Adventures in Hubbardland: Jamaica Baby!

As you all know, I used to be a prodigious traveller. I still like to relive my glory days in various ways, including by receiving a number of weekly emails from travel websites with their latest specials. Back in September or so, I got an email advertising great prices at all-inclusive resorts over Thanksgiving. Kirk and I spent our honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic and we loved it. We've talked off and on since then about going back to an all-inclusive and Jamaica has always been at the top of our list. When I saw that we could get round-trip plane tickets and 5 nights at an all-inclusive hotel for about $1200, we booked right away. Initially, we planned to take Sam with us and went so far as to get her a passport. But then my parents and sister volunteered to watch her. We gladly accepted and our plans took shape.

After leaving Sam with my sister at the airport in Miami (which was way more difficult than either of us imagined - thanks for flying down to get her and being such a good sport Christy!), we flew to Montego Bay. Our resort, the Holiday Inn Sunspree, was only about 10 minutes from the airport. The resort was a little small and not the nicest place we've ever stayed but, for the price, we couldn't complain. Here's some pictures from the resort:

This playground was right outside of our room and made us miss Sam everytime we walked past. We loved having a few days away and are glad she got to spend quality time with the extended family but we missed her so much!

Each morning we would get up and, after breakfast, go our separate ways for a few hours. Kirk went to the gym and got a solid workout for the first time in months and I headed to the pool or some other lounge chair to spend quality time with one of the three books that I read during our trip (total beach trash - it was fabulous!) Then we would meet for lunch and spend the afternoon together.

The first afternoon, we went snorkeling straight off the beach at our resort. We weren't impressed with the sights close into the resort so we just kept swimming out further and further. We had to cross over what seemed to be a dead reef which was super shallow and painful if you were unlucky enough to rub against it. But once we struggled past this area, the bottom dropped away and revealed the most amazing coral reefs. There was tons of different kinds of coral and oodles of tropical fish. We were totally caught off guard - we were not expecting that at all and it was absolutely amazing. We spent about an hour just floating around above the reefs. Afterwards, we both just kept saying over and over how awesome it was. I think we were both in shock. To get a little perspective, the reef was out near where this boat was parked. We couldn't believe that we could swim to it from our ghetto resort.

Our second full day in Jamaica, we decided to get out of the resort and see the town. We took a "shopping tour" which we basically ditched and instead walked around Montego Bay. It was Saturday so there was an outdoor market and the streets were filled with locals. Two local Jamaicans were nice enough to show us around the city. I'm sure they motivated purely by the desire to show off their beautiful city... But we gave them a few bucks for their troubles. Here's some pictures around Montego Bay:

Here's a few pictures of me and Kirk doing what we did most of the visit, drinking fruity frozen drinks. Our favorite was the Miami Vice (combo of frozen strawberry daquari and pina colada - delicious!):