Hettie & Chad December 2011 Trip Report

[T&A]

Glad your back beautiful sunset pics!

[spottycatz]

Nice to hear from you again Hettie! Beautiful photo's and lovely trip report, hope there is much more to come! We go to the Round House in 8 weeks time, counting every day!

[rastagirl777]

"Some regulars showed up and started the dogs' favorite game, fetching rocks. They look so joyful!"
That would have been us! We're at Half Moon just about every Sunday and I was just looking at photos from that particular day.

[Jim-Donna]

Wonderful report. At last, someone else who goes to bed early, and gets up early! That is my kind of day! Thank-you for taking the time to post!~~

[Sophie2012]

So glad to hear more of your story! Thanks

[Hettie]

Up early again at 7:00 am because today is moving day. When we originally booked, we had planned to go to Port Antonio for the last half of our reach, but decided later on just to stay in Negril. By that time, the Round House wasn't available for our full stay, so we moved over to the A-Frame for the last 5 nights. More to come on the A-Frame...

In the meantime, as I was shuffling around half asleep in my underpants I see someone walking across our verandah...WTF?!?!? I call out to Chad that someone is walking around our cottage, then I see that it's a couple, must be new guests, and they're walking around our cottage at 7 am taking photos and LOOK IN THE WINDOW AT ME!!!!! Are they serious?!?! And they WAVED!!!! Wow! I cannot believe how clueless people can be. Citronella is designed to provide guests with privacy, that's kinda the whole point of the place because they could totally add a lot more rooms, but they have kept it the way it is for a reason-- people stay there for privacy! I just couldn't believe these people's behavior. They did more clueless stuff throughout the rest of our stay and we just let it go, because I saw them wandering around in owner's private cottage area too, so I know they must have been aware of the problem and it wasn't their fault that these particular guests just didn't get it. OK, deep breaths, got worked up just remembering that nonsense.

Normal morning coffee on the verandah, legs are really tan by now.


As I was packing up our kitchen things, I saw an adorable little family of white-crowned pigeons in our yard, the baby is the farthest one.


We didn't really have to move until 11:00 am, but we wanted to get it finished so we could get on with the rest of the day, so we moved over to the A-Frame around 9:30 am. It's a really cute cottage with a nice layout. It is surrounded by more trees and flowers than the Round House and has a true thatched roof with no plywood underneath, giving it a nice feel. It's at the opposite end of the property, closer to LTU and Rick's. We saw more birds over on that side and the A-Frame has a back deck from the loft that puts you right at tree level for bird watching.



We unpacked and decided to go down to Sips 'N Bites for Jamaican breakfast. We ran into our new friends from LA on the way and chatted a bit. Got the Jamaican breakfast at Sips 'N Bites-- LOVE LOVE LOVE that place, they are so nice and the food is perfect. We headed back to Citronella after for some nap time.



Went down to Sun Beach after nap time for some beach time. It was a cloudy, chill beach day. Read the Observer, had some drinks, Chad made friends with the massage lady (whose name escapes me at the moment, but she is a lovely person) and she and I discussed the articles in the paper. The same lizard fell out of a tree onto Chad three times and we all took it as a sign, I think some people may have played the lottery number for lizard that day. It was shedding it's skin and must have been exhausted and confused. All three times, Chad carried it carefully placed it back in the tree with his hands, much to the horror of all the female staff at Sun Beach. I think those anoles are cute, but I guess if you grow up thinking of them as a nuisance, it's a different story. They were really grossed out! Oh, and we ate the escoveitch at Sun Beach AGAIN (shout out to SamIam).

We headed back up to the cliffs late in the afternoon and stopped at Wise Choice to grab a couple of things. Ran into our new friends again and invited them over to watch the sunset and chill with us seaside since they were staying at Catcha Gardens. It was fun to hang out with some nice, interesting people. They left for a late dinner and we crashed shortly after.

