It's Jamerica Kids! August 2014. Day 7 - Sea Screamer / Gondoliers / Palm Pavilion Inn

[JoJo88]

It’s Jamerica kids, but not as we know it….. August 2014

INDEX

Day 7 – Sea Screamer / Gondoliers / Palm Pavilion Inn

Thursday 14th August 2014

“Try something new, turn into you if only for a short time” – I am the Summer Time by Bachelor Number One

Waking up at around 8.30am, my first thoughts were that I had a fever, that was until I remembered that the air-con wasn’t working! It was really stuffy in the cottage now, and so Simon went outside to see if he could find Max, who was usually mooching about the place in the morning. As expected, Max was there, and he came inside to see if he could do anything. Being an engineer, Simon is pretty handy with that kind of thing too, but between the pair of them they couldn’t work out what was wrong, and so Max got straight on the phone to his maintenance people who promised to send someone round to have a look and get it sorted.

We had some breakfast and gathered up our bits and pieces, and it was around 10.30am by the time we headed down to the beach. It was reeeeeaaalllly warm today, so we had everything crossed that it wouldn’t take long for the air-con to be fixed so that when we were finished at the beach we could cool off indoors.

Anyway, we got down to the beach and set up base near the water as usual. I had a little muck about in the sea, and then decided I’d walk down to the pier to book us onto the Sea Screamer boat tour later that afternoon. My bites were really playing me up again, and I wanted a distraction. Some of them were quite painful when I walked, around my knee and on my foot, and I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I didn’t complain too much to the others, but Simon could see that I was suffering, and was beginning to look forward to leaving the beach, and Tangerine Dream, as he had come to the conclusion that that’s where I was being bitten. We hadn’t seen any evidence to support that theory, but there were no screens on the patio doors, just the front door, so it wouldn’t be difficult for a mozzie to get in.

Unsurprisingly, neither of the boys wanted to come with me on my trek so I set off by myself for the walk along the beach. I took it really slowly because of the intense heat beating down, and no shade (apart from my trusty straw hat!). I had my camera with me, and I’m pretty sure I took a load of photos, although these are the only ones I can find!

The beach was quite busy but with little pockets of peace and quiet every now and again where that area of the beach was for the exclusive use of the nearby hotels’ guests.

I got to Pier 60 at about 11.30am and crossed over the road to the little row of ticket booths willing to help us part with our cash. We'd narrowed our choice down to either the Sea Screamer or Little Toot, and we’d gone for Sea Screamer in the end as it has the added bonus of being a speed boat, which would appeal to the boys more so than the more gentle Little Toot.

The Sea Screamer has three tours a day, one at 12, one at 2pm and the last one at 4pm. We wanted the late one to try and avoid the sun as much as we could – have I mentioned how bloomin’ hot it was today?! Tickets were $24 per adult, $18 per child (kids 4 and under are free – one child per paying adult), and there was plenty of availability for our time slot so I paid up and was given 4 plastic credit card sized passes to hand over to the captain later on, with the instruction that we were to be there 15 minutes before sailing.

Before going back to join the others I decided I’d go back to the cottage to see if the maintenance man had been and to grab some drinks. I chose to go the back way rather than the beach, so that I could call in at Walgreens on the way to see if a miracle insect bite cure had found its way onto the shelves! I asked the pharmacist to have a look at the bites just to see if he thought I should get them properly looked at, but he reassured me (as every other pharmacist had!) that they were okay and just needed time to clear up, which is what I wanted to hear. There wasn’t any miracle cure so I went on my merry way.

It was really tough going walking back, this was probably the first time the heat had been so oppressive but then I was walking around in the midday sun while not feeling 100%, so I only had myself to blame! As I got nearer to our turning, I took a risk and tried to see if there was a short cut, only to walk to the end of the road and be faced with a dead end. Just perfect! That added a few more minutes to my journey, but eventually I made it home, and excitedly opened the front door, looking forward to a refreshing cool down in the delicious conditioned air only to discover that the engineer hadn’t been. I’ll never take air-conditioning for granted again!

I grabbed a few drinks and about turned to the beach to meet the others, who had been enjoying themselves in the sea, but were worn out now and needed some shade.

