Post-vacation – Sunday January 5, 2014:

Well, after the ice storm was over and had wreaked absolute havoc to the homes of people who live all over the GTA and Durham Region, the insurance companies (at least mine) came through with some money to replace all our lost frozen and refrigerated food.  There was no deductible applied and the money is going to be enough to make up for our food losses.  Unfortunately, the insurance company would not cover hotel bills for the nights we had to spend outside of our home because it was too cold to live there – that sucks.  And, the cost of dumping the wasted food into the dump was not covered either.  However, since I was expecting some kind of a deductible, the fact that there is none is a good thing – I can live with that.  We actually had our “Christmas dinner” of turkey and all the accessories on New Year’s Day instead.

Meanwhile, I am still not welcome at Dave’s daughter’s in-laws living in Whitby, but I decided that if I let them get under my skin, it would defeat my purpose.  So, I wasn’t given the opportunity to see Dave’s daughter and her two little girls during this Christmas break.  But, after all, I am my own person; I tell the truth whenever possible and, in this case, I just told the truth the way I see it.  Anyone else not related to them would have done the same.  That doesn’t make me a bad person, just an honest one who cannot stand bulls*t or people who spout it and, even more, believe their own bullsh*t!

Tomorrow, on Monday January 6, I am returning to school and I’m looking forward to it.  Only problem is – I have developed a cold recently and have been battling fatigue and plugged sinuses for a few days now.  However, I am devoted to my students and will be there for them till the end of the semester and the end of the year, ultimately.  That’s what good teachers do and I aim to be the best at this profession. 

As far as my newly published book is concerned, I have ordered 100 new soft cover books that I intend to use for promotion purposes.  My whole order includes a second (free) book marketing kit, 20 free soft cover copies and 5 free hard cover copies; the free copies were part of my original publishing package.  These free copies will go to family and friends only.  The rest of these books will be sold or given as gifts (through redeemed gift certificates I will give out only to certain people).  Finally, later in January or early February, I will be initiating a publicity campaign to promote my book in both Canada and the United States.  This campaign via the media will help expose my book to millions of people that I would never be able to reach on my own.  However, I am also in the process of sending out a newsletter to the book retailers in the main cities of Canada and five of the largest cities in the United States.  Perhaps, I will also be able to do some book signings locally and further afield.  Hopefully, something good (like getting some really good book reviews and winning some writing contests) will help people to decide to buy my book this time making me a successful, award-winning author.  Only time will tell.

Post-vacation - Friday December 27, 2013:

Today, we’ll be checking out of the Comfort Inn.  It’s been fairly comfortable staying here, except when we had a day-long power outage yesterday until about dinnertime.  However, the power came back on and I am settling in for the evening, alone for the night.  Thank God, Dave went home early because he was starting to get on my nerves, big time!  You can always spend too much time with your roommate…..maybe that’s why I still want to work for a living.  Otherwise, we would drive each other nuts in no time at all!

I talked to my long-time girlfriend, Gerry Lenaghan, who lives in Brampton, Ontario.  She has also been affected by this massive power outage, but she seems to be coping with it alright.  Yesterday, I talked to my also-long-time girlfriend, Dale McDonough, who lives in Sudbury, Ontario.  She, unlike us, was not affected by lack of power and heat.  Good for her because Sudbury is definitely not a place where you’d want to be without utilities like power and heat!

There are some great TV movies playing at this time of year on the “W” channel, mostly to do with love themes and families.  This is the kind of stuff I love to see, hear and write about because I’m still a romantic at heart and would like to believe in “forever”.  Thank God though, Dave is not here to argue with me today anymore about god-knows-what.  He can be a little hard to take sometimes, even at Christmas; despite that, I do care about him.  His daughter, who just moved to Whitby, close to us, lives with her in-laws (Yuk!) who have decided that I am much too opinionated for them because of something I said about a certain member of their family.  What I said about him is the absolute truth, but that doesn’t seem to matter to them.  According to them, he is not the kind of person I said he was.  What I really meant is that he is not what I would consider a “forever” type of guy.  In other words, he’s the kind of guy who’s here for a good time, not a long time.  However, I am not one to keep quiet whenever I have an opinion about anyone or anything, so when someone tells me I am not welcome at their home because of a particular opinion I expressed, I feel that I do not want to have anything to do with those people.  This does not, by the way, include Dave’s daughter or her two little girls, who are little darlings that love me as much as I love them.  Somehow, I’m just going to have to develop a thicker skin from now on.  Those morons’ opinions of me don’t ultimately make any difference to me.  I intend that my narrative here will make it into my author blog one day in the not-so-distant future, but for now, I’ll just have to keep my thoughts to myself.  When the time is right, I will post this entry, along with my other thoughts about this particular December and people everywhere will just have to accept that I will always have my own opinions and that I live to write about them!

