Jamaica Baby!

The slums of Jamaica...the huts where we "shopped"

The actual shopping center on our shopping tour

The guy outside our villa painting
The view at the resort...the main pool

We're back! It's such a bittersweet day. I'm glad to be back to see all my friends that I missed so much, not to mention ROGER. I still haven't got to see him yet, he stayed with my mom. However, he was the first thing I asked about when I called my mom last night to let her know we were back in the states. It's funny how your dog becomes a part of your family, your life. Anyways, Jamaica was really good. It stayed in the 80-85 range most of the week with a few slight rain showers. That's really common there. The tour driver told us it comes and goes so often. It's God's way of watering the plants there. We stayed at Sandals in Ocho Rios. I learned from a bartender that Ocho Rios literally translates to 8 rivers. I never knew there were eight rivers there. Nor did we see them :) Everything was great. The food was good, our villa was good, and even the guy who stood outside our villa most of the week to paint was good. That's right...we had a painter from Wednesday on. That's when Scott decided he was ready to come home. I think I'm going to throw that little bit of information out to our travel agent and see if I can get a good deal on our next vacation. It's really annoying having someone outside your frenchdoors all week while you're trying to 1) change clothes 2) get ready to swim in your pool out back 3) need to go anywhere (you had to walk either around the ladder or under it). You can see him in the pictures I took just so I would have proof. :) We spent one whole day at the beach and the pier. It was just the right weather that day. Not too much wind but just enough that you weren't dying from the heat. We took a shopping tour into town one day. It was a little scary. The first two stops were at little shopping malls. The last stop, however, was at the slums where you were supposed to go inside these little huts and bargain with the ladies about what you would like to spend/buy. They wouldn't leave you alone. I seriously think they would have drained everyone's money. Finally, Scott told one lady he'd had enough and started walking back to the bus. There were people coming out of their huts yelling "come in here mon, come in here mon. You haven't been in my shop yet mon." Scott kept telling them he didn't care he was heading to the bus. It was humerous after the fact...but very scary going through it. We safely arrived back at Sandals and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon without breathing a word about it again. Every night we went to five star restaurants. They were delicious. We always stayed up late (mostly drinking dirty bananas...yummy) and slept in late. It was really nice just being in each other's company. I learned something from the Jamaican's that I brought back with me and I don't think I'll ever forget it. They live by the philosophy of "There are no such things as problems. That's why we always say no problem mon. There are only situations. Situations you handle one at a time. It just depends on how you handle those situations. You can choose to worry about them, or not. It's up to you. But if you don't let them ware you down, then you will lead a happy life." I think I'm going to start living my life that way.