[Maryann]

Have always been a beach girl, but Citronella looks amazing.

Can totally symphatize with you about the window peekers. Recently had my house up for sale, and it sold (hallelujah!), but it seems that when some people see a 4-sale sign in a yard, they think that entitles them to come up and look in the windows, walk around the yard, in the garage, etc. About drove me insane.

[poolguywindsor]

Always wanted to know WTF is glutten anyway? Sorry to interupt the trip report, but sounds like you two will know?

[limeex2]

Thanks for sharing your trip.The pic's are killer,especially when you remember that it can never be as good as the real thing. It has brought back many beautiful memories. I would really enjoy cooking or sharing one of my dishes with the locals,it would feel good to give back. Stayed @ half moon bay a long time ago,was great.They couldn't figure out why it was called half moon bay.If you snorkel there,one can figure out why it is so named. Driving on your own is fun.Took many backroad trips on a rental motorcycle.The scenery was spectacular and on the m/c you can smell things and are in touch with your surroundings.(And easier to dodge the potholes.) It felt safer than a drive in Minneapolis. Everybodies food reports are driving me nuts,so I made jerk chicken with rice and beans with the spices That we picked up. Which inspired me to make a Jamaican style soup. Jerk chicken soup with red beans and rice.Mention to the Jamaican chef's that's what ya do with the left overs(I am so midwestern!) As I look out at my snow covered back yard,I ground up the last of my coffee beans,topped it off with some rum cream and kept reading the great reports. Thanks everybody!!!

[Hettie]

Uh-oh, just saw that I titled this post with the wrong date, should have been 12/22.


Since I'm getting close to the double-digit fidgit for our upcoming December reach, I am going to try to finish last year's trip report, finally. Don't know how many stories I'll remember, but I'll at least get to show you the photos.

poolguywindsor

Always wanted to know WTF is glutten anyway? Sorry to interupt the trip report, but sounds like you two will know?

Poolguy--Since you asked this question months ago, you probably have already found the answer elsewhere, but in case you read this and are still wondering, gluten is a protein found in grains, especially wheat. Some people have a severe allergy to this protein, called celiac disease, and many people like myself have a sensitivity to gluten causing physical symptoms such as fatigue, swelling, bloating, itchy skin, etc. My step-dad's shoulder pains went away when he adopted a mostly gluten-free diet.


Alright, so back to the trip report...apparently we didn't take any photos on Day 9, so sorry to get your hopes up if you were excited about photos.

Chad made corned beef hash for breakfast while I jumped rope on the porch of the A-frame cottage. After we ate we went to Sun Beach to meet up with our new friends. It was hot, hot, hot and sunny all day, got lots of sunning in and Menace Margaritas which was a margarita recipe with peach schnapps that Dennis came up with since they were out of triple sec. They were really good, but I think we used up all the limes at the bar. We found out that Dennis would be performing with the band at Sun Beach that evening, so we made plans to pick our friends up at 7:00 to go back to Sun Beach.

We picked up some chicken to go from Best in the West and ate it on the back deck of the A-frame. I rested in the loft bed with fans blowing on me and a wet towel on my face to cool it down. I didn't get sunburned, but overdid it with the heat and sun that day and my face was very flushed.

We got ready and went down to Sun Beach with our friends. The band started playing and there was some really weird feedback going on with their speakers. It was so bad that we all decided to go elsewhere, but we did manage to hear Dennis sing a song before we left. He did such a great job and was so pleased that we made it down just to see him perform. Our friends hadn't been to Canoe yet, so we took them there. It was webcast night and the steel drum band was still playing and we had some rum punches and food. They really loved Canoe and saw how awesome our boardie community is and how nice it is to be a regular and walk into a place where people know your name and give you hugs.

After that we all just hung out on our verandah, listening to the sea crash on the rocks and chatting about everything and nothing at all. Our friends were leaving the next morning and we were sorry to see them go. Hopefully we'll meet up again if they make it back to Negril.