Raul, looks like you have it figured out. My trip was for my wife as well and after 17 years things are no problem mon!
DAY FIVE (October 10, 2011)- Our Anniversary! :
My eyes are barely open as I ease into awakeness…..but what is that sound…..oh no, not again. Please, I am having flashbacks, and not good ones. One year ago to the day I was awoken by the sound of pouring down rain outside my room….it was my wedding day and when the rain woke me up I knew the sound to be, not the small brief raindrops, but more of the all day heavy downpour type. Please don’t let this be happening again. Sigh. What will everyone tell me this time…..since last year I was repeatedly told how rain on your wedding day is a sign of good luck (blah blah blah)….well what does it mean on your anniversary? The sound is loud too, ugh, this is not fair. So I get up head to the door and open it. Much to my surprise there is no rain at all, in fact the sun is shining so brightly that it nearly blinds me when I open the door….the sound…that sound I thought was rain, it was just the sound of the water and the waves crashing up against the cliff which we were perched directly over. That sound saddened me so greatly on our first morning in Negril, but it then became a sound that soothed me to sleep every night, and a sound that I will never forget and will always miss!
It’s our anniversary today, we are at Catcha, it is beautiful and it is NOT raining! Praise the Lord! And thank you Mother Nature…..you owed me!
We get up and head to breakfast. I ordered the French toast with warm pineapple, sounds delicious…and it was….but I have to say, being one of the biggest Catcha fans around that I claim to be, I still have to say, Xtabi has the world’s best French Toast…I don’t know what they put in it (crack, maybe?) but it is the BEST! Anyways, after breakfast we get our scooters and we head down to the beach to meet up with Chicken. We had asked him yesterday on our way in if he could recommend a good carver to us as we wanted to get a special order wood carving made to celebrate our anniversary. He said he had a good friend who he would recommend and to call him on Monday and we could go meet him. So we hooked up with Chicken who was hanging out by the Grand Pineapple and he took us over to his friend Bobby Ash’s place. Bobby is quite well known for his long standing work in wood carving, he has some amazing pieces and some portfolios of some really great things he has done over the years. We told him what we wanted, we wanted him to carve something that was a symbol of our wedding, and to carve our wedding date in it, and he said, of course….no problem! We gave him our deposit and told him we were in Negril until Sunday and he said he would call us when he was done.
With that we said our goodbyes to Bobby and Chicken and headed over to check out this new Boardwalk Village place. We arrive and the colors of all the buildings are so bright and pretty. We head in to the first shop and then Raul gets a call, he runs out of the shop so quickly and all seriously I know he is up to something but I play naive. So after the call he comes back in the shop and says to me, “Do you want to go over to Margaritaville after this?” Of course that sounds suspicious to me because we just got here why is he already wanting to leave. So I just say, sure…..do you want to go now? And he says, we can. So off we go, we are on the scooters and headed to Margaritaville….but I can tell he is driving with a purpose….what that purpose is though, I don’t know. We get off the scooters and he heads into the restaurant and is walking up to a table and then all of a sudden I recognize the back of the head of the person he is walking towards…..NO WAY…this can’t be real…but it is. He stops and says “Hey Ryan”
RYAN!!!! OMG….it is our wedding photographer, Ryan…or as I call him, Rye…I fell in love with this man last year when he took some of the most gorgeous wedding photos for us ever! Especially for a bride who was married in a place that had just recovered from a tropical storm on a day that had rained all day, and yet he was able to capture some beautiful photos! When we got home last year and had to tell and re-tell our story of our horrible wedding disaster, each and every time anyone saw our photos they would always say “I would have never known with just how beautiful your pictures are” For that I will forever be grateful to Rye! He is my hero, and I am forever a friend and fan of him and his work!
