Thursday, July 17, 2014

I Slappa Da Bass, Mon!

There was no way I could go with any other title for this "fun" post for the last two pairs of shoes I posted. NO. WAY. I Love You, Man is fast solidifying itself into my all-time favorite movies, and as soon I found out we were going to Jamaica I made the decision that instead of going with everyone's go-to "Yeah, mon." phrase, I had to Katify it.

Now, for the last year(ish) I have been in a wonderful long-distance relationship. When I say wonderful, I mean the relationship is wonderful. Not the distance.The distance is LONNNNNNNNG distance. We are precisely 1,937 miles apart. So we take any opportunity we have to be together in person and not have to live out our relationship on social media, Skype, and phone. Especially with as much as I hate talking on the phone. After years of being a receptionist, the last thing I wanted to look at when I came home was a telephone. And I guess that has kind of stuck. But I'm working on it. You have to when you're 1,937 miles apart.

I'm making sacrifices, people.

But, I digress. So, the trip presents itself. As I said, as long as we're together, we don't care where we are. But when you have a chance to take an all-expense-paid - thanks to LOTS of hard work on Steve's part - trip to paradise, you don't exactly turn it down, amirite?! I have an app on my phone that you can create countdowns. All the way down to the time of day, so you know the exact amount of seconds you have until your event. Yes, I know I bugged the crap out of everyone giving them the count every other day. Do I care? NO. 

As you can imagine, being 1,937 miles apart (have I mentioned how far apart we are, yet?), our relationship has been all about adventure so far. Our first "us" time was in Atlanta, a city I call home even though I only ACTUALLY lived there for 3 1/2 years. I get back as often as I can, usually a few times a year. This was Steve's first time there though, and being a lifelong Braves fan, was a pretty big deal, in itself. Next up was me to Halifax (where he lives). I had only been across the US/Canada border a couple times, and both of those times were not even a full day. So essentially, my first REAL trip to Canada. After that was him to Memphis (where *I* live). Also a first for him, and at Christmas time, so that was a lot of fun. But up until that point, everywhere had been a familiar place for one of us. This was our first trip to somewhere new, together. Though I had been to Montego Bay, I had not been to this resort, or there for longer than a day, so I call that new. A real adventure.

And so, the trip began. Him flying from Halifax, me from Memphis. I flew through Charlotte, an airport I am familiar-enough with to not make travel stressful (no "Do I have enough time to get to my next gate AND go pee, or...?" worries), so my thought was "Yay, a quick trip and then Katie/Steve/paradise!" Boy, was I wrong about that. As I said earlier, I have been to Montego Bay, but it was just one of the ports on a cruise I was on, so there was no dealing with customs. Actually, back then there was no dealing with customs, period, for the Caribbean. All you had to have was your birth certificate with you, and they just checked that with your ID as you got on the ship. Times have changed. As we got off the plane, and got inside a hallway, we hit a line about 5-6 people wide. I thought ok, we must be at customs. Turn the corner, another lonnnnnnnnnnnnng hallway and then...

The picture does not even come close to doing it justice. It was about 10 rows of this, and way more than the camera could capture in one frame (you weren't supposed to have phones on, so there was no time to do a panorama). You can see how low the ceilings were, and there was NO air conditioning, with Jamaica heat coming in from frequently opened doors. Took about 45 minutes to get through customs. It was easily the most miserable traveling experience I have ever had. But at the end of the line:

HAPPINESS AWAITED.

A short shuttle bus ride took us to our resort, the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa. Being that this was a sponsored trip with Steve's job, we had to get checked in, orientation packets, wristbands, etc. first. Whereas I just wanted to run straight through the lobby to the view that awaited on the other side:


Being that we both had SO much stress going on in "real" life, we agreed that this trip was just going to be about us and relaxing. While everyone else chose an excursion, we chose a couples massage. We spent a lot of time by the pools and ocean... 

We drank a lot of these... 

This was the view from our balcony. Not too shabby.

Breakfast every morning was beautiful, albeit a bit stressful for me. 
Birds in Jamaica are CRAY, y'all.
Looking at this picture is making me crave the honey butter and almond butter. And the french toast. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh man, the french toast... *drools*

We learned the Jamaicans are apparently NOT Wizard of Oz fans (note the name of the dessert)...

And pretty much just enjoyed being together. 

It was a glorious week, and we made a lot of fun memories. Like this picture that was one of the only ones we got of me in this dress before I got a little over-zealous demonstrating the proper way to do the Braves victory dance... whilst holding a glass of red wine. 

Our last day there. This picture was right before we went to get on the shuttle bus to the airport, and I can't say I didn't think about "missing" the bus.

Though you can't SEE the shoes from this post in most of these pictures, they ARE there, and served their purpose well! 

As far as my review of the resort: FABULOUS. I really hope we get a chance to go back one day. Everyone was so friendly (shoutout to the best waitress EVER, KimAnn); it's an all-inclusive resort, including alcoholic drinks - as long as it's not top-shelf; there were some real shining moments food-wise, but I wouldn't grade the food overall super high - nothing we ate was bad, most everything was good-enough/good, and then everything else was... ohhhhhhhh, did I mention the french toast?! This IS a family resort, but there was never a time I felt overwhelmed by the kids there. And if you ever do, there is an adults-only section of beach for you to escape. Not sure if there are multiple levels of rooms, I'm sure there are, but ours was spacious. A king-sized bed, large dresser, desk, sitting area with a chaise lounge, and of course bathroom and balcony. I could go on and on, but the epicness of the resort can be summed up with one picture.

Any place that leaves me a heffalump towel animal, is alright by me!

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