We got home and the boys immediately got in the pool – so much for that shade! Max and Teresa were both there and explained that the engineer had been out but the air-con unit needed a spare part. There followed a perfect example of good news/bad news, when they first explained that the part was on its way (Yay! ), but wouldn’t arrive until the next day (Boooo! ). Teresa then told me that she couldn’t possibly expect us to stay there for the night and so would put us up in another hotel nearby. She had secured us a room in a motel just down the road, one that she recommends to people when she can’t accommodate them herself, and she offered to take me round to see it before agreeing to stay.

Thank God she did! It was only a stone’s throw from Tangerine Dream, but we drove round, and as we pulled up I felt a proper sense of doom & gloom. It looked awful. We walked into the reception area to be greeted by a toothless woman (I think it was a woman), who grabbed some keys and walked us round to ‘our’ room, passing the pool as we went. Now, I don’t want to appear judgmental, but when I go on holiday, there are certain types of people I hope to avoid, and most of them were represented round that pool that day. There were screeching children in and around the pool, basically running wild while their parents looked on, enjoying a beer or five, littering their barely comprehensible sentences with ‘f’ and ‘c’ bombs, barely comprehensible because most of them had cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, with overflowing ashtrays and beer bottles scattered on the dirty plastic tables nearby. So far, so not staying there!

We were then shown the room which was right next to the pool (not an advantage, I can tell you! ), and I’m not joking, as the door was opened, a huge bug, probably a cockroach scuttled underneath the sofa.

Okaaaaaaayyyyyyy……. Teresa looked at me and, rather tactfully I thought, said that I didn’t have to make my mind up straight away. Sorry Teresa, but that boat has sailed! We had a quick glance in the bathroom – the bath was filthy, with mould around the edges, there were crumbs (at least I hope they were crumbs) all over every floor, I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. We thanked our host, Teresa telling her that we could call straight away to let her know, and beat a hasty retreat back to the car.

Teresa was so embarrassed to have taken me there, it was truly hideous. She couldn’t apologise enough and was horrified that she had been recommending the place to people for the last five years! I’ve since looked it up on Trip Advisor and can see that you can sometimes judge a book by its cover, there are photos on there of bed bugs, and mould, and dirty floors, and reports of the staff being rude and obnoxious.

Thankfully Teresa had another option lined up, and a minute later we were pulling up outside once again. This time we had a nice friendly welcome, and the pool looked much more inviting. It was still a motel – no interior corridors, but it looked much better maintained. Unfortunately, the room we would be staying in hadn’t yet been cleaned so we were shown a similar one. However, Teresa asked if we could see the actual room, and reluctantly we were shown it.

Wow! I had no idea guests left accommodation in such a state, the room looked like it had been completely trashed – there was food all over the counters and floors, sofa cushions were all over the place, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. We’re not the tidiest people when we’re on holiday – it’s hard to keep a room tidy when there’s four people sharing it (an example of which can be seen later in the report!), but we try our best, and when it’s time to leave, at least housekeeping only have to clean, there’s no repairs or maintenance needed!

However, looking past all that, it was 100 times better than where we’d just been, and at a push we could have stayed there, but again, I could see on Teresa’s face that she wasn’t sure about it. She thanked the host and we got back into the car. ‘I’ve got one more place to show you’, she said, and with that we drove round to the beach front Palm Pavilion Inn. We went inside to enquire about a room, to be told that they had one for us, and after a quick peep in the door, we took it! It was just a room, no kitchen or anything, but it was clean, tidy, and didn’t appear to have any unsavoury characters lurking about! Teresa paid for the room ($150 compared to the $40ish for the first motel! ) and we headed back to the cottage.

At around 3pm we decided to make the short walk down to meet the Sea Screamer, stopping off at Dunkin’ Donuts for some slushie drinks @$3.39 each. After a nice cool down (yep still a roasting day! ), and a dash of brain freeze, we continued on our walk.

When we got to the little kiosk, there weren’t many other people around and so we hoped for a relatively quiet boat.

That is until what appeared to be the cast of Honey Boo Boo started to join us…….

That’s just a fraction of them, there were about 25 in total, rather loud & excitable, and I just prayed they weren’t the same crowd that I’d encountered earlier at Motel Number 1! Thankfully there was no effing & jeffing, and it turned out they were just there to enjoy a fun boat trip like we were. Naughty me for jumping to conclusions……

Eventually we boarded the boat, stopping for the obligatory photo beforehand, and it turned out to be quite busy. We grabbed some seats, the boys arguing about who was sitting near the ‘window’ I guess the arguing isn’t just confined to the car, any mode of transport will do!

