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Villa In Jamaica

A few years ago, in the dead of a brutally cold winter, I was literally withering away in the cold. Missouri was in a deep freeze and I was really exhausted from it. Since I continually shop for travel bargains, I’m so glad I noticed when a new hotel listing came up on Expedia. A Montego Bay Villa had thrown itself into the mix of accommodations that I had become accustomed to seeing and they were running a New Year’s Eve Holiday special. I still had some days off from work to use, so I booked the trip. I would fly to Montego Bay on December 30 and stay until January 2. It sounded just like a few days of warmth that I hoped would recharge me.

The Villa was in the lower foothills of the Blue Mountains, and close enough that I could still see the sea.

This was quite a change of scenery from the all-inclusive resorts I was used to. The Villa had about 8 bedrooms most with their own bathroom and shower, a parlor, a kitchen, and various other sitting areas. There was also a pool, which none of the other guests seemed to use and a breadfruit tree laden with fruit was right next to the pool! I knew I had found the perfect chill-spot and I was sitting out at the pool within minutes of my arrival.

Peggy, the cook at the Villa, came out poolside and asked if I’d like to have my dinner there which I thought was an incredibly great idea. I settled on jerk chicken and dined poolside, while chatting on the phone with friends back home.

With the next day being New Year’s Eve, I made plans to go over to the Grand Palladium Resort for their celebration. Grand Palladium is one of my favorite all-inclusive resort brands and I still knew some of the staff there from my previous trips. Did you know you can buy a day pass to most all-inclusive resorts? For New Year’s Eve, GP offered a pass that was good from 6pm until 1am allowing me access to all their amenities for the festivities. I arrived in time to go to their Jamaican restaurant for dinner and then I headed over to the theater for their big NYE show. They had a champagne toast and fireworks display at midnight and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen at any of the resorts. When my pass expired, I had a cab waiting for me outside of the lobby.

For New Year’s Day, Peggy, the cook, had the holiday off so there was no meal service available. The security guard, Duran, suggested some options. I decided on carry out pizza from town because we knew Pizza Hut was open. Duran drove me into Montego Bay where I picked up a pizza and then we headed back to the villa. On our way back, we stopped off at a small, non-descript bar at the bottom of the hills and shot a few games of pool. It was a good thing we kept winning because Duran had been placing bets on our games.

The next day was my departure day, but my flight out wasn’t until evening. Duran offered to drive me into town for a while to do some shopping at some of his favorite stores. I picked up souvenirs to take home before we stopped off at the most incredible jerk center I’ve ever been to, Scotchie’s.

When you walk in the place, it is a mostly open-air tiki-type bar that serves all kinds of jerk meats and accompaniments. We ran into Sheba and Sheena, (two other guests from the villa) and turned it into a wonderful dinner together.

If you ever pass a Scotchie’s in Jamaica, stop in and eat there. I highly recommend the jerk pork and breadfruit. The stuff melts in your mouth.

I was sad to leave that evening, but I had such a rejuvenating break from the cold winter that would make it easier to get through the rest of the cold. It was also nice to be able to explore some of the local activities off the beaten path and not stick to the usual excursions. I’m always a firm believer of scratching beneath the surface when you travel outside of your country. It will open your mind and expose you to really unique experiences!

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Planning a Destination Wedding

I always dreamed of getting married on the beach.  It was not a way to “elope” in the traditional sense of running off to get married without any family or friends around.  Quite the opposite–I just imagined being barefoot in the sand and sun–by the ocean with all my family and friends there.

I even made sure to go with an ivory dress so it wouldn’t look washed out in beach pictures.  Besides the beautiful environment, there are many benefits to a destination wedding.

Most resorts will do the basic wedding for free if a handful of your party stay at the resort for a minimum number of days.

You also have the option to upgrade to a larger party and can tweak the details.  In a gazebo or on the sand?  Live or recorded music for the ceremony?  Full dinner, or cocktail party reception?  And so on…

Most resorts have a wedding planner on staff.  This person does this all the time and will take care of everything.  No need to stress over any details.

Indigenous flowers in a tropical locale are incredibly affordable and beautiful.  Use this to your advantage.  This means you can get a LOT of great tropical flowers for a very affordable price.

We wound up, for a very awesome rate, getting married on the beach at the RIU Negril in Negril, Jamaica. We had 30 of our closest friends and family there, most of them for the entire week! It was a great time to get to spend time vacationing with everyone for longer block of time than we usually get to spend with them.

The staff at the RIU, from the wedding organizer, to the hair stylists,

the florist, wait staff, even the steel drum quartet were absolutely wonderful. The planner and I set up everything prior via email. My hubby and I filled out all of our legal paperwork for the marriage certificate before going down to Jamaica. She also arranged everything else with input from me. I didn’t even meet her until the morning of the wedding. My best advice, trust that your wedding planner will plan an awesome wedding.  Even if any details fall through the cracks, your guests won’t know it. Don’t sweat the small stuff!

My dad walked me down to the gazebo on the beach, where I kicked off my fancy shoes and met up with our officiant and soon-to-be-husband.