Stay tuned for my next great adventure - probably in Canada during 2014 - but, there will be more international adventures too!

Day 7 - Saturday December 21, 2013:

First thing today, I must book a courtesy suite for us four before our flight leaves.  This could be one of our existing suites or another room.  The reason is that we would normally have to check out of the hotel by 11:00 am, but the bus doesn’t leave for the airport from the hotel until I guess about 5:15 or 5:30 pm and we’ll need a room / suite to stay in till that time.  It’ll probably cost us about $100US.  We need to be at the airport in time to check in our baggage, go through customs, and maybe get something to eat or drink and wait to board the plane.  In order to board the plane, we must have boarding passes.  We can’t print them out here at the hotel, so we will have to pick them up at the airport instead.

Today, we are more than happy to be leaving!  At least, Brent, James and Dave are…..I love Jamaica though and I will be returning back here sometime!  We could not book a courtesy suite or room for today at all because the hotel was fully booked.  So, we had to check out of our two suites by 11:00 am and stow our baggage down by the front desk in the main lobby.  We were still allowed to use the nearby change rooms, locker facilities, showers and washrooms, but there was no longer any hotel room/suite for us.  At about 5:00 pm, we were picked up (after showering and changing) by our bus so that we could go to the airport and get on our WestJet flight home. 

The flight home was pretty uneventful, but by the time we got back to Toronto almost 4 hours later, we discovered that a horrific ice storm was brewing in the GTA and Durham Region where we live.  Kyle had agreed to pick us up after we’d gone through customs and picked up our baggage.  He was there waiting for us when we got outside Terminal 3 at around 1:00 am.  The drive home was tricky because it was pretty icy by this time.  Then, about an hour after Dave and I got home – we got home just after 2:00 am or so – the power went out all over the GTA and Durham Region and we did not have any idea when it would come back on!  The same thing happened to Brent and James when they got to their home in Oshawa shortly after us.  This has been our collective nightmare since very early on the morning of December 22^nd.

Post-vacation - Sunday December 22, 2013:

Two nights after landing in Toronto, we still did not have power or heat and it was getting too cold to stay home any longer.  Finally, on Monday December 23^rd, we booked ourselves into a local hotel, the Comfort Inn in Oshawa.  Kyle and Cathy took his two girls, Kaylee and Jaime, up to see their grandmother, Trudy, in Innisfil, Ontario for Christmas and Boxing Day.  Meanwhile, Dave and I had to stay in the Comfort Inn and keep booking more nights as we got news updates from the CP24 TV channel on the power outage situation.  For some unknown reason, our hotel was not affected by a power outage until Thursday December 26^th.  This is, by far, the longest and most severe power outage I have ever experienced! 

The last time I experienced a power outage (blackout) in the GTA was in 2004 or 2005 when I lived in East Scarborough and that time, it lasted about 22 hours.  But, that time was also different because it happened in the summer….we weren’t living in sub-zero temperatures at home then!  Our frozen food at that time had almost started to thaw, but thankfully, the power came back on just before there was any irreversible loss. This time, however, we’ve lost all of our frozen food because you cannot re-freeze it once it starts thawing right out.  So now, it’s all garbage and we’ll have to start all over again shopping for meat and frozen vegetables, etc. 

I really do hope that my home insurance will cover our frozen food losses and our hotel bills for this week.  I am still here, sleeping at the Comfort Inn for the 4^th night this week!  Dave went back to our place tonight (Thursday) to check out the situation for the 2^nd time today and he decided to stay overnight because the power has finally come back on at home.  It’s still cold there, but he thinks he can handle it.  It’s costing me a lot more this month because we’ve had to eat out much more often and Christmas time is expensive and the hotel bills are definitely piling up.  We’ve all been told by CP24 that the power outages should be fixed soon and hopefully, that fact is now coming true!  It’s about f**king time!

Today, we finally did our laundry from our Jamaica trip and from the last week.  That, at least, is a relief. 

Tonight, I am ordering in a pizza for myself for dinner.  It’s pizza for the second time this week.  It’s certainly been weird this week because, for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, we had dinner at Boston Pizza and I’d ordered a Hawaiian pizza then.  Oh well, it’s a strange world, isn’t it?

