The Heat, the Hockey and the Canada!

Posted by Christopher

Now, I know that many of you are sitting in Canada right now, watching hockey in –20 degrees Celsius, but trust me in saying that it’s not a good sign when a Canadian feels room temperature at +25 degrees.  We’ve been seeing temperatures up to around 38 degrees during most days here.  We’ve cranked up the A.C. when it gets unbearable, so we’re fine, we just try to avoid the outdoor blistering heat.

The thermometer on our boat, showing the current temperature.  This was actually shortly after we started the air conditioning, so the temperature is down a couple of degrees.

The next order of business that’s blogworthy happens to be (ironically) the winter Olympics. We decided that to miss them would be kind of sad and feel a bit like we’re missing too much home. So we decided to find a sports restaurant/bar to watch them at. So Mom found a place called Beaches, which must’ve had at least twenty big screen TV’s lining the walls all playing the women’s gold hockey game. The food was mediocre, but we had so much fun watching the game that we decided to come back the next day for the men’s game against America and then the men’s gold game as well! (Which happened at 7:00 AM our time).
For those who don’t know our family are not big hockey fans and have never watched much of it, but we decide that getting a little bit of Canada would be fun down here.

Also luckily, the bar was run by a Canadian fellow so the channels were Canadian and every time we got a goal the patriotic hockey fans would put down their beers for a split second to cheer!

Keeping a close eye on the hockey game.

Some of the other Canadian hockey fans watching the game with us at 7 in the morning.

That about wraps up what the last couple of days have been for me but we’re going to hopefully leave the Caymans, aiming at Honduras in the next few days. Bye!

Diving to New Kites

Posted by Alexander Feb.23

The kite beach.

I know Dad has already blogged the diving so I’ll keep it brief. Diving was awesome. Going down into the ocean like you’re a superhero? Totally worth it.  It was fantastic to float down to 60 feet and seeing lionfish and all other sorts! There was a really cool moment where a stingray burst out of the sand and sailed off.

Underwater, like a superhero.

Anyway you’ve all already heard plenty about the diving. I’m here to tell you about the kite boarding. After diving we took a few days break from all the early mornings. Then we went and took some kite boarding lessons! The first day the wind was really good so it was going to be easy kite flying. Which as it happens was what the first lesson mainly consisted of. The two young guys that were our teachers told us that kite boarding is about 90% kite flying. So they taught us how to keep the kite where we wanted it and how to get it into the air. Once we had shown some proficiency with this we got to lay belly down in the water and move the kite. By moving it up to the top of it’s arc and then down again to create momentum. This drags you through the water with amazing power. So that was fun.

Hanging out at the kite shed.

Gearing up.  Katie stayed behind and was our photographer, so most of these pictures were taken by her.

Unfortunately the wind was pretty bad the next day and we gave up early. We never got another good wind day so we will finish our lessons somewhere else.

Christopher, modelling his kite harness.

Heading out to the sandbar in the boat.

We went to Camana Bay to watch the Lego movie! They have a theatre there (as far as we can tell the only one on the island). We couldn’t remember the last time we had seen a movie so we were all excited. I was also excited because:

A. The Lego movie had great reviews

B. I’ve been playing with Lego since I can remember and it has always been around for me. It was really cool to see something that had been a toy I’ve loved forever become a movie.

My review? Everything was awesome! The animation looked like they really made it with lego bricks even though I’m pretty sure it was all computer done. It was really funny and even had some touching moments for fans of Lego. I won’t say anything more in case I spoil anything but people should definitely go see the Lego movie.

Seeya!

After the movie at Camana Bay, this guy was waiting on the dock by our dinghy.  He didn't budge an inch when we got right up close to him.  I guess when you are this big, you don't move if you don't want to.

More kites on the beach.

Camana Bay is Where the Fancy People Shop

Posted by Katie

Walking from the dinghy landing into Camana Bay

Yesterday was like we were back in Florida!  Not because it was hot (which it was) but because we took a trip in the dingy to somewhere called Camana Bay.  The trip there was a little sketchy because the motor wasn’t operating right, but when we got there we new it was worth it.

The dinghy parking was a lot better than the car parking at Camana Bay.  Way less crowded.

