Again....Half Moon..

Vessel on the small vessel...he ended up having to anchor his boat out in the cove due to the waves bothering it on the shore....

These dogs loved to fetch...just like Chuck and Peg's dogs...Chuck's Macey looks a lot like this dog, but skinnier...

I guess the dogs were the protectors of the bar....


The one rule for the bar...

The bar....

We had to order our lunch right when we got there because we were told it takes a very long time to get your food. Poor Tim really needed food...he survived though. Besides Yogi's food, this was one of the better meals we had when we had to eat out.

Christmas Eve again...

Here we go again...Tim in the back of the boat...on the rough water....We finally got down the coast to the Half Moon Bey....the water is so nice here...

Oh look, Nicole has found some friends.


Here is the resting place for our boat while we play...what a pretty view...

Jamaica again....#4 Christmas Eve

Okay, so on Christmas eve, we hired our adventure guide and now friend, Vessel, to take us to Half Moon Bey...I called it cove in a previous post, but it is Bey I think.. Anyway, something is wrong with my computer, so I may have to do multiple posts on this one. I am having trouble uploading photos again.

So, here we are getting into the fishing boat. Vessel is steadying the boat for us all to get in. Chuck is trying to help.


Smap

Vessel, Tim and Lindsay. In the previous post I talked about Tim having a little trouble with something he ate...well, he saw it all again on this little boat trip. As you can see in the photo, he doesn't look well and there were some huge swells. He felt fine after it "all" came out on the way to the bey...coming back was probably the hardest I have laughed in years because we got so wet hit the waves back to Cousin's Cove....

Jeff and Chuck are holding down the bow and enjoying the ride. Chuck had Jeff's spot on the way back....Nicole and I were sitting behind Chuck...so funny and sooooo wet! Nicole and I were laughing so hard because we were just getting soaked...everyone was. I would have to say that was the best part of the trip for me...laughing so hard on that boat with everyone.

Peg and me doing my self-portrait thing.

Okay, so I will post more pics on the next post....dang computer....

Jamaica Part 3...Nicole's BIG 30!

So, Smap and I were so fortunate to be invited to Nicole's 30th Birthday Bash on Dec.23rd....only 6 people were invited...those of us who were in Jamaica!!!! For her big day, we hired Yogi to cook Nic's special feast. It was incredible once again....Yogi cooked the jerk chicken again along with some really good tuna. Below. Yogi is making the callalu...my favorite...actually every dish he made was my favorite.

Below is Yogi getting the Tuna ready. He used the outside kitchen and the inside one to cook our feasts.

Nicole, don't kill me for posting this shot, but I thought it was too funny not to....of both you and Jeff! Ha ha ha... Nicole is sporting her birthday capilene for us at her birthday dinner....who knows what Jeff was saying here. All I know is that we laughed a LOT that week.
Here is Smapola along with Peg...the birthday girl's proud mama! Peggy as usual has that beautiful smile.

Tim and Lindsay having some good chats at the dinner table. Unfortunately something Tim ate that night didn't cooperate with him...I will explain in the next post. ;)


So, we had Yogi cook 3 times for us while we were there. We all wish we had done it EVERY night...next time we go (and we have already booked another week to go down the road), we are going to have Yogi cook every night for us. It was just fun hanging out with him during and after the meal along with Vessel. Such FUN times. I hate being back in rainy ole' Tennessee.

Yah mon...Jamaica part 2...

So, here is another part to our Jamaican trip. Uploading the photos is taking FOREVER, so there will be SEVERAL more parts to my blogging here. We took a ton of shots and I enjoy talking about everything (almost) that we did etc... Above is a photo of the boat we got to ride in over to the Half Moon Cove where we sat out in the sun for the day and had a great lunch. I also swam quite a bit. I haven't ridden a lick since Thanksgiving...only swimming, so I was a fish the whole week...swimming and sitting in water when ever I got the chance.

Here is Vessel and Smap. Vessel was in charge of taking us on adventures. It was his uncle's fishing boat that he took us on to get to the Half Moon Cove. He came around every night to hang with us as well. We LOVED Vessel. We look forward to going back to see him and the others in a year or two.

Here are Tim and Lindsay lounging catching the sunset.

Here you go...self portrait of me very happy to be in Jamaica!

We walked just down the street to hang out at the "neighborhood bar". Vessel's uncle actually owns this place. Ice cold Red Stripe!

My little friend Danika who was hanging out at the bar with her auntie (her auntie was from Maryland). I asked Danika if she knew she was beautiful and she told me that she already knew it....Such a sweetie.

Lindsay and Sheron...Sheron owned a little quick stop/bar at the end of the road in Cousin's Cove. We walked down our road (which was about 2 miles long) a few times to hang at Sheron's. She was the sweetest gal who started her place from scratch. Lindsay and I hit it off with her instantly.

