Thursday, May 31, 2012

Charles's Wedding: Rehearsal Dinner

Last Friday morning we headed down to Milledgeville for Charles and MC's wedding. After stopping at Kroger for flowers, we headed to the church to get everything set up for the rehearsal dinner.

The bridal party had already set the tables up for us. They had already spent most of the day at the church getting it decorated for the reception on Saturday. We just had to get everything decorated and ready for the food to arrive.

We had a picnic theme
Buffet Line
Someone made this for MC; I love it!
Drink Table
Wall of cards and photos
Mason jar centerpieces
Love these flowers!
The Bride and Groom's seats
After we got things set up, we headed to the hotel to get ready for the actual rehearsal. I was able to snap a few photos.


Discussing the processional
MC and her dad
Practicing giving MC away
Practicing the ceremony
The rehearsal dinner was catered by one of Charles and MC's favorite BBQ restaurants in Milledgeville. The food was really good! We got so caught up with getting all the food set out and served, then eating and spending time with family that I forgot to take pictures of the actual dinner!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Final Days in Jamaica

On Friday, we were so tired from Dunn's River Falls that we didn't do much. We went to pool in the morning, had some pizza for lunch, and spent some time at the beach in the afternoon.

More beautiful flowers
The beautiful beach
Jason in the hot tub
We decided on italian for dinner, so we headed to Valentino's. It was delicious!


Waiting to be seated

Our travel agent was able to get us a spa credit at the Red Lane Spa, so on Saturday morning after breakfast we headed there for our couples massage. The credit was just enough for it, and it was a great way for us both to enjoy it. I had never had a massage before, so I was a little nervous. It was awesome though! So relaxing. We would definitely do it again! Jason also wanted to go in the steam room and do a cold plunge, so we did that too. It helped get us energized after the massage!

The Spa
After the spa, we went snorkeling again. This time we went to a different spot. The reef was only four or five feet under the water at this spot, so we were able to see a lot more fish! The reef looked close enough to touch. It was beautiful!


We had coconut shrimp for lunch, and then it started to rain! Fortunately the rain didn't last long, so we were able to spend our last afternoon hanging out by the pool. 

For dinner we went to the China Doll. We had some delicious chinese food!


Ready to eat!
Since it was our last night in Jamaica, we walked around the resort and the beach one last time.

On the pier
When we got back to our room we found a fancy towel arrangement and a sweet note for our nightly room attendant. We had talked to her several times throughout the week. She was so sweet!



Sunday we spent the day traveling home. It seemed like it took forever, but we made it back to our little Daisy Duke Sunday evening!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dunn's River Falls

Thursday after breakfast we took a cab to Dunn's River Falls. Dunn's River Falls is the biggest reason why we chose to go to the Ochos Rios Sandals resort. Jason went to Dunn's River Falls two years ago when he was in Jamaica on a mission trip and loved it. He wanted to take me there, so we picked the resort closest to it. The cab ride was only about 15 minutes!

Dunn's River Falls is a big waterfall where the river flows directly into the ocean. You go into the park at the top of the falls and take the stairs down to the bottom of the falls at the beach. From the beach you climb the waterfall back up to the top. The water is really cold, but it feels good because it's so hot in Jamaica and you are working hard to climb up! We climbed the falls twice. We had such a great time! After our second time, we went back to the bottom to climb the stairs and take pictures. It was a lot harder to climb up all the stairs!

Huge Tree in the park

I wore Jason's toe shoes because I didn't have any water shoes :)
The Beach

At the bottom of the falls


View from one of the decks as you go up the falls
A flatter part



It's a popular place!
Sign at the top
Jason climbed part of it a 3rd time to get out of the heat!
After the falls, we took a cab into the city area to get some lunch and do some souvenir shopping. We had lunch at a restaurant called Mama Marley's- apparently the chain is owned by Bob Marley's mother. We had some Jamaican jerk chicken. The market was interesting. We were pretty much the only people there, so everyone was hassling us. Everyone wanted us to look in their shop and buy something from them. They tell you, "no pressure" then proceed to talk about how they need money for something. It really was a lot of pressure/a giant guilt trip! We did find some souvenirs to take home. By the time we were done shopping we were exhausted!

When our cab dropped us off at the resort, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. We found a card and some chocolate cake on an anniversary plate from the resort! It was a delicious snack after a long day!

I got really excited about the cake and forgot to take a picture before we ate it!
We had dinner reservations at Kelly's Dockside Grill.


On the pier
Kelly's is an open air restaurant, and we were able to sit with a perfect view of the sunset. We ate some delicious seafood for dinner while the sun was setting. It was a little bit cloudy but still gorgeous!

Ready for dinner
Beautiful sunset 

Sunday, May 27, 2012

No Problem, Mon

In St. Lucia we heard "Good vibes" a lot, 
but in Jamaica everyone likes to say "No problem, Mon" or No worries, Mon".


Wednesday after breakfast we headed over to the seaside of the resort to go snorkeling. We got over there a few minutes early, so we played Jenga in one of the lounges.

Jenga
The water in Jamaica is so clear! Even though the reef was probably about 10 or 15 feet below the surface, we could still see a lot of the details pretty well. We saw some pretty cool looking fish. I liked the neon blue ones the best. Jason liked one that had a blue head and a big yellow stripe around it. (We forgot to get a waterproof camera again, so we don't have any pictures!) The Sandals staff picked up a couple of sea urchins while we were out and let us take turns holding them on the way back. They were sharp! We just rested them in our palms and it left a couple of marks!

After snorkeling, we hung out around the beach for awhile waiting for our glass bottom boat ride.

Beautiful water
View from the pier
Swinging
The glass bottom boat ride was pretty cool too. We were able to see more of the reef and more fish. And we got a little tour of our area of the island.

Glass bottom boat
For lunch we went to Mariner's and had coconut shrimp. It was so good that we ate there a couple more times later in the week!


We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the pool.

Beautiful afternoon sky
For dinner we went to Reef Terrace. It was an outside restaurant with more beautiful views of the water. They served authentic Jamaican cuisine. I tried the ackee- a fruit that is poisonous until it opens naturally. Jason had it when he was in Jamaica two summers ago on a mission trip. It doesn't taste like scrambled eggs, but it looks them and has that same consistency. I liked the coca bread better. Yum!

Flowers next to our table
Ready to eat
View from our table

Another view as the sun was setting



Later that night there was a chocolate buffet on the hillside of the resort. There were all kinds of chocolate treats and some chocolate fondue! It was a delicious dessert!



Chocolate sculpture
We went to sleep excited about going to Dunn's River Falls on Thursday!