For our 5th wedding anniversary we went to Jamaica to an all inclusive resort. It was probably the most relaxing and fun vacation that we have been on so far. It was so hard to come back from a vacation like this!!
We had a 4 hour layover in the Houston airport and were so tired! So here is Chris after getting frustrated that airport chairs just aren't comfy. Why don't they make them so you can sleep??
Here we are just arriving in Jamaica and so tired from the long flight.
This was our pitstop on our way to the resort. A little rumcake factory. You know you are in pirate company when things are named Tortuga. We watched pirates of the Carribean on the plane there so we were all excited!
Ahoy matey! Aaarrrgh!
Our coach to the resort.
The entrance to the resort.
Getting off the bus and heading to the lobby.
We're in Jamaica baby!!
It was really hot being in jeans so we were really happy to be greeted by cold drinks. This was the first of MANY pina coladas, Jamaican Oranges, Volcanoes, Strawberry Daquiris over and over again.
It was so refreshing because it was so hot!
One of the two lobbies.
Our wristbands that we had to wear all week. Ours were red which meant that we got special treatment because we were celebrating our anniversary.
One of the two main staircases.
We had a few minutes before we headed to our room so we checked out the main pool. It is the biggest pool in Jamaica and right on the beach. It was like swimming in open water in parts.
Yep....that's still all the main pool. It was huge!
The bathrooms were all marked by Jamaican men/women heads.
Then we headed to our room. This walking up the path to our villa #18.
The entrance....
This is the courtyard of our villa.
Our room.
Our room complete with an awesome ocean view. The bed was in the center and the couch folded out to a bed. We never used it but it would have come in handy with kids.
The other side of our room. It had a very open floorplan with no wall for the bathroom except for the toilet closet and shower which both had an opaque glass door.
Our balcony.
The fun little beach by our balcony.
Matching robes and slippers.
Breakfast by the pool.
The fruit was FANTASTIC. This isn't the best picture but every buffet had the most amazing fresh fruit. The mango was SO GOOD! The best I have ever had!
Afternoon water aerobics in the main pool. It was really fun and ended with a massage!
The pool by our room.
Here we are! Chris showcasing one of the main walking paths from the lobby to the villas.
Sunset with a volcano drink. Perfect!
There was a storm coming in that night as the sun set and the clouds were amazing. It was really cool looking!
One of the many turndown services. I didn't take pictures of them all but a few of my favorites.
The resort map. It was so big we didn't even get to see all of it.
The Marley themed disco. It was hopping at night not so much during the early evening.
One of the murals. They had a great one of the GG bridge but I didn't get a picture of it.
The lunch buffet. It always had warm fresh breads. We didn't always eat lunch of the buffet because we wanted to try all the resturants but the food here was phenomenal.
The swim up bar of the main pool. The bartender had never heard of a volcano drink which is basically a pina colada with strawberry syrup at the bottom that swirls up when you pour in the pina colada. So he named the drink the Patience. Lots of people started ordering them and he told me he needed lots of patience.
The coconut shrimp. Again...food...AMAZING!
This is Richard the super kind bartender of the game room. He always gave us a selection of desserts with our drinks AND he taught us how to play dominoes Jamaica style. He showed us a bunch of card tricks and we left him with a couple decks of ours so he could get some good tips. He was really fun!
This is James our pasta guy. They had a made to order pasta bar as part of the lunch buffet and James made the best pasta. And he was really nice!
We played so much beach volleyball. We did it almost every morning and almost every late afternoon. Our last night there we played probably 2 hours during sunset. It was so cool!
The beach with all the watersports. We took out the kayaks and paddle boats. They also had windsurfing and catamarans. The water and weather were perfect for it!
Eating one night at the Mexican place El Mariachi. I can't say enough how great the food was!
The Lotus resturant was really good too. We sat at sushi bar for our appetizer. The chefs there spent so much time on detail with the garnishes and explaining it all to us. It was cool.
The Tiramisu at the Italian resturant called the Pastafarian. It was to die for. REALLY!! We loved this resturant because it was open air and close to the beach so you could watch the sunset and listen to the ocean. It did tend to get hot though.
The entertainment staff. We LOVED them! They were so fun and they got to know us really well because we did basically everything that they put on. Some of the names were Chocolate, Sugar, Lucky, Dr. Dre, Mr. Bond, Mr. Go, Mad Ras, and Happy Feet. We learned all their real names too but their other names were more fun.
Chris with Happy Feet. He was the most AMAZING dancer. He had all the Micheal Jackson moves as well as moves we have never seen before. He could move his body like crazy! You can tell who has more rythym in this picture. He taught Chris some fun dance moves!
We saw this little wild hermit crab on the walking path one day.
Ok.....so let me preface this with I DID NOT WANT TO DO THE ARM WRESTLING COMPETITION. BUT I got suckered into it. I have laughing so hard in this picture I am almost crying!