Octo...the old dude with the Sugar Cane...riding down the street with Timmy. I like this shot a lot because of our/Tim's background with bikes... Tim is a owner/manager at CBC...we were amazed at this bike Octo was riding...no grips, gears, breaks...the chain rusted to all get-out. He had a special spot for his machete (for cutting the sugar cane)....I'll post a picture of the bike later.

Here is ole' Octo peeling the cane for us to eat. We gave him $5 for his kindness....$5 to him is about $600 J...Jamolars (our made up name for Jamaican money). It was @ $78.50 J to $1.00 US...talk about confusing conversions...good thing they took US money and credit cards!

One last shot for the night....our next Wimbledon champion is......NOT SMAP. We attempted to play several times (we had our own tennis court along with our own pool). Everytime we played, it either started to rain, or we lost all of the balls over the fence. I started bragging the first day about my tennis abilities back when I was 14....yeah, I do not have those abilities anymore....nope....I sucked and Smap sucked even worse. Sorry Smap, but you know it is true.

SO, next time I will post more photos....using the lap top is just as slow as the computer in the computer room...oh well. See ya.

Jamaica Part 1

Cousin's Cove, JAMAICA !

Welcome to Jamaica Mon! Smap and I and 6 close friends (Chuck and Peggy, Nicole and Jeff, and Tim and Lindsay) decided to spend a week in Jamaica for Christmas this year. It was amazing! Being the adventurous souls that we all are, we decided to rent a guest house @ 17 miles outside of Negril. We stayed at the Cliff House in Cousin's Cove....in Hanover. This turned out to be the BEST trip and the BEST way to experience Jamaica (we are not resort people...they suck). It was so nice and the people were WONDERFULLY NICE! I am going to have to share our experiences over several posts. Nicole and Jeff have a lot of really awesome photos I will want to share along with Chuck and Peggy. So, here are the first of many. In all, with the four cameras going we ended up with over 2,000 shots. Not all are blog worthy for multiple reasons, but I will post as many as possible! No problem mon!

So, here is Peggy getting some snorkel time in at our house. We could just walk out our front yard and jump in! It was perfect.

Here is a shot of our cliff....our front yard is at the top of this cliff.

Of course I took a lot of my self-portrait style shots (I started taking them when I was in college and I just can't stop)....gotta post some of them just for Peggy and Nicole too! :-) This was taken right down from our front yard on our "patio so to speak" where we climb down into the water.

Smap is chilling out on one of the hammocks in the front yard.

Yogi, our cook and pool rastafarian.... It is hard for me to describe this fellow in one word, but I will just say, "Respect"....that was the last word he said to me before leaving yesterday. He was an AWESOME cook...cooking meals for us that you can't get in a restaurant. Watching him cook was a trip.....he would dance to the reggae all the while concocting incredible jerk chicken, rice, greens (can't think of the word all of the sudden), fresh fish, bread fruit, mash potatoes, etc... I want to go back just to eat his vegan meals (minus the meats...Rasta men are vegans)... Anyway, we had him cook for us three different nights...every night was amazing.

This is our front porch....the living space/kitchen had two sets of huge doors that opened up to the front lawn over-looking the cliffs down to the water. Then, the two front lower bedrooms also had seperate doors leading out on to this veranda....crazy nice! Five bedrooms in all...two on the backside of the front two and then one upstairs..

Another shot of our veranda looking at it from the cliffs. These are the tow double doors that lead into the yard. We could sit on the couches in the morning drinking our java and watching the fishermen checking their lobster traps.

So, that is it for today...just a teaser... a lot more to come!!!!!!!! yah mon.

Thanksgiving and then some random...

This year Smap and I celebrated Thanksgiving with ALL 6 of our parents and all of his siblings and my little brother Nic along the entire day ... We usually don't get to hang with Dad and Joyce because they usually go to Destin for the Holiday (they were actually here last year, but Joyce had just gotten out of the hospital for shoulder surgery and we did actually go by to see them now that I am remembering). This year, due to various circumstances, Dad and Joyce (Joyce hurt her shoulder again) were not able to go. So, Smap and I made our way to the farm for a few hours to hang with the dogs, llamas, and family.

Smap and his beard he has been growing out. I like it!

Here is a good photo of Nic and his girl Sarah. They have a few foster pits with them (Maggie and Buddy). Sarah and Nic have been together for 4-5 years. Smap and I love hanging with them!

Poor little Ippon in the back ground of the previous shot. He doesn't like other dogs sitting in my lap. Sam is the "original" pit bull in the family. He has a pretty funny personality always making us all laugh quite a bit.

One last shot...Mom and Sam flying me down to Nashville last year to hang out with my sister. Cessnas are pretty small planes so it was really hard for me to get a great shot. Mom and Sam's plane they are building should HOPEFULLY be done in about a year. Smap needs to get his license so he can fly it too! We'll work on that!

Smap and I are trying to paint our kitchen....FINALLY!!! Our house is a wreck, but it will be nice to have it painted. I wanted to incorporate more color into the house, so we are doing a two-tone purple pantry!!! We still have several other rooms in the house that desperately need painting, but it is so hard for us to put the time aside. One of these days it will all get done.