So with that I gave him a big hug and said Rye! What are you doing here? And of course he smirked and said, well, I just HAPPENED to be in Negril. (Ryan is from Kingston) And I said, yeah, I am sure. I look at Raul and he has a similar smirk on his face. These guys! So Raul tells me Rye is here to take pics of us tonight for our anniversary and tomorrow for a beach shoot that we never got to have. I was so excited. So we head back to Catcha and get dolled up and Ryan takes pictures of us all over the property at Catcha….just like he should have / would have last year. Then around 4pm, the moment we were getting married last year, we headed over to Negril Escape, the property where we got married and we said our hellos to everyone there (Amazing staff aka our lifesavers and angels) And we stood in the exact spot where just one year prior we were saying our vows. Ryan snapped some pics at the scene of the crime and then we headed back to Catcha to take more photos and get ready for our special anniversary dinner. As we are walking back up towards the bar I looked in and recognized two familiar faces……yep, ROB AND LISA! They had stopped by to greet us and help us celebrate! Even Tom H had come along, and they all said hello and wished us a Happy Anniversary….this is great! It is almost like a real Re-Do….we have friends, we have a photographer, and we have our new family at Catcha all here to celebrate our special day with us…this is just……Perfect!
Then my husband tells me of his next surprise (Another surprise I say?!?!?!) He got us massages on our porch over the water at sunset. Woo Hoo! So off I go back to our room and I had my relaxing massage in paradise. As soon as that was done it was back to Ivan’s to enjoy our special anniversary dinner. Nicki our waitress had decorated the special table for us so beautifully. We sat and ordered and we toasted with our Mango Bellinis (yum) Everything was perfect….no, better than perfect. After dinner Raul tells me there is one more surprise…wow, really? And with that Nicki brings over a two-tier wedding cake. It seems that Raul and Andrea and Mauvette had been planning this for a while and they placed the order with their wedding cake baker. She remembered the original order from last year so she recreated it to include our theme and our wedding colors…..I was blown away…..and then I had a piece.
OMG, there are no words for how good this rum cake wedding cake was. It was the BEST rum cake I have ever had. If you don’t believe me ask Raul, Rye, Rob, Lisa, Tom H, Kevin and Ty, Nicki, Mr and Mrs. Twister, and I think some other random folks at the bar…because everyone had some and EVERYONE loved it! OMG that is some good rum cake. We have already decided that we will be ordering one every time we go from now on! Hell Yeah! Delicious.
So after dinner we headed to Ivan’s bar, with, as already mentioned above, the rest of our wedding cake and we proceeded to celebrate late into the night with Rob, Lisa, Tom H, Rye, and Kevin and we had the BEST wedding anniversary in the history of all wedding anniversaries.
Thank you Raul….thank you Rye….thank you Andrea and Mauvette and Kevin and Nicki and every single person at Catcha…..thank you Rob and Lisa…and Tom H for coming to celebrate with us…and thank you God, and Mother Nature for giving me a break this time. I now feel I have officially accomplished my dream wedding, in one way or another, and I am thankful and satisfied!
Our anniversary breakfast, yum
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This may just be my very favorite picture of all. Our wedding theme was dragonflies, because they are my favorite and you can see them everywhere throughout my life, my jewelry, my shoes, they are just everywhere. This picture was taken on our anniversary while we were waiting for Bobby Ash to tell him what we wanted him to carve for us. I looked over and it was perched right next to me and then I remembered Raul's good friend telling me last year on our wedding day that he saw a dragonfly and he took it as a sign that everything was going to be ok. When I saw this dragonfly next to me I paused for a moment and wondered if it was the same one from my wedding day last year....it was our wedding dragonfly! I told Raul to take this pic!
