Family & Friends, Travel Adventures May 26, 2022May 26, 2022

Jamaica Day 6: Villa Tours & High Tea at The Great House

Today was a combination of all my HGTV dreams come true. Thursday is the day that Tryall Club opens up the unoccupied Villas for house tours to other guests.

First up, Karma Bay, which coincidentally is the Villa where our coworker that recommended we come to Tryall Club comes every year. The square footage is less than Sea Glass, but oh my oh my the bay front views are breathtaking.

She first starting coming here for one week each year. Then clearly the serenity took hold, and one week turn to two, two turned to three, and later as her career afforded, an entire month each year. Now I understand why she has such a tempered disposition at work. A month here surely goes a long way for ones mental health.

After Karma Bay, we headed next door to Oceans 8, a sprawling villa we recognized from all the marketing materials for Tryall Club. The Villa is owned by the owner of Sandals Resorts – someone just a tad accustomed to lux Caribbean living.

The staff said the owners “rarely” come to this amazing house they custom built. In case you are interested, you can rent Oceans 8 for $40,000-$60,000/ week depending on season.

Flower in our fish pond that blooms 3 hrs/day

After our house tours, we headed back to Sea Glass Villa to touch base with the rest of the crew. Only Amir, Julia and I had gone on the house tours – everyone else was team kid back at Sea Glass.

#1BigSister had been begging me for Caribbean hair braids since our arrival. I lucked out and booked a last minute 3:30 appointment to get her hair braided, and with any luck, a proper haircut to correct my errors earlier this week when I, out of frustration and desperation, used the house scissors to cut 6 inches off her hair after an hour spent trying to detangle a mess of wannabe dreadlocks.

After the salon, we met the rest of the crew at “The Great House” for high tea. At 4pm every day the resort hosts a free high tea session with finger sandwiches, fresh fruit and scones.

At 5pm the bar opens for happy hour, featuring half priced drinks. I was happy we decided to check it out as the views from the top are well… spectacular.

Tomorrow Amir and I will go deep sea fishing. We took an amazing trip on our honeymoon, but as luck would have it Amir suffered severe seasickness for the first time in his life, and never since then, which of course limited his enjoyment of the experience. Tomorrow is our do-over. We set off at 7am. Wish us luck.

~Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures May 25, 2022May 25, 2022

Jamaica Day 5: Fishing & Snorkeling Trip plus Naps! Naps! Naps!

Top of my list for excursions was snorkeling, while Amir desperately wanted a fishing adventure. Egem, my mom and #1BigSister joined us too.

We started our 3 hour expedition bottom fishing with the shoreline still in sight. Everyone got immediate nibbles on their lines and quickly reeled in fish, except me of course.

After about an hour of fishing, we reeled in our lines and all agreed we were ready to snorkel. Usually fishing and snorkeling are separate bookings, but since it’s the low season and not as many tourists here, they were able to offer us a combined expedition.

#1BigSister still hasn’t mastered swimming yet, so you’d think she wouldn’t be able to snorkel. Fortunately they now make a full-face mask with built in snorkel. We ordered one on Amazon about two months ago and have been practicing in the bathtub at home for just this moment.

The crew gave us the option of snorkeling with or without a life jacket. They call those that use the life jacket the “lazy swimmers.” We happily accepted that moniker.

Back at Sea Glass Villa, we all got hit with the simultaneous urge to nap. I slept 1.5 hours, a much needed reprieve from the sun and endless eating.

Flowers from the grounds of Sea Glass Villa

After naps, the daily thunderstorms rolled in. One of my favorite aspects of indoor/outdoor living is the all weather experience, sitting in the fresh air while rain pours down, lightening thunders, the air fills with mist – you are outside in the experience, but with a cover above you keeping you dry.

Tomorrow is Thursday, and that’s the day that any unoccupied Villas open up to tours to the other guests at Tryall Club. Think of it as Homearama of the Jamaican resort world. We won’t know until the morning which villas are open for tours, but that almost adds to the mystique. After all, the boxer Lennox Lewis lives here – this is where they filmed “How Stella Got her Groove Back” and the Obamas visited just last year.

We’re also deciding between “Swimming with Dolphins” and deep sea fishing, but first order of business is to secure more size 2 diapers and formula, as we’re almost out of both. Feels like home, but without the formula shortage.

~Steph

Balinese Dragon outside the Villa Bali Hai

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures May 24, 2022May 24, 2022

Jamaica Day 4: Rain, Rain Go Away

#1BabySister slept through the night again for the third night in a row. They say that once they start solids they start to sleep better, and we’d introduced them about three weeks ago when the formula shortage was really ramping into emergency status. Well, I think it’s paying off now. I’ll accept any and all happy accidents.