We sorted the problem by sitting in two separate rows, although Simon then added to the atmosphere by saying we should all sit together so that other people could find seats. I pointed out that they could find seats, in the empty ones on both our rows! As it happened, once the two captains boarded, they said that we were free to wander around the boat as much as we wanted, so it didn’t really matter where we were sat at that point. They also told us about the available refreshments, beer & cans of pop and also that any tips would be most welcome at the end of the trip!

Before we set sail we saw the pirate party boat coming back ashore, everyone on board looked like they’d had loads of fun!

We also saw the very sweet Little Toot on its way back in

Shortly after 4 we set off, with the usual corny jokes you’d expect on a trip of this sort. We were given a commentary on all the beautiful houses along the water’s edge in Clearwater, and were really surprised to discover that one of them, worth an estimated $10m belongs to Nigel Mansell. At least it did, apparently it’s on the market now, any takers?!

Eventually we were told to hold onto our hats as they were going to hit the jump to light speed, or something to that effect.

It was great fun, and as you can see, the dude behind was really enjoying himself! However, we were expecting to go a bit faster than that. Little did we know!

Daniel had himself a little blow dry along the way…..

Once we’d had the tour of the waterfront homes, and been given a bit of local knowledge, the boat headed in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. The guide told those sat at the back of the boat that they were going to get drenched, and as we were just two rows in front of the back row we decided to move, unsure if he was joking or not, but unwilling to take the chance!

We moved to the side of the boat, and that’s when we really did hit the jump to light speed! Hanging onto our hats, bags, shades and each other, we whizzed across the open seas. I don’t know about those at the back of the boat, but we were getting wet where we were, the waves were coming up over the edge. It was so much fun, although Daniel did worry a little bit at first, but he soon got into the swing of it.

Once we were off the coast of Clearwater Beach, the captain slowed the boat right down and we began scouring the waves in search of the dolphins, which was the real reason we’d all booked the trip in the first place. As the time moved on, the anticipation of trying to spot them began to turn to disappointment as I started to think we would be unlucky. However, eventually we saw something bobbing up and down in the water, and all of a sudden we could see a little pod of dolphins just off in the distance.

It was an absolutely amazing sight, and quite emotional if I’m honest. There was lots of oooooohing and aaaaaaahing, and it didn’t take long for the dolphins to come over and start jumping along in the boat’s wake.

I soon realised I was missing the experience by trying to photograph it, and so I put my camera away so that I could just enjoy what I was seeing. It was quite difficult at times to get a good view, especially for the little ones, I can’t quite work out why that might be

We enjoyed a good few minutes with the dolphins playing alongside and behind the boat, it was a really special time, and I’m so glad we were lucky enough to find them. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it too, as did Simon, but all too soon we were making the much slower journey back to the marina.

We were regaled with a wonderful story about a little house in amongst all the condos on the waterfront.

If you want to skip this story, just miss out the blue bit

Before all the condos arrived, the beach had many single family homes. However, a developer decided to buy up all the land and build condos, believing them to be a better use of the land. But one particular lady didn’t want to sell, no matter how much money was offered. As construction started, workers ‘accidentally’ cut her power lines, or broke the water main, but she still wouldn’t sell. Eventually the lady passed away, and when she did the developer thought he would finally be able to use the last little bit of land for another block of condos. Only, the lady had the last laugh, as before she died she had the deeds to the property changed so that the piece of land could only ever be used for a single family home. It now makes that piece of land worth around $8m!

Cute little story about how the little guy can sometimes win, right? Well it would be if it were true……. Unfortunately, it seems it’s a bit of an urban myth. As I was researching the story to remind myself of the ‘facts’, I discovered that it’s not completely true. The lady in question actually sold the house in 1979, before she died, to a family who still live there now, and it’s not worth anything near $8m……..
Thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t want to move from there either, unless I could get $8m, and then I’d put an offer in on Nige’s place across the water

We made it back to the marina and disembarked our vessel, leaving a small tip as we went. Adam is really into the tipping process, and likes to have a discussion about it beforehand, weighing up the service and coming up with an appropriate amount. If it was up to him though, we’d end up paying more in tips that we did for the actual service, he’s rather generous! However, we had all thoroughly enjoyed the sea screamer, from hearing about the houses, then speeding through the waves, and then obviously the highlight of eventually spotting the dolphins. It’s a memory I’ll cherish for a long time and I’d recommend it to anyone. I’d never seen them in their natural habitat before, and felt very lucky to have done so.

