Jamaica

I know I'm about two weeks behind in posting. With everything going on with the new office, I've had a lot going on!

Jamaica was fabulous ! We stayed at Couples Swept Away in Negril, which is on the north west shore of Jamaica. We left Sunday with a quick hop to Miami and then another quick 1.5 hour flight to Montego Bay. I've discovered traveling with G makes traveling all that much nicer. He's got Platinum status with almost every major airline.. so we get to board with first class, sit in the Admirals Club, and well.. that's about all it gets us other than lots of frequent flier miles.

Upon landing in Jamaica there's the requisite shuffle through immigration/customs with all the other people who are all antsy and anxious to get on with their vacations. Then comes the 1.5 hour shuttle bus ride to the resort. The bus was air conditions and the roads were good and it gave me a chance to see some of the way people actually live in Jamaica, not the faux tropical paradise that is "big-chain resort".

The one thing that struck me about Jamaica is how friendly the people are. Everyone was happy, greeted you with a smile, seemed to love their jobs, and was proud of where they lived. It was the complete opposite of my experience in Paris. Parisians seemed to loathe the fact that you were invading their city.


The resort itself was very pretty. Our room was an Ocean Veranda Suite. I think they used the Ocean term loosely. We got to our room and the ocean was a good walk away. You could, in fact, see if from our Veranda.. but it was a good 300+ ft away.

Couples is an all-inclusive resort. We tried to take full advantage of the fact that things were included. We booked nights at the fancier, reservation only restaurants for two of our nights. We attempted to go back to the fanciest one on our anniversary, but it was booked.

The main thing the resort did give me. I got back into tennis. G spent part of our first night perusing the activities guide they gave us at check in and noticed the had a visiting tennis pro giving lessons. This ended up being the best/most fun part of our entire trip. The tennis pro's name was Scott Christensen and he was visiting with his wife from Hilton Head, SC. They had both just moved there from Jersey. In exchange for teaching tennis a few hours a day he got a free stay at the resort. Good work if you can get it, eh? G took the advanced class at 8am every week day we were there. I started taking the beginner class at 4pm every week day we were there. If we'd had to pay for this kind of instruction at home for both of us it would have cost over $250. Since almost no one was showing up for the lessons, I ended up with semi-private lessons for a week! Scott made me realize that I can, in fact, learn this game.. even at 32. There was another husband/wife couple there that we ended up playing with all week. The wife played in college and was a strong player, like G. The husband was just learning, like myself. He and I ended up in the beginner classes together, while G and Tara were in the advanced class. We were the only people who showed up almost all week. It was really great to get to see Greg play to his full level. Usually when we go out to hit he's just lobbing balls at me so I can practice. It gets really boring for him.

Most of the vacation was spent relaxing on the beach. I plowed through two entire books. Both great reads!

When we got bored of just laying there, they had Hobie Cats we could take out.


One of the activities we enjoyed the most was the Canopy Tour. We signed up on Tuesday and booked for Thursday morning. The Canopy Tour is going to be its own blog. I took lots of pictures and G and I had a great time!

Our last full day in Jamaica was our anniversary. We relaxed on the beach, went sailing, and had a really nice dinner at one of the restaurants. While the food at the resort wasn't what you'd get at a fine dining place in the States.. it was still good. Breakfast and lunch was almost always buffet and for buffet food it was surprisingly good.


Overall, we had a lovely and relaxing time. The only drama was when we tried to scuba dive. We brought our dive cards, but not our dive logs. Since we had no dive log the divemaster wouldn't let us on the boat with out checking us out in the pool the next morning. Okay, fine. So we show up Tuesday morning with our masks, etc and the dive shack guy asks for my credit card. Say what now? Apparently, this wasn't just a check out.. they tried to stick us in some "refresher class" that cost 100 dollars per person. Oh hell no. G raised a bit of a stink, since he's a certified advanced diver with over 100+ dives. I'm not quite that advanced, but I've been diving 15 or so times. They offer their "resort certification" over three mornings FOR FREE!! Why are you trying to screw over the already licensed divers. So, we walked. We didn't dive the entire trip. I was really looking forward to diving in Jamaica, too.

Our trip home was uneventful. We were just said to leave our island paradise and go back to reality.