First things first lets start with the food. Rodger's step mom made us Aki and Saltfish for our first breakfast in town. This was the first time I had ever had it, but it is apparently the national dish, and very tastey. Rodger even got a special vegan bowl made for him.
Rodger mushed some up for his neice Charlize and she gummed some down. She is still working on getting her teeth but fear not! Everyone got to join in on the eating.
Of course it got nice and messy. BABY AKI ATTACK! :)
But she liked it. Also she is a fan of the hair and dangly earring pulling. No ladies are safe!
Later that night we went into town for Rodger's Brother in Laws birthday party at a club in a neighborhood called New Kingston. We had our money converted into Jamaican dollars, so we felt rich. We then proceeded to make it rain.
The club was pretty fun. Rodger's sisters told us that if we drank white rum, we wouldn't get a hang over. We were suspicious of this so we put it to the test. I can report back my findings that they are INCORRECT. WOAH! that stuff is strong. haha But then the rest of the trip we had a reputation for being all about white rum. Go figure! Just trying to fit in with the locals! That's what you get when you try to keep up with the big dogs!
BLAME IT ON THE AA-AA-AALCOOHHHOLLL!!
But we had a good time. Here I am with Rodgers sister Leisha. Pretty ladies stepping out!
This frowny face from the next morning summarizes the hangover. haha. But we had a good timem, the hang over just made the pre wedding errands the next day all the more brutal.
Here the the view from Rodger's step mom's house. She lives up in Red Hills, on a mountain that looks down over Kingston. It was really beautiful and gives my view of Spencer and Mytle a run for its money!
Here is a view of her house. It was really nice, and relaxing to be at a real live mom's house. VIP treatment! Here is Rodger and Charlize playing in Sharron's front yard, peeping out some foliage and dabbling in a little light adventuring.
We set out to go find Leisha some wedding sandals, so we went to Bridgette's boutique, where I got some sweet sandals. My heart wanted me to get these obviously. They were encrusted in charms for God's Sake! But there was no way I could comfortably step out in these hot little numbers. But they were AWESOME. Rodger said they would have made me the dance hall queen. Guess I have to pass on that title. But you can't deny these shoes.
I got these instead. I felt like the potential for crazy blisters was significantly lessened. I also felt like the risk of someone melting down my sandals for the raw materials was lower. Thus I wussed out and got the more sensible option. SO MATURE!
So the wedding errands pressed on in spite of the white rum hangover, and I got my nails done. ALSO! AMERICANS BEWARE! Jamaica is more Englishy than Americans, so they like tea instead of coffee. Like forreal, I spent the first 4 days in a, "where is my coffee?!" daze. Everyone thought it was so funny. They were like, "Americans really like coffee!" and I was like "Yo! The whole world loves coffee! We can't get trough the day with out it!" haha, but at the manicure spot, there was a fancy cafe next door where we got some coffee, in a fancy tea pot and everything with little crumpets. So posh! We drank it with our pinkies up.
So we got some fancy coffee treats and got our nails done. READY TO STEP OUT!
We did a lot of driving around and preparing for the wedding stuff, so I took a little video from the car. This is driving outside Kingston en route to the wedding location.
So we rolled out to this beach where they had the wedding. It was in Portmore, which was outside Kingston by the sea and they had a friend who had a house out there. The drive once we got outside the city was really pretty.
There was a little dog who hung out at the house where the wedding was. The flower girl was chasing him around rubbing sand in his already shabby fur. His name was "Gypsie" and she kept trying to get me to pet him. I told her, "honey he is named gypsie for a reason, you probably shouldn't touch him." #realtalk that dog was shabby chic.
Here is her mom following her around trying to keep sand out of her hair to no avail. Adorable.
haha apparently Gypsie wanted a pice of what Rodger had!
Here is a view of the wedding location, with me posing by the water. It was so nice to have the fresh air blowing in our faces!
Here I am posing w my new Duty Free Ray Bans :) #dutyfreediscounts! #thisishowwedoit!
Here is a picture of Charlize and her Dad. Look at that belly! So freaking cute.
