Greg & Tiffany's 1st Jamaica trip... Pure bliss with a side of rice & beans!

Okay... so TFW inspired me! Here is the start of my trip report! It is mine & Gary's first trip, so please excuse all the "OMG it was spectacular" or "Unbelievable" or "Pure bliss" .... I may have to use a thesaurus to come up with some other words. I have to pre-write it in word and then paste it, because if I don't do that I'll be all over the place. I wrote thru Day 2, and I noticed that I kept using the same above phrases. Hence my title! Thiss trip was pure bliss.... no doubt! It certainly made Gary & I realize that we have to spend time together as a couple... away from our kids, and reality. At first, we kept thinking how we could get our kids there, so they could experience what we were experiencing, but then I thought "Nope, Ima keep this place just for us... for now."

I am going to enjoy writing this, just please excuse me if I confuse you or if I'm too wordy. I really don't think words appropriately describe our feelings about our trip to Negril and the people we met.

Day 1…

Our day one started on a Friday. Granted we were only driving to ATL for the night to catch our plane the next day, but that began my time with my husband… and THAT is when my vacation started. The week leading up to our departure was pure misery for me. I was so nervous about leaving my kids, flying on a plane, going to a another country for the first time, and knowing what kind of luck I have that it couldn’t all go exactly right (and yes I was definitely right about that!).

Our drive to ATL was so nice. No kids in the car yelling at each other, no one needing to go to the bathroom, no one wanting to play on my iPhone (so I played with it the whole way up), no one but me and my Gary and Katie’s empty car seat in the back! It was a lovely ride. Apparently, the weekend we left was the hottest on record. ATL is a 3 hr drive for us, and the outside temp in my car never wavered off of 108 degrees! Unbelievable… It has to be cooler in Negril!

I booked a hotel in ATL that sits right next to the airport. This hotel had the cutest patio/restaurant on top so you could sit and watch the planes come and go. I needed to see this, because I wanted to make sure the folks that had my life in their hands knew what they were doing! It was called the Blue Sky Café, and this is where we had our first vacation dinner and a few beers (no Red Stripe, I was sad). Our waitress was such a sweetheart. I told her this was our first trip together in 15 yrs of marriage and she exclaimed that we (the café) needed to do something.... They certainly did. They created our own shot special. Ours, of course, was free, but it was the special for the moment. It was called The 15 Years Grapes of Wrath… no idea where the name came from. I personally think they could’ve done better!

Anyway, after dinner, we went back to our room, climbed into the Comfort Inn cozy bed... blah blah blah :o …. I set my Ziggy Marley alarm on the ole iPhone, and we went to sleep!

It really was a lovely day.

Sitting atop the Blue Sky Cafe
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Niceeeeeeee! When I first read the title I thought, dang someone's jacked our saying LOL

i'm here ready to read - always like newbie reports!
come with it!

Yay! Great start! More please!
Tiffany & Greg?? lol - I really look forward to reading about this transformation that occured in Negril!

P.S. "15 years grapes of wrath" hahaha yeah, they could have done better! But Hey... a free special shot to celebrate the start of your vacation is awesome! :cool:

Loving it already!!

I am soo looking forward to this! Great start...keep it rolling gal.

Great start for sure, looking forward to day 2, day 3..............................

I'll be watching for your next posts.

Peace,
Brynn - Islander

Ivan's Bar has these sayings hammered into the thatch.... this is my favorite because according to a a few folks I should be balled up in a corner some where rocking back & forth with all the hell I went thru as a kid (and I don't dwell, so I'm done with that bit of info)...
but this does say it all, and I am truly a happy person ;)
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Day Deuce....

