days 6, 7, & 8: Oiy!

Sunday

d-day! I had been thinking of sunday as d-day for the past couple of days, I think because the name Dean starts with a 'd' and because of the reference to the invasion of normandy except instead of the allied forces against the nazi's, it was the graham family against the hurricane. And except instead of us [the good guys] doing the invading it was going to be dean. Oh well. So I woke up around 8 that morning and Mom told me the power was going to be shut off in two hours. I wondered for a minute what was of dire consequence and all I could conclude was to recharge my camera battery and straighten the front part and little frizzies of my hair. So I did.


It was kind of cloudy but not too bad, you would never guess a hurricane was coming later that day, so since we knew we were going to be couped up for a while later with no electricity we decided to go our driving and walking around. We walked around for awhile, the streets of Ocho Rios virtually empty where they were usually packed with people and cars.

So after we took some more pictuers, particularly one Dad wanted with us all in front of a street sign "Graham St.". We got in the car and started driving to no real destination. We drove around a gated community that was being developed about 15 minutes west of Ocho Rios. We drove up some random hill. We drove around to where the local hospital was supposed to be, just in case, and never found it. We just drove and drove and then came back around lunch time kind of dreading the rest of the day. We got back and surprisingly the electricity was still on so we watched the the Weather Channel and Law & Order [USA and TNT were the 2 major American channels we had and they both play Law & Order like it's going out of style].

Dad had told us to make sure our bags were completely packed and ready to go, in case we had to suddenly leave, the night before, so there wasn't even any cleaning or organizing to do. I'm still not sure where we would have gone, the hills? I'm sure Dad knew though, he always knows everything, I'm sure he had some hidden cave in the side of the mountains already staked out and camouflaged with foliage ready in case the water was about to engulf our car or something. I saw it in my head, Dad calmly saying, "It's too late to pray when the devil comes." [his favorite, most used expression] and us loading up the car easily, as half our stuff was already in there and Dad driving up to the cave and it would be a perfect fit for our car and us as if he had a contractor ready it just for us. We would just ride out the hurricane in our cave playing gin rummy by a fire. I could see it. That's probably the real reason I wasn't worried about the hurricane because Dad wasn't worried. Dad always works everything out, he can dodge bullets, he's Dad. And I was with Dad so therefore there was no reason to worry.

Well they turned off the power at 2:00. After about 30 minutes it started to drizzle and the wind picked up a little bit. We left all the windows open and played cards. That got old kind of quick, sadly. Kaitlin and I played Operation on a coconut we found, only to be disappointed in the result, our coconut had clearly flat-lined a long time ago. Around 5 the wind and rain got pretty severe, for a thunderstorm, NOT for a hurricane. It stayed about the same for the next 3ish hours. I was disappointed. Dad and I had the videocamera all ready for some action. We got none. I went to bed at 9, later that I probaly would have if we had not had a little visitor. We left our front door open the whole time to let the breeze through and around 5 an older woman, gnawing viciously on a chicken leg, just walked in, crossed the living room to the open window saying, "OOOooh Rooobert! Look at doze waves, looks at da sea! Oh my my my!" Mom and I were sitting on the couch and Dad was upstairs doing something when she came in and Mom and I exchanged looks. Dad came down and introduced her, this was Miss Patricia Perkins, whom he had met earlier while she was preaching to someone on her cell phone.

Patricia Perkins is 64, a native Jamaican, and lived in one of the condos in our complex. Well, she stayed around for the next 4 hours and talked for almost as long. As the hurricane was disappointing, her stories and insight made the time go by faster. We talked quite a bit about Jamaican politics and the state of the island, the people, and development. She told us if the opposition party won the elections she would most likely lose her job [she is the top management of Dunn's River Falls, government owned - where thousands of people go a day, including us the day before - has been with the Parks & Recreation Department for 32 years] and would move to Florida and look for work. We asked her what she would do. She said she would probably be a greeter at Wal-Mart for awhile while she looked but it would be hard to find a comprable job in the U.S. We were a little taken back. That would be like going from the head of the San Diego Zoo or a Colorado ski resort to Wal-Mart greeter to put it in perspective. She wasn't bitter about it, not wanting it to happen of course, but just understood that was the way it would be. The opposition party won this past week and I wonder if she really will lose her job.