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My hero, our photographer Rye! (Ryan)
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From our anniversary photo shoot
All photos taken by Ryan Lue-Clarke (www.ryanlueclarke.com)
These first shots are from Negril Escape when we went over at 4:00pm to celebrate the exact moment we were getting married last year
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And these are from Catcha Falling Star
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Sunset on our Anniversary at Catcha Falling Star
(All photos by Ryan Lue-Clarke)
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Our Anniversary Dinner....our RUM CAKE.....and our celebration with friends! <3 :)
(All photos by Ryan Lue-Clarke)
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Check out Rye's site and his blog about our shoot: http://blog.ryanlueclarke.com/weddin...r-anniversary/
Oh, and so by the way....the answer to the question I posed earlier as to whether Raul was listening.......YES! He was definitely listening :)
To my husband....thank you for planning the anniversary of my dreams :)
I love you <3
Great photos! You guys have captured some amazing shots and moments. Tom Hudson I'm envious. You were in town my first day and are probably still there.....
Thanks for sharing your story, it's a great read.
Beautiful pictures! You guys are so cute together and you both look so incredibly happy in every shot! That's such a beautiful dress and I love the dragonfly necklace. Great capture of the dragon fly perched on that stone edge too! My favorite pic is the two of you making the heart with your hands and smiling into the camera! So sweet! thanks for sharing these pictures, you can just feel the joy and happiness when you look at them. I'm so glad your anniversary was wonderful and that's so cool that Rob & Lisa joined in the celebration. That cake looks delicious!
Loving this trip report, Totally brightened up my day!
I'm looking forward to hearing about your birthday coming up next!:D
Aw so sweet...I'm glad you had a great anniversary.
Congratulations on your anniversary - and so happy you had a great one. Catcha is awesome - can't wait until January!!
Your pictures are great and so glad Mother Nature listened this time :)
Spectacular photos.
Hey Miss Dragonfly, I see you looking at me with your beautiful eyes!!!! (I'm sure you know that one! LOL)
Beautiful trip report and a beautiful couple.....thank you for taking the time....
LOL Reggae Roy, you know it! I have a great story about that song. I will have to tell you one day!
Have fun at your show tonight!!!! Can't wait to hear all about it :)
P.S. Reggae Roy, if you happen to meet Beezy tonight (guitarist) that is who we were going to see in Ochi, tell him Shauna says hi! Have fun :)
You got a deal Shauna!!! We are pretty psyched to be seeing (and meeting) Ziggy tonight. Hope to meet the whole band. I'll send you some photos next week.
The whole band is great, all of them are like family. Angel, Tracey, Mikey, Sky...everyone...you will have a blast. Ziggy is in rare form on this tour, he has been doing two encores, nice to see him in good spirits! You will have a blast, can't wait for photos :)
Picture perfect couple:D-Congrads on the wonderful trip back to Ja.!!:cool:
me = waiting patiently for next update! haha:)
P.S. btw We're all booked with Chicken now. we're looking forward to meeting him!
Shauna & Raul,
Great meeting you. You are a beautiful couple and I wish you a lifetime of joy and love.
I'm sure we'll catch up the next time you're in Negril.
These pics bring back excellent memories.
Cheers!
wow, great photos!
Thanks very much to you both for sharing your wonderful 1st Anniversary with us. I recognized Nikki presenting the anniversary cake to you both - she is such a nice girl. Beautiful people sharing the love!
Thanks everyone.....sorry for the brief hiatus.....had some Halloween partying to do! LOL
Tom H, it was really great meeting you too and hanging out, we had a great time and definitely look forward to seeing you all again!
Clarity! That is awesome, you will love Chicken, he will take good care of you. I sent him a message and he already wrote back that he had all of your information and was ready to meet you all and take you to Negril, so that is wonderful! I am so excited to hear all about your trip.....oooooh and it is soon!
Ok, so stay tuned....Day 6 is coming right up! :)
DAY SIX (October 11, 2011):
So I woke up this morning to the sounds of the waves crashing against the cliffs (NOT RAIN) and a smile on my face. Raul and I have been married a whole year....where does the time go. Well no time to sit and ponder it all really, we must get up and meet Rye for day two of our photo shoot! Fun!