I had a quick peep at the photo we’d had taken before boarding, but as usual I let the side down with a particularly special gurn……

It was just gone 5pm by now, and our plan for the evening was to head to Gondoliers for something to eat. Gondoliers is a restaurant I’d read favourably about a few times on the Dibb so we decided to give it a go. We knew roughly where it was, heading away from Tangerine Dream and so we wandered off in that general direction, wishing we’d paid more attention to exactly where it was!

We noticed that Daniel had a little cut on his foot (the perils of wearing flip flops! ), so we called into the nearby Hyatt hotel, mainly so that I could ask the concierge if he could direct us to the restaurant, but also so that I could put a plaster on Daniel and Simon could wash his hands!

We went inside and were directed upstairs. Wow! What an amazing looking hotel! I went to the desk while Simon took the boys off to freshen up.

The concierge was extremely helpful, I’ve a feeling he thought we were guests of the hotel, and I didn’t go out of my way to point out that we weren’t When I said we were looking for Gondoliers as we fancied some Italian food he looked a little taken aback. Apparently Gondoliers isn’t Italian, rather Greek, and being from Italian descent himself, he suggested we go somewhere else for proper Italian food. Not only that, he said it was a good 25 minute walk from where we were and that there were better places nearby. When the others joined us, he noticed Daniel’s cut and offered a couple of plasters and some antiseptic cream which was really nice. I told Simon what I had been told, and we were then in two minds about what to do, not only because of the food, but the distance also. However, the concierge then went back on what he had previously said, and suggested that actually, if it was pizza we were looking for (Adam & Simon were), then we should go there. I then asked where he would recommend we went instead, and again he said ‘you should go there’ . Perhaps when he clapped eyes on the three men in my life he quickly realised that we weren’t actually guests at the hotel Don’t forget, we were all sporting a ‘dragged through the rough end of a ragman’s trumpet’ look thanks to Sea Screamer, although I managed to conceal it a little bit with my hat

Anyway, we had a little chat about it and decided to carry on with our original plan. The concierge then offered to call the Clearwater free taxi for us, probably desperate to get us off his property

We waited on the comfy sofas just outside the hotel and the boys were highly delighted when a golf buggy pulled up for us. Simon and I got on the forward facing seats while the boys got on the back. The journey wasn’t that long, I doubt it would have taken 25 minutes to walk, but we were glad we got the taxi, it was a lot of fun and the boys have since asked if we can have a golf buggy at home instead of a car

We tipped the driver, and asked if he would be around to pick us up later. He gave us a card and said to give him a call when we were done.

Gondoliers wasn’t at all what I expected, it looked like any other restaurant chain, whereas I was expecting something a little more authentic, be it Italian or Greek! We were quickly shown to a table in the very quiet restaurant, and that was pretty much the last of any good service we received for the rest of the meal! It took an absolute age for our drinks order to be taken, and having not had anything to drink since the slushies earlier, our mouths were as dry as Ghandi’s flip flops, so lack of fluid was very noticeable!

Eventually we caught our server’s eye and she seemingly reluctantly took our drinks order. 4 sodas please! It’s not as if she was rushed off her feet, I think there was only one other table being used at that point.

Anyway, onwards & upwards! We made our choices, Adam & Simon going for pizza as expected, Adam the plain cheese & tomato, Simon the philly steak. Daniel had chicken fingers, and against my better judgment I went for the lasagne. Against my better judgment because I don’t usually order a one item dish in case I don’t like it. Oh how I wish I’d stuck to that…. (Can you see where this is going?! )

First of all though, we were brought breadsticks which we all tucked into, they were quite tasty.

