monday was a long day for us. we left the house at 6:30a to make our 9:35a flight from charlotte. when we got up to check in at the airport the steward started freaking out. "you're supposed to be here an hour before the flight leaves" it's 8:37. "your names don't match" the name on my ticket didn't match the name on my passport. yep, i forgot to change my maiden to my married. please don't tell me this vacation is gonna end before it even begins. luckily his supervisor got everything under control and they ended up changing my ticket to my maiden name. after all that, we ended up having to rush through security and jet down to the gate where they were already boarding. have i mentioned that i haven't eaten anything yet? i buy a muffin, granola bar and a bottle of juice for $9 at the newsstand right next to the gate. outrageous, i know! we board. it's about a 3 hour flight. come to find out u.s. airways doesn't have anything complimentary. sodas $2, no peanuts, no inflight entertainment, nothing. did i forget to mention we had to pay $15 a bag at check-in? let's just say we won't be flying with them anytime soon. we get to jamaica around 12:30p, collect our luggage and head towards the couples waiting area. by now, we're both starving. aaron has a red stripe, i have a ting and we wait for our shuttle ride to the resort. it's about 1.5 hour car ride to the resort. i'm absolutely starving and have the beginnings of a migraine when we arrive. we check-in and make a bee line to the grill. ahhhh, the best jerk chicken we've ever had. mmmmmmmm. afterwards, i'm in dire need of a nap to quash the headache. aaron heads straight for the bar. we pretty much stayed in the room the rest of the evening and both were asleep by 10. which is way early for me.
tuesday we got up early to an overcast sky. we decided today we'd just chill on the beach. aaron read, i dozed and we both sipped cocktails all afternoon. seriously, time seems to not move at all in jamaica. i'm thinking it's gotta be around 3p and it's only noon. we grab some lunch and head back to the beach. i didn't realize how hard it is for aaron to relax. "you wanna do this, you wanna do that?" uh, no. i don't want to do anything. i thought we'd agreed we weren't gonna do a thing today just chill. "oh, yeah." he continues reading his book, we people watch and that's pretty much how we spent the rest of the day. that night we got all dolled up for our anniversary dinner at feathers, the hoity-toity restaurant on the resort. all in all it was a good day.
wednesday we went horseback riding a few miles from the resort. this activity is not a resort related one so you have to pay extra to do it. last time we did the canopy tour/zipline this time we rode. it's the first time i'd ever been on a horse and we both had a good time. with this ride, you rode into the mountains and then along a beach. about a two hour ride. the sun did pop out briefly at the end. we did get to swim with the horses. we were actually horizontal with the horse for a bit. it was so cool. unfortunately one of our guides was taking the photos and they turned out a bit blurry side. at least we did get some documentation. afterwards we went back to the resort, ate lunch and headed for the beach again. we signed up to snorkel the next day and for the catamaran on friday. another day down.
thursday we woke up to rain. looked up the forecast to see what the rest of the day was gonna look like. 60% chance all day. bummer. we decided not to go snorkeling, which we later regretted and spent the rest of the day under overcast skies. drinking, lounging and playing horseshoes and bocci ball. set up snorkeling for the next day and ate at the thai restaurant, lemongrass that night.
friday, overcast again. notice a trend and have you noticed no blue sky in any of our photos? but on this particular morning the waves are crashing on the beach. this is great for aaron. as soon as we lay our towels down, he's off into the water. bodysurfing. he pretty much goes non-stop for about an hour and he's about the only one that can do it. after a while, i joined him but didn't have much luck. it's easier for me to use a boogie board, but the resort didn't have any. i guess they don't get much in the way of wave action too often. i did manage to catch one good wave on my own and pretty much rode it all the way in. i did notice all the watersports crafts were not seaside and the only boat anchored was the scuba one. i look over at the activities flag and it's red which means no water sports today. this includes snorkeling and the catamaran ride we had scheduled. kinda sucked but we made the best of it. the big shipwrecked beach party they had scheduled for that evening was moved indoors. we ate dinner, enjoyed a reggae band trio and had a martini before turning in that night.
on our final morning aaron decided to go for a run along the beach. he'd been doing it every other morning since we'd been there. a few minutes later he was back in the room. no run? no beach to run along! what? apparently overnight the waves were huge and everything had been pushed/moved up to the building line. it was really weird to see. sidewalks were covered with sand, tiki huts blown over, tree roots exposed. we walked along the shore to breakfast and it just started to pour. all of this bad weather...compliments of hurricane paloma or the residuals from her. after breakfast we just sat up on a balcony and watched the waves crash. it was pretty cool to see. we ended up staying there til we had to go back to the airport. we both had a good time despite the weather. last time we went, i don't think we had a single cloud in the sky and we were there twice as long. hopefully it was a fluke and next time, yes next time, it'll be much better!!
this weekend we'll be making our way back to illinois to celebrate the nuptials of nate and katie westphal. they were married a little over a month ago in jamaica. unfortunately, with the birth of avery, i was unable to attend. so i'm looking forward to seeing everyone and introducing the little man to friends and family. 
