Is sand gravity a choice? Trip report 2014

[freebirdny]

Well, we didn't want to come home but didn't have a choice. The hotel wouldn't let us stay for free, the restaurants wouldn't let us eat for free and the airline wouldn't give us an open ended free ticket home. Sigh...oh well. We had a truly wonderful week in Negril. Stayed at Idle Awhile, our fourth time, and loved it as always. I don't have to tell you all what the beach is like there but I will say it anyway - incredible, beautiful, peaceful, relaxing, healing, wondrous. Anyway....we spent a whole lot of time doing nothing. On our second day my husband said "I think I'm just going to let the sand gravity take over today." As if that's a choice!!!! We traveled from Sunday to Sunday this year for the first time. The travel was fairly uneventful. Our flight in was on time, plane was full but we were the only ones going through customs and immigration so very quick. The flight home was delayed. The plane was fully loaded and captain had just announced that we were actually going to be able to leave a little early so everyone fasten seat belts, etc., which we did but then we sat there and sat there and no take off. You could see people gathered at the front of the plane. Uh oh, that's never a good sign. Captain then announces that they can't get the door to the plane locked (ooops) but not to worry there is a manual override so we shouldn't be delayed much more than twenty minutes or so. Okay, these things happen. Fortunately the air conditioning was left on. About half hour later captain comes back on and informs us that they still can't get it locked and are calling for maintenance crew, but there are two other planes with problems ahead of us (????, two other broken planes?) so we may have a bit of a wait and may have to evacuate the plane. Shoot!! About another twenty minutes go by and the announcement comes on that the maintenance crew is there but they have to wait for the paperwork to get there from the terminal. Oh no, waiting for paperwork in Jamaica, this is not going to be good. Several more minutes go by of watching people at the front of the plane. There is a man seated a few rows behind me that has been loudly complaining the entire time. Now in my opinion this only makes the wait more difficult and also does absolutely no good whatsoever. After awhile he gets himself pretty geared up and gets out of his seat and marches up to the front of the plane. There you can see him waving his arms and being very animated with the co-pilot (he thought it was the pilot but it wasn't). After a bit he comes storming back down the aisle and announces to those of us in the back third of the plane that he has spoken to the pilot and that they can't fix the problem and they're going to evacuate us all. Lots of conversing over this statement and people actually start to pack up their belongings in preparation for being evacuated from the plane. The two women seated next to me and my husband all looked at each other and just sat back. We'll wait for the official word if you don't mind. Not five minutes later the captain announces that the door is closed and locked and we may be able to make up some time in the air so we probably won't arrive more than an hour late. Guess that guy felt a bit foolish! And that's exactly how late we arrived, one hour. Not too bad at all. Rather arrive home an hour late than arrive in Negril an hour late.
At Sangster Airport our driver was there to meet us and off to Negril we went, catching up with him during the ride on what had been going on since last year. As I mentioned this was our fourth time at Idle Awhile. We love this property. The staff recognized us and we them and it felt like visiting old friends! This trip was particularly lovely because there was such a great group of people staying there for the week. I love how a feeling of community springs up at Idle Awhile because of the wonderful staff and because it is such a small and intimate resort. There were several families staying there this year and we so enjoyed watching their interactions all week and getting to know them. There is a couple who stays here every July for two weeks and we recognized them from last year and became reacquainted with them. Every day it was like meeting up with friends as we all talked about various places we had been to and things we had done. Where we had dinner the night before and what our plans for the day were and just hanging out with them on the beach where conversations would swirl around and carry out into the water. If someone wanted to buy something from a vendor then that vendor would often become part of the conversation as well. We were never hassled or bothered by any of the vendors (although we have been on past trips) and of course recognized many of them from past trips. The fruit lady of course was a daily visitor and I will post some pics of her later. We bought patties on the beach from the pattie man (whose name I can't remember) and pastries from Anthony who we had bought pastries from last year. My husband had two massages from Sandra who operates next door at Charela and we bought some jewelry from Jimmy and his beautiful daughter on his weekly visit to Idle Awhile where he sets up a table for the day. Jimmy is a wonderful jeweler and has some unique pieces and what I really get a kick out of is that Jimmy color coordinates his table set up so that all his blue jewelry is together, all his green, etc. He is meticulous about this!
The people who care for the beach at Idle Awhile take great pride in the cleanliness of their beach, the beauty of it and in assuring that everyone has the chair set up they want. Eric is there so early every morning and works all day setting up chairs, raking the beach, cleaning up the plants and always with a smile. He and my husband had many conversations during the week. Aaron is the lifeguard and also helps out setting up the chairs and distributing towels. A few extra dollars assured that we had beach chairs right under the tree every morning and believe me nobody else was going to sit in those chairs, Eric and Aaron both kept an eagle eye on them. But if we weren't going to be around, we let them know.