The dock was nice and woody and connected to a small island about 60 feet long and 30 feet wide with palm trees and hammocks.  Then the island connected to the real land with a bridge.  Once in the town we walked along the concrete shore line in awe.  Exotic plants grew here and there. Up ahead were a bunch of kids playing in water spouts with blue blocks of some kind.  Behind the mini water park grew a field of palm trees and  grass.  On the left of us there were stores and stores not to mention how many Ice cream shops there were.  On our right was a little cove the we had parked the dingy in.

There were lots of palm trees all around the shopping centre.

Quickly mom and dad decided to get some errands that we had come here for done, first we got mom a cell phone card so she would be able to call people.  We got the card at a place called MACS. Then we went to a book store to find some cruising guides.It was a place called Books and Books.  Alexander and I were as thrilled as ever, we were not aloud to buy books but we were aloud to look for some series that we like so we can buy them on our kindles which are an electronic device for reading. If you have Wi-Fi you can buy books you like online it is a huge store with almost any book but it is smaller than a bread box! 

Looking for ice cream at Camana Bay.

by now naturally we were getting hot so it was time for the ice cream but the problem was, where?  After studying every Ice cream shop we finally found one called Haagen-Dazs We went inside and ate.  Alexander got coffee flavor, Christopher got cookies and cream flavor, Dad got cookies and cream as well, Mom got tiramisu and I got chocolate.  the shop was very high end with cushioned  chairs and fuzzy couches.

Back to school

Posted by Scot

Dive school that is.

Check it out.  We're diving!

In 1987, when I was in my first year of university, I commuted from home.  That meant about an hour and a half driving each way from the suburbs.  I had to arrive early and go back home late to avoid getting stuck in tunnel traffic.

What all that added up to was needing to kill a lot of time on campus, before, after, and between classes.  It didn’t take long for me to find a place to hide out.  My friend, John, from high school, was good pals with Mike, who was the manager of the dive shop on campus.  Mike was our age, but he wasn’t a student.  Instead, he managed the dive shop, and on weekends taught PADI dive courses.

At first, I didn’t really have any interest in diving.  The dive shop was just a place to feel safe and surrounded by friends in an otherwise huge, anonymous institution.  Before long, though, all those pictures of underwater life, and the cool gear in the dive shop got me interested.  I kept making plans to get PADI certified, but money, time and class schedules always got in the way.

Since then, I have made plans to take the course multiple times, but again, life always intervened, and I have never gotten around to it.

So, one of the goals I set myself for this year was to try and get my open water dive ticket.  Now, there are two things the Caymans are famous for.  One is offshore banking.  The other is scuba diving.  After coming up with the dough to live on a boat for the year, we have no need for an offshore bank account (and won’t for some time!).  This time, though, there was no excuse not to go diving.  So last week, Christopher, Alexander and I signed up for our PADI Open Water course with a local dive outfit called Divetech.

On the first day, the Divetech van picked us up at the marina right at 0700.  We drove to the north end of the island, to an area called the Cobalt Coast.  There, we met our instructor, Susan.  Susan is a 70 year old retired lawyer and professional pool player from Texas.  She has over 3000 dives under her belt, and retired to the Caymans 15 years ago to teach diving.  She is pretty much what you would expect from a Texan, a lawyer, and a pool shark.  She doesn’t mince words, and takes no sh%*& from anyone.  Especially a couple of teenage boys who think they know all the answers.  So, in short, she was a perfect dive instructor for us, and kept us on task and efficient through the course.

Susan, keeping us in line.

The first morning, after filling out all the usual liability releases, we watched videos that went through some of the relevant theory and safety ideas.  The videos were clearly made in the early ‘90s, with lots of neon scuba gear and feathered hair.

The boys actually did great with the academics, and I had to really stay on my toes to keep up with them when we went through the questions and answers at the end of each chapter and video.  In the afternoon, we hit the pool.  The first thing we did was a swim test.  20 laps of the pool and 10 minutes of treading water was a joke for my swim club kids.  Again, I found myself working hard to keep up as they laughed through the exercises.

Slogging through the book work, so we can get in the water.

Finally, at the end of day one we got to put on the scuba gear, and go through a bunch of skills in the pool, including buoyancy control, safety breathing, and gear setup.

The next morning started with an open water dive first thing.  We were off the dock by 0800, and enjoying the sights of the Sea Fan reef.  As we worked our way through the requisite open water skills, we saw lionfish, stingrays, and eels, in among the amazing coral and reef fish.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera, since this was serious dive training, and we weren’t supposed to be fooling around with photography.