Don’t think for a minute that it wasn’t hot out!  It was, especially at midday in Jamaica. A steel drum quartet played during the ceremony and we had a champagne table ready for our guests after the ceremony.

 

Once our vows were exchanged, we were given a few minutes to mingle, then it was time for pictures. We used a resort photographer, who took some great shots of our day.

After pics were done, we bussed our crew over to Rick’s Café to kill time until our reception dinner. We munched on appetizers and partook in some Red Stripe before returning to the RIU for dinner.

Our dinner was wonderful.  I had the rib-eye steak and hubby had the shrimp. But even better was that all of our friends and family were there.  I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

If you’re considering planning a destination wedding, with a little research and a good wedding planner, you can have the day of your dreams while still keeping your sanity.

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Coral Reef Seafood Does It Again

So, after my blog went down for 20 days during my move to a self-hosted platform, I think we’re finally (I hope!) up and running on a normal basis again. Many, many thanks to Bluehost for getting my platforms straightened out and mostly consolidated. If you are planning to set up a blog site, definitely consider using Bluehost for your hosting platform. Their customer service is hands-down so helpful and I was amazed that they had my two sites fixed within 24 hours.

AND once again, I have to tout the seafood from Coral Reef Seafood at the Lake of the Ozarks. They did it again and I guess as long as I keep enjoying their seafood, you run the risk of seeing a blog post about them.

We had gone down to the Lake of the Ozarks Saturday afternoon for just a quick getaway and to tweak a couple of things with the condo. Actually, we stopped at Coral Reef BEFORE we even went to the condo. I had seen their Facebook post with pics of some of the new items they had just rolled out, and I wanted to stock up. Since I failed to take many pictures, you can actually see their pics HERE.

We loaded up (not in any particular order) on:

RED PEPPERS–stuffed with Cajun rice, Andouille sausage and shrimp. THESE WERE INCREDIBLE! Hubby grilled them for about 40 minutes on a medium heat. The rice had a good Cajun flavor going, but the best surprises were when I found chunks of the sausage and shrimp in the rice. I’m not even a big fan of Andouille, but the sausage they use almost melts in your mouth.

FAROE ISLAND FRESH SALMON–stuffed with real blue crab lump meat. OK, so for the longest time my favorite thing to get from CR has been Justin’s Stuffed Roughy, but I think this Faroe Island Salmon has just taken the cake crab leg. The sweet flavor of the Blue Crab meat was a perfect ingredient for this stuffing, and I always love salmon. It’s not like I won’t ever have the roughy again, but I really enjoyed this salmon.

CRAB STUFFED JALAPENOS–stuffed with cream cheese and crab meat AND wrapped in bacon. These are going to become a new item in our regular CR rotation. They were so easy to grill, and the cream cheese/crab filling was like no other I’ve had before. Blew the doors off what I would’ve gotten in a restaurant!

ROMA TOMATOES–stuffed with blackened Ahi tuna salad. These were so light, crisp and refreshing, we had them with breakfast. This was also a great way to go low carb with tuna salad.

LARGE WILD TEXAS SWEET PINK SHRIMP–this is a regular CR staple in our house. I usually pick up a pound of the raw, take them home, and steam them up to snack on throughout the weekend. BUT, they will steam and season them for you if you’d like. This is some of the best tasting shrimp I’ve ever eaten.

And they have lots of other seafood (and some non-seafood) that we’re working our way through trying. We’ve had the scallops (another fave), the crab legs (colossal!), red snapper, orange roughy (great on the grill), triggerfish (tastes similar to crab), Justin’s Salmon Cranberry dip, Justin’s Stuffed Roughy, and twice baked potatoes. They also carry lots of condiments like Tequila Lime Cocktail Sauce and Sriracha Aioli, seasonings, even steaks!

If you like seafood you should definitely go check them out. If you can’t visit them in person, you can still check out their goodies here or follow their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/coralreefseafood/ or find them on twitter at https://www.twitter.com/coralreefseafo1/.

***General disclaimer: no human consumed all of the food listed above in one meal. While there may have been two or three items at one meal, the rest was split up between three days helping to preserve the healthfulness of seafood!

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Happy Birthday Postcards From TLC!

We made it! We have reached the 1-year anniversary of Postcards From TLC. What was once only a thought/dream/idea became reality when our first post was published on May 12, 2018.

I had been thinking for a while that I would love to get into blogging. It would be a fun project to work on in my spare time. Who knew that it would be much more time-consuming than my “spare time”? I’d estimate that most weeks, I put in close to what I work at my day job, around 35 hours. Granted, some weeks are less, and I can control that, but I always keep my goal of 3 posts per week in mind. (Although, due to some technical difficulties, I didn’t always hit that goal this year.)

I owe a ton of thanks to my financial advisor, Eric Niswonger. In one of our yearly meetings, chit-chatting over lunch, I had mentioned that I would love to set up a blog but had no idea how to do it. He gave me a few suggestions and the motivation to give it a shot and so far I’ve made it a whole year. He not only steered me in the right blogging direction, but he also takes really good care of my investments! If you want help with your investments, comment below and I’ll get you his contact info.