Day 6 - Thursday December 19, 2013:

I had booked a second excursion for today.  It was to leave the hotel by 9:30 am, but didn’t end up leaving till close to 10.  This one is called the “Martha Brae River Rafting” adventure.  We left the hotel and proceeded through the city of Montego Bay in a van, up through the mountain communities, and eventually, out of town.  I knew we were going a fair way since the Martha Brae River is really a mountain stream that starts high up in the mountains and empties out into the Caribbean Sea.  I’d guess it was a 50 – 60 km trip one-way.  We were also taken on a mini-tour of a nearby Jamaican herb garden because Jamaicans are very health-conscious people.  After our river raft tour, we were scheduled to go on a tour of the nearby small city of Falmouth, a Jamaican city of about 10,000 or so.  It’s a port designed for the very largest cruise ships that sail on the Caribbean that can’t dock anywhere else in Jamaica.  And, we got to see how the native Jamaicans live, something we wouldn’t have seen in the resort.

The river raft tour was something else.  I’ve never been on a bamboo raft, guided by a native Jamaican man, all by myself.  Other people on other rafts at the same time, were also going down this long, but narrow fresh water river, spaced apart.  At some point, two or three rafts all came together and I thought there would be a collision.  Not so.  These river guides sure know what they’re doing!  Except for certain high-water months, they are doing this a majority of the year, so they are very good at it.  It turned out to be a very relaxing and comfortable time.  I had never done anything like this before in my life; from now on, when I think of river rafting, I will always remember my wonderful experience on the Martha Brae River.

After the river raft tour and our subsequent tour of the city of Falmouth, we headed back to Montego Bay (I thought).  Instead, we stopped at a rest stop that consisted of an informal restaurant-bar and a gift shop.  We were told to have lunch there and go shopping if we wanted to and our driver-tour guide would come back for us.  He had to go back to pick up some other people from the “Jamaican Swamp Safari” excursion.  Thus, there were four of us stranded together – a really nice middle-aged Swedish mother and her teenaged daughter and adult son.  They were visiting Jamaica from Stockholm, Sweden.  I had to actually borrow money from the mother (Cecilia) so that I could eat lunch with them because I had not brought enough money with me for this purpose.  I had not anticipated lunch on this trip – so much for budgeting for an excursion.  I did buy a nifty multi-coloured muscle shirt for Brent, a rather flashy T-shirt for James and a cute little blue bead necklace for myself.  But, after I had tipped my raft guide on the river tour, I had no money left over.  The vendors you meet in Jamaica usually deal with cash – US dollars mostly and, of course, Jamaican dollars.  The ratio of Jamaican dollars to US dollars is about 10 to one (10 Jamaican dollars for every US dollar).  So, you can always spend US dollars there and Jamaican dollars, as well, but when you leave this country, only US dollars can still be used.

By the time we arrived back in Montego Bay at the resort, it was already 4:00 pm.  I’d missed my departure time for the Dreamer Catamaran Cruise for the second time in a row!  So, I was really hoping I could rebook it again, this time for the following morning, at about 9:30 am.  This time, I could not miss it.  This tour was really nice.  The driver took a bunch of us from our hotel – an American family and me – to the launch point of the four catamarans.  Ours was called “Day Dreamer” and it was white and yellow and big enough to hold up to 30 people.  There were only about 15 of us altogether on this trip, so we knew there’d be lots of room.  The tour included sailing along the coastline of Montego Bay, stopping at a designated place to do some snorkelling (which I’ve never done before) and then stopping at the seaside town of Margaritaville for a light lunch and/or a drink.  You could also slide down this very steep waterslide if you had the nerve.  It emptied you into the sea, but I chose not to participate.  The others I was with told me that, when they tried it, it shot them out like a cannon into the sea and was very hair-raising for that reason.  This tour took a total of about four hours, from 9:30 till about 1:30.  I think it might’ve gone a bit overtime.  I liked this particular excursion a lot since I’ve never been on a catamaran.  It’s a very large sailboat and sometimes it takes a while to get your “sea-legs” on a choppy sea – it did for me today.  The Caribbean Sea is very clean and clear and there are some interesting looking fish in it and, of course, the coral reefs.  I would love to do some more snorkelling the next time I visit Jamaica!

Last, but not least, I took a full body massage at about 3:00 pm for forty-five minutes at the Health Spa.  Donna did my massage.  She used hot oil and spread it over my body, first on my back and legs then I flipped over and she did the front of my body.  It was a very soothing and relaxing experience – something I definitely should do more of in the future.  I need to start looking after my health better since I am getting older and the only way to slow down the aging process is to take better care of yourself – body, mind and soul.  Being in Jamaica for this week has been a truly rejuvenating and adventurous time for me!

