jamaica part 1: the arrival.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! i am back! and i typed this on my way home, enjoy:

friends!! daaaang, i’ve missed you.  did you miss me? it feels like i’ve been gone for so much longer than a week. 

right now i am flying high in the sky en route to texas from jamaica.  we have a 2 hour layover there and then it is back to my salty city in utah.  i thought i would make myself useful and type up my first trip recap post during this long flight.  don’t worry, i already took a two hour nap.

FIRST i have to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of my lovely guest posters! ahhh, that whole shabang went off much better than i initially imagined it would! thanks to everyone who wrote a post and thanks to those of you who read/commented on them. hopefully you all enjoyed those while i was gone.

SO.  lots to recap! i will start at the beginning, since starting at the end would probably not make much sense, judging from the way i felt when i saw that backward episode of seinfeld.. you know the one.

for those of you just tuning in, i’ve been in jamaica for the past week or so.  i went there with my bosses and my co-workers. there were 16 of us total (8 of us from my company+our spouses/significant others).. each year, my bosses treat us to a trip as their way of saying “thanks for all your hard work” and i gladly accept their thank you, and take a trip to somewhere tropical.

friday, february 5th.

well i just decided to not even go to sleep on thursday night.  not sure that was the brightest idea i ever had, but i wanted to make sure i was awake to leave  for the airport at the lovely hour of 3:30 AM.

typical airport fare~ americano + perfect oatmeal.. which i perfected even more by adding maple almond butter+vanilla protein powder.

 

flight #1 was pretty painless. flying doesn’t really bother me and i sure am glad i’m not the hyperventilating type when it comes to being in the air. my claustrophobia is enough for me to handle as it is.  it was pretty sweet to watch the sun rise bouncing off the clouds.

we had a quick plane change in dallas and then it was off to jamaica.  i snoozed on this guy most of the time~

once we landed in montego bay we made our way through customs and i was NOT deported, thank goodness. we hitched a ride to the resort we stayed at: iberostar rose hall suites for those of you who are interested.

for the record, i started out in leggings, that tank top dress, a hoodie, scarf and boots.  it was cold in utah. by the time i got on the bus to get from the airport to the resort, i stripped down to nearly nothing and quickly swapped those boots out for flip flops for the remainder of the trip!

i am just going off my photos to determine what to talk about next. apparently the thing worth noting about the iberostar lobby is the bench with bum indented seats..

moving on.

i always like to see what hotel rooms are like so i will just go ahead and assume you want to see the same, so here is a plethora of photos of our suite.

bathroom.. shower, tub, double sink.

kitchenish area.. coffee maker, fridge, etc..  

that i promptly stocked with some likely suspects:

the bedroom area..

which stepped down into the living area:

and then out onto the balcony..

 

here is the view from the balcony. can’t complain.

 

we changed into clothes more appropriate for our new found home and went off to explore the surroundings.

and of course.. find some FOOD.  it was about 4 PM which meant neither lunch nor dinner were being served at the moment.  we found a snack bar on the beach and i made myself a plate of randomness to tide me over..

 

the thing about all inclusive resorts is that you waste a lot of food the first day~ since you are trying a bunch of new things out and aren’t sure what you will like.  i ended up loooving that chicken, the broccoli and the mushrooms. the  mini sandwich, chips and guac and whatever that unmemorable pile in the top right was ended up getting wasted. ah well, ya win some ya lose some.

our first evening there, sleep deprivation had set in completely once i hit the awake-for-more-than-40-hours mark.  i felt like i was either 5 sheets to the wind from alcohol consumption or hopped up on a combo of illegal narcotics including but not limited to at least two hallucinogens.  needless to say, we called it an early night.

saturday, february 6.

i think it can go without saying, but i will say it anyway, we slept IN on saturday morning.  ‘twas incredible.  around 10 AM we moseyed down to the breakfast buffet which luckily went from 7 AM to 11:30 AM.  my kind of breakfast. 

breakfast was another experiment.  not sure what i wanted or what i would like.  my first breakfast, and basically every breakfast for the rest of the week, looked something like this:

coffee (which, P.S., was AMAZING), an egg white omelette with ham, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions, some sort of delicious cheese, a slice of french toast with sugar free jam and a pancake with peanut butter.

i ended up loving it all except the flap jack. that was quickly nixed from the breakfast lineup but all other candidates stuck around and made my morning plate more often than not.

want to know what else i ate nearly every morning?

CEREAL. and not just one. i usually mixed a small bowl of ALL the cereals. it was like my “breakfast dessert” nearly every morning :)

after breakfast we decided to take a gander at the workout facility. crappy photos but you get the idea. the gym was SO nice and new.

they even had a full service bar for post-workout drinks and fresh melon. i know i just love to pump some iron and then eat melon, don’t you?

instead of actually working out, we opted to go to the beach, because i  hate working out after i’ve gorged myself on cereal and, well, we were in jamaica.

good times on the beach! i didn’t take my camera with me but right after this photo, marshall and i rented a kayak and paddled ourselves off into the horizon. good thing the world is not flat or we may have fallen off the edge. 

all that paddling worked up an appetite so we took a break for lunch.  this is the only day that i took photos of most of my food so i will go ahead and bore you with all of it on this recap and then the other recaps will be more fun and less all-inclusive-food-filled.. mmmkay?

gee, that isn’t a very attractive lunch, is it?  but it tasted fantastic.  i was pleasantly surprised that all the food i was sampling ended up being delicious! i even emailed my mom expressing my excitement for all the healthy options.

on my plate there are some mushrooms, carrots, bbq beef, chicken salad, some round, unidentifiable item at 6 o’clock and then some jerk chicken, which became the star of the show when it came to lunches at iberostar.

spicy, tender, juicy, perfect chicken.

i also had a lot.. and i mean a LOT of cheese this past week. there was a booth at every meal devoted entirely to cheese. i was in dairy heaven.

my desserts were typically melon and cheese. i was so glad the melon and pineapple were so flavorful because i’ve been missing those fresh fruits back home.

the rest of the day was spent hanging out with everyone on the beach~ good times had by all. 

did i mention they had an ice cream cart by the pool? i ate a LOT of these:

at least we had to get up and walk from the beach to the ice cream cart in order to get some ice cream. i mean, much better than having it brought to me by one of the cocktail waitresses, right? right.

 

 

after the beach, i decided it would be a good idea to get some exercise so i changed into my running clothes and ran 2 miles in 17 minutes & 30 seconds then called it good. something is better than nothing, right?

saturday night a small group of us ended up taking a cab into town and dining at margaritaville, much to my dismay.  if there is anything i hate more than dining at a chain restaurant it is dining at a chain restaurant while on vacation.  that is just something that should NEVER be done. ugh.

i am not even going to humor you guys with photos of the food. it was that bad.  i had a burger that had similar qualities of a hockey puck and i never received my drink, which i ordered 4 different times, and of course was charged for the drink (that i never got) in the end.  i think i am going to go ahead and delete that whole margaritaville experience from my memory riiiight now.

well that wraps up the first two days of the trip!  stay tuned for recap number two. superbowl sunday: i had NO idea what i was in for ;)

Qs~

1. what have you been up to while i was gone? anything worth mentioning?! AHH i missed you guys! 

2. do you dine at chain restaurants? or are you like me and you avoid them like the plague?

xo. janetha b.