I love that the hardest decisions I have to make here involves pancakes & waffles vs eggs any style I can dream up.

Every morning our chef makes breakfast of our individual choice, and each morning seems to feature a new set of china, placemats and fresh flowers from around the grounds of the Villa.

After breakfast we returned to the beach, this time better prepared with all the swimmies, pool toys and snorkel gear. We also scoped out the cocktail situation early and ordered up a few piña coladas and some pineapple juice for the kids.

#1BigSister took her snorkel for a true test drive today in Sandy Bay. With her life jacket on, she floated on the surface and explored the sea grass, sand and shells below. She even found an occupied shell, home to a “queen conch” or Strombas gigas a threatened species in the Caribbean Sea.

Friendly little queen conch

We tossed our little friend back in before #1BigBrother got any ideas about smashing him or taking him home as a pet. We are suffering some extreme attachment issues these days.

For lunch we ordered food to the chairs on the beach. The menu includes the delicious pizza we had yesterday, plus an assortment of seafood baskets and jerk chicken wraps/paninis/wings. Did I mention the mango and pineapple daiquiris with a “floater” on top?

We spent the morning back and forth from the pool to the beach as attention spans wavered from one to the next. We even met some new friends, a little girl named Randy and her Nanny, both from Georgia.

The kids had toy envy though, so we ended up spending $14 on a dollar store plastic bucket and shovel. I justified the expenditure by convincing myself we could pay it forward for the next family with little ones – but it broke before we even got back to the house. Oh well.

Front entryway with views to the indoor and outdoor dining rooms

Looking at the Main Suite from across the courtyard

As we finished lunch at the beach, the sky darkened, thunder rolled in and we scurried like sand crabs to collect our things and get back to Sea Glass Villa before the sky truly opened up.

Two friends found back at Sea Glass Villa

Tomorrow we’ve booked a boating adventure where we can fish for the first hour and then snorkel for the second half. With this big of a crew, we need flexibility to accommodate everyone’s bucket list items. I’m wrapping todays post up early because I know I’ll either need a nap or early bedtime to have the stamina for tomorrow’s adventures.

~Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures May 23, 2022June 1, 2022

Jamaica Day 3: The Water Wheel & a Golf Course Grotto

Today is Labor Day in Jamaica, so many places are closed. No matter – we chose a self-guided golf cart adventure around the Tryall Club grounds. Amir has a knack for finding quiet special places, usually off the beaten path, that feel like they were meant just for us. He claims it’s hours of Google research, I think he just has a natural compass for discovery.

In the 1700s, this 2200 acre property was a sugar plantation. There’s a three mile aqueduct still functioning that carries water from the Flint River to the water wheel. Back in the day, the water wheel supplied the energy for the sugar cane presses.

The water wheel still turns today

There’s a large chimney still standing which was the boiler room where the cane was boiled down to form the brown sugar of the area. The rest of the building is long gone, but you can appreciate the bustling activity that used to take place at this site.

Looking up at the junction where the aqueduct meets the wheel

If you do visit, just a heads up about the local craftsmen. They must have a security camera focused on the wheel, because before you even unload from your golf cart, there’s someone there peddling handmade woodcrafts. Like most places, you can certainly haggle on price. We travelled without cash today, so we were either SOL or lucky depending on your tchotchke stance.

Next stop after the water wheel, search for a secret grotto just off the golf course. At first we weren’t sure if our gas-guzzling golf cart was allowed on the golf course (we didn’t want to disrupt the serenity), but a friendly security guard assured us we were fine.

We followed the path towards the Caribbean blue water, over a rickety wooden bridge and towards the shore. There we discovered Sandy Bay, a rocky beach with clear blue waters and a refreshing breeze.

After Sandy Bay beach, we hopped back in our Sea Glass golf cart and set out for stop #2. We parked the cart next to a fresh water river emptying into the Sandy Bay.

The water was crystal clear and shallow, with round rocks and spiral seashells, perfect for exploration by little hands.

Some of us in the crew opted to wade in the river while others made friends with sand and hermit crabs.

The stream is fresh water, collecting all of the rain water from up in the mountain downward. Today was a bit dry, so much if the river bottom was exposed for our view.

After exhausting ourselves at the golf course grotto, we reloaded the golf cart and made our way back to Sea Glass Villa. Lunch was served at 1:30pm at our request, and we were past due.