Christopher's dive gear and weights weighed about as much as he did.  He never once complained, though.

We followed up with another open water dive right away.  After lunch, we finished off the theory portion of the course with a few more videos, questions and answers.  Then, we did the exam!  Again, the boys made me very proud – we all scored 94% or more on the exam, so if you ever want to dive with us, you can feel confident that we at least have the academic part down.

Day 3 was supposed to be comprised of a few more pool skills, and our last two open water dives for our certification.  The pool skills were easy.  We practiced the backward roll into the pool with our dive gear on.  Since we’ve been doing this off our dinghy for the last five months with our snorkel gear on, it was no problem.

Caution no diving.  Except for diving.

The first of our last two open water dives presented a bit more of a challenge.  There were big waves breaking straight onto the dock as we walked out.  Every so often, one would crest up and over the end of the dock, sending salt water washing towards our feet.  As we made our way along, we had to step over one board that had already been knocked loose by the big waves.  Suddenly, right in front of Alexander, another dock board got knocked out, nails and all, by a crashing wave.

As we lowered ourselves down the ladder at the end of the dock, we kept a cautious watch to make sure we jumped in between waves, so that we didn’t get smashed back into the dock.  The dive itself went well, but by the time we got out of the water, the waves were even bigger.  Most of them were now cresting above the height of the dock.

Mastering buoyancy control.  And looking good doing it.

The boys got themselves out during a lull in the waves, and managed to escape getting bashed against the dock.  I wasn’t so lucky.  Just as I started to climb out, a big wave caught me from behind, and threw me straight into the steps of the ladder.  One of the steps caught me in the ribs and knocked the wind out of me.  The pain was significant, and I briefly got knocked off the ladder.  But I grabbed on again and hauled myself out as quickly as I could, since I didn’t want that to happen again.

As we sat and watched the waves breaking over the dock, waiting the appropriate surface interval for our next dive, I could feel the pain in my chest with every deep breath.  Nothing felt displaced or broken, but I figured another run-in with the dock would probably change that, so I approached Susan, and told her I wasn’t keen to go back in today.

Just hanging out under water.

She jumped at the chance to postpone our final dive for another day.  She wasn’t too happy about going back in either, and told us that she probably wouldn’t have taken us out at all if we weren’t strong swimmers.
So, we held off until the following day.  On the morning of day 4, I was still having some pain with a deep breath, but we were determined to finish our course.  The waves had calmed down significantly, so we went back in, and had our best dive yet, staying down at 60 feet for most of our 45 minute dive.  Then, up we came, now certified PADI divers!

Now, a few days later, my chest is still sore, but starting to feel better, and we are already planning our next dive.  The wind and waves are pretty high here right now, so we may hold off until later in our trip, but stay tuned for some attempts at underwater photographs assisted by scuba gear.

Ready for our next dive.

Off to Grand Cayman

posted by Sara

After a bouncy couple of days in the Sister Islands, we were excited to be going to Grand Cayman.  Katie and I tucked into bed about 7:30pm.  I heard Scot and the boys start the engines and pull our lines off the mooring ball in the dark sometime around 8 o’clock.  As I fell asleep I could hear the two boys chirping away at the helm as they took the first watch.  Scot took stood by as second watch for them, then when they went to bed he took over until 1am.  I woke up and did the shift until 6am.

Taking the first watch.

Some people have asked us why we sail at night.  The main goal is to arrive somewhere new in the daylight.  Coming into an unknown port in the pitch black is not a smart move even with all our high tech navigational tools.  At our average speed we can only safely do about a 50nm mile passage within daylight hours (leaving at 7am and arriving at 5:30pm.)  And this leaves little room for error.  Anything longer than 50nm and it’s smarter to leave in the evening and arrive at our destination the following morning with full light.  That also gives us lots of time to check in with customs & immigration, which can often be a long process.
Our passage to Grand Cayman was uneventful with super light winds and small waves.  Really more of a motor than a sail, but a peaceful night.  We arrived at the entrance to North Sound at about 9am.  With a visual inspection we realized that the waypoint our cruising guide had given us for the tricky entrance channel through the reef was clearly wrong.  There was no line of entrance buoys anywhere near the coordinates we had punched into our nav software.  Good thing it wasn’t dark! 

