traviswright

Jamaica Recap

Ashley and I just got back last week from the best trip of our life! I figured that was reason enough to revive the old blog for at least a day right?

We spent a week at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Beach Resort. We realized that it was actually the first week since our honeymoon that we spent a consecutive week together with just the two of us. The reason for the week long vacation was to celebrate our 5th anniversary and Ashley successfully completing a year of school at Paul Mitchell. Our honeymoon was awesome 5 years ago. We went to Asheville and spent a week in a cabin, but we both wanted to have the Caribbean, blue water, all-inclusive, week long adventure before we had kids.

Jamaica was all that we dreamed it would be. It was by far one of the greatest weeks I’ve ever spent in my life. I think we enjoyed it a ton more at this stage in life than we would have 5 years ago if we did it on our honeymoon. We’ve both never been so relaxed in our life.

Here’s a recap of the week.

The best thing that we did, by a long shot, was the 65ft Catamaran Cruise. We sat on the nets on the front of the boat, and the seas were pretty rough when we went on Thursday. So, it was an awesome ride. I was a little worried of getting sea sick, because the waves were huge, but it was awesome. The trip was broken into 3 parts – First, the boat went to Dunn’s River Falls. It’s a waterfall that literally spills into the ocean. It’s about 900 ft of gradual water falls, and we hiked up, through the middle of the falls in the water, to the top. The water was freezing but it really was an amazing sight to see.

After the waterfalls, the boat went to a huge reef where we went snorkeling. We took a snorkeling trip through the resort a few days earlier, and the experience snorkeling at this huge reef was 100x better. We followed a guide, whose name was Travis, and pointed out tons of amazing things to us. He picked up a VERY LONG eel, went down and rustled up a sting ray from out of the sand, and put a sea urchin in my hand, and I immediately had about 20 small fish trying to eat from my hand. After snorkeling, it was just a huge party on the ocean. It was definitely one of the coolest things that either of us have ever done!

On the resort, there are about 8 restaurants that you can eat at each night. I would have to say that the food was probably one of the biggest let-downs of the week. Some of it was awesome, but there were some meals where I could have easily cooked up something better than what was brought out to me. Our favorite restaurants were the 2 Italian restaurants. However, the nice thing about most of the restaurants was the view. You can’t really complain when you are on a pier over the ocean eating dinner as the sun is setting. During one dinner, there was a really bad storm out on the ocean, and we tried for forever to get a picture of the lightning. (Ashley, who took all of the pictures during the week, finally succeeded. I’m pretty sure that if she really wanted to, she could be a successful photographer and make a living doing that. ) Our favorite meal, without a doubt, was lunch everyday. There is a little outdoor grill that cooks bacon cheeseburgers, fries, grilled chicken, grilled cheese, jamaican jerk chicken, and more french fries ALL DAY long. Some days I ate French Fries at 10:30 am.  One of my favorite Jamaicans worked there each day named Raquel. All of the Jamaicans who worked at the resort were some of the friendliest people that I have ever met.

Another one of my favorite things about a week at the beach is getting into a good book. The past 2 books I’ve read during a “beach week” were Lonesome Dove and East Of Eden. Both are two of my favorite books and have each been read multiple times since then. So I put a lot of thought and am probably a little too concerned about what I should read. I ended up reading Ken Follett’s Pillars of The Earth. It was written in 1989, but became popular again a few years ago because Oprah started to promote it. It’s a story that follows the building of a cathedral and the battle between church and state in 12th century England. I would highly recommend it if you enjoy reading. It’s almost 1000 pages, but it is very easy to get interested in.

Finally, Ashley and I made a bet before we left. Anywhere we go, we always see someone we know. That’s what happens when you both grow up and spend your entire life in the same neck of the woods. She said that we would see someone we knew. I said there was no possible way. On about the 3rd day, I am sitting in the water at the resort getting ready to get on a boat to go snorkeling.  A girl comes up and says, “I don’t mean to be a creeper (or something like that), but do you still lead worship at Midtown?” Needless to say, I lost the bet. Midtown people are EVERYWHERE.

I will let the pictures below tell the rest of the story! Enjoy!!!!! To see more pictures, here they are on Ashley’s facebook.

Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment