October 2003 Negril Trip Report:

October 5th, 2003 - Uneventful flight. Eddie met us at the airport. We had a blast riding with him. He has an excellent sound system and some awesome mix tapes. He was such a hoot because he would be singing along and get to a part he'd like and turn off the sound and sing a capella and then turn it back on. Check-in at Idle Awhile was smooth as can be. They met us at the desk with big smiles and 'Welcome back Elizabeth and Greg!'. We dumped our suitcases in the room and grabbed a taxi up to Jah B's to rent our scooter for the week. We went straight up to 3Dives for the Jerk Fest and finally got to try Boston Jerk Center. Their sauce is the spiciest we've had! Spicier than 3Dives and even Bourbon Beach! We weren't altogether that impressed with our jerk chicken though. 3Dives is MUCH tastier. We hung for a while and met Wayne, Howard and Cindy. There were two huge walls of speakers set up and it was loud as hell so we headed 'home' to take a nap and passed Selina and family on their way to 3Dives. After our nap we went to Bar-B-Barn for dinner. I had the ribs and they were pretty tasty. Nothing like that first night there, tree frogs singing, good food and drinks and sitting across from the man I love.

October 6th - We walked down to the Boat Bar for breakfast because we thought Selina might have had a late night at the Jerk Fest. We were so bummed to discover that they were temporarily 'not open'. So we rode to Selina's and she was there bright and early! She was having computer problems so Greg messed with that for a while and we had coffee (YUMM) and breakfast. We then lounged on the beach for a while and then Greg ran to the pharmacy and brought back a couple of Ms. Sonia's WONDERFUL patties for lunch. Dinner was at Selina's. We brought the kids the gifts we'd brought them and then stayed all night hanging out and playing games. Selina fixed us up some Chicken Parmesan that was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Seriously folks, I've had this dish at various four star restaurants at home and this was the best I've ever had. It was so good we didn't even notice that Selina had snuck some ackee into the recipe for two of the most finicky eaters around! Greg was so excited to buy 2 1/4 pounds of JBM Peaberries from Selina. She also loaned us a coffee maker for our room. Woot!

October 7th - First thing in the morning we took a nice long walk on the beach and i snapped some pictures. We ate at Selina's for breakfast, then hit the beach and went shopping at Times Square. We'd forgotten to bring a cooler this time so we purchased a small one for our room (which I promptly left open and all the ice melted). I hung out on the yummy porch and read and smoked and Greg went to the cambio and had a Frap at Selina's. Lucky for him he brought one back for me! His friend Richard who he met on the Cigar Afficianado forum stopped by and we all hung out on the patio for a while and chatted while it rained. Hee. Yeah, it started raining like two minutes after Greg took off on the scooter. We had a 'Friends of Jamaica' event that evening at the Rockhouse. We were immediately identified as the 'missing members' when we arrived. Oops. Rob and Joe were there doing the webcast. We stood/sat around and talked through Happy Hour. We met Oya, a massage therapist and we all agreed that she would come over on Friday to give us massages. Dinner was Salad or coconut shrimp, ribeye or lobster, and wine or Redstripe at 22 a head. Greg and I usually love Rockhouse, but this definitely wasn't one of the better meals of our trip. But it was a lot of fun sitting around a huge table with all the Friends of Jamacia people. There are some good people there.

October 8th - I slept in a little later than usual (thanks to the beers) and Greg woke up early and made coffee and read. We made it to Selina's just as Big Roy was leaving with the kids for school. We ate breakfast and then Greg and I rode to Sheffield to meet Big Roy at their yard. We took some pictures, it is SO beautiful up there! We watched Big Roy roast some coffee. We also got to meet a Rasta friend of Big Roy's who had once recorded an album and never got paid! We rode back to Negril in a taxi with Big Roy and hit the beach for awhile. We went to Rockhouse for lunch (I just love their chicken sandwiches on  cocoa bread) and had to sit out a rain shower before heading back on the scooter. We stopped for a frap at Selina's and we took her dogs for a walk around the property. Then home for a quick nap and then caught the sunset on the beach. Finally we were going to 3Dives for dinner. They have expanded back about 10 feet since we were there in February and enlarged the side patio as deep as the building. New roof and an additional roof over the grill out front. It looks awesome! We had a half chicken and fries and it was to die for.

October 9th - We had breakfast at Selinas (grin) and then rode the scooter up to the cliffs and around the West End. It was really cool. We saw a bunch of vultures in a tree and came across 3 goats hanging out in the road. I really enjoyed this trip a lot. We met Richard's friend Leroy back at our room and bought coffee as promised. He was admiring the book Greg was reading so we promised to leave it for him at the front desk when we left. There was another Friends of Jamacia event that night at Idle Awhile, an art fair. A bunch of us. Interestingly, today was the day that several people moved from Fun Holiday over to Idle Awhile. I don't think they felt too terribly safe over there and Idle Awhile has security on the front and the back gate. Seriously, I haven't seen a property I like better than Idle Awhile in Negril. Although Rockhouse comes pretty close.) After the webcast we went to Selina's for dinner. Greg had the lobster and hash browns and I had garlic cheese bread (too many beers). Again, Greg will swear that Selina makes the best lobster he's ever had. We hung around for a while and then nine guys from the UK showed up. These guys were also at 3Dives a few nights before. I think I insisted that they try Selina's. Soon after they ordered, the power went out for a couple of hours. Greg and I rode the scooter to the mini-mart for candles and pineapple juice for Selina. The boys were going through the rum and pineapple juice! Jaden was in bed but Zoe insisted on waiting for her mom so I held the little sleepy head until she fell asleep. I thought I'd try to sneak her into bed but she woke right up! We got home just as the power went on. I had a case of my dreadful drunk hic-ups and went to bed while Greg smoked a cigar and read on the porch.

October 10th - I'm sure you can guess where we had breakfast, but seriously, have you tried Big Roy's banana pancakes? And Selina's hash browns are to die for! We had our massages at two. Oya was amazing. She is such a sweet woman, it was all really relaxed but DANG that girl has strong hands. We went to Miss Sonia's for lunch and sat around and talked to her for awhile She is such a sweet lady. It was a pleasure to meet her. Dinner was at 3Dives with the FOJ gang. Harold and Cindy bought 30(!) lobsters and shared with everyone. Greg and I also shared a half jerk chicken and fries. Juicy (gardener at 3Dives) was there hanging out with us.  I got a couple silly pictures of him. There was a reclining beach chair on the patio for some reason and I snagged it after dinner and just chilled with my beer and the ocean. The gang took off for Alfred's so Greg and I stopped by Selina's for a drink. We whined to Selina that Paula would only sell us one bottle of jerk sauce and guess what! She promised to make us a bottle of her own jerk sauce (which turned out to be fabulous!)

October 11 - Up early to start packing. We went by Selina's to get the jerk sauce and leave some school supplies with her. We had a cup of coffee and talked for a few minutes before heading to Jah B's to turn in the scooter. We had to wake him up and it probably took him 35 minutes to get up to the front desk to check in the scooter. It sucked. We were easing back into 'rush mode'. We took a taxi back to the hotel and checked out, tipped Juicy, Bartender and office (we'd tipped the maid as we went along). We dropped off our cooler with the FOJ people and said goodbye to Wayne. Juicy wanted one last picture taken (!) and then Eddie was there to pick us up. Eddie brought the two huge bottles of honey that we'd ordered and we stopped on the way out of town for one last Ting.