A Little Liquid Sunshine Mon, It's Irie!

Well, after the most wonderful day of my life, and after a month of stress preparing for it, we were finally able to ship out for a little R&R on our Honeymoon in Jamaica. We went to the Couples Resort in Negril, Jamaica, and it was absolutely amazing! We pretty much did everything imaginable under the sun, including snorkling, scuba diving, water skiing, kayaking, golfing, more scuba, tennis, beach volleyball, and more. But we still had plenty of time for reading, relaxing, massages, and pool or ocean lounging. The food was the best (in fact, we definitely overindulged despite our efforts to skip the buffets), the people were really nice, and the weather totally cooperated. Of course we did have our daily afternoon thunderstorm, but that was just a good excuse to get out of the sun and rest, so it's "no problem mon". All in all, we're planning to go back!

Well, no offense to anyone who's ever picked me up, but this was the best airport pick up ever... private lounge with couches and free beer!

Our room...everyday they made it up with a new cool towel design.

Katharine and the swan...so excited to be in Jamaica!!

Getting the lay of the land at our orientation with Carlos.

At check it, they hand you a glass of champagne, have you relax on a couch, and bring all your paperwork right to you...talk about service!!

We didn't waste any time getting ourselves a cocktail and checking out the water...well, after the rain stopped that is.

First night, heading out to one of 4 awesome restaurants. Food was totally gourmet.

Morning #1, headed out snorkling.

Our Jamaican buddy, Big O. And believe me, he was tall!

This was our snorkling destination...saw some very neat aquatic life.

Oh oh, its raining again...guess we'll take a break and eat lunch.

Turns out the PM thunderstorm was a daily occurance, but we didn't mind...good excuse to get out of the sun and relax or nap.

Josh saddling up to the lunch grill and bar.

A little romantic champagne toast on our private balcony.

Cheers!

A romantic dinner for two at the formal restaurant, Otaheite.

Took advantage of the free scuba lesson and went on a cool, full flegged 30' dive!

Had a little trouble equalizing my ears, but other than that, we loved scuba!

Showed up for lunch just in time to win a cool necklace at the "Couples Funny Money Action"!

Once the sun went down, it was the perfect weather for a little game of tennis.

Josh said he won every day we played, but I'm not convinced he was keeping score properly!

Little sunset stroll and rest on the beach.

Thunderstorms do make for cool sunsets!

We ate in the main dining room tonight, where they have a different entertainer every night. This guy's doing a flaming limbo. Do you see the beer bottle? That's how low he is!!

Tonight's dinner theme...local Jamaican faire. Yumm!

Next up, a full steel drum band...they were awesome!

They even played a cool Micheal Jackson medley.

Well, we took the plunge and went back for more, scuba that is.

Got fully certified and got to keep going for free the rest of the week! Even saw a Nurse Shark!

This was the watersports center, our second home for the week. They had everything from snorkling, to scuba, to waterskiing, to sailing, kayaking and more.

The lovely view out of our "Deluxe Garden View Room."

Rainstorm is over...back out for some afternoon cocktails on the pool deck.

Life is good on a comfy outdoor couch with a view of the ocean.

Tonight we dined at the Asian themed restaurant, Leyche.

Another delicious 5 course meal, topped off with some sake.

Trip wouldn't be complete without a little golf at the local resort.

The grass itself was a little dry, but the course was fun, and the views were pretty.

I was a little hot at this point, I think we picked the most humid day to spend away from the water.

But I still managed to play pretty well, and I really liked the driver in my rental set!

Cool tree.

Cool guy and cool tree.

All in all, a great day of golf. Only got a little stressed when we realized we couldn't find balls and we didn't have cash to buy our lost balls back from the roaming locals!

Guess who's finally learning to waterski?!

And Josh is up!

He even got up on one ski. The process wasn't pretty, but at least he wanted to kill Desmond, the crusty instructor, more than me!

Time to relax a bit after a hard day of waterskiing and golf.

Talk about paradise!

Towel cabana and pool bar.

Time for another post-rainstorm sunset stroll before dinner.

Awe, the honeymooners!

Finally made some friends and got our pictures taken.

Today was more scuba, and then we made time for reading and relaxing in the cool zen gardens.

Pretty lagoon.

Josh enjoying a riveting book on OUR new iPad.

This was one of the Garden Buildings similar to ours...we were on the third floor.

This was the Spa where we got of our free Honeymoon Couples Massage...Josh's first professional massage ever. It was wonderful!

It may look like I'm relaxing, but really we are prepping for some intense sunset crab hunting.

Favorite sunset picture!

That's me in profile.

Matching picture of Josh, but the lighting was a bit different, as was the angle...guess I'm not as tall as him.

We went on a cool Catamaran Cruise to the rock cliffs. Did you see the waterslide on our boat?!

By the end of the trip, Josh has turned into the ultimate island man, on the boat cruise, hair blowing in the wind!

These were the cool rock cliffs and caves. Cool little huts...may need to figure out what those are for the next trip?!

Playing and partying on the Catamaran Cruise.

We rode home in the lower nets...lots of splashes...very wet and exciting!

The happy couple enjoying sunset on the cruise.

Another night of crab hunting...this one was quite successful.

These little guys came out every night at sunset, right on the edge of the lagoon outside the spa. There were so many of them, it was so cool!

Josh was totally addicted to crab hunting, and he's very proud of his pictures! (The hunting was for picture purposes only, by the way)

Another fun musical show on our last night.

We won big at the Funny Money Auction on the last night with our $4.8 billion!

Our friend Carlos, entertainment coordinator extraordinaire, except by the end, Josh was entertaining him more then he entertaining us!

View of the pool area...isn't it just sooo inviting!

Woke up early on our last morning to enjoying some Champagne Mimosa's in the ocean one last time before our 9am shuttle.

My favorite view of the trip: sitting across from Josh on a floaty while hanging out in the water.

Never saw this view until now, but that was Josh's favorite view.

What a nice way to wake up...Do we really have to leave??

View of the resort from the beach...it was such a pretty building, very green and subtle.

Outdoor couches on the deck.

Pool and waterfall.

More pool and building.

We couldn't choose, mimosa's in the pool or in the ocean for our last morning...How about both!

There's my favorite view again!

Cheers! Thanks to Couples Negril for a great trip!

The in-pool bar.

The lobby.

Do you see the size of those mangos?! They were the size of honeydew melons, totally huge!! And I got to eat so many huge slices of them every morning...talk about awesome!

Acting pretentious on the marble staircase.

Cute little bird wandering around the restaurant at breakfast...it was an open air building, so we had lots of wildlife every morning.