[freebirdny]

View from our beach chairs.



Obligatory foot on the beach chair picture!



The beach through the tree as I looked at it every day!
A story about those beach chairs, though. On our second day there we were having breakfast and if you aren't familiar with Idle Awhile's set up, their restaurant is right on the beach and is basically a covered bar next to a wooden floor where all the tables are set up with a fabric sail roof. In other words it is all open and right on the beach. Our chairs were set up with a table between them and folded towels laid out on the back of the chair. To the front and a little to the right of our chairs were two more chairs set up exactly the same way under a small palm tree. There was a very nice woman who was staying there with her daughter and I see her walking by the restaurant to the beach where she heads right for our chairs. Now honestly, I'm not that fussy about where our chairs are because if you aren't set up under a tree they will set up lovely umbrellas to sit under and it's all on the same beautiful beach so what's the big deal. HOWEVER, if Eric is going to set up our chairs under the big tree every morning and save them for us, I'll take it. But I see this woman head to the chairs Eric has set up for us and then I see Eric come over and tell her that they are set up for someone else and he leads her to the other two chairs under the palm tree. So she sets up there but after a few minutes she gets up and walks back to our chairs and is sort of looking them over, then walks back to her chairs and then back to our chairs, etc. so I kind of get the idea that she really wants to sit on those chairs, she likes that set up better than the one she has. We are leaving right after lunch that day for an excursion so I point out what is happening to my husband and suggest that since we're only going to be there a few hours maybe we can let her have those chairs. No big deal. He immediately agrees and after finishing breakfast we head to the chairs and he walks up to the woman (we never did get her name) and suggests that it's fine with us if she wants those chairs. She immediately agrees, jumps up, collects her stuff and heads over to our chairs and settles in. Now we didn't want to hurt Eric's feelings either as he had gone to so much trouble to protect that spot for us so we explained to Eric that as we were leaving early we were switching, no problem. So we settle in for the morning enjoying our lovely spot. Later on while we're in the water I notice this woman pacing the beach again going from her new spot to her old spot and back again and something in her posture just told me that there was something up again, she was unhappy. Sure enough my husband goes back up to the chairs while I stay in the water and after a few minutes I see her walk over to my husband and say something and then walk back to her chair. Then up she is again and walks over to him again and says something and they have a short conversation and she goes back to her chair and sits down. When I came back to the chairs I said to my husband "That woman is still not happy is she?" and he tells me that she came over and commented on how hot it was and that there was no breeze where she was sitting and then came over a little while later and said again that it was so hot and no breeze and did we have a breeze where we were sitting. It became obvious to my husband that she felt we had somehow pulled a fast one on her and stolen the better spot! People are so funny! My husband offered to switch back again if she wanted, happy to do it, but no she didn't want that. We left soon after that so don't know what happened for the rest of that day but the next day when she came out she headed right to the two chairs under the palm tree and never gave a second glance to our spot. No good deed goes unpunished!
Hope you have enjoyed my report so far, more later on and more pics as well! Thanks to all the people on Negril.com who share their trip reports and pictures!

[justchuck]

Great report and we'll be happy for more!

[MoFromMonroe]

Nice start. I am guessing you were on the Caribbean Air flight that leaves JFK at 6AM in the morning. We love that flight. And we sail through customs and immigration.

[billndonna]

Great report please keep it coming!

[freebirdny]

Nice start. I am guessing you were on the Caribbean Air flight that leaves JFK at 6AM in the morning. We love that flight. And we sail through customs and immigration.