Okay… on to JA! “Take Me to Jamaica” goes off at 7:00am! It was very easy to get up, because we knew we were going to a happy place! Yee haw! We had a mid-day flight, leaving at 12:10! We had our morning continental breakfast, got dressed, and were ready to get to the airport! I did, however, have a morning tidy of hydrocodone! I was a nervous wreck about flying, and I didn’t want to drink alcohol, so 15mls of hydrocodone works just as good :p

We had no idea about this new international terminal at ATL, and our plane was not leaving from there. So, do we go to the new terminal or not!? I called, the customer service person AT ATL says no… go to domestic… so we did! Guess what! We were supposed to go to the international terminal! Lucky for us, we got a nice guy who checked us in anyway. Now for the 2 hr wait!

Okay, so we board the Airtran, or as I call it, the Wal-Mart of airlines. Nothing fancy, but exactly what you need! Our seats were close to the back, but turned out to be just fine! I have flown ONE time in my life, and it was a pretty long time ago, so I might as well have been a born again flight virgin! This big metal thing taking me into the air… really, how does it stay!!!!!! I’m lucky to have a man who loves me enough to allow me to squeeze the circulation out of his hand, because that is what I did!

So we are flying, flying, and I look out the window, and I see cracks on my window! Holy freaking cow… “Gary why are there cracks on my window?” “Steph that is frost. We are way up in the sky, and it’s cold up here.” Okay… “Stewardess, beer please!” No, I didn’t, but I so wanted to!

At the airport & ready to go! I am so not a fan of self arm-stretching portraits!
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I apparently make this ridiculous face a couple of times during the trip...
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Can't you see where I might mistake these for cracks???
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Deuce to be con't... Landing in JA... ahhhhh what a feeling :cool:

GREG!!!! lol

I always fly out of Atlanta...about an hour from my house. I need to check out the blue sky cafe....looks like a nice place to chill.

This is going to be a GREAT trip report(grin)

Can't wait til you get to JA!!! Great start Steph :)

Hard to believe this was ya'lls first trip just the two of you....in 15 YEARS!!! That's most def a cause for celebration

Wow my pictures are huge... Sorry! I have no idea how to resize!

Sorry Day 2 is so short. Much more happened, and I'll get to it soon. It was getting late last night, plus I had a sick kid... who miraculously is fine this morning.

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone! It is fun to share my experience.

No worries we like big pics!

Mine are all large also!

I am already loving your report. I like your self portraits. :)

I like the big pics.....and you two are so cute! I love the smiles :)

i agree, that's a really great shot of the two of you. So glad you decided to add this wonderful collection of trip reports.

Yep… day 2 is gonna be a long one!

So, Jamaica comes into view! It was beautiful! My adrenaline is so thru the roof it was killing me to sit on that plane! Once we landed and started getting off the plane I so loved hearing those folks say “Welcome to Jamaica”. What also made me happy was to hear the guy looking at our customs card say, “Oh Catcha… nice place! Good choice.” We seriously get thru customs, get our luggage and are heading out the door within 15 minutes! It was spectacular!

Now, on to my first real view of JA! OMG… everything I had anticipated had gone out the window! The smell, the sights, and the photos I was so going to take… everything! All I wanted was to see Rocky! I had Gary following closely behind telling everyone we were okay, while he is asking me where do we go!? I said “Right, we go right” That’s all I know! And right it was! There was Rocky…. a very handsome dark man with a red polo shirt and the biggest smile ever! I was so happy, I can’t even explain! I ran up and hugged him over that lovely makeshift fence as if I had known him forever, or he was my daddy! Whatever! He let me hug him hard, and he says “Hi Steph!” Steph… he said Steph, because he knows me!

Rocky & Gary carried our bags to the curb and Rocky told us to wait there and he would go get the bus! While waiting we had a lovely conversation with a Jamaican man, who honestly I was just wondering what he wanted out of us. I know that's bad, but I was skeptical at first... give me a break, it is my first time out of this mess of country I live in! Rocky pulled up in this big bus, and all I could wonder is... "Is this big ole thing just for us, or are we going somewhere else?" Yep, it was just Rocky, Gary, and me on that bus! Man can he drive!