We radioed Port Security to inform them that we were there, only to find out that they required us to sail around to Georgetown, on the west side of the island, to check in with customs (yet again).  This was a 2 1/2 hour sail past where we wanted to be.  We had read that Customs would come to the boat in North Sound, but arguing with Port Security on the radio didn’t seem like a battle we were going to win.  So we continued west around the point and headed south dodging dive boats, fishing boats, snorkel boats, parasailors, and underwater viewing submarines.  We got a beautiful view of 7 mile beach with it’s line of resort hotels. 

The Disney Wonder was in at Georgetown.

We were aimed at the main Georgetown dock off which a huge Disney cruise ship was anchored.  We radioed in as we approached.  There was so much action we didn’t have a clue where we were to go.  The Port Authority kindly sent out a pilot boat to lead us in.  We docked and only took 10 minutes to complete all the paper work (identical to the forms we had completed twice in the last two days in Cayman Brac).  The customs guys were very friendly.  They recommended we grab one of their mooring balls in the harbour and invited us to stay as long as we wanted.  We were exhausted after sailing overnight, so we decided to grab the ball, take a nap and then do a little exploring in the town. 

A pilot boat took us into the concrete customs dock.

Glad to be ashore again!  Sting ray fountain in Georgetown.

The West Bay harbour area is where all the cruise ships come in.  All the stores within a 6 block radius cater to the cruise ship clientele – duty free diamonds, jewellery, watches, t-shirts, and souvenirs.  It was eye-candy for us as we haven’t seen 1st world shopping in 4 months.  The main attractions were real coffee shops (Chai tea latte – yum!)  and a Dairy Queen!  Yes,  I admit, it’s all about the food for me!  There was also a Digicel store so Scot and I picked up Cayman sim cards for our unlocked phones.

This is the spot for tourists to get their money out and buy some Rolexes...

...or Swarovski jewellery.

We were pretty happy just to buy some DQ treats!

Before heading back to the boat, while we still had WiFi, we skyped our great friends who were enjoying the – 20 degree weather at Sun Peaks on our annual family ski trip.  So great to talk to you guys and see all your smiling faces!  I could tell that all the personalities were the same by who wanted to be front and centre in the camera (you know who I’m talking about).  Selfishly, I confess I’m a bit glad that you weren’t out tearing up a foot of new powder snow.

Vancouver did killer whale street art, Calgary did cows, Toronto did moose, and Georgetown did iguanas.  These statues are everywhere.  Some are really great.

By the way, unlocked phones are definitely the way to go if you are planning to travel in the Caribbean.  They have allowed us to have pretty reasonable communication in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and now the Caymans.  Everywhere except Cuba.  Jamaica was super cheap – $10 card for 600 minutes of international calls.  Calls from Grand Cayman are as low as 25cents/minute on evenings and weekends.  Of course skype is the cheapest way to call but we don’t always have good internet.

The following morning we headed back to North Sound.  North Sound is a huge bay.  It is 7 nautical miles from the entrance channel down to the south end.  The bay is very shallow – mostly 7 to 10 feet deep with several pockets of 4 feet, so navigation is tricky.  We finally found the proper entrance channel and snuck in through the reef with 9 feet under our boat.  (If you are going, you can find great instructions for the deepest approach into North Sound here.  This is what we used, and the waypoints are all perfect). 

On the morning we left the west side of the island, 4 cruise ships came in, and apparently a fifth was on the way.  We were glad to get our of their way.

We passed Sting Ray City, a shallow area where the sting rays congregate and all the tourists go to feed them.   We had reserved a spot at a marina, Barcadere, as we are hoping to get some work done on the boat.  The marina is very nice.  Only a year old, with a swimming pool for the kids and a great restaurant.  And most importantly, they have a huge marine store and boatyard attached to the marina.  Ironically, the marina is actually located on the east side of Georgetown just across a narrow part of the island from the West Bay  Harbour where we checked in.  From the marina it’s about a 1/2 hour walk back across the island to the Harbour.  Too bad it took us 3 hours to get the boat all the way around.  At least we know where to find the DQ!

Visiting the Sisters

Posted by Scot

Leaving Jamaica meant saying goodbye to our friends on Ja.  Good luck Jon and Giovanni!