During this time our server came over to let us know that she’d accidentally ordered Adam a large pizza rather than a medium, but that they would only charge us for a medium. Erm, okaaaaaay, how very generous

When our food did eventually come out, after a wait of about 20 minutes, it looked pretty good

However, other than Daniel, who quite honestly is easily pleased with his chicken, none of us were impressed with our food. I can’t get excited about pizza anyway, but even Adam, who LOVES his cheese on toast () said it didn’t taste very nice, which was a real shame when you look at the size of it!

This is how much was left, and that’s with Simon attempting to help out too

Simon said his pizza was just ‘okay’, and my lasagne, despite it being quite nice at first, turned out to be lukewarm in the middle, with barely any meat sauce, and the white sauce was quite lumpy which made the whole dish pretty awful actually.

We declined any offer of dessert, and settled the bill,

We then asked our server if she would mind calling the free taxi for us. She agreed, telling us that she used it all the time, and actually became quite chatty and animated at that point – call me cynical, but I wonder why she changed at the end of the meal, you know, at the point where you are considering how much tip to leave If Adam had his way, we’d have left nothing In fairness, the food was very inexpensive, however, I would rather have paid double and gone somewhere we had actually enjoyed, value for money it was not.

We waited a little while to find out about the taxi, but our server kept telling us that she wasn’t getting any reply. She offered to keep trying for us and so we gave it a few more attempts until she did finally get through but was then told it would be at least a half hour wait.

Despite the boys’ disappointment, we decided to walk, and stop off at the pier on the way back rather than heading all the way home.

We had a pleasant walk back along the beach, pointing out all the other restaurants we should have gone to instead To be fair, Gondoliers gets a lot of good reviews, not only on the Dibb but on Trip Advisor too, so I wonder if we just caught it on a bad night? I wouldn’t want to put anyone off going, but we most certainly will never go back again, especially after what happens later on that night (teaser alert, read all about it tomorrow! ) there are just far too many nicer places to go.

When we got to the pier, Daniel decided to have another go at the bungee, having to wait slightly longer than we’d first thought because someone else decided their child shouldn’t have to wait their turn As it happened, that particular little darling then decided he didn’t enjoy it and so was back off again before he’d really started. Karma

Daniel had a little bounce up & down, but then he said that the straps were hurting him, and so he didn’t use up all his time either. I wonder if the people running it do it on purpose so they don’t have to work so hard They were really lacking in social skills too, it does make me wonder why people are in customer facing jobs if they so obviously appear to not like people!

We then took the short walk back to Tangerine Dream, stopping off at the Hulk Hogan shop once again on the way. There was a woman outside the shop ranting and raving about some book we should buy. If she really wanted us to buy whichever book it was, she really ought to have been a little less scary!

We got back to the cottage and packed for our sleepover at the Palm Pavilion. We grabbed some snacks and toiletries, swimming gear and then headed on over.

Predictably, the boys wanted to get straight in the pool as soon as we got there, and by 8pm that’s where they were. I’d forgotten to pack my cozzie so I sat on the side enjoying with Simon the beers we’d brought from home.

Once he’d finished his drink, Simon got in the pool too, and we had a really fun evening just messing about, doing silly video clips and telling jokes. There was lots of laughter, we really had a great time, and I’ll admit that I felt happier just being at the hotel too, beginning to follow Simon’s train of thought that my bites were from the cottage. It’s a real shame that we had begun to fall out of love with the place as looking back now, it could have been perfect. I was beginning to feel a little off colour, but put it down to tiredness. As far as holiday days go, this one had definitely been an exhausting one!

Anyway, at around 9pm it started to rain so we moved inside. Amazing how much mess you can make in such a small amount of time isn’t it?!

Ooops, perhaps people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones But, as I said before, it’s always nice and tidy when we leave...

Once we were inside though, the culmination of the day’s events, from no air-con, to the sore bites, traipsing round looking for alternative accommodation, the under par meal, etc, finally got to me, and the final straw came when a little blighter went buzzing past, right in front of my face, I swear I could see it sticking it’s tongue out at me, a bit like this

Not only that, but I appeared to have bitten, yet again, this time on my arm.

I took myself off into the bathroom and broke down in tears. It sounds ridiculous looking back, as the highs most definitely outweighed the lows that day, but I just felt like I’d had enough now, and wanted to escape. Simon came in after me and gave me a cuddle, and I then got myself into bed. Simon told the boys I was upset about my bites, which had turned a particularly attractive shade of purple during the day

and the boys took it in turns to give me cuddles too.

