Jamaica, mon!

We had so much fun last summer at the Hilton Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica, that we went back this summer for another visit. This time though, my parents and sister came along for the fun!

Getting to Jamaica was a little bit hectic this time around. We had just minutes to make our connection in Miami, and unfortunately our one checked bag full of all the liquids and aerosols didn't make it until the next day (thank goodness we had decided to carry the rest of our stuff on!). Then there was a little tension at the hotel when they wanted to give Mike a child's wristband because he was 17 when I booked the trip even though his ticket cost the same as every other adult's. A call to the travel agent straightened it out, and he got to enjoy a few days of being of legal drinking age.

Eventually we had all the problems ironed out, and after dinner we wound up hanging out at the bar:



We discovered that Jenny is very talented when it comes to cherry stems:



We spent the first 2 days lounging at the beach, taking breaks occasionally to cool off in the lazy river or grab a drink from the swim-up bar. My mom learned how to weave a really cool hat:





There was also a whole lot of reading going on:





Annabelle won a little trinket in a Bob Marley trivia contest:



She also met another Annabelle (this one from Canada) on the beach:



Mike got a temporary tattoo in honor of his best girl:



He and Fred amused themselves by swimming back and forth across the little bay at our hotel:



And Jenny found a double-stemmed cherry in her drink. What is it with that girl and cherries?



Sunday night we went to Three Palms, one of 3 fancy restaurants on the property. The food was delicious, even if the rain forced us to eat inside:







The drink of the day on Sunday was called a kiss-and-tell, which Mike found to be endlessly amusing:









The weather stayed bad through the night, and we were really worried that our snorkeling trip on Monday would either not make or it WOULD make but it would be miserable. As it turned out, it was a little bumpy heading out, but the trip turned out to be a lot of fun.

Fred and Mike recreated a couple of pictures from our trip last summer:





Dad found his younger Jamaican twin among the boat's crew:



Our shuttle to the airport didn't leave until noon the next day, so after we checked out of our rooms, Fred and I grabbed another drink and wandered around the resort for a little while. All in all, it was a great trip and a much-needed break in this hectic summer:



All my Jamaica pics are up on Flickr:



If you go here, you can see my dad's photos (and read about Buddy's adventures in the kennel).