Back at Sea Glass, we enjoyed an Asian chicken salad with fresh oranges, crispy straws and citrus dressing. As a bonus, the chef made us strawberry mango swirl smoothies with pineapple and grapes. The kids (and who’s kidding, the adults too) loved it all.

This afternoon the pool time was cut short by thunderstorms, but we enjoyed watching the rain out on the patio. It also became a great time to work on combing #1BigSister’s hair, as 3 days in the pool with no washes in between essentially created dreadlocks. Egem and I spent about 20 minutes trying to detangle her hair and eventually admitted defeat. With scissors borrowed from the kitchen staff, I performed her first at home hair cut, fully expecting a meltdown.

Much to my surprise and relief, she was delighted to have lighter hair that’s easier to comb and braid. Somehow I became a hero in just a few quick chops. There’s certainly some leveling out that needs to happen, but life just got a lot easier for everyone.

Today felt like a long day. Tomorrow everything is open again, so we’ll likely try snorkeling, kayaking or some other yet to be discovered water sport.

~Steph

Egem and #1BigSister with her new and improved hair

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures May 22, 2022May 22, 2022

Jamaica Day 2: Exploring Sea Glass & Tryall Resort

So much for sleeping in – a 5:30 wakeup call from #1BabySister started my morning as per usual. Fortunately the house staff had already prepared the morning coffee.

For context I should explain that our Villa, Sea Glass, has its own staff of 4 – a chef, a gardener, a laundress and a housekeeper. I’m in heaven. I don’t have to cook, clean or wash anything.

Ahead of our arrival, we each selected our first morning breakfast. I opted for poached eggs on toast, while others enjoyed pancakes, omelettes and of course the freshest of fresh fruit.

Our breakfast table under the hanging bengal trumpet vines

A 5:30 wakeup allows for much productivity before breakfast. I logged 2 hours of swimming with #1BigSister, 2 delicious cups of coffee, 2 blueberry muffins and 2 gecko sightings. Nana and Grandma joined us around 8:00am, showered, dressed, makeup on and ready for a day of exploring.

After breakfast we grabbed a golf cart to take down the hillside to the beach to explore the shore. In retrospect, our Villa had 2 golf carts for our use, but we so wisely opted to stuff all eight of us into one.

While we didn’t have to “rent it” per se, I’m pretty sure this counts as the extreme vehicular rental for this trip (see prior travel posts for reference). Amir drove it like he stole it, much to the dismay of Nana and Grandma who were riding backwards in the back in the trip down. There were multiple comments from the wayyyy back about Amir’s driving, but I’ll just leave it at that.

The Tryall Club Villas each have a pool, but there’s also a large beachfront pool for access by all members of the resort. There’s a pretty delicious pizza shack on site, and you can have your pizza delivered poolside, take it to go, or have it delivered to your Villa if you are headed back. We opted to eat beachside.

Missing from photo: #1BigBrother, asleep on the ground under the table

We declared basecamp on the pool deck because it offered the most options for shade and kid-friendly swimming. A resort staffer supplied the towels and positioned giant pink and white umbrellas for us to optimize the shade.

After

Only Amir and Egem wore their swimsuits on this outing (we’d only planned to go exploring, not to do a whole swimming adventure), so they took the kids in the pool to practice their swimming technique. And by swimming technique, I mean anything to not drown. As an Emergency Physician with three kids who can’t swim, I have nightmares about this stuff. Big time.

While the others played in the pool, I walked down to the beach to check out the sand, seashells and wave situation. I met a little friend, a hermit crab, who I was sure #1BigBrother would love (or toss across the pool deck).

It didn’t take long for #1BigSister to want to join me on the beach. She’s always loved looking for seashells and throwing rocks into water… so this was her heaven.

Egem joined us at the beach and took the kiddos swimming while I looked for shells and small natural treasures along the shore.

Back poolside, the troops were dropping like flies. Exhaustion from traveling yesterday set in, and many comfortable naps were had by all.

Back at Sea Glass, #1BigSister was of course ready to go straight back into the pool. I was game since I hadn’t had a bathing suit on down at the beach and was a sweaty mess desperate for a dip. Unfortunately she demanded we swim in the “hot pool” (hot tub) which is a refreshing 95 degrees.

Hanging in the “hot pool”

Today is Sunday, so most tours and activities on the island are closed. Tomorrow is also a holiday in Jamaica, Labor Day, so tours won’t be running. That’s ok though – we’re finding plenty to keep us busy at Sea Glass.

~Steph