Jamaica, mon.

Today is the perfect day for me to write the honeymoon blog because my heart is aching to be back in that paradise. Threat of snow in Raleigh, and it isn't even mid-November yet?! Blasphemy!

We had two simple requests for our honeymoon: it had to be in a tropical location, and it had to be all inclusive. A Sandals Resort seemed like the obvious choice, so that's where we started. We decided to go through a travel agent (Bob Gani at Travel Experts of Cary - highly recommended!) and I'm so glad we did! We chose the glorious Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. It has a private beach, more than 7 restaurants, 3 pools, and oh-so-much-more. We couldn't have chosen a better fit for us! It was quiet and well kept, fun and relaxing. The perfect honeymoon!

We left on Monday so we could have Sunday to wind-down after the wedding. I still think that was the best choice we could have made, because we were so wiped out. We had to leave the house way too early to catch our first flight, but luckily the whole travel day went so smoothly! Well, except for the bus ride to the resort... It's an hour and a half drive from the airport to the resort and, to put it lightly, it is not a pleasant drive. Whitehouse is on the opposite side of the mountain. The very steep mountain. The very steep mountain that has what appears to be one pothole-covered one-lane road, surrounded by straight cliffs and lush jungle. I have to give the drivers credit because they handle it very well, but HOLY CRAP. They speed through school yards and neighborhoods, and the people on the roads don't even flinch. There are cows and goats and dogs (oh my!) everywhere, and they don't seem too bothered either. At one point, we had to pass a truck pulling a BULLDOZER. I don't think I took a single breath for at least 5 minutes after that.

Anyways, we finally made it to the resort and checked into our lovely room in the French Village. There are 2 other Villages, Dutch and Italian, but I think ours was the best! It is the farthest from the main restaurants, but it was right next to a yummy lunch spot on the beach and the pool had the volleyball net and it's own swim-up bar. We were set for the week right there! Each morning we walked to the breakfast buffet first thing and then went straight to the pool. It was really too hot to just sit in the sun, so we spent the majority of the day either sitting at the pool bar chatting with new friends and hilarious bartenders, or floating in the pool with just our arms and heads out of the water. This might be why our tans were a bit off! We snacked on "meat pockets" as Payton called them and DELICIOUS jerk pork or chicken almost everyday. We were so impressed with the food. Our favorite foods were at the Asian restaurant, Jasmine's, and the jerk chicken at the Jerk Pit. They also have an Italian place (hand made brick oven pizza - we might have taken a few to-go for a midnight snack) called Giuseppe's, a Mediterranean seafood place called Neptune's, a French cafe (fresh crepes. enough said.) called Cafe de Paris, and a few other fancy restaurants, including a martini bar called Casablanca. We got to have a private four-course dinner on the beach on Wednesday, courtesy of my wonderful parents! It was so beautiful and so delicious and I still think about it daily. I would have taken more pictures of the food, but I ate it too quickly. Typical.

French Village

Where we had our private dinner

So, like I said, we really did spend most of our time in the pool. We went snorkeling but the jellyfish were everywhere, so I jumped in and swam right back around to the boat. Payton was a bit more brave and stayed out a little longer, but I've been stung before and I did not want that to happen again. The absolute best thing we did all week was the Pelican Bar catamaran cruise excursion on Friday. We had been spending a lot of time with our "neighbors" and we agreed that it would be a blast if we all did it together. Turns out, we weren't the only couples in the French Village that had that idea! We ended up on the boat with like 5 other couples that we had been hanging out with all week. It was more fun that I can even describe. It was basically a party cruise with a DJ, bar and food. We rode for about an hour and a half until we got to the Pelican Bar - a shack made out of sticks that is on a sand bar smack in the middle of the ocean. Literally. We had to take a dingy from our catamaran to the shack because of how small it is. There is a man there that cooks fresh lobster and fish right in this hut and serves Heineken (the Heineken was such a pleasant surprise because in Jamaica "beer" means Red Stripe). The shack is adorned with license plates and flags from different states and countries and if you give him a little tip he will carve your name in the floor. We ate our fresh lobster with our feet hanging off the dock and I literally started crying tears of joy. I've never felt that happy in my entire life. The trip back was when things started to get REALLY fun. I won't go into detail, but let's just say the open bar started to catch up to us. We had a large dance party and the phrase "MEET AT THE FRENCH VILLAGE POOL" was shouted many, many times because we didn't want the party to end! All of us tried to make a plan for after dinner, but I don't even think anyone made it to dinner. Catching up with the other cruisers the next morning was so funny! I will never, ever forget that day and we would LOVE to go back to the Pelican Bar to see visit our name one day!

Pelican Bar!

Our named carved in the floor of the Pelican Bar

Our new friends - Illinois, Iowa and Ohio!

The week flew by and before we knew it it was time to risk our lives and get back on that bus to take us to the airport. We had another smooth travel day and we got home to a full fridge! Have I ever mentioned how wonderful and thoughtful my mother is? She really is the best. And, she watched our Scoutie for the whole week! What a lucky dog he is.

So, that's that. The best honeymoon we could ever dream of! I would visit Jamaica again any day.