Yes… I’m sad to say that trip #10 is in the books. We had a fantastic time relaxing and remembering why, after 30 years, we’re still together and why we work so hard all year long. Negril is a special place for us and we never miss a sunset without holding hands or sitting close. With the immensity of the ocean and the beauty of the sun, there is almost a religious feel to the end of the day. Each year we pledge that this is what we’ll do every night once the work-a-day life is over.

Highlights: Used the MoBay VIP service this year. Nobody at immigration so I actually think it took us longer to get through the lines than if we didn’t use the service. Not a good way to start the trip. Once out the door we meet up with Rocky (truly a great guy) for our transfer. Smooth as silk and we are on our way with Red Stripe in hand within a couple of minutes. The drive is uneventful and we marvel, as we do every year, at the beach road, remembering all the places we have stayed and stopped at over the years. We arrive at the hotel and are greeted as returning family; our dates for 2014 already in the computer and a Rum Punch ready to drink. After watching our 1st of what will be 10 sunsets we head down to 3 Dives for our traditional 1st night meal. I had the half chicken and Tracey had the curry chicken, not sure that we have ever had a better meal there. Everything was just fantastic and plentiful.

We spent the next 9 days mostly we just hanging out on our rock and catching-up on reading (finished 6 books this year). I run up to the lighthouse and back every morning and we swim and jump off the cliffs every day as our only exercise. As with every year we try to do something new. This year I wanted to have the jerk pork at the Red Dragon. Quite the experience. We took a route taxi down to the Shell station and started walking up the road. At one point I have to ask if we are travelling in the right direction and am told “oh yes dear, right up at the fork”. I love friendly people! We order a half pound, a beer and a water and for $700J we have lunch. The pork’s really tasty and the atmosphere is humble, nothing better. We decide that rather than walking back to the Shell station we wanted to walk through Red Ground and back to the West End Road. We cut through a really cool neighborhood and end up back on the road by the church. We did make one mistake however… we didn’t bring a camera ;-(.

Our only other 2 new experiences this year came during our annual walk to the beach. Every year on the Sunday of our trip, we walk from the Push Cart to the Welcome to Negril sign (it’s actually the Farewell Negril sign from the beach side of the road) then back to the HiLo where we catch a taxi for the rest of the ride. This year we stopped at Canoe for breakfast. I just had eggs, which were wonderful, but Tracey had the pineapple pancakes which she absolutely loved; told everyone we talked to about them for the next 3 days. She’s still trying to figure out the recipe. Our next “new” stop was at Yellow Bird for the Dirty Banana. These were fantastic and the extra little touch of lining the glass with Hershey’s chocolate was something that we will start doing while we watch our preparatory webcasts next year. Those were the new things, we also did a lot of the old things… Dinner’s at 3 Dives, Archway Pizza, Ivan’s (the Mahi Mahi special was fantastic!), DeBar, Sips & Bites, Caio Jamaica, Rockhouse (for Valentine’s Day), LTU and Push Cart (they have really good fried chicken). We also made it up to Out Of Town Pastry a couple of times for Coco Bread, Coco Loaves and Patties and Back to Canoe to purchase some Conquering Lion Coffee (had a cup yesterday morning… very good!).

We also made it up to 3 Dives on Thursday, to say Hi to Rob & Lisa. Two great people who’s efforts with this site make Negril and conversations about Negril more special for all of us. Thank you again guys!!!

I suppose that’s about all for now. I’ll try to figure out the picture thing later to show you some of the beautiful things we see. Now, to start trying to figure out the new things for next year. Not sure how many there are left. Can anybody say February 2014 Roll Call??? Russ & Tracey Back on the cliffs 2/12 through 2/22 2014…