One month of no blogging makes ones creativity thoughts minimal. However, great reasons will stand by it.
This month has flown by. The beginning half was finals. I took three classes this semester to set myself up for graduation in August. I had one group 20-page paper/project and two solo primary research/literature review 20-page papers/projects. I spent a lot of time in my office, at the library or fighting with my printer. It also included multiple trips to Target for printer ink and honeymoon necessities.
After finals were finished I had 4 days to wrap up the end of the month, two weeks early, at work and set my team up for while I was away. I was luckily able to get everything wrapped up and set items aside they may need. My first day back tomorrow should definitely be interesting.
After that, CJ and I drove our pups 2.5 hours to meet his parents so they could watch them for the week while we were gone. We left Saturday May 21st and arrived back Saturday May 28th. We went to Montego Bay, Jamaica and stayed at the Sandals Resort, Montego Bay. It was absolutely a well needed vacation. I can't lie though when I say it was definitely too long of a trip. We missed our pups and our own bed. It was enjoyable time though.
The sunsets were breathless and the ocean was endless. There was literally no other island/land in sight from the beach. I have also wanted a towel in the shape of a swan, so I loved that we got at least 3 of them the entire time we were there.
The view from our room/balcony was breathless. You never know what you are going to get when you request certain view-type rooms, and this was more than I expected. It was amazing to wake up and see the sea every morning.
We ate a TON of food! And it was actually ALL included. All-inclusive can sometimes be misleading with resorts I have been told so I did a lot of research. Sandals had high reviews on being all-inclusive and that was very important to us. In fact, everything is so included I didn't even know room service was included until our last day! Needless to say, I was a little upset about knowing that for our lazy days.
Besides being all-inclusive, we chose Sandals because of the amenities such as water skiing, kayaking and snorkeling that was included. These were important aspects to us before going, and in the end, actually were not that important to us. We went snorkeling when we did a Catamaran cruise and did not enjoy the other amenities. We watched others go tubing, one trip around, go snorkeling not too far from the beach, and kayaking/sailing were right next to the beach as well. As much as the idea of doing the activities and having them included were, being right next to the beach didn't make us want to do them as much. It didn't feel as it would be as great of experience.
Additionally, Sandals has 3 resorts in Montego Bay and they give you access to all three. It is their "stay at one, play at three" motto. We did utilize this to try out the Royal Thai at Sandals Royal Caribbean. [Sandals Carlyle is the third, and smallest, resort in the MoBay area. We did not check this one out.]
The Royal Caribbean had more of a luxury and romantic atmosphere that we found upon entering. It also seemed smaller than the MoBay resort. The Royal Caribbean also has their own private island, where the Royal Thai is located. The island is small and somewhat secluded from the resort. We even learned the backside is a nude beach. Besides all of that, our visit was great. The Royal Thai is a MUST if you are in the MoBay area. Everything we ate was amazing and the view was great - even after the sun went down! I would highly suggest it.
Other food I would recommend is the Oleander room and Stew Fish at MoBay. Both were exceptional and my favorite places to eat on site. They serve a sauce with their steak that is drool-worthy. It was seriously my favorite and I ate steak almost every day. For lunch, I additionally had french fries every day and made sure to have pizza at least once. Breakfast I always had a bagel and/or potato, and for the potato, the hash browns were my favorite. I am not joking when I said we ate a TON. They even had a snack place called Cafe de Paris and I had a sweet treat nearly every day. The humming bird and chocolate paris were the best treats!
Overall, our stay was fantastic. We stayed a couple days too long resulting in us watching movies and sleeping all day for at least 1.5 days. We ventured outside the resort for kayaking, the Catamaran and horse back riding. The people were friendly and the Jamaica language becomes second nature. My phone was shut off for an entire week and I lived without social media. It was refreshing. I did however have wifi access so I checked my e-mail and my final grades (a 4.0 sweep!).
The downsides was the Sandals MoBay is 10 minutes from the airport, but what they don't tell you is the landing strip is literally RIGHT BEHIND the resort so that is why you hear EVERY plane take off.
Even though we stayed a little too long and had amenities available to us that we didn't use, we learned a lot. We now know where we can save our money, what to spend money on and how to relax! We get so caught up in our daily lives between work, house chores and school that we forget to take time for each other. We go to a weekly movie and have a date night, but this taught us how to relax without that. We binged watched NCIS (with commercials) and spent quality time with each other. I know that is how a honeymoon is supposed to be, but it was also a learning aspect for myself at least.
Since I have been home I have made to-do lists, cuddled with my pups, binged watched Redbox movies with my husband and did a little cleaning. As I write this, the T.V. is on and it is hailing. And even yet, I am reminding myself to continue to relax and enjoy life. Even if our cars are getting hail damage (downside of working in insurance: constantly thinking of damages).
Overall, I look forward into growing a stronger bond with my Husband and enjoy life together a little more. And that is something we all need to do. Take a breather from life, take that nap or binge watch that show, we all need to refresh and live life fully.
XO, Sandra