This was another dog that was hanging around the beach. He looked really majestic for a pit bull, so I figured I would capture the moment.
So after the wedding rehersal, we rolled down the beach to go get Fish and Festival. We got to pick our fish out of a cooler, and drink beers on the beach while we waited for them to be fried up. This is fresh yall!
We hung out outside, and an old Rasta dude tried to sell us some carved piggy banks. He gave one to the flower girl bc it was her birthday. She was psyched on it.
We relaxed and waited for the fish to get fried, and watched the sunset on the beach. It was the closest thing to a Sandals Jamaica moment as we were going to get. Check out this horse!
Here is the "after" shot of the fish in the cooler. This meal was the JAM. I seriously ate so much fish and festival it was intense. Rodger had a meal entirly comprised of festival, which are fried sweet dumplings that are sort of like less sweet dougnuts. OMG these were the bomb.
The next day, we rolled to the price mart to get liquor for the batchlor/batchlorette parties. Check out this sweet Xmas tree! Just in case you forgot where you were.
Check out this sandwich of cuteness.
Then we rolled to the batchlorette party. Here is Rodger's other sister Laura. She planned this feast. And I was put to work making sandwiches. Rodger's Aunts liked my sandwich making style and I got props for being an efficient sandwich maker.
After the sandwiches were hand crafted, I ran off and got gussied up. Here is a pic of Leisha and I before the party gets started. Don't I look like a giant next to her?
Everyone bough a bottle so we had a serious bar. These ladies were ready to get CRAZY.
I basically followed the bride around the club all night trying to convince her to drink some water so she wouldn't be sick the next day. AKA her wedding day. #voiceofreasonrepresent! Here I am w my prop of the evening.
Here is Leisha letting her hair down. We had a really good time, and by the end of the night I had seen some next level dancing. My feet were also subsequently ready to fall off. Oof! I can't keep up w these real deal clubs! Give me sneakers and a booth at a bar anytime! We got in at 4am and I crawled into bed. Here is rodger the next morning w Charlize. It looks like I wasn't the only one who had a rough night! Somebody get that baby a cup of joe! ;)
Here is the Mini Bride. She looks like a little cupcake!
I think this is the only picture of Rodger and me at the wedding. We were all behind the camera at the party. But I snuck this one in at the bathroom line.
Then we tore up the dance floor. Feast your eyes on this next level cuteness.
This baby has some good moves!
Next morning, we rolled out to the country to visit Rodger's grandma's house a few hours outside Kingston. We stopped on the way for jucie patties :)
I also got a better picture of my new sandals. These sandals got lots of compliments btw. They have a good MIA vibe I feel like. HOWMANYHOWMANY!
The view from the road was crazy! There were lots of goats, and crazy vistas from the tops of mountains. There were also lots of murals painted on all the little bars and restaraunts along the side of the road. I tried to capture some of the magic.
I felt like the murals were pretty amazing. They probably thought it was funny how many pictures I was taking. But I had to make some memories damn it! Finally we reached Rodger's grandma's house. She lives on the top of a mountain in a little house. We basically turned off the main road and drove up this gravel/rocky road straight up! We finally reached and I heard lots of cute Rodger baby stories from his Grandma bc he used to live with her when he was a little boy. It was cute. Also apparently when Rodger was a little boy he was swinging around a machate, and when she told him he wasn't allowed to have it, and took it away, he got all salty, and said, "BUMBACLOT!" HAHA omg. Babies using swear words! Never fails to be cute. Also why does it not surprise me that Rodger was a salty baby that swung around a machete when he wasn't allowed to and generally causing mischief. #SOMETHINGSNEVERCHANGE!
Here is Rodger peeling us some Jamaican oranges.
Here is Rodger's Dads friend Arel, he was the owner of the sturdy SUV that made it up the mountain. He chopped up some sugar cane for Rodger's grandma.
She had some cute animals that lived on her farm. This muel was just kicking it w this bird while we were chatting.
Here is Rodger w his grandma.
We rolled back to town and crashed out. We left town the next morning. It was an awesome trip. Thanks to Rodger's family for the awesome hosting and making us feel so welcome! Can't wait to visit again.
