Jamaica!

Hello!! After much sun (and a few too many adventures) I am back home safe in Toronto. My trip to Jamaica with my sister in law was soooo much fun! So much to share, but I shall start from the beginning and see what I can get through before I fall asleep. I am so tired, but I ended up having to go into work on Monday so no sleeping in for me.

We took off on Sept 1 from Pearson. I met my brother and Tammy (and their precious toddler) there and after a lot of hugs for the baby we got through to our gate and ate some poutine and pina coladas for lunch. This was a mistake. I started feeling a little headachey at the gate, but by the time we were taking off I was NOT GOOD. Do not read any further if you don't like barf. Because there was a lot of it. I managed to make it to the bathroom the first couple times, and then I felt ok and tried to sleep it off. Drank some ginger ale and a few hours in I was feeling like I was going to make it. Tammy got up to go to the bathroom and before I knew it I was sick all over again. I barely made it to my barf bag. Oh my god, barf everywhere (ok, not all over...but still). hahahaha. Sorry, this is gross.

Funny story- creepy guy was sitting on the other side of Tammy and kept trying to talk to her and was telling her we should come party with him in Jamaica. After I ralphed all over myself, he disappeared and never came back. Lesson learned- when a creepy guy is hitting on you, just throw up!

Anyway, after that I felt fine and we landed and made our way to our resort! It was amaaaaaaazing! I still cannot believe we got to go someplace like this for FREE.

That was like a million photos, but I couldn't pick just one! Our room was HUGE and had a big king sized bed and a day bed. It also had a separate shower and jacuzzi tub. And a phone by the toilet, which is pretty amazing amazingly pointless and awesome all at the same time. We also had a balcony that overlooked the pool and the ocean. We loved the location because it was near the lobby, pool, food, and booze. Most perfect. And it was only on the 2nd/3rd floor (which they called the 4th because Jamaicans are crazy) and with only one elevator, it was nice to have a stairs option! On the first day the power went out and we ALMOST got stuck in the elevator!! This was only hours after rescuing some people who actually DID get stuck. So we didn't care for the elevator.

We spent the first 4-5 days just lying in the sun, with frequent pool bar breaks. We only went to the beach once, but we loved the pool because they ran activities and played music. And it had the pool bar. Let's face it pool bar trumps ocean. The beach wasn't soft and fluffy like I had in Cuba, so it wasn't amazing in my opinion. The weather was pretty decent. It would be sunny all morning and then usually overcast in the afternoon. Rained a little bit now and then, but since it was so hot no one seemed to mind a little shower! There was a HUGE storm on the day we left- never seen so much rain in my life!

Hottest Job Ever

He later danced and walked around with that kid on his head!

In the evenings we would relax after dinner at the lobby bar where they had live bands- usually jazz and reggae, which was loved. They always had fun, signature drinks to try! We never made it to the disco (all that sun made us too sleepy to stay up that late- we so old!), but one night we did go watch the steel drum band in that area of the hotel, which was pretty awesome!

Last thing for today- the food!

The food at the hotel was great! They had a big buffet, with different theme nights. Lots of food even for picky eaters and kids. They also served mashed potatoes at breakfast, which needs to become a thing here in Canada because everyone likes mashed potatoes. Everyone. One night the buffet had all you can eat lobster!! I had some, even though I am supposed to be avoiding shellfish. Shhh. Also, I swear there were mussels at 80% of the lunches and dinners we had and I LOVE mussels. They are not shellfish so they are now my new seafood best friend.

For lunch almost every day we went to this snack bar by the beach. A bit of a walk for us lazy folk, but every day from 11am-3pm they served amazing jerk chicken! I thought I might find it too spicy and hot, but it was delicious. Tammy stocked up on jerk sauce at the gift stores and I think I may need to visit her for dinner sometime soon :)

As for the restaurants, there were 5 sit downs and we went to three- the Italian, the Grill, and the Japanese. The Italian was OK...didn't wow me in any way. The grill was beautiful and we really liked our food there. But the Japanese was the BEST. We signed up for teppenyaki part, where they grill the food in front of you! Entertaining and by far my favourite meal the whole week! YUM! We wished we had taken all our dinners there.

At the Grill

Deep fried ice cream

Mmm so good just thinking about all that food! I definitely am a little afraid to step on the scale after that week!

Tomorrow I will share about our excursions we got up to on the weekend and the nightmare at the end of the trip (spoiler alert- my luggage is still in Jamaica...). Also, my opinion of the hotel overall!