The dirty secret that cruisers mostly keep to themselves is this: sometimes sailing is awful.  For example, when it is the middle of the night off Punta Maisi at the east end of Cuba, and wind and waves are attacking from two different directions, making you feel like a cork floating in a 4 year-old’s bathtub, you pretty much want to be anywhere but on a sailboat.  And for a pastime who’s attraction is largely based around freedom, at a time like that you are anything but free.  You are stuck on that boat, in the dark and wild seas, with your only option being to ride it out and hope for the best.

Christopher piloting us out of Bloody Bay, Negril, Jamaica

Other times, though, everything seems to come together, and the sailing is more or less perfect.  That is how things set up for us as we left Negril on the western end of Jamaica.  The wind was just slightly ahead of our beam, and the waves were behind us, giving us a fast and stable beam reach.  We only ran our engines long enough to help us get clear of the glass-bottom sight-seeing boats and the parasailors.  Then, we shut them down and let the wind take over.

Dodging the parasailors as we left Jamaica.

Once again, just at sunset, dolphins came to play in our bow wake.  This time they stayed for a good half  hour, jumping, diving, and rolling over as if to say “Welcome to our ocean!”  As the sun went down, the waves got a bit stronger, and once again, a few of us succumbed to the nauseating effect of losing our point of reference.  Soon enough, though, everyone was asleep, and I was on watch as we continued our rhumb line straight at Cayman Brac.

More dolphins!  Amazing ocean visitors to help us on our way.

The rest of the night went by without mishap.  Sara took over again around midnight, and when I woke up at 0600, the cliffs of the Brac were in view.  Sara went back to bed to catch another hour of sleep, and I steered us past the high bluff that gives Cayman Brac it’s name (apparently “Brac” means “bluff” in Scottish).

The bluffs at Cayman Brac.  They looked a lot bigger in person.

We picked up the mooring ball off the customs dock at about 0730, and settled in to wait for the customs officials.  At 1030, they called us on the radio to ask us to bring our paperwork to shore.  I dinghied in, and after the usual round of filling out several sets of paperwork with all our particulars, customs and “mosquito control” came back to the boat with us.  The mosquito control official sprayed the inside of the boat with  an insecticide, then two customs officers did a pretty thorough search of the boat.  They were all polite and pleasant, and gave us lots of good information about the two smaller “Sister Islands” of the Caymans.

Sara scouting for the customs dock at Cayman Brac.

After they were done, and we were cleared to land, we all went ashore to a bakery that was right across the road from the dock.  We bought some of the famous Cayman Brac “round bread” and a few other assorted pastries and goodies.  Right away, we could tell we were in the first world again.  Everything was clean and modern, and for the first time in two countries, no one was trying to hustle us for money on the street.

Back at the boat, we released the mooring ball and headed south, trying to find another spot to moor that was protected from the roll and swell we were getting from the northeast wind.  Unfortunately, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman both lie in a north east direction, so the wind and waves marched right down the side of the island, and we couldn’t get away from it.  We even tried rounding the southern tip, but then we were exposed to the bigger eastern swell coming across the Caribbean.

Finally, we picked up a mooring ball and decided the best way to get out of the swell was to get off the boat.  So we dinghied in to another little town, and marvelled at the modern grocery store with all the food we haven’t seen for months.  After a quick shop to top up our provisions, we headed out for pizza at the local Popo Jeb’s, and the kind owner from the Philippines put on the “the Hunger Games, Catching Fire” for us.  We all sat back, enjoying the delicious pizza and the air conditioning, and watched the first half of the movie.

We  saw a couple of well tended cemeteries on Cayman Brac, right by the ocean.  Monashee in the background.

The swell calmed down a bit when we got back to the boat, and we watched the second half of the movie there, on our own TV.  Despite the ongoing rocking, which made us feel like we were still at sea, we were soon all asleep.

This morning, we woke early as the waves picked up, rocking us even harder.  We called customs, and asked them to come and check us out, figuring that if we were going to be rocking this much, we might as well be moving.  I’m not sure why, but both here and Jamaica require you to check in and out of every port, so anytime you move from one spot to another, you need to see customs again.  They just fill out another copy of the same paperwork, and send you on your way, so I’m not sure exactly what the purpose is, but when in Rome…

We sailed on over to Little Cayman, and picked up another mooring ball.  One of the great things about the Caymans is that they have free government maintained mooring balls all around the islands.  Apparently at Grand Cayman, there are more than 100.  These have been placed in an effort to keep the pristine sea bottom untouched by anchors and chains.  For us, it is great, since it is easy to pick up and drop a mooring ball, without having to worry about our anchor holding.  If only there wasn’t such a swell all around the islands, the place would be perfect.