While we have taken that flight I believe, a few trips back, this trip it was the 9:05 a.m. flight out of Newark that got us in at 12:05 Jamaican time. For some reason this was the best flight we could find for the dates we wanted. The 6 a.m. flight is great, gets you there super early which is awesome but it was out for us this trip. I actually seem to remember now that just as we were finishing immigration a lot more people were starting to come in and the lines were getting longer. We were just lucky I guess!

[freebirdny]

Glad you are enjoying, thanks for the comments!
Of the many memories and experiences from this trip I will start with my first night stupidity. First of all, I am afraid of flying and although I'm working on it and it is getting better we have found that the trip is so much more pleasant for both of us if my doctor prescribes me some Xanax for the flights. I take one an hour before flight time and then another just before getting on the plane. Tremendous help! I don't consider that part of the foolishness, that followed later, since I only fly two to three times a year that's only eight to twelve xanax a year. I think I'll be okay with that. The foolishness was that I forgot that Xanax isn't just a nice way for me to fight my fear of flying, it's a frigging narcotic for God's sake! So, I had a Bloody Mary on the flight. Okay, okay, it's the beginning of my vacation. Then of course I had to have an ice cold Red Stripe handed to me by our driver the minute he saw us. That wasn't so awful, was it? Then the hotel gives out free Rum Punch when you first arrive, it would be rude to turn that down, right? Well, you see where this is going don't you? I definitely overdid it, definitely considering that I still had Xanax in my system. And when I indulged in one other treat offered up by Jamaica I went right over the edge! I quickly become nauseous, dizzy, paranoid (I kept telling my husband not to let me fall asleep because I was afraid I was dying, that's pretty paranoid), overheated and barely able to walk. Now you guys don't know me so you'll just have to take my word for it that this is not how I usually spend a Sunday evening!!!! Well, thank God for a sympathetic and cool headed husband who put me in the shower, gave me glass after glass of ice water and tucked me in bed reassuring me that with a little sleep I would be okay and held my hand until I was asleep. That was about 6:00 p.m. At 8:30 or so he woke me up to see if I was hungry, which I was and feeling better. He had saved me half his dinner (poor guy had to eat alone his first night of vacation!) which was a pasta dish from the Idle Awhile restaurant and some garlic bread. I remember looking at it and thinking I am too sick to eat this but as soon as I took my first bite I was so relieved that he had already eaten so that I could finish it off. It was really good and the carbs were exactly what I needed. As soon as I finished dinner, I was back in bed and slept straight through until 7:00 a.m. feeling so embarrassed and apologetic. I missed my first night in Negril!!! What an idiot and it could have been worse! You can bet I won't repeat that mistake.
My original intention was to write a trip report on site, sitting down and reporting a little each day. Forget it though. I don't know how people do it. I simply couldn't focus my thoughts or muster enough energy to actually do it. But on either Monday or Tuesday morning I was on Negril.com with just that intention in mind when I read that there had been a fire at Country Country. We stayed at Country Country in 2008 with my brother and sister-in-law and liked it very much and had also eaten many meals at their restaurant. And the odd thing is nobody was talking about it on the beach, not even the staff, so I didn't quite believe it. But we decided to take a walk down the beach and have lunch somewhere and check it out. Sure enough the restaurant had burned to the ground! I know it's already been covered on this site but below is another pic.

I have no idea how it happened but it was such a cute little restaurant I was very sorry to hear about it and shocked that we didn't hear any commotion during the night while it was going on.

[MoFromMonroe]

Now that was an interesting first night. Haha I had one of those a few visits ago only I was just staggering drunk. No sleep for almost 24 hrs. Went in the sea late at night which I would never do sober. Then went in the pool and stumbled and scraped my knee getting out. Felt great the next morning though.

[Shaggy]

great trip report ty

[NoWorries4 me]

Loving your trip report but you're making me awfully lonely for Idle Awhile as it's the only place we stay also. We also run into the same people and it's like a homecoming. Also loving your detail.... I can just picture Eric chasing people out of your spot (which btw we'll have to fight you for if we're ever there at the same time! LOL). Keep the story going, we won't be back until November and it seems like forever!