So we get up and Rye comes and picks us up at Catcha and we are off. Our first stop was Margaritaville. We took some pictures on the funky bus and all around the beach and the property. Lots of bright colors and fun pics there. After that we headed to Boardwalk Village, which really is a nice and cute little place, also lots of bright colors. They had a pushcart and we took some pictures there with that. Then we headed up the beach a little and took some pictures. We had wanted to take pictures on the beach the day after our wedding last year but the storm had done lots of damage and the beach wasnt looking so great so that is why we went out to the beach on this shoot. After we took some pictures we headed back up to the cliffs, but first we made a stop at RockHouse. You see Rockhouse was the the place I laid eyes on back in 1999 (first trip) and it was the location I fell in love with. It was then that I had said "One day I will get married there" And Rockhouse was the place I had always told everyone about. We used to hang at the Pickled Parrot and I thought that the RockHouse was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. Well over the years it has gotten pretty big, and popular and now they only do about 10-15 weddings a year and they book fast and they are EXPENSIVE....so I kind of gave up on that dream a while back, but never fear, from the moment I had found Catcha, I had a new love and I was fine with that. But I did always wish I could go there and perhaps take pictures on property for my wedding, especially on the bridge! (I have so many photos of this place over the years lol). Anyways that also didnt work out last year but both Rye and Raul remembered that I wanted to do that so we stopped to see if they would let us.....and they did.....so we had a fun mini photo shoot at Rockhouse! And it was beautiful!
After our photo shoot we headed back to Catcha and we said goodbye to Ryan. He headed back home to Kingston. Thank you for everything Rye, we love you!
Back at Catcha and we had some lunch (omg their food is so delicious....oh and their drinks too lol) and then of course a nice dip in the pool, so refreshing.
After a bit we showered and headed off to 3 Dives to meet up with Rob for the Tuesday sunset webcast.
We rode our scooters down and Rob and also Tom H were already there and set up. We greeted them sat down and turned on the laptop. I have to say, it is soooooooooooooooooooo much better being there in person....duh! lol
We had a nice time and I got to wave and say hi to many of you while on the chat (or Raul did for me lol).
Then not long after Mr Twister and his lovely wife showed up, they had just gotten into town that day. We had a nice visit with everyone, got some more jerk chicken and called it a night!
Fun times!
Tomorrow, Day 7 and the One Love Bus! Yay!
Photo Shoot at Margaritaville
(all but last 2 photos are by Ryan Lue-Clarke)
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Boardwalk Village
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The Beach
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RockHouse Hotel
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RockHouse Hotel (so beautiful here)
(all but last 3 photos are by Ryan Lue-Clarke)
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Back home to Catcha, ahhhhhh the view
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And off to the sunset webcast at 3 Dives
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DAY SEVEN (October 12, 2011):
Up and at em! We get up and head out to breakfast, oh what a gorgeous day! We ate breakfast almost every day at Catcha. Normally we don't eat much where we are staying as we like to get a good mix and also because there are just too many great places to eat in Negril and we want to sample as much as we can. But on this trip I just can't help it because a) I just never want to leave Catcha and b) everything they make is so good and c) its just easy to get up, grab mulitple cups of free blue mountain coffee, order up something, open up the laptop and get on the free wifi and just ahhhhh take in the view and everything. I never want to leave this place!
So this morning I ordered the "Jumbo Johnny Cakes" OMG are these good! You can order any filling you want, I think this morning I just got egg and cheese...mmm good. Took my rum cream to the table and enjoyed several cups of blue mountain deliciousness! We enjoyed such a nice breakfast and such a beautiful view. As we were enjoying this view we got a few visitors from the property next door. Yep, I heard some "ruckus" and looked over to see 3 mischievous and full of life (and of course cute as anything) puppies playing around Libra. I recognized them immediately to be 3 of the (6 I think) puppies that Sugar and Tensing had a couple of months ago, boy have they gotten big quickly. Sugar and Tensing are the two resident Rhodesian Ridgebacks that live at Tensing Pen. They are so cute these puppies. I watched them run, and bark and I went to visit them and got tons of puppy kisses. They stayed for a bit until their owners came to find them and take them back......lol
This morning the group staying at Gemini I and Gemini II were going out with Famous Vincent and they were all chatting about it at breakfast. And with that queue, their ride arrives on time....what service. We wish them a fun day and watch as they board and head off.