Monday

We slept with our windows open all nite as it drizzled outside. It wasn't too bad without A/C. When we got up we ate a hodge podge of leftovers for breakfast and then decided to go out driving again, mainly to look for a beach since the weather was gorgeous again and ours was closed so they could, "clean it up". We set off to survey the damage which was minimal, a power line down, palm tree branches and other foliage on lightly covering the roads. While we drove down the coast looking at the beach we didn't see an immediate access point. About 20 minutes west of Ochi, Dad decided to turn down a random road to see where it went. We passed a farm and made it to the beach where an American looking guy was leaning against his truck smoking a cigarette. Dad got out and talked to him. He soon signaled for us to get out. This clearly wasn't a public, well-kept, beach, you could tell even after the hurricane. But we got out and walked around. I heard my sister shout gleefully, "Crabs!" I looked down and saw little holes all over the beach and then saw a little crab the size of a dime, maybe a little smaller crawling furiously toward the water. He was so cute. We trod carefully along looking at the reef, grass, and debris that had been washed up by the tide during the hurricane. We saw a few more little crabs and then Kaitlin and I went crab-hole wrecking with sticks looking for more. We soon found a much bigger one about the size of a post-it, but more rectangular and compact in shape than typical crab. And he was like a yellowy-brown color. I immediately donned him Lester. Lester the "probabaly a molester" crab. He was definitely a molester crab if I ever saw one. And he was stinkin T.O.'ed! Kaitlin and I were chasing him around - he was faster than us, and he runs sideways! - and then Dad walked up and just caught him like it was nothing. He held him for a couple minutes and then after telling Kaitlin how to hold to hold him, passed him off. Kalitlin immediately dropped him after he pinched her, and Lester hightailed it the remaining 5 feet to the ocean. That was the end of our track star pet crab. Luckily we only knew him for about 5 minutes so there wasn't a strong attachment. And he was molester anyway.

We went excursioning a little more then came back to the house to see if the beach was open yet. Nope, they hadn't done a thing. Nothing else was open in town either except for a couple of gas stations that I suppose had generators, because the electricity was still out. We didn't want to waste the day so we went to the pool, where a lot of other people were and got some last rays of Jamaican sun. Dad and I played in the pool with some super cute black kids from 'South Jersey'. Then we came back up the room and pondered ways we could make a fake hurricane dean video that was really cool, like with boats flying through the air and us standing on the beach with fake rain, shivering, hair blowing wildly, with someone shaking a scrap piece of tin roof in the background for appropriate noise. Then we realized we need electricity for a lot of the effects we wanted to do. Defeated in our quest, we packed up the rest of our stuff and went to bed fairly early since there wasn't much left to do. It was a good day.



Tuesday

It was the smoothest and quickest exit we've ever made from any trip ever since we had already had everything packed and half of it in the car. It was a little melodramatic. No last checks, or multiple trips to the car, no "Wait! I forgot ______!"'s, we were in the car and leaving Ocho Rios by 8 a.m.

We got to the airport around 10 and where you check in is the same for everyone, its a ginormous lobby with airline decals on the wall representing where appropriate lines should form. Now, the airport had been closed since Saturday night and had only just re-opened that morning. The lobby was packed with people, you couldnt tell where lines were supposed to form, or where they started or ended, just thousands of people all over the place. We see the Continental area but had no idea where the line for it was. So we got in a line and Dad set off to figure things out. A few minutes later Mom, Kaitlin, and I heard a distinct, loud, Dad whistle. The lobby got a little quieter and we set off in search of Dad, we quickly saw him right by the Continental counter. We made our way through the sea of people with our luggage and got in a line with about 6 people in it and asked Dad what was going on. Apparently Continental only flies to 2 cities from Jamaica, Houston and Newark! So our line was uber short and quick, it was amazing! I cannot vouch for Continental's domestic flights and service [I think Courtney can though...] BUT if you ever go to Jamaica, fly Continental! I mean only flying to 2 cities [non-stop, I might add] verses the other carriers flying to a long list of multi-stop destinations, I mean it really couldn't get any better. I felt really bad though for all the people on standby, because there were a ton.

Our flight left on time and we arrived in Houston a little early, and on top of that from the time we landed, 5:01, to the time we had gotten through customs and gotten our bags it had been only 20 minutes!! I was getting a mocha light frappacino at 5:23 people! Amazing! I'm fairly certain it will never again happen in my lifetime.

That brings my little vacation story to an end. Hope you enjoyed!