Jamaica 4--Tastes of Jamaica and Saving the Day

Today we went to the beach. Now I may have been Beachy Amish but I was never Beachy in the other sense of the word.

Lying in the sun is for people who can tan. Instead of burning to a crisp and then getting all blotchy looking.

Swimming is for people who don't panic when their face gets wet.

But Jenny loves to swim and splash around. So we went to this pay-to-get-in beach and oh my. This is why people come to the Caribbean. Lovely teal water, lovely rough-sand beach, palm trees to sit under when you're done in the water.

Since this is Jenny's 12 Trip, after all, I indulged her, and we stayed way longer than I would have needed to be happy.

Eventually I tired of swimming and of sitting under the palm tree so I got showered and dressed and went wandering around looking for iced tea. Which is not a Jamaican drink but maybe I'd be lucky. I mean, I just very badly needed some iced tea.

There was a covered area full of tables and chairs that sort of oozed into the bar area. That seemed to be the only place to get anything to drink so I asked if they had iced tea. No they did not. They had something with the word "tea" in it, but it's alcoholic, and he looked at me like, I know you don't want that.

I got a table a safe distance away and asked the waitress if I could have a cup of hot water and another cup of ice.

She said sure.

I fished a bag of Kenya tea out of my purse, brewed it in the hot water, and poured it over the ice.

It was wonderful. Kenyan tea saves the day again.

Partway through this process I ran down to the beach to let the girls know where I was and Amy says I said,

Quote of the Day 1:
"I'll be sitting by the bar, because I got a drink."

After we got back to the house and cleaned up we went out for dinner with all the staff girls at one of those amazing places you find only in warm climes, where the inside sort of flows into the outside, with no clear Mason-Dixon line, and you sit at a table with a linen tablecloth, and the breezes blow around you and the bougainvillea is blooming.

But first, before we left for the lovely dinner, Jenny went to use the bathroom quickly before Amy locked up the house. And then she screamed.

Amy went to investigate. She screamed too.

I went and looked. I screamed too.

This is why.

Amy saved the day, as she always does. But first she said,

Quote of the Day 2:
"You keep watch and don't let him get out of the toilet!"
Jenny obeyed, but this is what she thought of the task.