We all settled down ready for some sleep, and as we did we could hear an amazing thunderstorm going on outside!

I’m really sorry if I come across as a bit moany and ungrateful today, I knew today would be difficult to write because of how I was feeling that day, and that’s one of the reasons it’s taken me a while to get it posted. However, I didn’t want to gloss over how I was feeling, as I think it’s only fair to share the lows as well as the highs. Looking back on it now, it probably wasn’t all that bad, and the day’s highs most definitely outweighed the lows (how could they not, we saw dolphins in the wild! ) but at the time I was starting to feel really low, and unfortunately, the day that followed didn’t start off any better…..

Thank you for sticking with me though, and I promise normal service will resume very soon!

Day 8

[ely3857]

Awwwww bless ya. I think I'd be ready to burn down any place I thought had brought on bites that bad! x

[disneylover]

Oh Jo! I totally sympathise with the bite situation. Fortunately on our last holiday I only succumbed to 2 but have had trips before that I've been bitten to death (nearly)! I still laugh at the dude on the sea screamer remembering that snap from your photos posted when you went! Doesn't it really get your goat when you have a duff meal especially after recommendations from people. It's a real waste of not only your money, time but eating opportunities! Hoping normal service resumes shortly.

[Fuellady]

Aaw Jo, hope those bites clear up soon, they look terrible. I wish I hadn't even mentioned mine now... they weren't half as bad as that

Even on holiday, we're still human and things still get to us. I think we like to pretend it's all sweetness and light when we're away but it's still real life and things still happen that upset us. Hope you were feeling better the next day, but going by what you say at the end, I'm guessing not!

Glad you enjoyed seeing the dolphins in their natural environment. I'm very lucky that my office is literally across the road from the sea and I often see the Moray Firth dolphins whilst sitting at my desk Saying that, I've never seen them close us as I've never been on our local dolphin spotting boat... funny how we don't do things that are right on our doorstep

Take care Jo, see you in the next one! x

[Wozi]

Oh Jo, those bites look so sore. Looking forward to reading more xx

[Guest]

Ouch , those bites look nasty

Shame that you had to move for the night but at least you got some AC though , had to chuckle about the "guests" at the first substitute motel you were shown , very descriptive ! , on one visit we had to share a swimming pool with a rather large Mexican family (large in size & shape) where the Father proceeded to tell (shout to) the mother what he was going to do to her that night ...lovely stuff...I was tempted to ask the chap when was the last time he had seen his ahem...appendage..but thought better of it as he could have squished me...

Sea Screamer looks brill , we did the Pirate Cruise before & that was a great laugh , saw some posho houses & some lovely dolphins too , they rolled me off that boat since as soon as you finished your beer another magically appeared...

Anyway , noticed all the Hulk Hogan references , it might just be internet rumours but there is a strong feeling that Hulk himself is going to be a surprise guest on this years Im A Celebrity...a few different folk have mentioned this online...& lets be honest , if its on the internet then it must be true eh ?! , might be nothing...but you never now !

[Pussycat Doll]

Ahh Jo, sometimes we just get pushed over the edge! Sounds like one of those days! The Seascreamer looks fab, it was the highlight of our trip as well, at least you got some air com for the evening, it sounds like you couldn't have managed without it. Looking forward to reading more. Pussycat

[mossyflossy]

Poor you, those bites look horrid and I'm not surprised you felt so miserable what with the lack of aircon and the duff meal too..we loved Sea Screamer too...not been to Gondolier but it isnt going to make my hit list...I'd prefer Pizza Express!

Don't leave it too long, lovely lady...want to know what the cliffhanger is for tomorrow!

[Xtinabella]

Poor Jo!
Having been a tasty delight for a number of years for anything that bites, I sympathise with you. I was bit on the nose once and it swelled to an attractive red calliflower shape with one large nostril. Gorgeous.

I love your reports, the details and the good and the bad. Your saving me a fortune as I'm planning my next trip around all the things that I like about your holidays and avoiding other stuff.

Thanks so much for your wonderful, funny and emotive writings.

[Jessika]

Wow those bites look painful. I can see from your countdown you are going back next year. Can I ask if you've decided to return to the cottage? I'm currently planning a 4 night stay and am as yet undecided where we should stay. Thanks for sharing.