Jamaica 1

12:05am PST: Somewhere over Arkansas?  Not exactly Jamaica yet.  Will this plane ever land?

Every airport lounge should offer free beer at your destination...seriously.  Traveling would be so much more pleasant knowing you have a cold one waiting for you when you land.  I, for one, would be much more tolerant of noisy kids, red-eye flights, pushy passengers, and people kicking my seat back if I knew there was a reward waiting for me at the end of the trip.

(And yes, this could be considered foreshadowing for the rest of the trip.)

When you travel to any of the big resorts in Jamaica, you get to hang out in special airport lounges like this until they have enough people to fill a shuttle.  After you've collected your wits, your luggage, and maybe a bit of a beer buzz, you get a tour of the "real" Jamaica on the way to your idyllic, isolated, and sanitized vacation spot.  The first time we came here, the countryside shocked us a bit.  Lush rain forests, oceans with reefs and teeming life, stray dogs, stoned locals, shanty villages, barefoot kids, and locals looking to extract a few dollars from tourists.  The biggest employer in the area was a Jockey underwear factory.  That's been closed for a couple years now, apparently.  From my perspective, the country looks like it has so many resources, so much potential, and yet so much poverty.  What would it take to change things here?

Alright, enough with the philosophical stuff...  We're in Jamaica, we're on vacation, and here's our home for the next week!

We arrived in time for the tail end of the lunch hour, and of course, we went straight for the fruity drinks!  It's so warm (and irie) here!

A walk around the resort reminds us of all the great memories here from our honeymoon.  We are so happy and blessed to be here again!

We end our first day with a returning guests reception and dinner, followed by a beach bonfire accompanied with some live music.  This guitar player sounds like the Jamaican Jack Johnson.

The "H".  Our original wedding cake topper!