Our ride to Negril was just overwhelming. Rocky, Gary, and I just chatted! As we were riding, I noticed the cooler up front. I jumped up there and grabbed our Red Stripes as if it were my cooler. Rocky was laughing at me for doing that, but he gladly opened those Red Strips for us, and they were sooooo good!! I didn’t even request to stop anywhere. I just wanted to get to Catcha and then to Sea Star! We were on a mission! I took very little pics because, seriously, I was just in awe and completely overwhelmed. I will admit that I was a little saddened by what I saw the people of Jamaica living in. It kinda made me feel guilty that I was coming to enjoy their country in a beautiful lavish place, and they had to go home to what they had to go home to. Just kinda broke my heart! I think another Red Stripe is in order!

So we get to Catcha… the guard (not Mr. Lewis) opens the big green doors and OMG more emotions that I can’t handle! The place is beyond expectations! Marley had taken wonderful pictures for me, and Clarity had posted a video…. but when you see it in person, it’s just too damn much! I’m in awe, and all Gary can think about is how bad he had to pee! Apparently SOOOO bad, so he ran up to the room with Jason, and ruined my whole plan of walking the grounds together right when we got there! Oh well… the first of many plans that went opposite! It was all good though! Mauvette walked me up to Venus and showed me around, and all I could do was hug her. Pure bliss! :o

We drop everything off… check out the room, and head to Ivan’s! I had to have a Dirty Banana! So yep, here is where Ty comes in! What a spectacular person! So full of fun! Can I seriously take this for a week! The Dirty Banana was so good and so strong! We sat at Ivan’s at Catcha Falling Star in Jamaica with Ty serving us our first Dirty Banana! It was all just wonderful!

My one and only pic of outside the airport, too excited for anything else!
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Our first Red Stripes in Jamaica!!!
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Our first pic of the view outside our room! I think I took this picture every day... it was just beautiful!
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One more... everything is a first, so I guess I should stop saying that! But here is our first Dirty Banana ;)
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Nice.

Now comes the storm… yep, the storm that knocked out the power! We had been up since 7am… flew to another country…. rode on the wrong side of the road in a bus on a two lane road for two hours… sweated in not the nicest places… drank some Red Stripes and a Dirty Banana, and now I can’t fix myself before heading to Sea Star! Oh well… who gives a damn! Not me!!!! ;)

Gary and I exit Catcha and head down Sea Star lane. Honestly, we were a little concerned. We just don’t see roads like that here in SC. Or better yet, we certainly wouldn’t walk down them! I assured him we would be fine, but I can tell you we walked a little faster than normal! We got to Sea Star. The place was just awesome. The first person I see is GerryG. I called his name, and I know he was thinking “who the hell is this!?” I told him who I was, and whether he knew me or not, I don’t know, but he hugged me like he did. My first boardie contact! Hehehe…

We are seated up front. Gary orders a bucket of beer, and I see two others I recognize, or so I think. Poor Gary, he never got on the board, so all I could do was try to tell him. I just left him sitting there…. ran up to this woman and said “Are you Ma***e?” Bless her, she looked at me quizzically and said “Yes.” I said “I’m Steph!” Another boardie “I’ve known you my whole life” hug! Bliss… pure bliss!

I met some amazing people on this trip, and I’ll just say that even though it was my first night I didn’t think that my trip could get any better. I was so happy to have finally met M & G Montreal! A little note about how awesome the ‘M’ part of this duo is….A few weeks before during a webcast she had offered to let us ride with her from the airport because they were going to be in MoBay picking up their daughter, and had also offered to meet us up the street at Catcha for our first walk down Sea Star lane. I declined the ride because her daughter was arriving about 2 hours after us, and I just wanted to get to Negril. She offered without even knowing me personally…. just the kind of person she is! The kind of person most everyone seems to be on this board, or my new Facebook :p

M & G and us are chatting and she points over to two folks with a camera and a couple of computers… Did it hit me who they were? Hell no! She says “That’s Rob and Lisa over there.” Really, we just saw them at Catcha. My Gary says… “I thought that was him!” I gave him my best WTF look because he never mentioned it to me, and I asked him how he knew. I had apparently shown him ONE picture of Rob a while back and he recognized him from that picture! I’m not good with that kind of stuff, so I literally had no idea! We were sitting across from them at Ivan’s… who knew… not me! Duh! So I run to Lisa, give her a little hug, and tell her who I am! When she realizes WHO I AM she said she needed a bigger hug! Another great boardie hug!

