Thursday Postcards From Jamaica - THE GIFT!

What a night it was!  Prior to our trip, our four children and their spouses pre-arranged for us to have a CANDLELIGHT DINNER here in Jamaica to celebrate Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day and Bob's birthday (May 9th).  Let me just say it was so romantic, quite amazing from start to finish, and swooningly delicious.  Every little detail was taken care of for us, and boy did we feel special and loved.  Thank you kids!

Let's have a pictorial recap, from the beginning to the end.  Here you see the location.  We were so lucky to have our meal here, in the Sandals Negril Wedding Gazebo.  Although there were other candlelight dinners happening on the beach at the same time as ours, somehow our butler bumped us up to the top venue for our meal.

The wedding gazebo during the daylight

Our butler arrived promptly at 8:15 PM to escort us to the location.  We approached the gazebo along a decorated torch-lit walkway, stepping over the "welcome sign" at the entrance.

Here is a look at the same venue at night, under the stars:

We had our own designated waiter, well actually a waitress and a waiter-in-training.  They had their little serving station set up and concealed behind the trees there, and they anticipated our every need.

Courtney is not wearing a vest yet as he is still in training.  We thought he was already a pro.

Here is our menu.  Our butler had given us the selection options several days prior to the event.  The first item of each course was Bob's selection.  I think he was quite daring to pick some fish items that he would not normally risk.  The second item is Jill's choice.

It.  Was.  All.  So.  Good. 

Look at how fancy our table was set up for us:

The waitress had chilled champagne for us too.

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of our first three courses, because we inhaled it because it was out of this world delicious, but we savored every morsel and were glad we tried some new foods.  However, we did slow down enough to document the deserts for you.

Bob's coconut custard which he even tried to share with me

Jill's assortment of chocolates (what else would I pick given that option?)
I did not share.

And so we came to the end of the meal.  But not quite.  There was one more surprise (well really two, but I'll get to that next).  The waitress then "helped" Bob (because he had no idea that it was part of the deal) to surprise me with a long-stemmed red rose.

We finished the meal with a brief conversation with our waitress about how LOVE is alive and well.  She seemed amazed and inspired to meet a couple like us who have been married 34 years and yet are still very much in love.  In Jamaica, she said, people get married and it is so common for them to separate after only a few months or maybe make it a couple of years, then split.

So we had a nice leisurely stroll with our full bellies back to our room, where there awaited yet one last surprise.  Jerry The Butler had outdone himself again, and had decorated our room with music, candles all around, another bottle of champagne on ice, and some towel art, flower petals and chocolates on the bed.  What a night it had been!  

Two elephants in love

So again, THANK YOU to our four children and their spouses for making this very special evening possible, and for all the memories we will have for a long, long time.