We will have to book our seats on the return flight home.  We can only do this 24 hours in advance of the flight, which leaves at 8:15 pm tomorrow night.  So, Dave and Brent are going to book our seats in the Internet café off the main lobby tonight.

Day 5 - Wednesday December 18, 2013:

We played Yahtzee (a game that uses 5 dice in the main lobby last night before retiring for the night.  As usual, James won the game handily, by rolling two Yahtzees (100 points each) and made no apologies whatsoever for his need and desire to win games against the rest of us.

I hope my kids at school are doing well with my supply teacher this week.  They’re only going to be at school one more day after today before Christmas break and then we are all off until January 6, 2014!  Hurray!  I do not have to go back to work right away after we get back from Jamaica early Sunday morning (December 22^nd). 

As it turns out, the weather is again spectacularly sunny and hot!  I booked my first external excursion called “Dreamer – Catamaran Cruises, Montego Bay, Jamaica”.  It’s known as “The Ultimate Sailing Experience”.  Since I’ve never been on a catamaran, but love sailing, I am about to discover what sailing on the Caribbean Sea is like.  Here’s what the brochure says about the evening sail:  “Champagne Sunset Sail – Sunsets are breath-taking in Montego Bay.  Here…the sun goes down amidst white sand beaches, romantic music & gentle Caribbean waters.  Sail along Montego Bay’s beautiful coastline on board your Dreamer Catamaran (there are 4 different ones) for a two hour cruise, drinking in our renowned Jamaican sunset.  This is an unforgettable experience not to be missed.  Sunset Cruise includes Open Jamaican Bar with Champagne Mimosas and light Hors d’Oeuvres.”

However, I decided to go on the Dreamer Catamaran during the mid-to-late afternoon instead, which starts at 2:30 and ends at the resort by 6:00 pm.  It involves snorkeling (they provide the equipment if you want to go).  The afternoon session is known as the three hour “Sail and Snorkel” and is offered Monday through Saturday 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm.  I suppose they just tell you to get ready to depart by 2:30 pm for the 3:00 sail time so you won’t miss the shuttle bus taking you to the dock.  I am really, really looking forward to this adventure because that’s just one more thing vacations are for!  The brochure describes this adventure as:  “Sail along the coastline aboard one of Montego Bay’s premier Sailing Catamarans – Day Dreamer, Tropical Dreamer, Island Dreamer or the new Sun Dreamer - designed for an ultimate sailing experience!  Open Jamaican Bar included for all scheduled cruises.”  You’re supposed to wear your bathing suit and bring a towel and sunscreen.  I am definitely wearing my swim suit and bringing my hat, T-shirt and a towel with me.  If this is not going to be an absolutely terrific adventure, then I haven’t planned my vacation here in Jamaica very well!

As it turned out, I missed the Dreamer Catamaran Cruise today because of some screw up that I couldn’t control.  The bus for the excursion somehow left without me and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) come back to get me.  So, I rebooked this excursion for tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully, I would make it this time.

This is a good day to plan external excursions because the cruise ships stop here every Wednesday and the passengers have free access to any resort.  That means a lot of extra people will be here today at the swimming pools and waterpark and other activities at the resort.  Brent and James are also planning a couple of external excursions for themselves.  One of them is:  “Cool Runnings:  Dunn’s River Fun Cruise”.  This is what is says in the brochure about this adventure:  “Jamaica’s tropical beauty and exciting watersports fun are highlights of your ‘Cool Runnings’ adventure.  Board our super catamaran and cruise to Crystal Cove for a swim and snorkel stop.  Equipment and instruction included.  Then, sit back and enjoy the specular scenery as we sail to famous Dunn’s River Falls.  After your guided climb up the falls, the real fun begins.  The hot dance music will have you rocking as our staff shows off the latest soca and reggae moves.  This is a tour you won’t forget.  Beverages, Red Stripe Beer and Rum Drinks served after Dunn’s River.”  Things to bring:  Swim Suit, Towel, Sunscreen, Money (for tips and cool stuff).

Day 4 - Tuesday December 17, 2013:

Today, we all got up late (10:45 am?) and missed the buffet breakfast altogether!  But, I remembered that there was a continental breakfast from about 10:30 to 11:30 am and we were able to just make it to that.  Brent had gone out the previous evening and I spent the night with James so that he wouldn’t be alone.  That arrangement has been working really well for us.  Dave, meanwhile, would have his king bed in our suite all to himself, a fact he did not argue with anyone about. 