As the night went on, Gary and I were realized that we were definitely in our comfort zone. M & G made sure of that…. These guys truly made our first night in Negril unbelievably memorable!

I had many favorite moments, but one that I adored was when I was dancing on the floor in my most finest of Reggae rhythms! I go to sit down, and one of the Sea Star waitresses grabbed me and said “One more dance. You’ve got moves!” hehehehe… Okay… You don’t have to twist my arm. Flattery will get you everywhere.

So the night was grand. The food spectacular… my first taste of Rice and Beans…. OMG I love Rice and Beans! The drummers, Stephen, his sister singing (I can’t remember her name), the old guy that danced the ENTIRE time while toking on his ganga, the laughing, the girl in her yellow dress who had a coming to Jesus when the drummers started, and meeting people I can’t remember…. Just everything! Pure bliss… yep it was! M & G told me I had caught it quick… Jamaica Fever! I did too, and I can’t wait to return!


My first boardie contact... GerryG
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Our dinner at Sea Star... It was a spectacular time!
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The dancer in what I thought was a beautiful pose.
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I have some wonderful pictures, and it is so hard to choose what to put up here.

happy to hear you arrived safe and sound!! Enjoy your vacation and take in every moment!! Jamaica is a very special place, their is no place like it anywhere else in the world.

Peace,
Brynn - Islander

conclusion... YES CONCLUSION! Day 2

Gary & I leave Sea Star, and realize it is now night time, and we’ve got to walk down this street alone. I had to admit that I was a little afraid, but bear with me, it was our first time. Gary cracks me up when he talks about this because he says he bent down to tie his shoe, and looked up, and I was half way down the street. He says he didn’t know I could move that fast! :D

We get back to Catcha… go over to the cliff by Sagi and hang our feet over the cliff. Looking into the grand Caribbean Ocean at night for the first time was unbelievable! The moon was close to being full, and the night just unreal! We reminisced about the spectacular moments we just experienced, and contemplated the moments we were going to have!

Our first day in Jamaica was made complete by the greatest people… Rocky for getting us to Catcha, talking to GerryG, meeting Rob & Lisa, and spending my night with M & G Montreal and their daughter. We did hang out with the best kid at Sea Star, we think his name is Shakey, but I believe Chris & Francine take care of him. I loved dancing with him.

Gary and I sat for a while. When we went back up to Venus, we enjoyed the view even more from our terrace. Finally, the bed was just calling us way too loud to ignore any more! It was time for some great sleep... our first sleep in Jamaica.... together... alone! :)

My heart was so full of smiles!

The mighty Caribbean at night! Just infinite awesomeness!
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One more pic that I adore... My first turtle sighting! Yes, I thought about the April crew my entire time in JA. I guess this board brings people together whether they ever get to meet in person or not! I do, however, have a love of sea turtles... in fact I wear one around my neck that I got for my birthday... April 27 (day of the boardie bash... ironic, I think not!) These were the first of many that I saw ;)
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Day 3... in a few... I gotta work a couple of night shifts first... uugghhhh!

Great stuff. Of course I knew it was you! I keep a wall chart in my bedroom of when each boardie is scheduled to arrive, ha ha JK .... Love your enthusiasm .... My best memory of meeting you is you were VERY HAPPY to be in Jamaica.

This makes me smile BIG!!!!!
I love it
And Shakey is an amazing little guy! Sandie really took him in on our last trip in April and we danced with him on the dance floor during Luciano.....he has a smile that can light up the whole world I feel.
I think it's great what Chris and Francine do! And they do a lot!