So with that, Raul and I decide to do a little snorkeling. We knew we were heading out on the One Love Bus Bar Crawl that day and Rob was going to be picking us up around 2pm so we decided to just stay around home base that day and enjoy Catcha (not hard to do).
So we took our books, ipods, suntan lotion, sunglasses, snorkel gear and towels and headed to one of the little nooks all throughout Catcha to settle in for the day. Ah, found one, yep this will do. So after chilling in our space for a while we geared up and jumped in the ocean for a nice little snorkeling. Beautiful. We swam out a bit and were then looking over at Tensing Pen.....such a beautiful place. We stayed there last year on our honeymoon. Its nice to see the bridge is back. I had wanted to jump from that bridge so bad but when we got there last year it had washed out from the storm and they were still trying to rebuild it when we left. This place really is beautiful. I know we will be back there again some day....but for now, Catcha is my home, my heaven on earth. Gosh I love this place....have I said that already?
So we had a great time in the water and out just relaxing, reading, talking....daydreaming!
Now its time to get ready so we shower up and enjoy a nice little walk around the property. I went to visit Ben and Mauvette at the office for a bit and then Rob met us at the bar for a drink before we head off for the bar crawl. I ordered up a drink that I had many times that week.....Kevin made it for me and all I can remember calling it was "That Mango thing" boy are those good! Then we were off, and heading down to the Corner Bar for the first stop on the bus crawl. It was me, Rob, Tom H and Raul.
We started at the corner bar and there we met the rest of the cast that would join us, well everyone but Lisa, she met up with us a little later. Mr and Mrs Twister joined us and there was about 4 or 5 other folks that joined the bus, though they are not boardies....but perhaps they will be since we did try to sell them on it! LOL Hi to you all, if you are reading! It was a nice group and we had a good time. So after the Corner Bar, we all boarded the bus and we headed up the west end. First stop was Natural Mystic. What a cute little bar, lots of nice wood work and they have lamps / overhead lights made from red stripe bottles, too cute! Next stop was MiYard and Lisa met up with us there. Had a great time. After MiYard we headed to C&D Country Western Bar, cute place, even though I NEVER do country bars and I have told everyone this is the ONLY one I have ever set foot in and WILL EVER! LOL Had a nice dirty banana there! Oh and for the ladies, clean restrooms! lol Then we headed off to No Limit Bar and at this point I think I had to order a water (seriously) hahaha, after that we just walked right across the street to Pee Wee's bar and enjoyed the view, the drinks and the company. I THINK this was the last stop on the bar crawl...honestly I can't remember (that's a good sign, right). But after the bar crawl we got dropped off at Catcha (YAY), I greeted Ben and we headed down the path to Ivan's (of course). We had invited Rob, Lisa and Mr and Mrs Twister back to our place for dinner at Ivan's. So we went down and got us all a table and we had a fabulous dinner! After dinner we all headed over to Eddie's De Bar to enjoy the rest of the evening and some gasoline.....oops I mean rum punch! LOL
What a great day and night we all had. I had the best time today, at Catcha, on the bar crawl, enjoying a lovely dinner with some new friends and then discussing life, and all sorts of other topics with Rob and Lisa late into the night while sipping on some gasoline.....how could life get any better, right?
Tomorrow, Day 8....and my Birthday! :)
Enjoying Breakfast and my new dragonfly sunglasses that my sweet hubby gave me:)
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Mmmmmmm Johnny Cakes and Coffee :)
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Morning Visitors
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"Curb" Service! (Clarity, if you are interested in going out with Vincent, he drives by everyday and usually waves to anyone he sees, so you can just wave him down and tell him when you want to go and he will surely be right on time to pick you up)
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Snorkel Time!
