And we're home

Andy and I have been in Jamaica, Couples Sans Souci, for the past week. I post a few of the highlights from the week. First off, the amazing view from our room:

We counted about 90 stairs from the beach to our room. We spent most of the time sitting on the beach reading. There was also a lot of food, drink and conversation with other guests - quite a few from Minnesota and Wisconsin - all trying to escape the cold weather for a week. We also met a cute couple from Germany who were there for their wedding.

It rained several times while we were there. We had more rain this time than we had in the past two trips we've taken there. The locals say it's because their hurricane season didn't bring much rain so they're getting the rain now, when it's usually the dry season. They're expecting the unusual rain to continue through March. Here's Andy trying to stay dry under the pool bar roof while it pours outside.

On Wednesday, probably the nicest day of the week, we took a short trip to another one of the resorts, Tower Isle, in Ochos Rios. I read somewhere that this resort was were the Hollywood stars of the '40s and '50s would vacation when they went to the Carribean. It certainly had an upscale, art deco look to it. We did notice that there were more couples here in their 20s so it was a bit louder than where we were staying.

This is how Andy relaxed at Tower Isle ...

At a dinner for repeat guests of the resort chain, we won a $100 gift certificate for an excursion. We hadn't been planning on leaving the resort until our stay was over, but the tour rep found a short trip for us to a Jamaican plantation for $40 each so we went there. We saw a lot of native plants, the great house and beautiful views. We tasted tropical fruits and saw a man harvest a coconut. The other couple on the tour with us rode a camel. We didn't know about that so we hung around while they rode and petted the camel. Her name is Cindy.

The next afternoon at the pool bar I won a bingo game and got a little wooden frog as a prize. It was actually the "loser" bingo game. The woman called out 20 numbers and the person with the least numbers on their card covered - I had two - was the winner.

This was one of those pictures I couldn't resist taking - a guy with a tramp stamp? I've never seen that before. He also didn't have any hair, but that was just weird. His wife like to go au natural on the regular beach, then sit there as if we weren't supposed to notice her enhanced, um, assets. And then they'd take walks up and down the beach, parading her naked chest for all to see. Pretty proud of the work she had done, I suppose. We had joked that this couple followed us around all week. They even came into the hot tub when we were sitting there. We have no idea where they were from.