Vacation

I had carried over 68 hours of vacation from last year.  Doesn't that say a lot about how impossible it was to get away from my job?  We had a Caribbean vacation planned all along, so my last working day was a week ahead of my last day of employment.  However, I considered my last day on the job my last day, and was looking forward to jetting off to Jamaica the next morning.  Our original plans were for St. Martin, but the hurricanes in August/September decimated the resort.  As a result, our group was moved to Jamaica.  We just got back last night.  It was an interesting week!

Knowing how selfie-crazy TBGs family is, we had to take a rare shot of us on our balcony.  We had a  nice ocean view.  The trip was largely paid for my TBG's employer because he met most of his sales goal and also because a customer came along too.  We paid for about one third of it ourselves (which included the resort, some tipping, airfare and transportation).  It would have been a great deal, if the vacation wasn't highly disappointing.  The all-inclusive experience was marred by slow service, sub-par food, and cheap beverages.  We were ready to come home by Tuesday!

This is a view of the courtyard.  Here, we witnessed the appalling behavior of people who take staking their beach chair territory very seriously.   We mostly kept to ourselves but did mingle with others from our trip.  Each night we recounted the nasty scenes we all were witness too.  The cheap drinks were free-flowing, and we had to carry around dollar bills to tip everyone.  My plans to binge-drink to celebrate my freedom were soon dashed once I tasted what was available to drink.

There were pricey excursions off-resort, but the only thing we did, was to go T-Shirt shopping to bring back souvenirs for co-workers and the neighbors who took in Teddy.  Going off resort was too depressing because of the endless poverty.  We also waited to see what others thought of the activities, and did not get good reports for that.  Another annoyance was being continually accosted by sales pitches for salon/spa services we had no interest in.  Over-all the experience, including the flight experience (packed like sardines on four Southwest flights), was underwhelming.   Honestly, the best part of the trip was interacting with the five or six cats that lived on the resort.  The staff was friendly, but inefficient.  The kitties were awesome.

The entire cost of the trip (including the portion we didn't have to pay), is about what we pay for our little trailer camp on Lake Ontario.  I much prefer our weekends and camp get-aways to the all-inclusive resort experience we enjoyed last week.  Once again, small wins over big!