Loving this report.
I love all reports, but there is just SOMETHING about a newbie's report that always makes my smile just a tad bit bigger!
Love it :)

This Trip report is awesome! I love it!
That is the cutest pic of you and Gerryg123! You've truly got the greatest smile! You just light up every single picture, it's contagious.. I have to smile too!!
It sounds like you had the best day!
There is nothing that compares to sitting on the edge of a cliff at Catcha Falling Star at night, the waves crashing against the rocks and the stars overhead. Your description captured that bliss.
More please! :)

This is so great. I love your energy Steph! I can't tell you how much I'm relating to your feelings when arriving in Jamaica....the drive to Negril....then arriving at CATCHA, Omgoodness!!! (that didn't happen for me until my 2nd trip). The Cathcha peeps :) Seastar :) Boardies :) Those are a few of the factors that set my 2nd apart from my 1st and you GF are doing it RIGHT the first go round!!

Ditto Marley....I'm smiling ear to ear reading this!

The smiles really say it all Steph but I'm glad you said more. Great first day!

I completely forgot about how strong that dirty banana was!

This is so much fun to read. Did you ask GerryG if he wanted to be in your trip report? Just kidding ;)

Nice work so far! Your enthusiasm comes across so well and it's good to see you had such a great first trip. I'm currently flying home having woke up from Catcha this morning.
please continue.........

Loving this! I can relate well to the trip alone with the hubby. Our first trip to Negril was dubbed the "investment in our marriage".

Anyways, you guys look like you had a ball. And you look like our kind of peeps. A bucket of beer!? YES!

Carry on...

Loving yalls trip report!! I cant wait to be at Catcha in August. We stayed in Venus two years ago...wonderful view!

I really got a laugh about yalls first walk down seastar lane....we felt the same way...awesome trip report!! That dirty banana looked delicious. Im looking forward to having a few.

I love hearing about first trips, the first taste of Jamaica is so mind-blowing. It brings back memories of the first of many trips for me.

Again, thank you all for the sweet comments. This has been kinda difficult trying to remember what happened. I may pull a GerryG next time and take notes.


Our 2nd day in Jamaica/Our 3rd Vacation Day :cool:

Today was Sunday… and our first full day in Jamaica! We had plans to hang around Catcha, walk over to Wise Choice, and in the evening we were meeting RastaDave & his precious wife for dinner and drinks.

We woke up about 8:30 in our cool bedroom…. not cool as in ehhhhh, but cool as in burrrrrr. I rolled out of bed super excited and went straight to our bedroom window. Even though I was looking through some bathroom construction at Banana Shout, the view was beautiful. I could see the spectacular blue Caribbean thru my window. Oh my goodness, are we really here! HELL YEAH WE ARE!!!!

Gary & I decided to go down and have our first Jamaica breakfast and cup of coffee. We walked out of the bedroom and got hit with some major heat! UGGHHH! July in Jamaica!!!

I wanted to go out on the terrace, so I went over to the doors to go out. Geez, are you kidding me :rolleyes:…Gary had dead bolted us in, top, bottom, & sideways as if Venom (the evil spiderman) was going to break in…. I was completely irked! Once we got all the locks undone, we walked out to our terrace and the view…. OMG even more beautiful today! I believe I took a picture of this everyday!!!!

After taking in our view, we got dressed and headed down to Ivan’s. Adria, sweet as can be and absolutely beautiful pregnant, was a morning waitress most of the week. I just fell in love with her, as I did most everyone at Catcha…but some were definitely more special than others. Her voice sounded tired, like every pregnant woman is, but her smile was delightful. I introduced us, and then of course had to ask if she knew Marley and Ninja. I kept forgetting that those names aren’t the real ones, but she sure did remember them…. I, like a good little boardie, told her hello for them. She smiled so appreciatively.