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Tensing Pen from the water
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Catcha from the water
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Ben, the Catcha mascot / guarddog chilling in his usual spot at the office
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My hubby, chilling in his usual spot, the hammock on our porch at Sagi!
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The One Love Bus Bar Crawl
(I have an obsession with funny or unusual signs...this one was at the Corner Bar, made me laugh)
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The bus
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Natural Mystic Bar
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MiYard and Rob and Lisa (cute photo, you two!)
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C&D Country Western Bar
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No Limit Bar
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The One Love Bus
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Pee Wee's Bar
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Views of the Castle from Pee Wee's
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Back home, have to stop and greet Bennie boy :)
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This way to Ivan's :)
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Great report for sure..
When we were in Natural Mystic there was this cute little girl that wantednothing more than to take a picture of you, with you or you take one of her. She woudl take the foto and then immediatley want to see it. She was so cute. This was one of the best days I had in JA since we've been going. I think hanging with Rob and Lisa till the late late was so much fun. The rum punch was awesome (and by awesome I mean good enough for fueling my scooter). Which is why I switched to Red Stripe light (Lisa got me on them). I think with the exception of the first year we went together which was New years time this was the latest we've been out in JA.
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Such Awesome pictures! I can't stop looking at all of them! Rye has great talent! The colors in his photography are so vibrant. I also like the picture at the 3 Dives webcast. I always wondered what it looked like from the other side!
Enjoyed chatting with you at the webcast (or should I say Raul - LOL - Was cracking when I saw you chasing him away from the computer) It was so fun to see and hear you guys having a great time. I can't wait to go to 3 Dives and try their jerk chicken for the first time!
Thanks for the tip on Famous Vincent! I'm going to keep my eye out for him once we reach Catcha. I'm hoping we can go on a snorkeling trip with him this time around.
The one love shuttle crawl sounds like a lot of fun!.... and Those puppies... too cute!!:)
Hey, How was your halloween weekend? Did you and Raul dress up?
Really enjoying your trip report. Love looking at the great pictures. Thought of you when we had dinner at the Sugar Shack (OIB, NC) this summer. The owner's sister was visiting from JA and made oxtail stew (which I had) and my husband had curried goat. Both were delicious.
Yes Clarity! I am so excited for you too! I am glad you hooked up with Chicken, he will take great care of you all, and so will Catcha!
Yes, we love Rye too......he has some really good photos. He mostly does a lot of model shoots and other commercial things around Jamaica, check out his site for more of his work, great guy!
You will have a blast with Vincent and of course on the One Love Bus too! I will tune in to as much as I can to see you guys having fun.
Funny you ask about Halloween.....yes we dressed up.
Halloween just may be Raul's favorite holiday, he loves to go over the top with costumes, makeup, contacts, fangs, what not. But this year I felt since we were getting home mid October from two almost back to back trips and I also just started a new job, I didnt feel like dealing with all the details of costumes so I convinced him to let me choose our outfits this year, and he agreed, recluctantly of course. So this year we went as the Black Eyed Peas
We wore black t-shirts with the letter P on them (made from duct tape) and we put black makeup around our eyes to simulate a black eye.....so......we were the Black-eyed P's
It was the quickest, and cheapest costume I have ever put together, and I LOVED it......>Raul on the other hand was pretty depressed and said I am never allowed to choose our costumes again LOL
GIGI.....yay, so glad you went to Sugar Shack and had a nice dinner.....I am also so excited to hear they are still all there and going strong......have real fond memories of that place! Thanks for sharing about them!
Hi Shauna/Raul,
This is Jamar Lee, I'm a friend of Daisy's... want to first congratulate you guys on your anniversary and trip to Jamaica! I'll be heading over there for the first time in 1 day... so looking forward to it... Great pictures by the way... really want to check out the blue lagoon and somerset falls. Can't wait! Take it easy :-)
LOL!! That's too funny!!!