After our continental breakfast, we decided to use one of the other numerous swimming pools around the resort.  It was sunny again, as usual, but we got some regular lawn chairs and loungers under an umbrella.  We still have to pay close attention to the intensity of the sun, but it was okay today.  We did not overdo our sun exposure.

I had made another appointment at the Health Spa, this time for a pedicure.  Pedicures are nothing new to me, but I had not been planning to have one here in Jamaica.  However, I decided that, due to being on vacation here, I needed to pamper myself and not think about doing it when I get home to Canada.  Again, it was Donna who did my pedicure and she did such a great job that I tipped her $10US again.  I also made a third appointment for a full body massage.  This entails having a sauna if you wish, and then having a full body massage, front and back, by a professional female masseur, with the use of deep body hot oil moisturizer, scented candles and soothing music.  It felt so good yesterday, I’m going for another massage on Thursday this week!

We’re going to La Bella Vita later tonight, the Italian-cuisine restaurant that we made a reservation at yesterday.  Our seating time is 8:00 pm, which is a lot later than we are used to having dinner, but it was the only time that was available to us.  To attend this restaurant, we have to sort of dress up.  Men have to be dressed in trousers or dressy shorts and a shirt with sleeves.  Women should be in a dress or a skirt and blouse.  Proper shoes are required.  While the dress code is not exactly formal, we must be dressed like we are going to a nice restaurant, not a fast food place.  I’m told the food is very decent.  We all like Italian food (pasta, bread, salad, etc.) so it should be fine – we’ll find out later on.

Brent doesn’t know yet whether he’s going out or not after dinner is over.  He said the last two nights, he just spent his evenings at one of the bars downstairs at the resort.  The bars are open until 2:00 am, but you can drink as much as you want – the booze doesn’t cost anything extra.  He came back by 4:00 am the first night and by, I think, about two-ish, the second time.  I didn’t care; I was watching TV while James slept, and when I was tired, I went to sleep too.  But, Brent had to crash on the living room couch, which was okay except for the fact that there were no blankets or sheets for it and he forgot to ask the maids for some extra ones.  However, I think he was too drunk or too tired to care by that time.

My Trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica

Day 1 - Saturday December 14, 2013:

Today is the first day of the rest of my adult life!  I am leaving Canada for a wonderful week in Jamaica for the first time in about 30 years!  On my first flight south, I went to Acapulco, Mexico in November 1980 for a week.  That was before I moved to Calgary, Alberta, before I got re-married, before my son was even a thought in my head, and before I experienced some of the most unusual things anyone could experience in one’s life.  While still living in Toronto, I got another later opportunity to go to Europe in June 1981 on a budget tour of 10 countries and it was absolutely marvelous!  My last flight south was to Palm Springs, California for my honeymoon after I got married in Calgary, Alberta for the second time in my young life.  But, this coming week is something I have looked forward to like no other trip since my trip to Europe.  The four of us are all prepared with passports, necessary documents, vaccinations, swimsuits, summer wear and lots of sunscreen!  The whole trip has been booked (by our travel agent) and the necessary documents printed out and packaged for us.  We are ready to go to Jamaica!

Geographically speaking, Jamaica is situated in the northern part of the Caribbean Sea, due south of Cuba, north of Panama and Columbia, east of southern Mexico and Belize and west of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  The furthest south I have ever travelled in my life previously is probably Acapulco, Mexico, on the Pacific coast, but could also be Key West in Florida, USA.  These two places are almost as far south as Jamaican.  I was in my 20s then.  Obviously, I’ve never been to Jamaica, but I am open to visiting new countries and regions whenever the opportunity arises.  The thing that will be different this time will be the stronger presence of the sun.  None of us is used to that kind of weather; still, we are looking forward to this vacation like you wouldn’t believe so that we can lounge around in the lovely warm weather and enjoy the ocean, the pools, the waterpark, the night life and everything else wonderful that’s being offered there.

I haven’t been near an ocean other than on a brief visit in the 1980s to Vancouver, BC, situated on the Pacific Ocean, but that is hardly the same thing as swimming in it.  The part of the Atlantic Ocean that is the Caribbean Sea will be very warm and inviting – it’s far enough south that the sun’s warmth will make it very pleasant to wade in and swim a little.  I’m not sure yet how I’ll experience it, but I sure am looking forward to finding out.

