Yay for Fort Lauderdale

Wedding Trip Day 2

We woke up and had time to kill before our flight. Marco wanted to be all fit and sportsy so we went for a run/walk down the main road near our hotel, then we consumed our 11$ per person buffet breakfast that the hotel offered. Had we had any of our 7$ "breakfast" vouchers left over and not spent them going hog wild on a big fancy (not) hotel dinner the night before, it still would not have been enough to cover our big fancy (not) hotel breakfast. Cheap Airline = Cheap Vouchers I guess.

We arrive at the airport and end up spending a good 30 minutes at the ticket counter explaining to them why we shouldn't have to pay to check our bags - our flight the day before should have been straight through, yada yada yada. But, we had time to kill and I wasn't about to spend 50$ to check luggage. We finally convince them to waive our fee and then proceed through security and find a seat at the gate. Note: When they switched our flight the day before, i had called the hotel to let them know. I had also made arrangements to be picked up at the Kingston Airport which was different than our normal arrival. I called the hotel again to check on our ceremony arrangements - we were going to be arriving late on Friday and supposed to be having our ceremony at 10am on Saturday morning. We hadn't been able to get in touch with the wedding coordinator because of the holiday to pick the location, flowers, cake, music, etc. So, I'm sitting in the airport and I still can't get the coordinator on the phone. I was frustrated and worried about our ceremony. Finally, I was able to get someone, not the coordinator, who could help and I was told that we could not have our ceremony the following morning. Jamaican law holds that you have to be on the island for 24 hours before you can get married. At this point, I started to freak out a little. I had previously been told that they were low on availability of wedding slots and was afraid we wouldn't be able to do it at all. My freaking out wasn't the angry type, but more the worried weepy kind. Marco held up like a champ during my mini breakdown.

I was told to call the wedding office in the morning. Then, I placed a second call to confirm our pick up at the airport because our flight was being delayed (again). I spoke to the same woman I had talked to the day before when all the problems started. I told her the time we would be arriving and she politely decided to tell me that they don't pick up from that airport. And this my friends, was where the straw broke the camel's back. All of my attempts to be polite and understanding of every frustration I had endured thus far on our trip came out in that one phone call. I didn't curse. I didn't get out of control. But I did get angry. The conversation ended after I spoke to a manager and got my way. Or so I thought.

We arrived in Kingston, Jamaica and there was no driver there to pick us up - as promised by the hotel. We found a driver who called our hotel for us and the hotel hired him to take us on the 2.5 hour tour to Ocho Rios where our hotel was located. I was really excited to drive across Jamaica - we got to see a lot of little villages along the way and I sat and stared out the window almost silent the whole time - taking it all in.

The entire trip we passed fire upon fire at the side of the road where locals were making jerk chicken. I had the window open and you could smell the smoke from the pits. We also passed about a hundred (no joke) Rum Bars - mom and pop little joints booming with Reggae music and a few patrons on the stools. All of them were open air places so it was like my own little window inside each places so it was like my own little window inside each place as we passed. We also go frequent whiffs of the local ganja weed. I had always heard that people smoked a lot of it in Jamaica but I didn't really think it was going to be so prevalent.

Finally, around 8pm, we arrived at our hotel. They greeted us with champagne and we were shuffled off to our room - a fantastic villa style little house with a pool.