The month of June also included my Dad’s first visit to the Cayman Islands. The day after getting back from New York actually.
Within the first few days he completed his open-water dive certification and then we were off to Kingston in Jamaica for the weekend for the Australia cricket test series. Little did I know that a massive group of Aussie boys from Cayman were also there in a big group and being the island that Cayman is, I knew quite a few of them..
We arrived late on Friday night so straight to the hotel and to bed ready to check out the cricket at Sabina Park for the last day of the series the following day.
We arrived, purchased our tickets and met one of my Dad’s work colleagues and his wife (from Australia – he did know they were going to be there).
In we went and grabbed a patty before claiming ourselves a perch in the stands. At one stage my Dad’s mate pulled out an Aussie Rules footy which entertained the local kids kicking it back and forth whilst the cricket was going on in the background.
I turned around at one stage and noticed all the Aussie/Cayman boys all dressed in matching outfits and went to say hi. All was getting rowdy as the day went on with plenty of Red Stripe beers and pattys to go round! My old man was in his happy place.!
Was a great day at the cricket and we hung around with Dad’s mate for a while before heading back to the hotel and meeting them later at Usain Bolt’s restaurant, Tracks & Records, for some delicious food (including the signature dish of jerk chicken spring rolls – YUM!).
After a long day we headed back to the hotel ready for a big day of exploring the following day.
One of the girls I work with organized us a driver who would take us on a big day trip around Kingston to the main sites. A couple of the Aussie boys from the cricket joined us and we started out by heading to Hellshire Beach for a delicious seafood lunch where we chose our own fish and sat on the beach to each out food.
Enroute Christopher, our driver, explained a bot of the history of Kingston to us which was pretty interesting.
Such a cool little beachside town which was getting busier and busier for ‘Sunday Funday’ as we left..
From there we were taken back through Kingston and onto the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum in the “Government Yard of Trench Town”. Now this was pretty cool as it had memorabilia such as Bob Marley’s first car, guitar and other bits and pieces as well as other famous artists’ history.
Driving past Gong Studios and onto Port Royal for some more lessons on history and then up into the Blue Mountains to Strawberry Hill which had an incredible view over Kingston. Here we had a couple of beers and chilled out on the lounges by the pool – pretty content with life.
Back down the mountain on the windy roads to get dropped off at Scotchies Jerk Centre for some delicious jerk and sides for dinner with the boys. With stuffed bellies we rolled to our hotel for our last night and an early morning flight back to Cayman – what a great first weekend in Jamaica!!
