A Dream Vacation...Yeah Mon

O.K., I'll admit I've been a very neglectful blogger... While I won't bore you with the details, let's just say our lives have been EXTREMELY CRAZY (but really fun) lately.

We managed to squeeze in a fabulous trip to Jamaica a couple of weeks ago. Many of you know that Jason and I have a side business called Premier Blind and Shutter. We spend evenings and weekends on this business and it's lots of fun. Well, Jason worked so hard the past few months that he was able to earn a trip to Jamaica at an all-inclusive Sandals resort. Lucky for us, Jason's brother, who sells blinds and shutters with us, earned a trip for him and his wife as well.

So the four of us left from the Pocatello airport at 7:00 PM. We arrived in Jamaica the next afternoon around 2:00 PM and took a 2 hour bus ride from the Montego Bay airport to the resort. We were extremely tired after the plane rides and long layovers, but the island was so beautiful that I couldn't sleep through the bus ride. Traveling by car or bus there is crazy and I felt so fortunate to have made it through alive. I was also surprised by the many, many goats running around everywhere. The foliage was beautiful and thick and very tropical, as you might imagine.

Jamaica is a relatively poor country and it was humbling to see the dwellings built from scrap metal all along the highway. It made me realize, once again, how fortunate I am to live in this fabulous country. I can't ever remember seeing a house built from scrap metal in the United States. I'm sure they probably exist somewhere, but I have never seen one. These little homes were a stark contrast with the very nice, very large British-Colonial style homes built just above them on the hill. Everywhere we went there were men all along the highway holding up fruits and stringers full of fish (mainly Snapper), trying to sell them to the passers-by. One taxi driver told us that a minimum wage job there paid about the equivalent of 60 U.S. Dollars per week. Wow!!! Even with their meager financial circumstances, the Jamaican people that we met were the happiest people ever!! I've never seen such beautiful smiles and they sing everywhere they go. They truly believe in their ever-popular saying, "No problem." We heard this over and over and it was always accompanied with a gigantic smile.

We heard tons of reggae music and I have a new appreciation for Bob Marley, although I didn't make it to the Bob Marley Hall of Fame. (Darn! Maybe next time.) Jason and Ryan were approached several times by "farmers" who were eager to share their "crops" for a small fee. :) I joked with Jason that we could have smoked our way across the entire island. Is this why they're so happy?

After arriving the first day, we took a short nap and got ready for dinner. The resort had the largest and nicest swimming pool that I had ever seen and dinner was held around the pool. It was buffet style and the food was delicious. The resort employees were all shocked when none of us ordered alcoholic drinks with our dinners. The booze is all free and they kept telling us, "You're in Jamaica, Mon!" We even had one kid ask us if we were Christian. When we told him that we were he said, "Oh, I want to be just like you guys when I grow up." My brother-in-law quickly offered to have missionaries come to visit but the Jamaican just laughed. I don't think he's quite ready to give up his rum, which is the drink of choice there.

The next day we took a taxi to the famous Dunn's River Falls. With a group of about 25 people we climbed over 900 feet up a beautiful waterfall. The guides were fantastic, telling us just where to step and when to step up or down. The entire group holds hands in a line for the climb. At first I thought it would make it more difficult, but as we climbed I could see that we all were able to help each other as we went along. We were told that these guides go up the falls every morning with a wire brush to scrub all of the slippery algae off of the rocks to make it safer for everyone.

The next day we spent some time on the beautiful beach. The weather was fantastic with lots of humidity, that I actually found very comfortable. I especially liked the chirping (is that the right word? Probably not.) of the frogs at night. It sounded similar to our crickets (hence the use of the word "chirp"), only the frogs seemed to be much more pervasive. It was a beautiful sound. We rode water trikes, ocean kayaks and Hobie Kat sailboats, all of which were loads of fun.

In the evenings there was plenty of entertainment provided by the resort. We really enjoyed the staff and guest talent show, the couples gameshow and the awesome steel drum band. Jason has always been a huge fan of steel drums. (I know someday we're going to own some-where on earth will we put them? They're huge!) The drummers were amazingly talented but their dance group was unbelievable. I've never seen such high spirited dancing go on for so long. It was unforgettable! No wonder the Jamiacan people are so thin and so fast. (Hussein Bolt is really idolized there, as you can imagine.)

The last night we attended a really nice farewell party on the beach. It was decorated beautifully and the food was delicious. We enjoyed lobster, conch, snapper and every other thing you could possibly think of, even macaroni and cheese. Jason drank coconut milk from a fresh coconut, but said it wasn't very good. And, of course, the fruit was amazing.

The trip was super busy and loads of fun. We tried to spend all of our free moments at either the beach or at one of the beautiful swimming pools. It was a great trip but we couldn't have gone without the help of my Mom and sister who came to stay with our kids. I missed them terribly and got teary when I told them goodbye. But when I got home it didn't seem like they had even missed me. Ha!! I'm sure this just means that they were very well taken care of. I know they had lots of fun with Grandma and Aunt Suzy! Thanks to the both of them. We could never have enjoyed this opportunity without them.

The Weirs-Jason, Melanie, Nichole and Ryan

Yeah, Mon!!