Jamaica Day 1 : Samsara Resort!

Today. Was. Awesome :)

We woke up to the sounds of the morning ocean tide and a few people already out enjoying the water. We dressed for the day, walked out our door, down the stairs and into the restaurant, where both of the other couples we met yesterday were stirring and getting ready to go for the day as well.

The shuttle came to pick us up around 10am. We, along with Cassie & Shayne and Tara & Jordan rode with a few other people from Legends to Samsara Resort, which was just a 10-minute drive from Legends.

samsara!

We arrived there, unloaded and immediately made ourselves at home along the cliff side. Well, mini cliffs, really... but still, cliffs.

baby cliffs

And that meant... CLIFF JUMPING! :D
Another couple, Nate & Audrianna, from Pittsburgh were along for the day as well, and the group of us made a great time out of cliffs.

rob taking a dive

^ The boys!

and in i go!

^ Taking a little run off the cliff
We didn't have time today, but it's going on my list of things to possibly explore in the event we revisit Negril - The Dive Shop!

my love ♥

monday funday at samsara with our new friends!

The day at Samsara wound down, and soon we were back at Legends, for a late afternoon meeting with our travel agency representative. She proved to be immensely helpful in explaining our different excursion options through the resort and agency, and we all left with some solid ideas of what we wanted to do for the week.

Tomorrow, we're planning to check out some local scenery, and possibly Rick's Café, which is apparently rated one of the best bars in the world. Cassie & Shayne will be out horseback riding; we've made plans so far with Tara & Jordan to make a dinner trip to Rick's. We learned from some of the locals today that there is a cliff worth jumping there at Rick's, and I have every intention of giving that a shot, too. :)

For now, it's another Bob Marley from the bar for me, please!

Yah Mon!

xo | cmd

Omigosh, JAMAICA!

Hello there... from JAMAICA!

Yeeeup! I can't believe it either, but Rob and I are finally here, in Negril. There's already so much to share; I'm not sure where to start, but I suppose waking up at 3am for Kalyn to drive us to the airport is as good as any ;) .. [thank you again, Kalyn!!!]

early morning salutes from cvg

It's been a while since my last real vacation. What's even better is that this is Rob's first trip out of the country! With passports and itinerary in hand, we processed through the airport check-in and security, eventually boarded our flight, and off....we were on our way!

vaca, here we come!!

Fun fact about flying to Jamaica: It takes less time to fly directly from Cincinnati, OH to Montego Bay, Jamaica than it does to drive from Cincinnati to St. Louis. Yeah. Just under 3.5 hours passed by from take-off to landing, and we had made it to Jamaica!

Our first order of business was converting some of our American money into Jamaican dollars. This was highly recommended to us by the travel reps and of course the airport staff; really, I think next time it won't be necessary to convert as much... but I'm sure this is one of the many lessons we'll learn this week. Anyway, after a brief pass through the cambio and customs, we stepped outside and boarded what we called the bug busses:

bug busses ;)

our first picture in Jamaica!

Off we went, on a beeline route from Montego Bay into the heart of Negril. The countryside started opening up as we pulled away from the airport, giving us a fresh view of what this place really is. Oh, and they drive on the left side of the road in vehicles with right-side steering wheels. Move over, America! ;)

We stopped off at a little beer shack [we later realized these are very common!] to take a quick breather, grab a cold drink and breathe in some of the salt air coming in off the water. Oh, and if you had to pee, there was a shack. I'm all about doing business in the wild, so this is right up my alley. I love this place already! Haha..

hello, Jamaica.

Jamaican roadside convenience store

"rest room"

After we all stretched our legs for a bit, we climbed back on the bus for the remainder of our trip into Negril. After we dropped people off at a few of the other resorts along the route, we reached ours. Legends Beach Resort is our home for the next several days. Hello, home.

legends!

We've already been insanely lucky on this trip, that everything for which we paid and expected has so far been delivered; we have an ocean front room directly above the bar/restaurant, and literally just steps to the white sand of the beach. It's safe to say I'm in love.

It took an hour or so after we arrived at the resort for our rooms to be ready, so the lot of us took to the beach and the bar, making ourselves at home and getting to know the staff as best we could.