On Little Cayman, we have spent the day snorkelling and checking out the world famous reefs.  This is really a diver’s mecca, and this is the first time I’ve really wished we had tanks and dive gear (and knew how to use them).  One of the moorings had a beautiful wall dropping off into the depths right beside it, and the underwater cliff was covered in coral and fish.  It would have been a great dive.

The wall off Little Cayman.

Alexander, practicing his free diving on the wall.  Going down...

... hanging out...

... and coming back up.  This kid is part fish.

Now, we are sitting at the south end of Little Cayman, waiting to make an overnight run to Grand Cayman.  Once again, we are being tossed around in the swell, and it feels like we should be sailing.  But if we leave too early, we will get to Grand Cayman before the sun comes up, and we don’t want to enter the shallow North Sound in the dark.  So here we wait, reading books, playing games, and, when the rocking gets too crazy, jumping in the water for another swim.

Swimming - the best way to get off a rocking boat.

Birthday Madness

Posted by Katie:

Tuesday afternoon. 

My birthday crown!

The party started in the afternoon.  It all started with the sandwich lunch that mom made us and the boys threw it at me!  The boys who I put in charge of the party, said they had a kids event planned in Christopher’s room.  It turned out to be a videogame tournament.  I won of course and as a prize I got a sharing size skittles!  Then we lazed around for a bit and then started it for real!

We began with a special game of birthday charades only it didn’t last very long because we couldn’t think of very many hard ones and all the others went past in a flash.  And then we played a made up game of PartyMakers and PartyCrashers which is the same as a game of Resistance if you know what that is.  Then was an event that I was totally NOT expecting …

Birthday cake and surprises.

PRESENTS!  I got four things a stuffed koala , a box of card games and a video game.  Also, our friends Jon and Giovanni got me a great shirt from Jamaica!  We decided to play some cards while mom made dinner, first was one of my favorite games Crazy 8’s which all the cards had pictures of kids that age in stead of numbers and then we played another game which was in the box.  It was called Old Maid which was totally new to me and really fun as well.  Then it was time for my Birthday dinner!  My mom had prepared lettuce raps, it was one of our favorite meals and if you would like to know the recipe it will be written at the bottom of this blog.  After a scrumptious dinner it was time to finish off the party with the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2!  I couldn’t have wished for a better Birthday!

My cool Jamaica shirt.  Thanks Jon and Giovanni!

LETTUCE RAP RECIPE:

(Katie asked Mom to write this and I am going to write our awesome, easy Lettuce Wrap recipe here but the truth is on the boat I just use a Lettuce Wrap Seasoning Packet  which I found in Florida (you buy it just like a gravy packet or taco seasoning packet.)  I don’t know if I have seen them in Canada though.

16 Boston Bib or butter lettuce leaves, rinse whole leaves and pat dry.  Set aside.

1lb. lean ground beef or turkey or chicken (browned & then minced up small) – I like turkey the best

1 T. cooking oil

1 lg. onion, chopped

2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 T soy sauce

1/4 c. hoisin sauce

2 t. minced pickled ginger

1 T. rice wine vinegar

Asian chile pepper sauce (optional)

1 (8oz.) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 t. Asian (dark) sesame oil

Brown the meat over high heat in 1 T. cooking oil, stirring often and reduce heat to medium if necessary.  Drain, set aside to cool.  Cook the onion in the same pan, stirring frequently.  Add garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar, and chile pepper sauce to the onions and stir.  Stir in chopped chestnuts, green onions, sesame oil and cooked meat.  Continue cooking until green onions begin to wilt (about 2 minutes.)

To serve, allow each person to spoon a portion of the meat into the lettuce leaf.  Wrap the lettuce up like a burrito and voila!

I also usually cook a brown rice to go in them  (just to add a little starch) and also bean sprouts and grated carrots make nice additions.

Mmmmm, lettuce wraps!

Have fun!