And Her Little Dog Too

Happy Mother’s Day to the two wonderful moms in my life.

Here is that video I promised you! I managed to capture on video one of the divers favorite jump. They called it the Suicide jump!

Enjoy!

I know I shared with you some scenes from our Jamaican vacation but I wanted to go into a little more detail on one of our favorite days during our trip.

The majority of the time in Jamaica we spent our days lounging on the beach. One day we decided to hop on a catamaran and take a little tour up towards the West End of the island.

Along the way we pasted a spot of land where we were told Gilligan’s Island was partially filmed here. Cool!

The boat ride was simply beautiful – it turns out it was the perfect time to hop on a boat because we ended up missing a rain storm at our resort during the time we were gone.

The first part of the tour took us over to the famous 7 Mile beach, which was just around the corner from where we stayed in Bloody Bay.

We hopped off the boat and took a little pit stop at The Boardwalk Village.

7 Mile Beach was a lot quieter than I expected it to be. Maybe we just visited it on an off day, but it was a very nice beach!

After our little pit stop along 7 Mile Beach we headed off to our next destination.

It was really cool to check out the West End of the island. Here there are no beaches, just cliffs that come to and end and there is the Ocean. It was really beautiful & different. I contemplated staying around here but Charles wanted a beach, maybe next time we will try it out!

Our next stop along the tour was Pirates Cave for some snorkeling.

I have never gone snorkeling in caves before so this was something new for me.

The water was warm & crystal clear. The snorkeling was nice but once you have been to the Great Barrier Reef, nothing else really measures up.

After a little swim with the fish we took a drive by the Rose Hall lighthouse before reaching our final destination.

Rick’s Cafe was a spot Charles and I knew we wanted to hit up when we first made our Jamaican plans.

Rick’s Cafe is home to beautiful cliffs, wonderful sunsets, a bar overlooking the ocean..

and cliff diving!

The professionals are there all day to jump off the cliffs and put on a show for the tourists stopping by. These young men are hardcore – they even climb back up the cliffs after jumping with their bare hands!

Charles and I spent the afternoon enjoying the views

and watching the crazy people jump off cliffs!

Word on the street is when you visit Rick’s Cafe you simply MUST have Sex with Rick – the drink!

So I did! It was yummy.

There were a few different cliff jumping options – a baby jump from 8 feet,  a medium jump from 27 feet, and the popular 40 foot  jump which is the top of the cliff.

If that isn’t enough, the pro’s also jump from the billboard, in the middle of the picture below as well as the makeshift platform in the top left corner.

While we were there we got to see someone jump off the highest platform.

Pretty crazy – I may have watched him with one eye open.

But he jumped beautifully.

Charles was inspired by the divers and took a little dive himself. I was impressed with his awesome form.

Pretty hardcore, right?

I watched some kids do a little jumping of their own.

I REALLY wanted to jump myself, but I am pretty afraid of heights. I tried to work up the nerve to jump a few times but I just couldn’t do it.

Wah Wah.

Charles was the brave one on the Jamaican cliffs. I was pretty impressed with his skills.

We had a blast at Rick’s – I took a pretty sweet video of the cliff divers putting on a show, I’ll post that later in the week!

When our time at Rick’s had come to an end we boarded our ship and set sail back to the resort.

Another magical day in Jamaica!

Let me just start by saying that our Jamaican vacation was an absolute blast.

We made our reservations less than 2 weeks before we left and I am so happy with how our last minute plans turned out.

We stayed in Negril on the Western end of the beautiful island of Jamaica.

Our resort was located on the picturesque Bloody Bay Beach.

The water was crystal clear, filled with beautiful coral, funny fish and was the perfect temperature to enjoy a dip on a warm, Jamaican afternoon.

Charles and I spent a good amount of our days just floating in the bay.

The water was as warm as bath water, it was simply delightful to go for a dip.

It was also pretty humid this past week, so some days I would just toss my beach chair in the water and call it a day.

Nothing better than sitting in that chair, soaking up the sun.

When not enjoying the water, I was hanging out on my beach chair reading my kindle. It was so nice to catch up on some books I have been wanting to read!

When not lounging on our beach chairs or going for a swim, Charles and I could be found enjoying a walk around the Bay, taking in the sights.  

There were a few other hotels on the Bay – it was nice to check out the other digs on the block.

Oh, and when we weren’t hanging at the beach, going for a walk or getting our swim on, Charles and I were enjoying a few cocktails under the sun.

This was my first experience at al All-Inclusive resort and let me tell  you, it was a fabulous one. 

Unlimited cocktails = Life.Is.Good.

When the sun went down and our time at the beach came to an end, we enjoyed the hotels restaurants & bars, checking out a new scene every night.

But always stopping for a photo op along the way.  

My cocktail of choice for the trip -  

Most definitely a mojito. I couldn’t get enough of that fresh mint – perfect after a long day in the sun!

With cocktails in hand, Charles and I would enjoy the sunset on the beach.  

The view from our hotel of the sunset couldn’t be beat.

The sunsets in Jamaica are truly a thing of beauty.

The clouds were out of control. 

It was hard to narrow down these sunset pictures for this blog post, I had do many awesome ones.

And that was pretty much how we spent the past 6 days in Jamaica. Easy breezy, enjoying the island and each other.

Pretty nice long weekend away if you ask me.

Oh, and a beautiful sunset calls for a jumping shot or two.

Pretty standard if you ask me.

As you can see from our beautiful pictures, we had an incredible time in Negril, Jamaica. I can’t say enough good things about our trip – Charles and I are already looking forward to booking another vacation there again next year!

Stay tuned for more details on where we stayed!

I have lots to fill you in on from our trip so stay tuned!

Have YOU ever been to Jamaica?

I came into my room to finish packing my suitcase for our trip tomorrow morning and found this:

I think Jackson wants to be a little stow-away in my bag!

Sadly, where we are headed, he can’t join us.

We will miss little Jackson, but while we are gone, I know he will have lots of fun with his grandparents in New Jersey!

I will attempt to post once we get to our final destination – I can’t wait to share our trip with you!

Catch ya on the flip side!

The stars of this gumbo included a rotisserie chicken, spicy smoked sausage and okra which created a tasty cajun stew.

I found this amazing recipe by Martha Stewart from reading Iowa Girl Eats Friday Favorites.

30 minutes on the stove and dinner is served!

With a side of cornbread, the meal is complete.

The chicken, sausage, okra and all the spices came together beautifully.The meal was a hit, I will definitely be enjoying this again soon!

Have you ever made gumbo? Please share your recipe! 

This weekend Charles & I hit up a new (to us) restaurant in Philadelphia.

Sampan is located on one of my favorite streets (to dine on) in Center City - 13th Street!

It boasts modern Asian Street flavors with a flare!

I started the evening off with a Honey Whiskey Jar.

Perfect start to a lovely evening outside enjoying the weather.

Charles and I started off the meal with the Korean BBQ Beef Satay.

It was seasoned with Kim Chee & ginger – tasted incredible.

Next up was the main course – We split the Crispy Szechuan Chicken.

It was a massive portion, we were so happy we shared, it was also out of this world.

Because I have a major love affair with Brussels sprouts, I had to test out the ones on the menu.

Our side of sprouts were seasoned with fish sauce, puffed rice & chili. They were awesome!

I ended my meal just as I began, with a cocktail!

This time I enjoyed the Sampantini – Hendrick’s Gin, Aloe Vera & Cucumber.

It was the perfect ending to an amazing dinner. Can’t wait to come back!

Where is your favorite Asian Fusion restaurant?!