Don't feel bad, Markus and I have dressed up the same way for halloween every year for 4 years in a row. I have a long brown wig and he has a 70's brown afro wig. We dress up as a hippie girl and a disco guy. Every year we think we're going to be something different but we end up reluctantly resorting to the default costume last minute because we can't pull anything better together. We'll post some pics on FB
Next year.. next year we're going to do it up right.
Only 1 more sleep until Negril, we're so excited!! too excited to sleep! We're up late listening to reggae music and drinking Red stripes. lol
I've so enjoyed your trip report! I keep refreshing your page for another update.. please wake up and post the rest of your TR! haha:D
Hahahahaha, just for you I will finish the report tonight when I get back from work.....so tonight you can read the end, and then start your trip off right after!
So excited for you all......
Also, I think I have convinced the hubby (wasn't hard to do) about the next reach in April, so when you get back I will check with you all to see about your dates so that maybe we can plan to be there around the same time....also going to try to be there around the boardie meetup time if we can swing it! Yay!
DAY EIGHT (October 13, 2011...My Birthday):
So I wake up, again to the sounds of the waves crashing, and I smile....this is the life! And today is my birthday, ahhhhh life is good! My sweet hubby asks me what I want to do on my special day.....and I think a minute....my special day? Every day here feels special, and I feel like I already have everything I want...I am in my favorite place, with my favorite person, and the weather is nice......so I say the only other thing I can think of that I want at this moment......FRENCH TOAST from XTABI!!!!! lol
And so we get up, hop on the scooters and head down the cliffs to get my favorite breakfast. Mmmmmmmmmmm
I swear they put crack in it! So good!
Anyways, after my delicious breakfast we decide to take the scooters down to Green Island to visit Half Moon Beach and Rhodes Hall as we have never been and we really want to check it out. So off we go. We had a really nice ride down the beach road and past Orange Bay, we pass by Rhodes Hall and make our first stop at Half Moon Beach. When we get there it looks as if we are the only ones but when we walk in there is actually another couple and then a mother and daughter but still, it feels like we have the place to ourselves, and the place is beautiful. We stop at the bar and get some drinks, really nice people! We head out to the beach and plop our stuff down on one of the loungers and almost instantly we are in the water, partly because we are ready to snorkel but also because it was HOT, like REALLY HOT this day and I was ready to jump in already, so we did. It is beautful out here, I highly recommend visiting this place. It's like you have your own private beach, really cool! So we stayed for a couple of hours but then I realized I was getting too much sun, funny how by the time you realize that it is usually too late!
But we also were rather hungry and I said, well we can't be in Green Island, hungry, and this close to Biggas without going and getting some chicken....so we did. We left Half Moon Beach and headed into Green Island up to Biggas stand for some mouth watering jerk chickem....and it surely didnt disappoint!
*Clarity ask Chicken to stop here for you guys, he knows Bigga really well and he swears he is the reason everyone knows about him since he stops there all the time, lol
So after that we decide to head back home to Catcha as we had made plans with the Twisters to head to Canoe for the webcast. So we make it back to home base, shower and head back out to canoe.....I took my nice new sunburn with me too! LOL
We get to canoe and the Twisters and Rob are already there so we join in. It was a beautiful night and we had a nice time with the 2 for 1 rum punches and all the thoughtful birthday wishes from everyone, so nice. We ordered some of these world famous french fries we had heard so much about and we talked and chatted.