So what to get…. My nerve wasn’t up for the ackee & saltfish, so I got the french toast with hot banana syrup. Gary got the BLT with home fries! What a treat! OMG this stuff was so freaking good. That hot syrup on my beautifully cooked french toast… my mouth is watering right now! Holy crap, this isn’t even right! I should still be there….. Anywho.... Gary really enjoyed his BLT because he ordered the same thing every day! :p

Gary & I sat at the small round high top looking out over the pool and the caribbean, enjoying our coffee, OJ & breakfast astounded at what we were living. Finally alone, no bills to pay, no work to go to, no grass to cut, no toilet to clean, no dishes to do, no kids to worry about (we love them though)… I think you get my point. FINALLY IT WAS JUST ME & GARY!!!!

My 1st Jamaican morning.... Breathtaking!
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We sat here every morning except Thursday! Most peaceful place on earth IMO!
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Mmmmm gooood! OMG so good!
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Gary & his future happy plate.
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OMG these pictures are huge!!!!!

Continuing the day shortly... :)

This report is making me smile!!! :)

Thanks you,

VVHT

Okay, so short story about the people enjoying Catcha at the same time we were. It was 4 couples. Three couples who were about our age, and one older couple. This older guy had to be the most obnoxious azzhole I’ve ever come across… he totally thought he was funny, and he totally wasn’t! I wanted to slap him on more than one occasion!

Our first viewing of them was at 9:30 in the morning puffing away on their ganga like noone’s business. And we certainly didn’t care, but this is all they did, all day long, every freaking day! They also kept a High Times magazine out by their chair. Really… can you say cliché! Ugghhh! My point being…. If you gotta smoke that stuff ALL DAY LONG, it can’t be that good! Step outside of the green gates, and get you some good stuff! BUT please step outside of the green gates!!!! These people claimed their outside “real estate” (as they called it) and kept their towels in their chairs all damn week! They left their cigarettes on the ground and their beer bottles lying around. It was disgusting and rude, and it seriously made me feel bad for the folks who had to clean it up daily! It actually embarrassed me, because they were American and so was I. I hated having that kind of representation in this beautiful place! Also, sad thing is they were Southerners, and we know better!!!!! IRKERS!!!!

So, I’m done with that rant…. :confused:

After breakfast, Gary and I ran across the street to Wise Choice. Marley had told me this place would have everything we could possibly need. She was so right! I love these types of stores. We used to have stores like that around here. Thanks WalMart… you have successfully destroyed the corner store! We got our beer, and our water, and some chips, a Ting, and a phone card. Thankfully, the sweet lady at the register fixed my phone up for me. I simply asked how to do it, and she gladly just did it for me. Another plus for JA! Customer service with a real smile! Paying for our stuff was kinda funny, we still had no JA dollars, so we were paying in American. She showed us how she got our amount, and we were like Dumb & Dumber… “Okay” is all we could say. It was kinda comical at the time.

We go back over to Catcha, and enter thru the green gates. I felt so special every time I went thru those green gates.Maybe I’ll put some green gates at my driveway (grin). We packed our cooler and headed south to the pool and the Caribbean from the cliffs. We parked our asses in some chairs…. drank some Red Stripes…. and enjoyed our day!

So afternoon came and it was time for us to get dressed to head to Canoe. I got in touch with RastaDave and he offered to come get us on their way to Canoe. Totally cool. I can’t believe how trusting we all are in Negril, because I promise I wouldn’t ride with anyone in America that I haven’t met face to face. I had spoken to RastaDave on the phone before so I knew his yankee voice ;). Gary & I were sitting at the gate waiting on RastaD to show up. We hear a car pull up outside those lovely green gates and Mr. Lewis opens the door only enough so that he can check to see who it is. And there it was… the undeniable yankee accent. I hugged him, totally excited to meet him in person. Gary & I hopped in the back of the cab, we met his sweet wife Lynette, and we were off.


Just a fantastic picture! Sorry my computer is such a piece of crap that I don't have enough space to get some good editing software.
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My best friend... I adore this picture
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Next stop, our time at Canoe.... w/lots of super large pictures! :)