Vacation Day #1
Sunday, Super-Bowl Sunday,
My day started bright and early and after the early to bed on Travel Day, I awake at 615am ready for my first beach walk of the trip. Out of Rondel, dip toe in water, which seemed to have gotten slightly rougher overnight (but actually it was calm compared to what was coming), turn right and head up the beach. I walk barefoot, so no worries about having to time the waves crashing up on Lazy Dayz. I quickly get into a pretty smooth gait, find a flat spot which isn’t real soft to walk in and step by step the hotels and bars go by. Pretty soon I reach the tree at Barry’s Bar and start the long walk past CSA and Beaches. It’s pretty early and as a result the only Jamaicans on the beach are the beach attendants, raking and cleaning up. Not much hassle yet, that will be on the way back, but fortunately enough of those guys recognize me as a long-timer and non-smoker, so the hassle to me is probably less than some less frequent travelers.
When I reach the part of the beach where you can’t walk on the beach I have to cut through the trail behind the beach and then rejoin the beach just as I reach Dr. Love’s place. I go way back with the Doctor and I stopped to talk. Evidently he had some trouble recently with the police coming in and mashing up his place. I assume he’s squatting and I also assume this has something to do with the “New Sherriff in Town” mentality of the new Chief in Sav, but technically, Dr. Love’s place is in Hanover Parish and not Westmoreland, but who really knows how all of this work. He says he’s working to get things back together, I tell him that I am rooting for him and that I will see him later in the trip and off I go.
Past the house that never seems to have any tenants in it and pretty soon I am up by Sensatori and the construction project going on there. The smell of exhaust from those machines is not nearly as sweet as the smell of exhaust when you first leave the airport. It appears like they are doing some huge work there. I won’t express any opinion on any of that, but it’s not my favorite thing, but also realize that the world does not stand still these days. Through Boardwalk and I reach the end of the walk for me; Sandals Negril. 3 miles from Rondel. I turn around and head back.
Get back to the room just as Melo is finishing up her preparations for the day, pour a rum and ting to drink in the shower (if you’ve never had a cold alcoholic beverage in the shower, try it, you’ll love it). Once I get ready, we head across the street to Montana’s for Breakfast. We sit down, no menus, and we immediately order a bottle of water, a Ting and two Bacon, Egg and Cheese breakfast sandwiches. I’m not a huge breakfast eater, so that sandwich is just perfect. Pay for breakfast and then back to Rondel for the first day on the beach.
We pretty much lay around the beach and play in the surf the rest of the day until it is time to claim our seats at the bar at Rondel for Super-Bowl. About 4pm we head up to the bar. Sit down, have a few drinks, enjoy the appetizers they pass during happy hour from 5-6pm. The sunset from the beach was pretty nice that night, so I took several pictures and have posted a couple below. The game was OK, watching it at the bar at Rondel was really fun, there was enough of a mix of folks that were really in to it and also enough of folks that had no clue and were just there for the event.
Miracle of all Miracles I stayed awake all the way until the end of the game. It was after 10pm, a late night for me in Jamaica. Question is, will I be able to get up early and walk the beach again in the morning??
Rondel, from the sea. We sent this pic to Karl Ricketts and he did a great painting of it for us, I will share that picture near the end of the trip
First Sunset Pic
Second Sunset Pic, Sun Finished
Originally Posted by Monty&Melo
