Before

Cory and I have been lucky to have friends that have known us as long as we have been us, and are still some of our closest friends. We had been talking to Matt and Cindy about going to Jamaica for about 15 years, and after Cory and i had our whirlwind trip in 2018, we decided to make it happen in 2020. We looked forward to the trip for a year, and as the date of our departure came closer and closer it seemed like vacation time would never arrive. When the Corona virus started it’s path of destruction, I worried about how it would effect our ability take the trip, but we watched the case counts and decided to hit the road. On 3/14 we drove to Chicago, and on 3/15 took off for Jamaica from OHare airport. Like I mentioned in my last post, when something like this creeps in, it can be really hard to decide when it is time to act. I think that a lot of people would probably judge our decision to go, but it wasn’t until about 3/16 or 3/17 – when we were in Jamaica that everything started closing down back home. We felt very safe where we were, and we had a great time, but we all recognized that if we had been booked to leave even one day later – we very easily may have made a different choice. As we traveled, we were particularly careful in airports. As much as we didn’t want to get sick or carry it home to our families, we were at least equally as worried about bringing a virus to a developing country. We love Jamaica. It is my favorite place in this world that isn’t home, and I love Jamaicans. Thankfully, we did not get sick, and the case numbers in Jamaica, though they have been slowly growing, are not in the resort areas as of yet, so we know our friends who work at the resort are all ok, though worried about taking care of their families now that all resorts are closed. We will definitely have to plan another trip to help stimulate the economy on that beautiful island.

Now that I have rationalized being one of those “Spring breakers”…we had a wonderful time. The first time we went to Jamaica we were on our honeymoon and had no real responsibilities at home. It was great, but we didn’t appreciate the trip the same way that we do these days. In 2018 Cory and I decided to make a trip – only our second time leaving our kids for more than one night, but we made it a short one for both financial and responsibility reasons. We stayed at Couple’s Tower Isle in Ocho Rios and the resort was beautiful, the food amazing and the staff outstanding. Since we had such a small amount of time there we didn’t get the full experience, but we knew we wanted to come back.

We convinced Matt and Cindy that this was the place to go, and so the four of us booked 6 nights. We had 5 full days of sunshine. It was too windy to do any of the water sports or boat rides which was disappointing, but we had warm sun and it was just what I needed. Vacationing with friends was a lot of fun. Cory and I were a little bit nervous, but Matt and Cindy introduced us to some activities that we probably wouldn’t have ever done on our own – Pickle-ball! and sharing drinks, dinners and pool time with friends was great. We were able to play cards – an activity that we used to do all the time before we had kids to keep us busy when we got together, and I got some much needed time to just talk and be with my best friend.

I would be lying if I didn’t mention that I was spent the first couple hours about every day in a state of extreme anxiety. I had a really hard time getting grounded and enjoying the right now, because I was worried about the uncertainty brought on by Covid-19.

Now I am set on another trip, though the next one will likely be 4-5 years out (We need to do some family vacations before Leila leaves for college!). As fun as it was, it would have been even better without a global pandemic cramping my style.

Hammock

This poor man. Even when he takes me on vacation to one of the most relaxing places on the planet, he has to talk me through my anxiety. At least we had a hammock.

bluehole2 The Blue Hole. Such an amazing place. Since it hasn’t been open to tourist for too long, it still has more beautiful nature than tourist traps.