A Week in Paradise

Earlier this month, Ke'o and I returned from Jamaica. And although I'm prone to making hyperbolic statements, this is not one of them -- "The week I spent in Jamaica was the best week of my life."

I had extremely high expectations for this trip, and believe it or not, Jamaica exceeded every one of them. I could write for an hour explaining what we did and how awesome it was. But instead, I'll do something that's very rare for me. I'm just going to let the pictures / captions tell the story. Besides, that's what all our friends and family want to see anyway.

Enjoy!



We celebrated our first night in Jamaica with a bonfire on the beach.

Love was in the air. These smiles never left our faces.

Sea Kayaking! One of the many things offered at the Water Sports hut.

Our first full day in Jamaica just so happened to be our 4-year anniversary.
Whoever planned that was a genius!

We stayed at Couples Swept Away. (Notice the sidewalk.) The staff did an
excellent job of keeping the grounds in pristine condition.

And here's another with Ke'o posing near a pretty bush.

Unlimited drinks? That gets a "thumbs up" from me.

Ke'o and I each got our first taste of paddle boarding. Very cool and easy to do!
The water was so still and clear that we could see sting rays swimming beneath us!

A view of our resort from the ocean.

It was the first time I experienced a swim-up bar.

A cool thing we did was go on a glass-bottom boat tour. Here is just a
sample of some of the things we saw. Also learned a lot. Win-Win.

And oh yes... there was plenty of R & R. The stress in our lives essentially
left for the week. Relaxing never felt so good.

One thing that turned out to be really worthwhile was "Culture Night".
This performer meant serious business.

Then, of course, the "Dragon" called Ke'o on to the stage,
and he pretended to light her foot on fire. She screamed. It was great.

Ready to go snorkeling! We didn't get any pictures of us in the water, but it
was the most "breathtaking" part of the vacation.

It's hard to tell, but that's me just taking off to go water skiing. Been several times on the lake,
but there's something about the ocean that made it more glamorous.

Ke'o and I on the Catamaran Cruise. That was a fun evening!

Got to see several miles of shoreline while we were there. We even stopped the
boat at one point and went swimming inside a cave... with bats flying around!

The food was heavenly! It felt like we were fine dining every night.
On this occasion, Ke'o was indulging in her much anticipated shrimp pizza.

Cheers! To a week in paradise. A week we will never forget.

Our last night in Jamaica. It was an incredible end to an astounding week.

...and I celebrated by double-fisting at the Martini Bar.