Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Jamaica Mon
Chris and I just go to do something really amazing! He took me out of the country for my first time (unless you count going to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls :)). Our destination: Jamaica (I know, the title kind of gave it away). We found out a while ago about working vacations where you can go to a resort and work as a tennis or golf pro or a fitness instructor. We decided that this would be an awesome way to vacation by having Chris teach tennis. By teaching 2-3 hours a day, you get your stay for free. So we tried it out and even though my mom thought it was a fraud, it was totally legit and totally awesome! We decided to go to Sunset at the Palms in Negril, Jamaica. It was amazing! It is an all-inclusive resort on Seven Mile Beach known for its abundance of marijuana and nude sunbathers. When we heard that, we automatically knew it was for us. j/k Well, luckily we weren't on a nude part of the beach, but the marijuana, although illegal, was all over the place. The beach was beautiful though. And there is just nothing that compares to leaving your snow-laden home in the month of January and finding a nice, warm beach destination where you can soak up some sun. Seriously every day Chris and I said, "It's January" and then we would happily soak up some more welcome rays of the sunshine. We spent most of our time being impressively lazy. I dare you to try and be this lazy.
Our room was this awesome tree house cabin on stilts. It was really cool!
This is Chris' office.

When we weren't being terribly lazy, we decided to go do an introductory scuba dive course. They trained us in a pool and then we went on a 40-ft. dive in the ocean. It was really amazing! We saw lots of pretty little fish, but were a little disappointed b/c we were supposed to see sea turtles and didn't. That's okay though; it was still very worth it. Scuba is pretty intense though. My mask filled with water while we were on our dive and I had to clear it, which I had practiced in the pool, but it was a little scarier with salt water in my eyes and not being able to see anything. I managed though and had a lovely time. Here we are at our dive site. (Notice my really cool sunburn directly in my armpit region.)These last two pics are at the entrance of the resort and on the beach.
We loved the Jamaican people and their "No problem" attitude. You wouldn't believe how much they said that. They were awesome and made our stay very enjoyable. All in all we had a great time and will definitely do more vacations like this in our future.