Jamaica concluded!

And here we are at the final chapter of our Jamaican vacation!!!

We had to take a UP style excursion while in paradise! So we decided to go on the guided dune buggy tour!

Hey Goat! (just a little inside joke for my friends!)

The last adventure of our trip was one that we were strongly looking forward to. One of my vendors at work, has a jet ski rental in Negril, Jamaica. It's about an hour and a half away from Montego Bay. His best friend/business partner is from the UP but living in Jamaica for the winter! He called Peter and arranged for he and Phil (their Jamaican business partner) to drive to Montego Bay, and pick us up! We were so excited not only to see Negril and go jet skiing, but also to get a chance to see the real Jamaica.

The following pictures are from the property where Phil and Peter both have houses, they live up in the hills outside Negril and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

This is a house in the village on our way up to their property.

Phil is cutting a fresh coconut for Georgie and I to try the water.

Sippin fresh coconut water for the first time

The view! The blue in the background isn't just the sky but also the ocean/beach of Negril.

We were so fortunate that Peter and Phil took us to the village and showed us around. One of the amazing things that we got to see was an elementary school. Normally the children wear uniforms but it was Jamaica day so they dressed in their flag colors.

\

They were all so eager for attention and hugs, they were really sweet and I wanted to scoop them up and take them home with me.

FYI, these kids were not nearly as interested in Georgie as me :) They must be good judges of character!!

 I am thinking of putting together a care package of school supplies for the kids and sending it to the school, they don't have much. If anyone is interested in contributing let me know.

This is the gorgeousness also known as 7 mile beach, in Negril.

This is Auntie Doris's place! The green building behind us is her 9 room hotel, literally it's 30 feet from the beach! Where you see us is at her bar! I could waste a few days sitting there, easy!

This, is Bigg's! Believe it or not, it's where we ate lunch! One of the things I really wanted to do was eat where the locals eat! We had a chance to do that for breakfast and lunch on this day. Biggs has the best chicken I've had all week, he cooks it in a grill made out of a 50 gallon drum! George also had some fish and rice that was awesome! We even bought a small jar of his Jerk sauce! Georgie loved it!

That's it for our Jamaican adventure! I hope you enjoyed the ride! I'll leave you with a couple of "evening out" pics of me and my love!

Jamaica Part 2!

Hello, and welcome back to our Jamaican Honeymoon!

On our second full day, we signed up for snorkeling. We were very lucky that we were able to go because, most days the water was too choppy! On Tuesday morning, we lucked out! This was Georgie's first time snorkeling!!!

When we saw the name of the glass bottom boat that would take us out, we smiled, knowing his mom was coming with us!

 Here's Georgie in the water! In anticipation of this trip we ordered a waterproof digital camera. Best decision ever made! Our Kodak Sport camera jumped right in the ocean with us!

Our view of the ocean floor!

Self Portrait!!!

It was difficult to have our picture taken under the water because the waves were moving us around!

Snorkeling checked of my honeymoon bucket list!!! 

Happy on the boat ride back to the beach!!!

We did not spend much time over at the Royal (see the first Jamaica post if you're lost!).At that property, they have a private island where you can swim, eat, drink and it has a Thai restaurant. We had to venture over and check it out!

This is the boat taxi that takes ya to and from the island!

Our view of the resort from our beach chairs!

Georgie and I in paradise!!

Here's a little all inclusive tip: using mugs, like ours in the photo above, gets you a bigger drink that stays cold/frozen longer than those pesky plastic cups! Big thanks to Eric and Kerri for that wisdom pre-vacation!

I'll leave you today with some pictures from the Tokyo Joe's restaurant! It's Japanese cuisine with an animated cooking show!

 

There's part 2! Coming up in part 3, Dune Buggies and our outside the resort experience!

Jamaica!!!

Most of  you already know, but recently George and I traveled to Montego Bay, Jamaica for our honeymoon! We had a fantastic time soaked up the sun for sure!

Our travels to get there is another story altogether! A story for a different post! Let's just say we won't be flying Delta again anytime soon.

Back to the happy memories....

We stayed at the Sandals Carlyle Inn in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This is the view from our balcony. In Montego Bay there are 3 Sandals properties, the Carlyle being the smallest. It only has 52 rooms and had one pool and whirlpool. Also, it's located across the street from a public beach. This differs from the other two properties, Sandals Montego Bay (MoBay) and Sandals Royal Caribbean (the Royal). These two locations featured hundreds of guest rooms, long white sandy beaches, many pools and bars and dining options.

The reason we chose the Carlyle is because of the Stay at 1, Play at 3 feature. It's no secret that I am frugal :) and the Carlyle was much less expensive for a week than the other properties, but we'd had full access to them as well! The catch? Well, none if you ask me! Others might say the 10-15 minute shuttle ride between the properties is a catch but I didn't mind. For us, in fact, we loved being in the hustle and bustle of the bigger hotels when we wanted to, but always had the option to come "home" to our quaint inn.

Now more pictures:

These two are the beautiful ocean across the street from the Carlyle and our view of the bar/amphitheater/gardens, from outside our room.

Here is Georgie and I enjoying some drinks on the beach our first full day. Here, we are at Sandals MoBay, where we spend most of our time. And FYI, I wore that hat all week and got MANY compliments on it :)

This is the catamaran boat at MoBay, we were scheduled for a Sunset Cruise on Valentine's day, but it was too choppy. :(

This is a view of the beach and the picnic tables during lunch.

Come sundown, those picnic tables are elegantly dressed and lit with candles to transform the beach into the Stewfish restaurant. Georgie and I had the privilege of dining there on Valentine's Day and had the best meal of the week. I had steak and he had lobster bouillabaisse.

Here we are during our Valentine's day dinner!

Below you will see some more pictures of MoBay....

This is a view of the lunch counter where you could get pizzas, jerk chicken, burgers, quesadilla's - one day they even made me chili cheese fries :). This is also where they cook dinner for the stew fish!

This is a better view of the water sports equipment. Those small boats with the sails, they are called Hobie cats.

Funny story: on the day we went snorkeling, we had about 30 minutes to kill and one of the lifeguards talked us into taking a hobie cat ride. He assured me he'd be taking us out! So we donned our life vests and got ready, we took our seats on the boat. At the last minute, he kicked me off and said he was giving Georgie a lesson!!! A few minutes later they came back and George looked confused but excited! I hopped on and away we went! The lifeguard was giving us instructions from the beach and when it was time to turn around and come back, oh my!!! Georgie pushed the rudder arm when he was supposed to pull, the sail switched sides and over we went! Not being the best swimmer I knew he'd be worried that I was okay so I immediately started yelling "I'm fine I'm fine!" The rescue boat came for us and he successfully talked Georgie through it to get back to shore.... I road in the rescue boat!

Hanging out at the pool/swim up bar at MoBay!

I spent a lot of time hanging out on this raft while Georgie pushed me around! Behind the camera is a swim up bar!

That's where I'll leave you for today!

On the next post, snorkeling, the Royal Private Island and more!!!