Once we'd finally settled into our room, we changed and headed back down to grab a shuttle up to Samsara, Legends' sister resort. Our stay here this week is all-inclusive, which means we can trade our included meals at either of the resorts. So shuttle it was, up to Samsara, which sits atop some small oceanfront cliffs.

samsara

view from the upstairs restaurant

looking down on the outdoor seating

Tonight we got a chance to meet Tara & Jordan, fellow Ohioans who are here on their honeymoon! [Congratulations, again!] I think everyone in Cincinnati remembered seeing Tara there this morning, still in her wedding dress. They're an adorable couple, and as we sat cliff-side with them for a bit after dinner, we agreed that we'll hopefully see more of each other throughout the week.

the newlyweds! jordan & tara

There was some live entertainment to sing us out of Samsara as we headed back onboard the shuttle to Legends. This also seems to be a standard practice around here!

live reggae :)

We're back here at Legends now, and just wrapped up an introductory chat with Cassie & Shayne, another couple from Ohio, about 45 minutes away from us back home. Wcmfe invited them to join us tomorrow for a day at Samsara, and it sounds like they're in, too!

shayne & cassie

 Now we're cozied up in our room, ready to get some rest for whatever adventures lie ahead of us this week.

good night, from legends!!

Here's to a week in paradise!

xo | cmd

Dates With Mini | Transformers

Just for the record: TOMORROW, we leave for JAMAICA.
Yiiieieeee!!!

For today, though, Sydni was still all ours, so we made the most of it and spent the entire day chasing her around as she played outside, drew pictures and told us stories about all her My Little Pony characters. We rounded it off with dinner at Butterbees, before dropping her off at Mamaw's for a sleepover. 

♥ my mini!!

our little family

Rob and I decided to make one final date night here in the states before our week abroad, and settled on heading out for a movie. Sydni snapped a shot of us as we were heading out [not bad, mini!]

love this guy.. we're jamaica bound tomorrow!!



We settled on Transformers: Age of Extinction, because the not-so-inner nerd in both of us really wanted to see it, and what better way to end a Saturday than with a solid movie. I have to admit though, of all the Transformers movies so far, this one did seem a bit far-fetched, albeit still good. Spoiler alert: Optimus Prime rides a bio-robot dinosaur in this one. Yeeeup.

transformers: age of extinction

So yeah. I'll probably buy this one, too, when it hits the shelf. For now though - it's time to grab a few hours of sleep before Kalyn shows up tomorrow morning at 3am to take us to the airport.

[Almost] Adios!
sssssooooooo.. exciiiiited!!

xo | cmd



July 4th!

Happy BIRTHDAY, USA!!!

happy independence day!!

This is the official start of being off work for six regularly-scheduled work days! Sydni woke up talking about fireworks, rather disappointed that she had to wait aaaaaallllll day looooong to see them ;). Hahh.. To appease her, we took a little family trip up to Ault Park for a day of romping on the playground before making a stop at my office [yes, on my day off, go figure!] to make a copy of our passports, in the unlikely event we lose them overseas. We're hoping not, but as a preventative measure, we're pretty determined to come back after this trip ;)

family time! ♥

new buggy friends at the park ;)

So there was that, and then back home for a quick nap and decision on plans for the evening. Kalyn ended up joining us; we stopped off at Flip Daddy's for dinner and made our way back to Ault Park, where we set up camp on the lawn and waited for the fireworks.

girl time!

by day...

... and by night!

Tonight was a success, all the way around. We'll definitely be back next year, unless we find something else more enticing than a laid back vibe for the big show. Happy birthday, 'Merica. We love ya!

fireworks time!

Let the weekend BEGIN!

xo | cmd

Neck Pillow Mania

We're off work tomorrow.
And then there's the weekend.
And then... Rob & I leave for Jamaica!

I'm in the final stages of preparation for this trip, and today stopped by Marshall's to grab a couple of neck pillows.

I'll leave the week on this note: 

hahaha

Elisa and I had way too much fun with these things. You know it's a good day at work when you get a selfie with not one, but two neck pillows, while parked on top of a stability ball. It's all about fitness and comfort, folks. Haha.

Happy early weekend, friends!!

xo | cmd

So This Time NEXT Week..

I'll be in Jamaica! With Rob! Doing who knows what!

Just kidding. Well, mostly. We're less than 4 days out from our departure date, and I am beyond excited. We haven't booked any excursions or other off-resort things yet; we figure we'll do that when we get there, but I saw these today as I was getting some preliminary things together: 

seeeeeeeeeeee ya!

Yep. It's happening. I'm stealing Rob out of the country for his first trip abroad.
I. Can't. Wait.

Yiieeee!!
Happy Wednesday!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Trisha!

Seriously? It's JULY already?! WHERE.. is this year going? Hahh..

I always know it's July when I hop on Facebook and am quickly reminded by the newsfeed that July 1 is the birthday of my former roomie Trisha and of course her twin, Laura.

former roomies @ the doebler wedding!

happy birthday, girls!

July is HERE! Let's make it a great one!

 

xo | cmd