I kept winning so I had to keep going. This girl was REALLY tough but I beat her. Once I won one I was NOT going to lose.
I had to wrestle everyone back to back so here in the staff giving me a massage after one of the wrestles. My arm was really starting to hurt!
What?? Left handed? That's not fair.
And my friend Brenda who got me into this whole thing. I won the tournament which ended up being really fun. But I couldn't move my arm the rest of the day!
Chris and I doing the darts tournament. We won this one too!
Playing pool with our friend Jay. He was really fun. He was there with his family from London. They were hilarious.
Another turn down service with real flowers.
Chilling out in the spa. I didn't get any pictures unfortunately but the spa was really big and had murals of stone that looked like people at Roman baths. It was really nice!
The main pool at the spa with steam room and sauna doors in the background.
These fountains were fun and also gave a good massage. The pool in the background was like sitting in a cup of Sprite it has tons of tiny bubbles that were very theraputic. There was also a long river type pool to swim in. It was all warm like bath water and it also had hot tubs. Very relaxing!
They had about 6 showers with different jets and things but this was the most interesting. It looked more like a practical joke than a shower but if gave a cold splash.
This resturant served jerk chicken for lunch that was really good! The spice burned my lips a little bit after. Or was it from being in salt water all morning snorkeling?
Ever hear of lunch dessert? The chocolate cake was the best I have ever had! SO moist!
Great food to go with the great view. This was during the half hour rainstorm we had pretty much every afternoon. Then the sun would come out. We said to the waitress that we wanted to watch the storm come in and she said "What? This isn't a storm this is rain! The sun be shining in just half an hour mon". Guess storms are reserved as hurricanes?
Chilling out on one of the beaches trying to figure out how we can vacation more often. LOL. Thanks Nate for the good read!
Goofing off by our big tub. Is it a pool or a tub? LOL
Bubble bath time!
Sooo.....I guess that the little bottles of bubble bath are meant to last more than one bath. I shortly became almost engulfed in bubbles when I turned on the jets. But it was fun! Now...where's my rubber ducky?
This turndown service was my favorite. Two loving swans going to their lovenest.
I didn't get pictures of all the shows but this one was really fun. They did a bunch of dancing from all the regions in the Carribean. I loved these costumes!
Playing dominoes with this great couple Mike and Antionette. They played in the darts tournament with us too. They were a lot of fun!
A friendly pool tournament with our friends Tom, Brenda, Micheal, and Antoinette.
One of the days we decided to rent a jetski and explore the coast a bit. We didn't bring the camera with us because I didn't want it to get wet so at the end we took a few shots from the shore with the resort in the background.
Coming back from out day out on the jetski. We took turns driving because it was so fun to jump the waves.
One day, they had fresh coconuts on the beach. Chris couldn't resist a "Cocos Frios" since he got addicted to them on his mission. Except this one wasn't cold. But still really good. I had some too.
Hmmm....fresh coconut and Jerk Chicken. A true Jamaican meal. This jerk chicken was SO GOOD. It was done at the food stand on the beach in true jerk fashion.
One day we took an excursion to Ochos Rios. We stopped at the Wassi pottery factory where we saw a lot of pottery made that was sold in the stores.
This guy made some really cool stuff on the wheel. He made it look so easy!
And I don't know how....but we always seem to happen upon the church on our vacations. We were getting cash out of an ATM there and we looked across the street and were like "HEY!" and there it was! Right above a market which we thought was kindof weird.
What a great idea! Aloe with Lidocaine! I wish we could get this in the states!!
This place was called Fern Gulley. It was orginally a riverbed. There was a big earthquake that changed how the river flowed so this became a road instead perfectly carved out.
And when the river changed it created this MASSIVE waterfall called Dunn's River Falls which we climbed up. It took us over an hour and a half and was so fun to play in. Unfortunately since there was water I didn't get a lot of pictures with our camera but the guide took this one. LOVE IT! It was so much fun!
At the end of our tour to Ochos Rios our driver took us up to this lookout point right at sunset. We could see all of Montego Bay.
At the end of our tour to Ochos Rios our driver took us up to this lookout point right at sunset. We could see all of Montego Bay.
Chilling out by the main pool with Tom and Brenda. They were so fun. We played a lot of cards together.
Reggae lessons with the ENT crew!
They always wanted to take our pictures by the grand staircase before dinner. We grabbed our own this night.
The steel drum band show was really good and so were the dancers with it.
At one point in the show they got audience members to play the drums. YES that is me in the center back playing the drumset. I actually could do it! It was really fun!
Chris watching the Red Sox game in the sports bar one night. It was our last night there. These pictures aren't even half of what I took and don't even come close to our Jamaica experience I just didn't want to make the blog 100 pages long. The resort was wonderful, the food AMAZING, the desserts (well....I ate WAY too many), and our anniversary VERY MEMORABLE. Now...when can we go back. We loved it!