I planned this trip to Jamaica with my roommate Dave, my son Brent, and my grandson James.  I really wanted to go with all of them because it means a lot to me to spend good quality time with the people I love the most.  Dave happens to be a person who is not actually related to me, but who was in my life from 1991-93.  I met him late in 1990 and we were close for a time, then we went our separate ways, but we became close again later on in the early part of the new millennium.  Suffice it to say, he is now like a family member, a great friend to me, and we both like it that way.  Besides, my son regards Dave like a father, since his own father chose not to have any significant part in his life from the time Brent was about 7 years of age.

The very first thing that was supposed to be happening is that we would drive to the Valet Park ‘n Fly place near the airport to drop off the car and board a shuttle bus that would take us to the airport.  The car would be parked for us while we were away and then warmed up for us when we returned.  This is one of the perks offered to all CAA members whenever they travel by air.   Dave, Brent and I are all CAA members. This experience alone would be something totally new for all of us; but, actually, as it happened, we discovered that we could not take advantage of this wonderful perk. Why not? My younger roommate, Kyle, needs Dave’s Grand Prix to pick up his two little girls from their mother’s home for one of the weekends we are going to be away, so he offered to drive us to the airport and pick us up when we return.  At the same time, Kim, Dave’s daughter (and Kyle’s sister), also needs to borrow our station wagon so that she can go back and forth to work.  She works part time as a nurse at Sunnybrook Hospital.  She just moved to Whitby with her two little girls and will now be living a lot closer to Dave, Kyle and me from now on.  We are really happy about their move here.

The grand plan is for us to get to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport with lots of time to spare.  We’ll check our bags in, take our carry-on bags with us and go through customs, then go get something to eat and talk excitedly about our coming flight on WestJet Airlines. This will be a direct flight of about 4 hours’ duration.  That might seem like a long trip to some, but to me, it’s not.  I’ve spent a lot longer than that on my numerous 11-hour Greyhound bus trips up north to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in the summertime.  Brent has been on an airplane before, but can’t remember what it was like, since he was a young child at the time.  This happened when the two of us would fly to Toronto from Calgary and back again on occasional trips home to see my family.  James has never been on an airplane before, but he is prone to travel sickness, especially in a car.  To make sure he enjoys this airplane ride now, we are giving him a Gravol pill beforehand so there is no chance he will experience air sickness on the plane.  I personally love air travel anytime.  However, it’s been so long since I’ve been on an airplane that I think that I may have almost forgotten what the experience was like.

We’re supposed to be leaving Toronto at 10:15 am and flying due south at least 2,000 miles.  We will arrive at about 2:26 pm in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  We should be there in time for maybe a light lunch, and then we’ll change into our swimsuits right afterward and start doing some serious lounging in the pool.  Our hotel is a multi-storied building near the pool area, so we will not have to walk any great distances.  There is an awesome waterpark at Sunset Beach Resort, which is where our hotel is located.  We purposely picked a resort with a waterpark so that James could play all day long, along with his dad, and be delightfully occupied while we’re on vacation there.  He and his dad will have blast together, to be sure!    Dave and I will, no doubt, spend an endless amount of time in one of the pools where a bar is located.  For me, that will be wonderful!  Though I am not planning to get drunk, it might happen and I’ll deal with it if it does.  Dave can’t drink alcohol at all, so he’ll just drink soft drinks; however, he says he will enjoy just being in the pool watching all the people walk by.  He’s a people-watcher, you see.

The first day we’ll all have to be very careful not to get sunburned.  The sun is hotter and much more intense than we are used to in Canada.  Sunburn is a real risk in tropical countries when you’re not used to a hot climate, and must be avoided.  Dave has taken trips down south before, to the Dominican Republic, and told me that, despite taking precautions, he once got a wicked sunburn, a very painful one.  We will all have to wear hats and T-shirts in and around the pool area, in fact, whenever we are outside.  I have no problem with that.  I’m also bringing some sunscreen (SPF 50), which will have to be liberally applied, especially to James’s skin, several times a day.  James is very fair and he’s only 9 years old – his skin would burn like nothing else; in fact, we’ll all have to wear sunscreen and be vigilant about applying it regularly.

According to Dave, the food is usually spectacular down south and the meals include an incredible variety of food.  You do not have to eat spicy, Jamaican food unless you like that kind.  I’m not a great fan of spicy anything, which means I think I will have to eat mostly mildly-spiced food.  However, if I get the chance to experiment with eating new foods, I won’t avoid it.  I like doing different things whenever I’m on vacation.  After all, a change is as good as a vacation.  It’s my chance to do something I don’t normally do and that includes eating new foods.  I’m told that tourists who stay at the resorts have access to many different foods from different countries of the world.  I like that very much about travelling.

