Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston

[mwenvlay]

i figured an actual trip report would be nice after i spent weeks spamming this forum with my endless "trip inspiration" thread!

after 12 hours(!!!) of travel from nyc, we got to strawberry hill at around 4pm yesterday. internet is completely down, which sucks, because i have about 4 hours of work to do each day, the rest of this week (yay, i can earn money while on vacation). after waking up at 3am, i sucked it up and turned on my hotspot, churned out 2 hours of work and figured i'd start my trip report thread.

i'm traveling with my husband and our 12 year old son, ti boss.

we did jfk>mia>kingston. no big issues, really.



we did the admirals club, because i had to put in 2 hours of work during our miami layover, and figured we may as well be comfortable as i typed away. we did a little shopping in miami- a bottle of champagne (my birthday is next week), a bottle of hennessy and an overpriced bathing suit, because our son, ti boss, refuses to pack properly.

the plane rides were annoying- ZERO legroom.



we landed on time.

immigrations/customs forms were annoying- we were told by the stewardesses that we just needed to fill out one form for the family. i filled out one form. we got to the immigration line and the attendant there told me we needed to fill out forms for each member of the family. i grumbled, sat down, and scribbled out two additional forms. we got through immigration (the kingston airport also has kiosks, by the way), got to customs and the lady there told me we should have only filled out one form and that it had to be completed by "the huzzzzzzzbind," and listing "the wife" and "the son" as family members on the back. whatevzzzzzz. she was nice, though.

after the usual confusion and hassle (american had changed our flights months ago and strawberry hill didn't bother to look up our info day of travel, like they'd told me they would) we eventually found our driver and were off. he, of course, has worked for chris blackwell for over 20 years and we knew a bunch of the same old school music industry people, so we chit chatted about that, while my husband bugged out (like he always does) about HOW MUCH jamaica looks like haiti. ti boss played with his ipod and got excited when his favorite "litty" mumble rap songs came on the car radio.

i asked to make a quick stop at a supermarket, where i picked up some bottles of soda, a few six packs of red stripe and guinness and a few packages of biscuits.

we made it to the hotel around 4, were offered soothing, mint infused washcloths and rum punches and our luggage was brought up to our cottage, which is ridiculously beautiful.

[mwenvlay]

our accommodations, BAMBOO COTTAGE, is ridiculously, insanely, overwhelmingly beautiful.

it's a 2 story cottage with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs and a big living/dining area upstairs. both bedrooms have small porches and the 2nd floor has a really big porch. there's also a large picture window upstairs, with a nice built in bench, where you can just chill out and enjoy the view of kingston city and the port.



looking at the upstairs porch from living/dining room




view from the picture window



view of the living area from the porch


we didn't do very much our first night. i took a shower (they used to have a really deep old bathtub in this cottage, but they've renovated the bathroom with a big walk-in shower), and changed while my guys went to take a quick walk around.

we strolled to the bar at a few minutes to 6, ordered drinks and sat by the fire for a few minutes, then had a nice leisurely dinner, where we saw a bunch of brown lizards chilling on the chandelier right above our heads.


there are 3 of them in this photo, but they're impossible to spot


after dinner, we went back to the cottage, climbed into bed and watched harry potter and the chamber of secrets on the laptop (no tv i the cottage, yay!) ti boss went into his room around 8pm and we all fell asleep.

i woke up at 3am, eventually managed to get myself online, did my work and now i'm listening to dogs bark and crickets chirp.

we have no plans for tomorrow, other than to chill. i'm sure ti boss wants to get some swimming in.

[Ever72]

Looks amazing! Will def have to get up there with V someday! Have fun. Keep the Trip Reports comin! Say hi
To A and A.

[mwenvlay]

[mwenvlay]

day 2, which will officially end in 11 minutes, was an extreme case of milding.

i was up from 3am until 1pm. ti boss came out of his room at 6:30 and watched the sun rise with me.

[mwenvlay]

we spent about 3 hours chilling at the pool. hennessey and red stripe (brought from our room) for the adults, malta (brought from our room) and a virgin colada (from the bar) for ti boss.

my husband asked if we could have plastic cupss and the folks who were manning the pool and bar areas told us it was no problem to bring our own drinks and that they would be happy to give us glasses. they told us to rearrange the furniture any way we liked and that the only thing we had to do was make sure we enjoyed ourselves.

we rearranged the furniture to suit our domino playing needs, covered the slatted table with a table cloth i'd brought from home, put some chill music (at very low volume) on the iphone and got busy.

















back when ti boss was a ti baby, i started a tradition of bringing a big package of punch balloons with me (the kind with the thick rubber band at the end, for "punching") on all of our trips to haiti and jamaica- and, over the years, ti boss has grown obsessed. he fills a balloon with water and drags it around the pool for hours.

i knew it was time to leave when a) heavy grey clouds rolled in and b) my husband started a long, very serious conversation about naps and the necessity of them and how he probably needs to sleep more. i asked him, also very seriously, if he thought he'd be happier if he went to take a nap right away and woke up starving or if we went to eat lunch and then napped on full stomachs.

we dropped our poolside chilling items back at the cottage, then headed out for a stroll down the mountain to crystal edge cafe.

[mwenvlay]

today (day 3, and our final full day at strawberry hill) was more of the same, but in a good way.

we all woke up around 6:30 and watched the morning dawn. i went back to sleep while the guys watched another harry potter movie that's downloaded to the laptop- still no wifi, and our movie options are limited to 3 harry potter films and an austin powers. i finally roused myself around 8:30 and we headed down to breakfast.







after that, we went back and did a puzzle for a few hours, while watching austin powers.

[mwenvlay]

[mwenvlay]

ti boss spotted the cat that i'd heard in the middle of the night.




i'm such a crazy cat lady.


we went to breakfast at around 9am. it was good. ti boss didn't like the carrot/ginger/coconut milk smoothie, but my husband loved it.

next stop: chilling at the pool.

[mwenvlay]

we dropped our poolside chilling items back at the cottage, then headed out for a stroll down the mountain to crystal edge cafe.



i am out of shape and in no condition to handle walking uphill 3,000+ feet above sea level, so i had to stop several times to rest on our way back, which is when i snapped this picture. i love the way clothing smells after it's dried on the line.

so, after lunch it was back to the cottage for a napathon. ti boss slept from 6pm straight through until the morning, pretty much. i did a few hours' worth of work and husband took a stroll back down to crystal edge while i was occupied.

that was day 2.