here in government isolation! While my time here is not quite over, this is the last time I will blog from quarantine. I will be taking the COVID test on Saturday (May 30) with hopes of getting the results back in 24 hours and leaving on Sunday. Next time you hear from me I will be free and at home with Bryan! As always, thanks for reading! Until next time 🙂

My Story: Moving to Cayman

An Unexpected Turn of Events Pt. 2!

May 20, 2020January 25, 2021by Island Diaries by KateLeave a Comment

From Airside to Isolation

Greetings from quarantine! This is not your everyday honor-system quarantine that you can do from the comfort of your own home. The fact that I can even say that so nonchalantly speaks to how much COVID19 has infiltrated our sense of normalcy. But no, I am not self-isolating with Bryan — I am in a Cayman government controlled isolation center. While my accommodations during this isolation are far from grim (I am at a hotel), the procedures surrounding it are in fact as intense and thorough as they sound!

Let’s start from the very beginning — my arrival to the island. After deboarding the plane, we were greeted by fully gowned and masked staff who cheerfully welcomed us home. (Remember that all the passengers save me apparently were local Caymanians or permanent residents). I played my part and said “Thank you! It’s so good to be home!” 😉 Entering the airport, everyone was screened and had their temperatures taken. We were all issued room keys for our hotel accommodations and then escorted to the front of the airport where our luggage was loaded into a truck and we were loaded into a bus (all while maintaining our 6 feet of course). Surrounding the buses of recent arrivals were a scattering of police officers and their vehicles. When we finally did pull away from the airport to make our way to the hotel, we had a police escort leading in front and following behind. On our way, many people who were out walking stopped to watch us go by — some with dirty looks, others with friendly waves.

When we got to the hotel, we collected our luggage and waited in line to take the elevator to our designated floor. Only one could go on at a time and a staff member had to press the button for each person. I got on the elevator to the second floor – room 217. Upon entering I found a paper with important info along with a food menu for the entire week. I sat down with these pieces of paper that were about to dictate my life for the next 14+ days and began to mentally prepare.

A Day In The Life:

Where am I? While the words “Government Quarantine” may bring to mind images of sterile and cold surroundings, my current accommodations are actually quite plush. I am at a nice hotel (albeit with no patio), with views of palm trees, flowers, and a parking lot. I have a kitchenette, a sofa, a desk, and two beds. I haven’t yet jumped back and forth on them like I did when I was 5 and my parents would take my brother and I to a hotel, but the quarantine is young. The hotel is made up of 5 floors and each floor is occupied by passengers from the MIA > GCM flight. If I had to estimate, I would say there are about 70-100 of us. I am quite bad at estimations. The hotel is barricaded by tall, solid fencing. This keeps us inside when we are able to have our “recreation” time and it keeps family and friends from walking up outside the windows. Way to ruin the fun, Cayman.

What am I eating? Well, if you have been following me on Instagram, you know very well what I am eating because I take a picture of every single meal! Upon arrival, we received a menu with 2-3 options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Being that I am vegan, I had no idea what to expect and had imagined I would have to modify a bit and just be vegetarian for these weeks but to my pleasant surprise, they have a vegan option listed for EVERY SINGLE MEAL. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not in the Midwest anymore. Meals are delivered by the staff and volunteers. We all put little side tables out in the hallway and they set the meals on there and knock on the door. We are instructed not to open the door for a few minutes until the volunteers have left. As you can see below, the containers they serve the food in are adorable and the food is delicious. Even a carnivore could enjoy them! Breakfast is served between 8 and 8:30, lunch between 12:30 and 1, and dinner between 6:00 and 6:30. On the first night, they also brought us a “welcome home” bag full of snacks. I am trying to ration the snack bag but how could I not break into the Nutter Butter’s immediately? I mean come on, those things are amazing. My one complaint is that sometimes instead of a water with our meals they bring us Jamaican juice boxes that despite being tiny still manage to fit 24 grams of sugar within. I did break down and try one. It was really good, I won’t lie.

What in the world do you do all day? Earlier this spring amid COVID school closure I was teaching online with SHS but we already had our last day of school! That being said, I have no “official” work to do. Since I am going to be here for what feels like a long time, I tried to build some structure in my day by creating a daily schedule. One of the most important items on the schedule is RECREATIONAL TIME. Recreational time my friends refers to the whopping 20 minutes of outdoor time I am allotted each day (3:15-3:35) to leave my room and go outdoors. That means that at 3:14 I am at my hotel room door eagerly waiting for the minute hand to strike 15. I make my way to the stairwell, use the provided sanitizer, and hustle to the ground floor where I emerge free and floating into the Caribbean sunshine. I have watched other people use their recreational time from my window (I am not creepy, I am just isolated), and let me tell you, they are doing it wrong. They just pace around the parking lot and look at their phones. Lame, right? If you think I am going to spend my precious recreation time on my phone you are wrong. No, no, no. I came equipped with a jump rope and resistance bands and I make that outdoor area my arena. Of course since recreational time is just a mere 20 minutes, there is a lot of time in my day yet to be accounted for…alone in my hotel room. Don’t you worry. I am keeping busy! But if I told you all about my daily routine right now then what would I write about in the next blog?

So you really can’t see Bryan? When will you get out of there? Due to the barricade they so lovingly installed along the perimeter of the hotel, there is no possible, legal way for family and friends to get close enough to wave or talk via the windows. People can drop off packages with reception to be delivered to our rooms but they cannot themselves deliver them. UGH. Also, I am not totally sure what day we are on. Was the night we arrived considered Day 1? Or Day 0? Day 15 is when we are all going to take a COVID test but the results can take 48 to 72 hours (possibly longer). That could mean an extra 3+ days of isolation. So while I AM keeping track of days, I am also trying not to think of how many are left. There is still a long road ahead but I am counting my blessings as there are many amazing people here taking very good care of us and I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for more quarantine updates! 🙂