Yeah mon!

Wedding planning is tiring, no matter how laid back of a bride you are. Your whole life gets consumed by aisle pomander decorations and stalking the newest bridal magazines at Barnes and Noble. Needless to say, Ben and I were definitely looking forward to a little R&R and our honeymoon was the perfect getaway.

The day after our wedding, we left for Sandals Dunn’s River resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It was so beautiful. The resort was a smaller, intimate resort – which we loved. The beach was perfect and the locals were great. We were escorted straight to the concierge desk upon arrival and from that moment, we never had to worry about a thing. We went to check out our room and it was wonderful – we had an ocean view and it was so nice to sit out there in the mornings and eat breakfast and listen to the island wake up.

The first day we were there, we got our shopping out of the way and hit up some of the local markets to grab the usual Jamaican souveniers. The next couple of days we went on some island excursions. The first one we did was climb Dunn’s River Falls. This place was so beautiful. It’s a waterfall in Ocho Rios that flows out in the ocean. We started at the bottom and climbed our way up with a huge group of people.

Our second excursion was the Blue Mountain bicycle tour. We took a bus with a group of people from nearby hotels and we headed off to the Blue Mountains. The ride was about two hours, but it was so fun. Our driver gave us great info on all the areas we drove through and the history of the island, as well as the current state of the island. We finally reached the Blue Mountains and we drove up near the top and stopped at the tour headquarters where we had brunch, learned how coffee berries are transformed into coffee beans and then headed off to ride our cruisers down the mountain. This excursion was a blast. We ended the day with a dip in a pool of cold mountain water right under a waterfall where some local boys were jumping off (you know Ben was dying to play, but the guides wouldn’t let him jump off the falls since they would be liable)

The rest of the time at the resort was spent in the pool or by the beach. It was so nice to just relax and not plan anything for a change!

We did take a few pictures and you can view them here if you’re interested. I wish we had taken more, but our cameras aren’t waterproof so we didn’t take them down to the pool or beach. Enjoy!

Boston in the Fall

Ben and I have a list of things we want to do – you know, like backpack through Europe, visit the Redwoods in CA, run a 5k (done!), go canyoning in the Swiss Alps, etc. One of our items was to visit Boston in the Fall, and while we weren’t exactly in Boston for the most part of our trip, we took joy in marking that off our list. This post is extremely overdue, but it was such a great trip that I had to put it on here.

Thanks to Ben’s family, we had the opportunity to visit Jeffrey and Heather and the kids up north this past October. We all surprised Jeffrey for his 30th birthday and just the best time. The weather was amazing, the scenery simply incredible and the food, oh so good. Jeffrey and Heather have a beautiful place there with an awesome yard and even better trails behind their house. The kids never tired of taking us back through there, probably because we hoisted them on our shoulders and trekked them around all over.

As for the food that weekend, Heather outdid herself. We spent most of Saturday at Heather and Jeffrey’s house and at one point during the day a suspicious cardboard box arrived and was placed outside in the backyard. I noticed people looking inside with excitement and I got curious and took a peek myself. Live lobsters! Now I’m from Texas and the only time we see live lobster is in the little tanks and Red Lobster and occasionally at Sam’s and Wal-Mart. Somehow I don’t think it’s quite the same as fresh lobster on the east coast. Well since this was my first up close experience with real, moving lobsters they said I could hold one. Big mistake. Those boogers are slick and right when I got little Larry the Lobster situated in my hands – BAM! He slipped right out and crashed in the grass. Not only did I drop my soon-to-be dinner, one of its claws popped off! Gosh, I felt like a punk, but he was gonna get boiled up anyways. Back to the dinner….they set up a great spread outside with baked potatoes, salad, steak and of course, beautiful, bright red lobsters. So we dug in and devoured the little creatures and while I was up refreshing my drink I came back to my seat and what do you think was on my plate??? The lone claw. Someone had placed it there while I was up and Ben just so happened to end up with the other half of that same lobster. Claw or no claw – it all tasted just as delicious.

Thanks Jeffrey and Heather once again! And Buddy and Mary! We had such a great time and hope to be back up there again.