Jamaica 2009..AKA The Trip Were I Sat by the Bathrooms on Every Plane

Last week while all you dear readers were touring casa de phillips room by room (anyone like that? Anyone going to do the same with your own casa?), Tobe and I were busy depositing the children at my parents house and then boarding a plane for Jamaica.

Shall I start at the beginning of the story?

A few months ago we decided we wanted to take a vacation this summer. We examined our options and opted to do NOTHING on vacation...which lead us to an all-inclusive resort on the beach. We researched and researched some more and settled on an adults-only (read: NO KIDS!) resort in the Riveria Maya.

Then our fair nation went a bit crazy with the whole swine flu epidemic.

After careful consideration, we opted to change our travel plans due to the swine flu (NOT because we thought we would actually catch it, but for over reasons associated with this pandemic) and settled on Jamaica two weeks before our departure date. Our resort just opened in January of 2009, was part of a chain of three sister resorts, and had the number one rating for resorts in Montego Bay.

I know some think the all-inclusive is a bit campy, but I wanted to go on a vacation where I had to think about nothing. I did not want to worry about locating food, navigating transportation, or even having to participate in a cash transaction my entire trip. This particular all-inclusive is far from campy and was simply relaxing.

On Sunday morning (May 17th) Tobe and I got up E.A.R.L.Y. (3:30am) and set out for the airport. We giddily boarded our plane...only to discover our seats were in the last row directly across from the bathroom. In fact, I could close the bathroom door from my seat without unbuckling my seatbelt. Before takeoff, I felt someone brush up against my arm. I looked to my right to discover the flight attendant sitting next to me in the jump seat which apparently was in the small space between my seat and the bathroom. It was quite the cozy flight and I now know the life story of that particular flight attendant.

We changed planes in North Carolina, happy to discover those seats were in First Class. As we gleefully munched on our free bag of SunChips, attempting to ignore the very loud passengers in front of us (who both wore sunglasses on the plane and consumed more free drinks on that flight than the average college freshman consumes their first semester), we dreamed of how our feet would soon be in the warm sand of Jamaica in a few short hours.

Customs was uneventful in the Montego Bay airport and we were soon on our way to the resort (whose name I will pass along to anyone interested...I just don't want the blog to be a Google hit for it). Greeted with a cool drink and a moist towel, we checked-in and headed to lunch on the beach. It was our first of many meals where I had to cut no chicken nuggets or ask someone to stop playing with their food. That right there was worth the cost of our vacation.

If you haven't taken a tour of our hotel room, check it out here.

For those who have, here are some pictures from our trip.

View from our spacious balcony

Dinner at the Italian restaurant where we feasted on Lobster Lasagna.

Lobster season was coming to a close during our stay, so we were happy to get some of this deliciousness the first few days of our trip.

Our home during the day.

We set up camp on our beach bed each morning and remained there for the day, leaving only for food, walks on the beach, swimming in the ocean, dips in the pool, and trips to the swim-up bar.

As many of you remember, I had a birthday recently. I decided it was time to be a bit more serious about my sun exposure and minimize any possible further wrinkling of my face...thus the large beach hat. The braids were a necessity due to the fact my long hair never looks good after getting wet.

Two of the four pools

Beds and Chairs on the Beach

Does anyone remember the episode of Friends where they all travel to Barbados for Ross' conference and it rains the entire time (and Monica's hair keeps growing bigger and bigger)? Well, it rained every afternoon in Jamaica. This worked in our favor because we would just retreat to the room and I would nap on the balcony. On Monday it rained incredibly hard.

More of Monday's thunderstorms

Monday night's dinner at the Surf and Turf restaurant

Hanging out on the Life Guard stand

On our balcony before leaving for Tuesday night's dinner at the Gourmet Restaurant

(pictures get a bit out of order here due to silly Blogger)

Walking on the beach with my cute husband

Another beach shot (we have about 15 of these...I spared you from having to look at all of them)

Dinner on Wednesday night at the Japanese restaurant

Dinner at the Gourmet Restaurant

Again, me on the balcony.

I offered to take Tobe's picture by himself but he wouldn't go for it. I told him if he did not want to remember what he looked like in his 30's on vacation in Jamaica that did not hurt my feelings one bit.

After a leisurely breakfast (two words: donut bar) and one last walk down the beach, we packed up our stuff and headed back to my parents' house. We traveled all day, not arriving back to their house until after midnight. We were not fortunate to fly first class on either leg of this trip, however we were fortunate enough to be stationed by the restroom BOTH TIMES. Seriously. If I never have to witness someone going to the bathroom on an airplane for the rest of my life, it will be such a blessing.

The children were happy to see us the following morning, but did not seem to miss us much at all. They seemed to have grown two feet each over the five days we were apart and had lots of tales of adventures to share.

It was a good trip, my friends.

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I am going to be taking a Blog Break for the rest of the week as we end the preschool year here at casa de phillips and gear up for summer. However, I will be back next week with a give-away, details about my summer plans (a weekly series is coming up), and cute pictures of the kids. Stay tuned!