There are no direct flights to Jamaica from Austin. We were originally going to split the two flights across two days to avoid a 3am start and conquering it in one day. But the weather gods said no to that, our evening flight from Austin was cancelled, and the only flights we could get at short notice thereafter were five days later, with the first one departing Austin at 6:30am. So, it was out of bed at 3am after all. Love that. We all slept like logs that night!

With bad commuting memories behind us, we got stuck into vacationing! We stayed on two different parts of the island in the nine nights we were here, starting with Montego Bay on the island's northwest coast. This is the Hilton hotel about a 15-minute drive from the airport, with its pools and waterslides and lazy river and all that good stuff!

The view from our room, overlooking another pool and the beach.

Jade made a friend. He didn't make it home with us, but we did drink plenty of coconut water from his buddies while we were here, fresh out of the trees and hacked open with a machete. I didn't get a photo of it but there's an awesome "Jerk Hut" here serving up jerk chicken and jerk pork all day, and damn it was good! Too bad if you're vegetarian - you're missing out.

Nice little beach and pier and sunset views here.

As we like to do, we rented a car for a day to explore some of the island, off the beaten tourist track. Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean, and there is a lot of it to see and a lot of things to do. For this drive I picked out a single destination, a two-hour route to get there, and a different route to get back. Enough to give us a taste. Within ten minutes of leaving the hotel and driving through Montego Bay, we had the windshield of our already-clean rental car washed for no reason, and I nearly ran someone over who darted across a busy intersection while I was busy lining up the camera for a photo. I just happened to see him in the camera and hit the brakes, and I didn't miss him by much (nor did anyone else). It would have been a funny photo if I'd taken it hehe.

From coastal Montego Bay we climbed high into the scenic hills in the middle of the island, past countless little villages and towns along the way, and getting a lot of curious stares from the locals. It's probably not too often they see a car full of whities driving through this area, looking lost.

As beautiful as the scenery is, the roads are anything but. The Mars rovers have an easier time of it than we did. Big deep potholes everywhere, and in many places you could hardly call it a road. There had been some repair work here and there, and I can only imagine how bad those sections must have been beforehand! In fairness, I was loving it - driving all over the road (along with every other car) to avoid the worst of it, but I don't think anyone else in the car was having quite as much fun hehe.

This pretty much sums it up. Sleepy little settlements dotted around with a lot of folk just sitting around, watching the world (and us whities) go by.

We also saw a lot of animals just wandering aimlessly on the side of the road (or in the middle of it). Dogs, goats, chickens, and a cow. The dogs in particular seem to be rather amorous, and we all witnessed what could only be described as a canine orgy later in the drive while the local townsfolk watched on like it was any other day.

For every wandering animal we saw on the roadside, we probably saw twice as many abandoned vehicles. I'm sure there was every intention to fix them up and get them back on the road (some appeared to have just a flat tire), but you know how it goes: you get busy just sitting around watching the world go by, and nature eventually takes over.

Soon. Soon.

And this was our destination for the day - the Appleton Estate rum distillery (with its pealing sign)! I love rum as much as the next person, but I love love love Jamaican Rum! There are a few different rum distilleries throughout the island, with Appleton being the largest at 11,000 acres, and the oldest sugarcane plantation dating back to 1749.

Needless to say, ours were the only kids there haha!

We did the tour, did the tastings, and bought the t-shirt. We also treated ourselves to a glass of their 21-year-old rum, which is the yummiest I've ever had (to date). We should have bought a bottle of it there and then, but instead came home with their 15-year-old rum from the airport duty free (apparently they were out of the 21, bummer).

From there we drove back to the hotel on an equally interesting and equally beat-up road. Siena likes rum.

Our second destination on the island was Negril on the island's west coast, about a 90-minute drive from Montego Bay.

Our hotel here was plonked along the stunning Seven Mile Beach (looking south on the left, and north on the right). As far as beaches go, it's hard to fault this one!

Now THIS is a vacation (compared to our Colorado trip last year, which as far as the kids were concerned, was definitely not).

Getting relaxed, getting drunk on rum, and getting high on the finest ganja the legit-looking guy wandering up and down the beach had to offer.

Just down the beach from our hotel was an awesome seafood restaurant (more like a shack), serving freshly-caught lobster and king crab. Yummy!

In the town of Negril itself is the famous Rick's Cafe. Although a quintessential tourist stop in Negril, it's a little too touristy for our liking, especially given the numerous and more authentic local joints elsewhere.

In addition to eating, drinking, and enjoying the excessively-loud live music, the famous thing to do at Rick's is throw yourself from the adjacent cliffs into the sea below (good video of that here). Kristina was brave enough to do it twice for the camera, and is now complaining of a bruised tailbone haha! A friend of hers apparently did this years ago and actually broke her tailbone.

And that was Jamaica in a nutshell. Plenty left to see and do and drink and smoke for a future visit!