Our Last Day
Here we are. Our last day (well morning) in Paradise. I don't have to reiterate what a fabulously awesome time we both had on our first, and certainly NOT last, visit to Jamaica.
I rose to my last sunrise and spent an hour on the balcony welcoming it and the fishermen out on the water, until the next time. Mike came out and we both looked at each other and gave a collective sigh. We were all packed the night before and tossed in our last remaining things and did a last check for any random belongings that wanted to stay longer too lol
Check-out was at 10:15 and we were being picked up for the airport at 11am for our 2:55pm flight home. The plan was to have a light breakfast at the Negril Buffet, which had been our favourite place to eat then go upstairs to the Infinity Bar and take some last minute photos of the pool, which we'd somehow failed to do in a week of meandering the marble hallways.
We smoked the last joint of our weed and called the desk at 9am to come get us. It was too short a shuttle ride to the lobby. Trying to grasp last glimpses of everything as it passed us by proved futile. We dropped our bags off in the lobby by the Bellhop Desk and went off to do our thing for an hour. We ate, took our photos then checked out. It was all Irie and timing was perfect. That is until our driver/bellhop approached us and said "This is my least favourite job here." as he proceeded to cut off our hotel wristband. Another big sigh, but we refused to let any aspect of our departure get us sad. Instead, we said our goodbyes to those of the lobby staff we'd developed good relationships with and maintained the huge grins that had been plastered on our faces since we first arrived.
We were glad our transfer bus was almost a half hour late. Though just delaying the inevitable, it meant we would have less time waiting around the airport for our flight.
We reconnected with a couple of women from our flight down and bantered back and forth about our week's experiences. It seems a fantastic time was had by all. I took some video of the ride to the airport, but am unable to post them. I've reached my limit here for free video uploads :(
From start to finish, we always had something to look at.
Never stayed, but walked through here once before today, after Miss Lou's Bar
Always smiling, ever helpful and assisting
From start to finish, we always had something to look at.
Like our trip from Toronto to Jamaica, our business end of the flight went smoothly as did our last minute Duty Free shop for rum and a couple of seasonings and a bottle of Jamaican vanilla. The only thing that snagged us up was that Mike's bag was overweight. He had all the bottles we'd brought from the resort. No biggie. The handful of people behind us were also in the line for Sunwing's Elite Plus program and we were ahead of the winding lineups next to us. Everyone was very indifferent to the fact we were holding them up while Mike transferred some weight to my bag. Again, it was all Irie. Everyone was still feelin' the vibes of Jamaica and going with the flow. We still had lots of time til our flight.
Settled in our seats, again on our own, we readied ourselves. We watched Montego Bay roll past us as we took off then resigned ourselves to actually leaving as we saw the last of the Island fade into the waters of the Caribbean. It was an uneventful flight home, shortened by watching a movie I don't think I even paid attention to.
Paid extra for big legroom. It was worth it.
Paid extra for big legroom. It was worth it.
Take-Off
Take-off from Sangster Airport
Flying into Toronto, the sunset was breathtaking. Nothing in comparison with Jamaica, but it somehow felt welcoming and had our flight not been 1/2 hour early, we would have missed it. Our landing was rough again. What is it with these Sunwing pilots? Customs went quickly and smoothly and because we were early, we had a wait for our luggage which seemed to upset many people. I wanted to leave too, but our luggage wasn't going to come just because they were bitching lol
We retrieved our winter coats from storage and went out to have a smoke and look for a limo home. What a great feature that coat check is. $10 to store our winter coats for the week. A few minutes passed and an SUV limo pulled into the space near where we were sitting. Mike went to it and asked if he was free and how much to Whitby. The driver said $100 and Mike jumped all over it. When we called to enquire about limos weeks ago, we were quoted over $200 for an SUV. When we were well on our way, the driver said sheepishly, “You are certainly getting a deal here. I didn't know it was 60 km.” Mike asked if he thought he could get a fare back and he said no. I just said, it's ok, we'll give you a tip. It wasn't an issue for him. He was a really nice guy and kept me fairly calm on the ride home. Anyone that knows me knows I don't drive 400 series highways. I haven't been on the 401 in 20 plus years except twice in unusual circumstances. 2 trips to and from a hospital and now. It was very interesting and disturbing to see the changes along our route, especially going past where I grew up. Unrecognizable.
Once home, around 10pm, Mike told me I wasn't so calm, but had squeezed the hell out of his hand every time the driver changed lanes or some transport in another lane did something lol It was great to see Chris and the furbabies, though the pets were a little distant for an hour or so. We got caught up a little, while we had a much needed coffee and a snack of pizza Chris saved for us from his dinner. He's a good Son.
And there we have it. We're home with memories of a lifetime enveloping us and calling for us to....
SOON COME
Patois - English Translation of Soon Come
Be there soon
Definition
We'll be there soon, but not too soon.