The accommodations at the hotel should be good, we thought.  We chose to have two connected hotel rooms. Everyone wants to have their own bed and 2 rooms would give us that.  But, we got 2 bedroom suites that are not connected instead.  Each suite has a bedroom (with a king-sized bed – hopefully, to be replaced by 2 double beds), a living room, a large bathroom with a Jacuzzi, a refrigerator (with drinks), a coffee maker, a hair dryer, Wi-Fi Internet access (if you have your own computer) and a 53-inch TV.  As it turned out, the king bed would not be replaced by two double beds and the Jacuzzi was no good because Dave said only cold water could be run into it.

Truth to tell, even though we went through Dave’s CAA travel agent, Pamela McLeod, to book the vacation of our dreams, we won’t know until we get to Jamaica what it’s really going to be like there.  Other people can tell you and you can read about it or look at pictures of it, but direct experience is absolutely the best and maybe the only way to learn about different places you want to visit.  Travel is one of those adventures that sometimes take you in unexpected directions – not necessarily bad, just new and untried ones.  But, that’s what I love most about travel – the unexpected things that can cross your path and make your life richer and more rounded as a result.  I am going to do my best to be a “Jamaican-in-the-makin’” by doing some of the things the natives do, try to appreciate their daily lifestyle, and, most of all, appreciate my own normally Canadian way of life.  There is nothing like travelling abroad to make a Canadian appreciate that fact!

Day 3 - Monday December 16, 2013:

I guess this part really belongs to yesterday’s journal entry, but here it is anyway.  Brent and James sort of disappeared in the late afternoon yesterday on us.  We didn’t see them at dinner and, in fact, it wasn’t till about 9:30 pm that they re-appeared.  Apparently, they had been doing a lot of activities together, like mini golf, basketball, giant chess, giant checkers, tennis and more swimming.  Then, they went to see the magic show that was performed that evening.  Meanwhile, Dave and I were so tired from our daytime activities that we forgot all about the magic show and we just waited until they came back from seeing it.  I did worry about them for a time, but then I realized that it was totally unnecessary.  It’s really safe on the resort even after dark, so nothing was likely to happen to them.

Today, we all went to the waterpark again and stayed there till lunchtime.  At that point, not only were we getting hungry, we decided that we’d had enough sun for the moment.  It’s easy to think that you’re not getting over-exposed to the sun, but then it hits you later on in the day and it can be brutal if you haven’t been wearing sunscreen and the proper protective clothing, like a hat, for example.

Later, after we’d all eaten burgers and fries and nachos for lunch from the Sunset Grill, I went to the Health Spa for a total body scrub, having made an earlier appointment with Donna, a very nice Jamaican lady who’d approached me for an appointment while we were at the waterpark.  I decided that I deserved to spoil myself this week since that’s what vacations are for, and thus the total body scrub was a done deal.  First, I was told to strip down to my underwear, don a robe and take a short sauna, a really authentic Finnish one, which lasted about 15 minutes.  Then, Donna took me to the massage room and told me to lie face down on a table layered with soft towels while she proceeded to scrub me from neck to feet with soft water and sea salt.  I’d never experienced this kind of thing before and it felt absolutely wonderful!  There was soothing music and scented candles and Donna herself was a total professional when it came to doing my body scrub.  After that, she took me to a private shower room and told me to take a warm shower to wash off all the salt and, after I did that and dried myself off, she took me back to the massage room and proceeded to give me a very soothing massage with deep body moisturizer.  I liked this experience so much that I wanted to tip her appropriately, but didn’t have any extra US or Jamaican cash on me, so I went back later and left her a $10 tip.  I also booked a pedicure for tomorrow, something that was way overdue, but – hey! – I’m on vacation this week so now is the most appropriate time to do this kind of activity.

The rest of the afternoon was kind of quiet, as, Dave was napping and Brent and James were busy with their usual activities.  That was the idea – they would keep themselves busy and I would be left alone to read or write or both, and to relax!  And, that is exactly what I did!  However, I did start to get a little bit bored and so I went looking for Brent and James later on.  When I caught up with them, I was introduced to a couple of American women they’d met who were also on vacation at Sunset Beach Resort.  Brent wanted to play mini golf with them, but James told me later that he changed his mind and didn’t play with them, he just watched.