I’ve had an incredible time learning the technical stuff about how to set up a website, how to promote my blog, and well, the content is really the easiest, fun part. As someone who has always loved to write (even if it’s just a list) and majored in English, the writing is the fun part. Now, whether anyone else actually reads it or enjoys it–who knows? The point is, a blog can be totally self-serving. I can write posts and even if no one else reads them, I have an ongoing documentation of things I’ve done and places I’ve been. I just hope, that along the way, someone can glean one helpful tidbit, or moment of entertainment from it.

Going forward, I’m excited to see what year 2 brings! I’m hoping to continue cranking out my posts each week, tweaking the site a little bit more, and learning additional skills that will help me in my blogging future. I’m also looking forward to acquiring more, new content, which means hitting the road. Cheers to Postcards and I hope you continue following!

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A Novice Trip–Houston and Galveston, TX

One of the first trips I ever took solo was to Houston, TX. If I only knew then what I know now, I would have done it completely different. My friend Marcia was going to go with me to visit our college friend, Carol, who was living there after college and teaching school. It sounded like a fun trip!

I booked our airline tickets and reserved a hotel room near the airport. (Carol only had a small apartment and we didn’t want to impose on her the entire time we would be there.) When the time came for Marcia to reimburse me for her half of the costs, whattaya know, she had decided she really didn’t have the time to take off a day of work and go. She bailed on me while I was holding two airline tickets and a hotel room that wasn’t really even close to where Carol lived. I wasn’t going to eat the entire cost of the trip just because I would be flying alone. I was going!

I arrived in Houston and got checked into the hotel. After dropping my luggage in my room, I headed south to Carol’s address. I didn’t realize how long of a drive it would be from the airport to South Houston. Even though it was only about a 30 mile drive on interstate highways, there was also TRAFFIC from Rodeo to contend with along with a couple of toll highways.

After about 90 minutes of rental car acrobatics on the highways, I finally arrived at Carol’s apartment. We order a pizza and began catching up on what was going on in each other’s after-college world. At this point, Carol dropped a bit of a bomb shell by telling me she hadn’t yet been diagnosed, but considered herself to be an agoraphobic–she never left her apartment, except to go to work. Trying to be sympathetic, I told her to just let me know what she would be comfortable doing in the next 3 days while I would be visiting. Nothing, she was really comfortable doing nothing. I couldn’t imagine how difficult that made her life.

As that was sinking in–I was going to be on my own in a strange city for the next 3 days or sitting in Carol’s small apartment the entire time–Carol did agree to try to go out sightseeing with me the next day. Whew! I really wasn’t looking forward to hanging by myself in Houston!

The next morning, I went to Carol’s and picked her up. We headed to an area called the Kemah Boardwalk. We walked around the boardwalk for a while and went into some of the shops–I think it was the first time I had ever seen a Build-A-Bear Workshop (they were still a pretty new store back then)–and we found a spot to people watch for a while. We had a late lunch at Landry’s Seafood House, where I had the MOST INCREDIBLE Shrimp & Crab pasta that probably had at least a million calories in it. After wrapping up at Landry’s, we headed back to Carol’s. She said she was done being out for the day.

I, however, was not done. I really wanted her to go with me to the Gulf Greyhound Park to have a couple of beers and watch the greyhounds race. She was not up for it, but was kind enough to recruit one of her neighbors to go with me. (Oh geez! Since I did not know him from the man in the moon, I hoped he was not a real weirdo…) To this day, I don’t remember the guy’s name, but we had a good time at the race track. We had a couple of beers and I even taught him how to place bets on the races. We both came away with a little bit more money than we had when we got there.

The next day was a work day for Carol. My choices were to sit in my hotel room by myself, go hang out at Carol’s apartment for the day by myself, or make the drive further south to Galveston Island by myself. I opted for Galveston, which was really outside of my comfort zone at the time, but well worth it. It took just over an hour to make the drive. The weather was kind of gray and drizzley, but I was determined to make the most of it.

I quickly found a parking spot and began walking down Seawall Road. I walked halfway up the Pleasure Pier and I went into a number of little souvenir shops and did some shopping. I found some surfers on the beach that I ended up watching for a while, and I wound up walking into a Joe’s Crab Shack where I had a pretty awesome dinner of crab legs.

Since it was close to getting dark, I figured I’d better head back to my hotel. I had to be up early the next morning to catch my flight back home.

What a fun and liberating trip! I learned a few lessons along the way.  I learned that sometimes it’s ok to go places by myself or with a stranger instead of missing out on a new place/experience. I also learned that agoraphobia is a very debilitating disorder and I hope anyone who suspects they have it get the help they need. I learned that while it’s fun to eat out, maybe I should venture away from the chain restaurants when I’m in a new city. (I can eat at  Joe’s Crab Shack pretty much anywhere.) And finally, I learned to never cover for someone’s costs on a trip unless I really plan on covering their bookings. In hindsight, I can’t believe that I considered not going at all–it was worth all the lessons and memories!