Jamaica (part 3...)

This may or may not be the last post...  We'll see.  Supposedly Corrine has some pictures, but I haven't seen them yet, and I haven't pushed the issue because frankly I'm a little scared.  Basically there was a "professional photographer" taking pictures of our little adventure ziplining and stuff, and then of course they charge extra if you want to buy them.  Corrine bought them, but I've been afraid to ask.  Mostly because I'm pretty sure these pictures won't be showing my best side.  For starters, there was one point when this guy was taking pictures of me horseback riding.  In the ocean, like waist deep in the ocean, in nothing but my bathing suit with a really awkward life preserver belt around my waist.  And fyi- this is the bathing suit that Maddie has asked me to never ever wear again in public.  Seriously.   I have a great story about a banana boat and my swimsuit, but I think I shall not be telling it here because I pretty much don't want anybody of the male gender reading about it.

Anyways, I do have a lot of other pictures to share, so here goes...

Maddie on the balcony enjoying the view from our room

Beach chair selfie

Yes, that's a restroom, but Corrine is from Texas so I made her pose.  She's a good sport :)

No that dude isn't real.  Yes, we actually thought so at first.  

Maddie's pirate pose.

Bob Marley.  We listened to so much reggae during that trip.  I wonder if the locals go home and put on some classical music or something to kind of clear their palate or something. Most of the songs we heard were AT LEAST 20 years old.  And we heard them over and over again in the space of only a couple of days.  

No filter required.  Maddie was amazed that some places actually look like this without the help of photoshop.

Selfie with aunt Corrine.

I just thought this was funny.  I order something red, Corrine orders something blue.  Usually though, we'd go with pina coladas, or then there was the ever popular children's drink menu.  I could even order the "Fairy Princess" with a straight face.  Maddie's drink of choice was fittingly enough  the "Sweet 16".

This was our second attempt at taking this picture.  The first attempt included all three of us, but I was in my swimsuit, so that picture needed to be retaken.  

We asked our driver to take a picture of us overlooking the bay.  We suspect it was his first time taking a picture with an iphone. It was a very beautiful overlook point.  

Taken while we were on our zip lining adventure.  PS- zip lining through the jungle- funnest thing ever. 

Our zip lining guide didn't seem to be too familiar with iphones either. 

But she eventually got it right.

Here she is posing with us. Isn't she cute?  He name is Mika. She was awesome.

And we totally went tubing down a river.  In the jungle. 

Maddie.  At a bar. Drinking her Sweet 16.  Getting hit on by the waiter.  He made her a rose out of a napkin.  

She saved it. 

Our last morning we got up early to enjoy the sunrise.  Of course we didn't realize at the time that the sun rises on the other side of the island.  (We're facing the direction we watched it set the night before...)

And then we had breakfast on the beach, and kicked ourselves for not finding this little gem earlier. 

The giraffe's name is Rosie. 

Walking along the beach...

Maddie wanted a little bit of local color.

Corrine and Maddie

Such an idyllic setting.  Such a perfect weekend. 

This sign portrayed the dilemma I felt going home.  

Just because.  Maddie was in love with the flora.  

Jamaica (Part 2...)

So after all that traveling, we finally arrived at our destination- Paradise!! Well, sorta...

We started off at the Grand Pineapple, a little resort that Corrine wanted to try out.  The website apparently exaggerated just a wee bit according to Corrine.  Maddie and I thought it was... fine(ish).  It was the nicest place we'd been to in Jamaica. I can say that truthfully. We both recognize that we've stayed at some really ridiculously nice places, and have been plenty spoiled, and were both just really excited and grateful to be there, and we were bound and determined to love every minute of it.

And the beach was gorgeous and the weather perfect...  And we went out on a little sail boat, and they had kayaks to borrow, as well as paddle boards. (Which I fell off faster than Maddie could LITERALLY say "It's practically impossible to fall off one of these things..." Seriously, she was mid sentence. In fact I'm ad-libbing those last few words because I didn't actually hear them. )

And the food was edible...About what I'd expect from an all you can eat buffet... And from the looks of the rest of the dinner guests, we were definitely in a completely different age bracket than any of the rest of them...

And we had a cute little bungalow type room, even if the beds weren't that comfortable.

 But the pool was the saddest thing we'd ever seen,  and to get to the beach we had to cross a road where they employed crossing guards full time so we wouldn't get hit by any of the "CJ's" that were honking at us out of annoyance. (That's what one of our shuttle bus drivers referred to other drivers as- CJ's, Crazy Jamaicans)

And then there's the fact that our shower didn't have hot water.  The sad shampoo dispenser thingy on the wall was off-putting enough, but I had to rinse out the ocean out of my hair, and since the hot water handle was broken, the water was freezing, and I had to attempt to take a shower without actually getting wet.  It didn't work too well....

Anyway, I thought Corrine was asleep when I tiptoed out of the shower and whispered to Maddie that there was no hot water.  Corrine was out of bed and dressed and at the main office demanding we be transferred to Beaches, a much better resort down the street, but owned by the same company. (That's where she had stayed the last time and knew what to expect.)

They weren't very happy about having us leave.  At first they sent a guy to fix the shower.  That was the first time we'd heard the phrase "Jamaica-No-Problem!" .  They are a pretty laid back people, those Jamaicans.  

But we are not, and so we moved to the bigger, fancier, nicer resort with hot water and swimming pools you actually want to swim in, (with a swim up bar!) and fancy shampoo AND conditioner AND lotion in little bottles (as opposed to the very generic shampoo in the soap dispenser attached to the wall.)

