Yarns . . .

Paula Deen's restaurant and Mrs. Wilkes

Had dinner Tuesday evening at Paula Deen's restaurant, "The Lady and Sons."

Rich food, saltier than I like it but I'm not used to a lot of salt on my food any more. Very rich food. The crab soup was a meal in itself. Bacon-wrapped crab-filled shrimp with a very rich sauce just about did me in. Dessert was very very rich. OMG, I think I had more calories in this one meal than all the food combined on the cruise.

Wednesday morning we slept in and then packed. Lunch Wednesday was at Mrs. Wilkes. This restaurant used to be part of a boardinghouse. I met Mrs. Wilkes the last time we were in Savannah, about 12 years ago, and we both wanted to go back again to her restaurant. Mrs. Wilkes passed about seven years ago, but the family still keeps the restaurant going. Great food served family style. I counted 22 dishes on the table and while I can't name them all, here's a start....

Meat loaf, barbequed pork, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, lima beans, squash, rutabaga, okra, tomato salad, potato salad, baked beans, turnip greens, freshly baked rolls, cornbread, okay, I'm running out and that's only 16. There was another meat and several more vegetables. Sweet tea was served (which I immediately traded for unsweet.) Sweet tea in the South is like adding a cup of hot tea to 6 cups of sugar and then adding a little ice. Enough sugar to induce a diabetic coma in 3.9 seconds flat.

Banana pudding or peach cobbler were our dessert choices. (Who needed dessert!?!) The peach cobbler was good. Frank said the banana pudding was every bit as good as Paula Deen's. This was our only meal on Wednesday.... we were still too stuffed to eat dinner!

Once back on dry land last Sunday morning, I drove to within 50 miles of Savannah, where we spent the night. Monday morning I drove on in and we had lunch on the River Walk at the Boar's Head, then did about half the River Walk. Monday night we drove out to Tybee Island to the Crab Shack and had crab legs and peel-and-eat shrimp.

We got on the Crab Shack's webacm and waived to all. Will post a webcam pic soon.

Tuesday morning we drove the town and took photographs. Lunch Tuesday was at the Wright Square Cafe. Cute place; bought the cookbook featuring all the "cute places" in town and had them autograph their page. Tuesday afternoon we "did" the rest of the River Walk, then went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

Grand Cayman

From Jamaica we went on to Grand Cayman, where we took a tour. I can honestly say I've now been to Hell and back (and they didn't even have handbaskets there!) Hell is a part of the island that was once underwater. As the seas receded, the coral was exposed and died. So here you have black jagged upthrusts of coral out of what looks like a marsh. Could be Hell... sure looked like it could have been Hell.

Anyway, I took photos and then we took off for a rum factory. Mmmm... good stuff. Our driver gave me a glass of fruit punch and then laced it with both coconut and vanilla rums. Oh my. This may be the hit of my first summer party next year. I think the rum cake was good, too, but probably should have tasted the cake before drinking the punch. Back to the ship's dock for a little more shopping, then aboard for Saturday at sea.

After getting our little cruise map of our travels, we realized we actually island-hopped around Cuba.

Jamaica

We also watched a woman rolling cigars and bought one for Gavin. "Jamaican cigars?" he asked. "I hope they're smoke-able!" Well, so do I. I videotaped the process so he'll get a cd along with the cigar.

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Glad we changed course as Omar the Hurricane hit directly on St. Thomas and St. Maarten, two of our original stops, and the going was a bit bumpy until the "powers that be" gave permission to visit alternative islands.

Bumpy, you say? Well, we looked like a bunch of drunks hugging walls to get where we needed to go without falling down. Would you believe choreographed drunks (as we did everything in unison)? or how about Synchronized Lurching - perhaps a new Olympic sport.

Fortunately the "bumpiness" only lasted about 3 hours... and most of that time I was sitting down eating dinner, lurching only to get from one end of the ship to the other to watch a show. No, fortunately, I don't get seasick... but there were a lot of people on the ship with little patches behind their ears.

We had already visited Princess Cays - the Princess Cruise Line's private island at the tip of Eleuthera - and had passed Grand Turk before we turned back. Grand Turk was to have been our last island stop. Instead it because our second stop. Small, clean, nice shops though damage was still visible from Ike. Not enough time there for a tour but I'd go back to do that.

A full day in Jamaica was next. We had not scheduled a tour there but if I ever have to go back (note that it would not be by choice, but perhaps by hurricane avoidance) I would definitely schedule a tour. Better that than trying to run the line of hawkers outside the very small port area. The razor wire should have been a dead give-away.

We did walk to the closest shopping area. GREAT prices on hard liquor, but we only bought a very small bottle of rum for Matt. Our liquor cabinet is quite full as we rarely touch it, preferring wine instead. After a Margarita (can't go to Jamaica without having a Margarita) we headed back to the ship. Three hours would have been sufficient, as opposed to our actual stay of seven.

This photo was taken in Jamaica. I have no idea what kind of tree this is but it is certainly unique.