Our final day
We woke up bright and early and again we went through our usual morning routine. After my shower I sat on the edge of the bed and began to put on my shoes. As I get the second shoe on I looked down and started laughing. I stand up and tell Beth to take a look at what I just did. I struck a pose as I showed my outfit off to Beth. It consisted of nothing other than a pair of underwear, socks and shoes! It wasn’t my best look. I called to confirm pickup with Alfred who advised another driver would be getting us. It wasn’t too long before we were on our way back to the airport. The ride back was much more uneventful then the ride in as we were much more relaxed and accustomed to our surroundings now.
Once at the airport we made a trip to duty free. I was then drawn to the smell of greasy food that I had mostly managed to avoid the whole trip and happily overpaid for a fast food meal. Before we knew it we were boarding the plane and taking off. On the flight home we started to plan our next trip and were kicking ourselves for not taking the time to research other rooms and booking our hotel before we left. We also discussed which of our friends we would encourage to visit Negril and which ones would not be a good fit. We have had this same conversation several times during the course of our trip.
As we approached Philadelphia we were told the current temperature was 63 degrees. It turned out that for all of our planning to escape the cool this particular winter it would be a very mild one and some of the mildest weather occurred while we were away. Of course that didn’t take anything away from our trip.
Having safely landed we head to customs and immigration. I was called to the desk to produce my passport and declarations. As Beth followed me I was asked.....”Is she family?” It was really hard to say no. I had known Beth since grade school and we were very close friends before we became a couple. Technically we weren't family so I had say no. Beth was asked to wait back in line until I was done being processed. I didn't like her not being recognized as my family and thought to myself we need to do something about that before our next trip.
Safely back on US soil and connected with our ride home we proceed to do what anyone else should do when in Philly.....get a cheese steak! So off we went to Pat's for two “wit out “and "wiz". I won't go into details about how all of this greasy American food affected us but let me just say I think our digestive track was missing Jamaica more than us.
Final thoughts
One of the things I quickly realized is that Jamaica can be whatever you want it to be. It's up to each person to create their own experience. If you're like me and most of your knowledge of Negril came from reading trip reports and watching webcasts, you'll discover there's much more going on when you get the blinders off and can see the full picture for yourself. At first it seems like such a big foreign place where your only welcome for your money. It doesn't take long though before you realize you do have a place in Jamaica if you're willing to drop your guard and open up to her.
We've already started booking our next trip and intend to make the trip as often as we can for many years to come. There's even more excitement this time than there was the first. It seems since our return we always start working on scenarios that could get us back there sooner. We always say if it wasn't for the cost of airfare we'd be there right now! We're still holding out hope that some small fortune will be bestowed upon us unexpectedly at which point we're there! Until that happens we'll have to wait and budget over the next year. We’re just thankful that a return visit is near certain and feel fortunate just to have an opportunity to return and pick up where we left off. We may have taken baby steps this time but next time we intend to walk good.
Soon come!
