Becoming the Browns: Jamaica 2010

As June rolled in, we rolled out on our girl's trip to beautiful Jamaica! My mom, Laura (family friend and neighbor), and myself escaped the stifling South Carolina summer heat for more stifling summer heat in Bob Marley's homeland. It was an amazing trip and couldn't have come at a better time!

We packed up our suits and flip flops last Thursday and took a direct flight from Charlotte to Montego Bay. Every other time I have flown outside of the country, it has taken multiple flights, so it was nice to go straight there with no in-between stops! Our mini-group in Charlotte:

It was about a 3 hour flight to the island, which was helpful since it took us a little while to fill out our international paperwork.

We had an awesome view just before landing at the airport...

And speaking of landing...the airport's runway almost jutted out a little into the water, so it looked like we would have an aquatic landing as we descended. Look how close we were!

Jamaica isn't all white sand beaches and blue water...it has a lot of green hillsides and mountains. We caught a first glance of this before hopping off our place.

We made it!

It's kind of a "running" joke in my family that my mom walks a few steps ahead of everyone else...she's a quick mover! I couldn't help myself snapping this one on our way to customs.

After we were cleared to enter the country, we waited at the outdoor Margaritaville bar for our transportation to the resort.

Excited for my first 'rita...or any tropical drink really!

Momma ready for good food and good fun!

Jamaican tourists!!

Not the best shot, but here's the sign we were greeted with after leaving the airport...welcome to Montego Bay! Careful, they drive on the left side of the road here!

Arriving at Rose Hall Suites

Our hotel was really pretty and situated right on the beach...I had to take a bunch of "scenery" pics!

Two story hotel lobby

Seats in the lobby...you don't see the deriere carved out for you very often!

Piano bar, where we enjoyed nightly cocktails before dinner.

Rose Hall Suites-pretty as a postcard!

Our own lazy river!

Swim up bar with infinity pool overlooking the beach

The beach!

Bird's eye view of our accommodations-if you're ever planning a trip to Jamaica, this place was really clean, had great food, and was a ton of fun! We girls would highly recommend it!

Our room had great views from both sides...

Jamaican countryside to our right-

Beach to our left!

We arrived to Jamaica so early on Thursday we were able to spend a full day on the beach. We wasted no time getting out there!

View from my feet :)

There was a Jamaican jerk chicken beach cookout for lunch that day, so we took a break from sunning to try the amazing local cuisine and listen to a steel drum band!

Mom and I getting ready for dinner night 1

Day 2 was packed with more laying out, ocean water aerobics, floating in the infinity pool, and enjoying awesome meals at the beach buffet located steps from the ocean (for lunch) and their gourmet restaurant (for dinner). We explored the beach first thing!

Mom and Laura at the pool

Their amazing view :)

The resort was a lot of fun; like I said, we did water aerobics with the "Star Friends,"-people who work at the resort and have activities planned-played Jamaican bingo, and caught some later afternoon competitions, like racing on water!

Playing bingo on our last day

My Star Friend Cornflakes!

We dined at the gourmet restaurant, but had a pre-dinner cocktail at the piano bar. The bartender wasn't so good taking pictures with my camera!

Cheers to a good trip!

Yummy dessert :)

The resort was really pretty at night, too, so we grabbed a few shots before heading to the nightly "show" the Star Friends put on.

While waiting for the show to begin, we were dragged into dancing with the performers! Mom was a good sport about tango-ing with "Noodle."

He was crazy!

I, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as comfortable!

Theater where the show was held...we waited and waited for it to start, but it never did! We finally left before it did actually start-it was past our bedtimes!

Saturday was our excursion day...we did a little duty-free shopping down the road from our resort before hitting a local waterfall tour.

We took a half-day trip to Ocho Rios (about an hour and a half away from our resort) to climb the 600 foot Dunns River Falls. The bus ride out there was a lot of fun! Our tour guide told us all about the country, including all the parishes we rode through, on our way!

Zion!

Large limestone rock-they've got a lot of this stuff around

Roadside Jamaican flag...green for the lush vegetation, yellow for the sunshine and black to represent the hardships but strength of the people!

We couldn't bring our cameras to the falls unfortunately, but we did buy a hilarious video of us climbing. Our guide, the infamous Mr. Gibbs, looked high as a kite directing us through the waterfall while barefoot! At least we made it out in one piece... As a fun touristy stop, we popped in a little convenient store in Bob Marley's home parish where we channeled the star!

All that shopping and climbing made us hungry, so we enjoyed some Jamaican Japanese for dinner!

We were sure to soak up plenty of sun, water and sand on our last full day in the tropics!

These guys would float all day in the water selling their wears!

We caught them setting up for a wedding while we lunched at the beach buffet. I couldn't resist posing! There were lots of weddings during our stay at Rose Hall.