Jamaica Part Deux

So, I'm finally having the time to sit down and blog about our Canopy Tour in Jamaica. We ended up taking the tour on Thursday morning and it lasted the good part of the day.

The tour bus picked us up at the resort bright and early (8:20 -- early for vacation) to head into the jungle. It was a 1.5 hour drive back toward Montego Bay and then a turn in to the center of the island to get to the jungle areas.

Upon arriving, we were introduced to our tour guides Michael and English. They helped us don our harnesses and get helmets.


Our tour group then signed the waiver.. which included lovely phrases such as "I can stand on a platform 60 feet in the air without vomiting and/or fainting". I wasn't quite sure how to answer that one.

Everyone signed their lives away, applied bug spray, and then tromped into the jungle.

The guides are absolutely hilarious. They had us laughing the entire time. Our guide, Michael, seemed to think he was famous because apparently, we was the guide for Hugh Hefner's girlfriends when the "Girls Next Door" came to Jamaica. He seemed very hurt when G and I told him we didn't watch the show and had never seen him.

My first zip line experience was no where near as scary as I thought it would be. I'm not a huge fan of heights, but in this case there were so many trees and vines around me that it never really occurred to me how high up I was. Had it just been a platform alone 60 ft in the air I would have been much more freaked out.

After each zip, a guide would tell you to bring your legs up so you don't smash them and help stop you.

Occasionally, if you didn't have enough speed the harness holding you would stop near the end and you'd have to pull yourself up to the platform. You could clearly tell, at that point, which of the guys in our group had former military backgrounds. They were little monkeys getting back up those lines.

G was always braver than I was. He'd take running jumps off those platforms. I was proud of myself to just step off the edge. That was a huge feat for me in and of itself.


We had a fabulous time and recommended the trip to everyone back at the resort. We pulled back into the resort at 3:30, just in time to change and make it to my 4pm tennis lesson! Vacation's rough isn't it?

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.

Dear guy in white pickup:

I know the act of me bending over to scoop dog poopy is INCREDIBLY enticing. But next time, please refrain from honking.

Kthanxbye.

Bored at work?

Meet today's addiction I discovered thanks to Pop Candy on the USA Today website. It's called Typeracer and it's a speed typing challenge which pits you against other anonymous typists doing popular movie and book quotes.

Now, I seem to be doing pretty well. I'm not always the fastest typist compared to some of these people, but I'm fairly accurate. (which seems to be what wins races) I'm averaging around 80-90 words / minute.

Thanks for teaching me typing 6-8th grade typing classes! (they were mandatory in my jr high and I'm very thankful now). I even made some extra money in my dorm typing people's papers for cash.

Can you feel the love tonight?

Five months or so ago, on my birthday, G got me tickets to see the Lion King when it comes through Tampa. Five months seemed like soooooo far away! But, the day is finally here!

I raced out of work to get home and eat before the 8pm show. I made sure to wear something extra nice to work so I wouldn't have to change, but just grabbed a shawl for the chilly Performing Arts center.

G outdid himself with the seats. First balcony, third row, dead center. Very nice. You could see everything.

Now, let me just say.. I'm not a huge Disney person. Unlike my roomie in college, I didn't have every Disney soundtrack and a poster of every Disney movie on my walls. I have however, seen the Lion King and thought it was really cute, but had no idea how they were going to bring that story live action.

From the very first scene (shown in the picture shown here) the costumes are AMAZING! Those are all people. The giraffes were my favorite! I have no idea how those guys mange to stay hunched over and walk on those stilts. Watching a giant elephant walk through the audience in the orchestra section was also a huge highlight.

I favored the African folk numbers over the traditional Lion King/Elton John soundtrack numbers. The man who was playing Mufasa in our version had the most amazing voice. Great projection! According to the program he does vocal/acting work in Orlando at Disney and has been on many Disney soundtracks. The two kids playing Nala and Simba were also really cute.

Overall, G and I had a fabulous night. The show, does go on for almost three hours.. so if you're thinking of taking your family keep this in mind. There is a fifteen minute intermission after act one. In that amount of time, there is no WAY you were going to get through the 120 person line for the ladies rest room. (there were only three stalls for the entire balcony section) The men of course, were moving right along but there was still a line even for the men's room! They definitely need to redesign that particular aspect of our performing arts center.

Looking at the future shows for the Center , G and I are next looking at seeing Spring Awakening. It's coming in late December. I know it won a bunch of Tonys so I'm excited it's coming.

RIP Sirius

This morning when I got back in my car to go to work.... the static had returned!! This signaled the end of Sirius. I'm done. Four receivers, 2 FM adaptors and FOUR trips to the car installation place on days off = NO MORE !!

I finally got through this afternoon to cancel my service. Since it's only May and I renewed in late December I got G a $102 credit for the rest of the year. I'm definitely not going to pay for service I'm not going to use.

While, I loved having the service ... I'm done putting up with all the crap of trying to get it to work. It's not worth all the time I lost trying to deal with it. If I ever bought a car that had it pre-installed.. I might think of renewing it again. Until then, no thank you.

Productive Day Off !

It's only 1130, but I've already gotten so much done today! I guess this is what happens when you stop being a lazy slug and actually get up at 730 on your day off. Heh.

The dog kept me up half the night shaking his head. Which usually means only one thing... doggie ear infection. Fortunately, I still have some ear drops left from the last doggie ear infection so I had to clean out the ear this morning and apply drops. Having a fairly large dog who hates having his ears cleaned, this was quite the challenge to accomplish before coffee and shower. I'll call the vet today, too to get some more ear drops but I had enough to get him started on it. Poor guy.

Then, off to the DPM! My steroid shot, while horribly painful, seemed to have worked. I managed to go 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym on Monday night with no pain. YAY! I'm still not doing any impact exercises, but just doing that and actually working up a sweat for the first time in seven months was heaven! The DPM says I'm doing well and unless the pain flairs back up and lasts longer than a week.. he doesn't need to see me any more. YAY! He also made me some custom orthotics for my shoes to wear when walking around or running. (especially for running) They're designed specifically for me to keep my arch from falling, which he believes is what caused my problem in the first place. I have a quick follow up in two weeks to check the fit on the orthotics, but other wise I'm free of doc visits.

My next stop was my hairdresser's to trim my hair. I still have the super cute bob, but it was getting shaggy and needed to be cleaned up. I especially wanted to get it done before vacation in a week and a half. Ahhhh vacation!

Now I'm back home with the doggie trying to figure out what to make for lunch before my 2pm appointment AGAIN to get my satellite radio fixed. If THIS doesn't work I'm canceling it. Four receivers and 2 FM direct adapters is my limit. No more! As much as I love having Sirius this is becoming a total pain in the ass. The tech support people are laughing at how many notes I have on my file. One of the techs told me apparently I'm the black hole where Sirius radios go to die. (thanks, dude)

Some time today I'm going to try to put in some pool time with my new book. I've started "The Secret Life of Bees" and so far it's FABULOUS!