After the webcast we decided that Mr Twister and I would celebrate our birthdays together, mine being that day (Oct. 13) and his being October 18 (but they would be traveling home that day) so we picked our dinner location to be Pushcart as we were both ready for some Pepper Shrimp after I told him how good and how huge they are there. So off we went, Raul and I on our scooters and The Twisters on theirs. We had a nice ride up the west end and we stopped at Pushcart. The place was packed and the Mento Band was in full gear playing to the crowd. We were seated and I ordered a Pina Colada....I have to say, it was one of the best I have ever had, who knew? We ordered soon after as we already knew what we were there to get. The Twisters and I ordered the pepper shrimp and Raul ordered the Jerk Sausage. We got some rice and peas and plantains as well. The jerk sausage was really good, and I have said this before, I think their rice and peas are my very favorite in all of Negril. The pepper shrimp came out and I would say it was about 1/2 the size it was the last time I ordered it, which I think might have been in either November or December. Lisa had warned me that the size can vary quite a lot depending on season and she was right.....but even though they were much smaller than my last time ordering them, they were still very good. We were not disappointed with our meals at all.
After dinner though we decided to head over next door to the Rockhouse for some dessert. We ordered the cheesecake and a nice frosty drink to go with it.....yum!
It was a great day to say the least.....but spending your birthday (or any day for that matter) in paradise, can never be a bad day, right?
The World Famous (or maybe Shauna famous) French Toast from Xtabi
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Half Moon Beach, Green Island Jamaica
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Welcome to Negril, ok so the sign could use some help sure.....but the message is the same....welcome to paradise. Funny enough I have a picture standing next to this same sign on my very first trip to Jamaica back in January 1999
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Best Billboard ever....love it!
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The man behind the cam :)
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View from Canoe
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Happy Birthday Chatting :)
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Hungry?
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The Mento Band at Pushcart
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Plantains
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Jerk Sausage
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Rice and Peas mmmmmm
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How is this for a birthday cake? Rum Raisin cheesecake....delicious!
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Hey Clarity
Did you ever get that float vest I showed you last year?
ras
DAY NINE (October 14, 2011):
This morning I awoke, once again to the sounds of the waves, but this morning I could tell they were crashing a little louder than normal, and though it made for an amazing sound, it also worried me just a little bit. So I got up out of bed and opened the front door to see the morning sun and the wave action that I could hear. It was definitely much rougher this morning than all the other days. There was quite the impressive wave action, just as the sounds had suggested.
We got up and headed out to the breakfast area to get some coffee (with rum cream of course) and to check up on our emails, and this morning I was especially excited to check emails as Rye had already sent us a few teaser photos from our photo shoot and I was dying to see them!
We ordered our breakfasts and enjoyed the leisurely start to our morning. We were going to snorkel again but the waves were much too strong on the cliffs today so instead we just sat a little longer at breakfast and watched them crash.
I enjoyed a delicious omelette with callaloo and cheese and Raul had the jumbo Johnny cakes, yum.
The waves started to get really big but I had to laugh when I realized that those waves were not enough to keep Famous Vincent away, as he drove by and waved.
We decided to go down to the beach and visit our new friends the Twisters who were staying at Kuyaba. I have never been on the property there but had always wanted to because it looks so nice with all the wood. So we paid them a visit and what a lovely little place it is. After hanging at their place and chatting for a while we decided to head up to Red Dragon for some Jerk Pork...yum. We called Rob and Lisa and they met us out there too. It started to rain and there was a good breeze.....actually it was a little chilly for a bit. It was only a slight drizzle and overcast, not a real rain so we decided to head somewhere for our own makeshift Happy Hour....but first we rode back to Kuyaba to chill at the Twisters again for a bit..
From there we headed over to Legends for their 2 for 1 happy hour and we enjoyed an overcast, but still beautiful, sunset.
We had some drinks and talked about life and shared crazy funny stories until we had all worked up a nice hunger for dinner. With that it wasn't a hard decision to make as Mr Twister and I had already talked earlier about the pumpkin soup and Chicken Lola at LTU.....so that is where we headed and it was......GOOD!
What a great day!
Breakfast with a view
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Red Dragon!
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Kuyaba
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The infamous special tree top table
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Even on an overcast day, it's still beautiful!
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Chicken Lola @ LTU
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