Road Trip Around Montana – Side Trip To Jamaica!
 | Author:
Brenda Phillips
Brenda Phillips: MT43 News Office Administrator |
Side Trip to Jamaica!
Brenda Phillips
Well, this isn’t the best time to be road-tripping around Montana so I thought I would share our recent adventure to Jamaica.
In late January we left Great Falls at 5:30 AM and about -4 degrees. We had a stopover in Minneapolis and Atlanta. Now I can say I have been to Minnesota and Georgia, not that we got to see anything but the airport! In Atlanta we rode a tram from one terminal to another. That was one wild ride. Better hang onto those handles like you see in the movies! I took a picture of the flight map that was on the seat back screen. We were about 35000 ft above the earth and flying at 519 mph. That is unreal!
Prior to marrying Kurt and moving to Townsend in 2022, I had not traveled far from Montana. Fortunately, he has traveled enough that he has this figured out. He shops early in the fall for a January – February sandy beach vacation at a good price. This year he tried booking a travel package through Costco Travel and it was a good experience. The all-inclusive package covered our plane tickets, shuttle to hotel, room and meals at the resort for 7 days for $3200.00. Plus, we got a $150 Costco gift card rebate, when we got home. I’m thinking that is cheaper than a 3-day hospital stay and the food was better!
This is my 3rd trip to a warm sandy beach spot and I could get hooked on this during the cold Montana winters. We find we prefer the Palace looking resorts, over the new, modern, stark white, cold surroundings type. All the resorts have beautiful gardens, well-groomed lawns, beautiful blue pools and lots of art and statutes. The entryways are grand, the halls and common areas are clean, the rooms are clean and spacious. There must be hundreds of people employed to keep things looking so nice.
Last time I told you about the Jamaican travel package from Costco and a bit about the resort. The next best part is the food.
We stayed at the Palladium Lady Jamaica where they have 12 restaurants. Three of the restaurants were buffets that you could eat at any time until about 9:00 at night.
The buffets had such a wide variety of different food you could just about find anything that you wanted from soup and salad, many main dishes and lots of desserts. Then there were restaurants that were nicer and you could make reservations (or not!). We had the choice of Indian, Mexican, Italian, Oriental, Steak house, Seafood and a Sports Bar and 2 Jerk huts. There were several coffee shops and lots of bars!
One evening we made reservations and dressed for dinner at the Poseidon seafood place. We had a great meal in the open-air dining room that faced the ocean at sunset. The next day we dropped in again for lunch and ordered something light - fish and chips. Normally I don’t take pictures of my food – I just dig in! But this time I had to take a picture of this real authentic fish and chips.
During our dinner at the steakhouse, I looked over and saw this nice couple dining next to us. I had seen something like this in a Pickles comic, so I took a picture of the old couple next to us – oh wait that is us! The steaks were good and so was the carrot cake and ice cream for dessert.
The Jerk Huts were interesting. Apparently, that is the think to eat in Jamaica – Jerked Chicken. For us Montana’s, it was BBQ (smoked) chicken. It had a really good flavor so they must marinate it in something. Then you can put jerk sauce on it. My suggestion is using the sauce sparingly, unless you like really spicey stuff! It is served with Rice and red beans.
The best part is the fun drinks. They had slushy machines with strawberry, pina colada, mango and one other flavor at the bars. Almost all drinks were made with one of these frosty bases and most drinks can be made without alcohol. One bar served a drink called Purple Rain and when someone ordered one, the bar crew would sing the song Purple Rain. It’s OK, I had never heard it either, but it was fun watching them sing it.
Bob Marley is a singer from Jamaica, so the drink named for him was layered strawberry, mango and blue-green liqueur of a sort. It was pretty.
The last day we were there we went to the smaller pool near our room. They made some smooth coconut drinks and put them in coconut shells. The shells were put in a bamboo basket and floated out onto the pool so you had to be in the pool to get one. That was fun and yummy.
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PhotoCredit: Photo Credit: Brenda Phillips
Image 3 Caption: The Grand stairway at the entrance to the Palladium Resort in Jamaica
Photo Credit: Brenda Phillips
Image 5 Caption: Ornate doorway to the Indian Restaurant a the Palladium.
Photo Credit: Brenda Phillips