I'm wondering if this means we might not get the promised bottle of rum should we ever return to the Grand Pineapple?

Jamaica (part 1...)

Sometimes you are Cinderella and your mom makes you clean your room, and do dishes and vacuum and clean toilets, in addition to all the other annoying things you have to do when you are a teenager like wake up early and go to school and do homework, and life is ordinary (for the most part), and sometimes you are still Cinderella but your Fairy Godmother (your aunt Corrine) comes and rescues you, and instead of going to a boring old ball, she takes you to Jamaica for your 16th birthday, and even takes your evil stepmother (amazingly awesome and totally biologically related to you) mom.  (Cause she turned 40 and you share a birthday, so it's a thing)

It was a just a weekender getaway.  But what a weekend.  A totally new experience for both of us.  Not for Corrine though, Maddie's cousin Kaeli also celebrated her Sweet 16 in Jamaica a couple of years ago, so Corrine totally showed us the ropes.

Our trip began Thursday evening, right after work.  We headed to Dallas where we met up with Corrine and spent a very short night at her house.  The next day was mostly a travel day, two plane rides, and a shuttle bus trip from the airport to the resort.

I haven't been all over the world, but I feel I've seen a good portion of it, but Jamaica was a new experience for me.  It was definitely my first "Third World" exposure.   The resorts were beautiful and wonderful, and luxurious, and amazing, but getting from the airport to the resort was fairly eye-opening.

Right off the bat, as we were sitting in our shuttle bus on the way to the resort in rush hour traffic, there were all these people walking through the lanes of traffic peddling their wares to the drivers. many of them were selling waters and sodas, or what looked like bags of nuts or sticks of sugar cane.  One lady was pulling a cooler and selling beer to the drivers, (practically right under a sign reminding people not to drink and drive)  and I swear one guy was selling drugs.  He was a little less vocal and obvious, and his "wares" were a little more subtle as they were wrapped in brown paper.  Lest you think I am being overly suspicious- pair that with the guy selling, in addition to the other standard touristy wood carvings of turtles and masks and bowls, weed pipes (Maddie thought they were "whistles" - "It was dark!! It was hard to see!". I just love the fact that her sweet mind went straight to a child's toy rather than drug paraphernalia. )  And then there was the random guy walking down the beach wearing a backpack who would casually mention "cocaine" to people as he passed them by.  AND the time we were tubing down the river, and there was this really foul skunk smell in the air, and the guide said "that's not skunk, that's what marijuana smells like when it's growing."

Most of the pictures Maddie took were from that shuttle bus.  Partly due to the fact that most of the stuff we did involved imminent danger to cell phones (water, sand, being lost forever in the jungle) so she didn't carry it with her, and the fact that the ride was a bit of a culture shock and she was documenting to remember.

A couple of the things I noticed were all the colorful buildings.  They love their bright colors.  My friend Rosie grew up in Jamaica and she would always get after me for the fact that I wear a lot of black and not nearly enough bright color for her taste.  After this trip, it is easier for me to see where she is coming from.

Another thing is that many of the buildings seemed to be in some sort of stage of either construction or decay, sometimes I couldn't tell which.

When I asked our guide, it was confirmed to me that the presence of the metal poles sticking out of so many of the houses was evidence of intention to build on to the house.  Homes and land and materials are expensive, that people save their money, do what they can, move in when it's livable enough, then save their money some more to add a second floor or another room when they can afford it.

And I really wish I had pictures, but I had left my phone at the hotel room when we went ziplining, but I also saw evidence of abandoned buildings.  There were some really cool looking gutted structures, where nature had nearly completely taken over, even an old windmill base, and our guides told us that those were old slavery plantation buildings. I imagine many of them met with very violent endings, and I don't think I'm imagining remembering the scorch marks left on the stone walls.

So many times Maddie and I said "I wish I had my camera..."  Maybe some day we will return with some kind of awesome waterproof GoPro or something.  #Goals

A First...

Maddie had her very first date the other weekend.

One of her good friends tried for a few weeks to take her out, and finally the stars aligned.

Nelson was supposed to pick her up at 5 pm on a Friday, which mean that I would miss that moment of him picking her up, but luckily for me, he was late (he called to tell her beforehand).

We arrived at my house at the same time, where he apologized to me for being late, but my response was "No!  It's fine!  But now that I'm here, you have to have your picture taken because you are Maddie's very first date ever!"  He told me that that was his plan, he had made every attempt to be her first date. (The world needs more boys like this- seriously)

She said she had a lot of fun.  They doubled with another couple, went shopping for ingredients, then went back to his house to make the pizza and cookies, (Maddie and Nelson made the Millennium Falcon) and listen to music.

And they played games like Jenga and pick up sticks.  Neither of which she had much luck with despite her best efforts.

And then she was home at a reasonable time, and I got the full play by play of the evening.  So as far as first dates (or any kind of date for that matter) I think it's definitely a winner.

Happy Things 2016 (and one not-so-happy-thing)

To start the new year off right, my sweet friend Teresa gave me a "Happy Things" jar.  She filled it with blank slips of paper, and chocolate, and instructed us to fill it with the things that make us happy during the year.  Memories... Kind acts... Fun Times...Things to remember...Happy Days...Accomplishments...  Hopefully by the end of the year, it will be full to bursting.

One of the things this year that will NOT be included in the jar is this little guy-

It's hard to see, but I think it's my first gray hair.  They say things start to go downhill once you turn 40- and clearly "they" were right.

Of course there's like a 5% chance that it's just a really blonde hair and my hair is turning blonde again, which would actually be a happy thing, but I've never heard of that happening in real life, sooo, yeah.