The evening started off with dinner, followed by a suggestion by James that we play Monopoly, a board game that Dave had brought with him.  I said I would play too, but in reality, I was kind of miffed at James’ suggestions of how to play the game properly.  After all, I’ve played this game hundreds of times, unlike him (he’s only 9).  But, finally we all settled down to play the game and, ironically, I was really losing big time!  James actually won the game, doing it honestly, by playing by the rules.  That kid is so smart; he can win most games of chess and checkers, as well.  Then, Brent decided that he was going out for the evening and wanted to know if I would babysit James.  I told him I would because that was the arrangement – he would keep James busy during the day and I would look after him in the evening till Brent got back.  Honestly, I do not mind doing this – it’s a labour of love.  I love that kid like he belongs to me instead of Brent.  Anyway, that’s all for today.....tomorrow is another day!

One more thing – we made a reservation at one of the resort’s a-la-carte restaurants on the resort.  It’s an Italian-cuisine restaurant and you can only eat there by appointment.  It’s called La Bella Vita and our reservation is at 8:00 pm tomorrow evening.  They have four different seating times – 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 pm.  So, our dinner will be a little later than usual tomorrow, but we can always snack our way through the afternoon and early evening!

Day 2 - Sunday December 15, 2013:

Finally, we made it to Montego Bay, Jamaica!  It was 2:50 pm when we finally landed on a very narrow airstrip at Sangster International Airport.  We then had to wrestle with immigration / tourist papers, customs, baggage and finally with our hotel transfer (by shuttle bus).  We were all hot and exhausted by the time we were on our way to our hotel, and wanting a shower or swim so badly that our bodies ached. 

The next morning was actually when we started to enjoy ourselves.  The weather was already a balmy 80 degrees F and it was only 9:30 am.  After a buffet breakfast in the dining room, and a tiff with the Jamaican Tours Limited (JTL) rep. regarding our mishandled hotel arrangements, Dave and I were finally doing what we came here for - sitting by one of the swimming pools outside, all dressed in our swimsuits, ready to enjoy the water and the sunshine.  Brent and James had already left for the waterpark and were enjoying themselves immensely.  At this point, I really wanted to just start swimming and sunning and, most of all, relaxing.  I even went down the waterslide three times – first time for me, ever!

Our hotel suites were supposed to have two beds each and be connected.  Neither of these things happened.  Instead, we got a king bed in each suite, but we liked the suites so much that we decided to keep them and make do with the temporary sleeping arrangements.  We figured that two people sleeping in a king bed won’t bump into each other accidently, and we decided we could live with that fact, just this week.  We’ll have to remember to tell Pam, our CAA travel agent, about what the actual hotel arrangements…..we weren’t totally happy about them.

There are lots of kids here with their parents, both swimming and sunning themselves.  Apparently, lots of Jamaicans like to come to Sunset Beach Resort from Kingston, Jamaica for the weekend.  It’s a four hour trip to the resort for them.  It’s already so warm that we have to wear plenty of sunscreen - even Jamaicans wear sunscreen!  I conveniently forgot to take mine, but Brent had his and put lots of it on James and shared it with me. 

The food here is okay (not great) and there’s plenty of variety, even if you don’t like spicy Jamaican food, which I don’t.  The meals are mostly buffet-style unless you decide to make a reservation at one of three restaurants at the resort.  It doesn’t cost anything extra to eat at these restaurants; we just thought we would try one or two of them out for something different to eat.

Sunset Beach Resort is huge and it took us a while to get used to where everything is and find our way around the place.  It’s not like a conventional hotel in Canada; it uses more of an open concept place.  The weather at this time of year is so lovely and warm that you don’t need a lot of walls to keep the cold out.  There are four swimming pools, a water polo pool, four tennis courts, a mini golf course, games areas, three beach areas on the Caribbean Sea and lots of time to spend at the different areas.  If you want to treat yourself to a spa, body massage, manicure, pedicure or a facial, you can do that too.  You can also book different activities, like visits to Dann Falls, white water rafting, parasailing, snorkeling and scuba diving, to name only a few.  However, excursions like this do cost extra.  You should always bring money to shopping, eating and tipping the staff! 

At night, after dinner is over, there is sometimes live entertainment on stage – singing and dancing.  We haven’t been to any of these evening shows yet, but we want to do so.  We also discovered that there were fireworks last night.  I thought it was lightning and that there was a thunder storm brewing, but I was wrong.  In reality, a roving camera man was offering to take pictures of tourists for money and that was causing a periodic flash. There is so much to do here that it’s impossible to be bored unless you choose to be.  I am mostly planning on writing and reading and using my computer.  There is only Wi-Fi access in the main lobby, so we must be physically there in order to access the Internet.  

Most people don’t bring their own computers with them on vacation, but I always do.  I’ve been looking forward to this vacation since we started planning it in early October, so I do hope we will not be disappointed - so far, so good.