They’re gone! The boys went back to school today after three long weeks of Christmas break. Woooo Hooo! Cutie is still sleeping and so is dh since he’s caught the nasty bug going around.

I’ve been thinking lately that I need a vacation. Dh had some time off work. The boys had a break from school. When do I get MY break? I want to go someplace warm and sunny to recharge the happy cells in my body.

When I was 23, (a long, long time ago) I vacationed on the island of Jamaica. Raymond, an older gentleman and father figure I knew from New York, escorted my friend Lara and me around his homeland. We first stayed in Kingston which with all it’s concrete has got to be the hottest place I’ve ever been. It was there, though, that I tried mango ice cream (YUM!), stopped at a road stand just outside the city for authentic jerk chicken (awesome!), visited the Bob Marley museum (interesting…), and tried driving on the left side of the road (scary!). We went wading in the ocean for the first time but I was afraid of the mass of stringy kelp all about my ankles and shins. Who knows what strange poking or stinging types of creatures lurk in that stuff?

We travelled a bit further inland to visit Ray’s neice and to go to church with her. One thing I love about my church is that you can go to a congregation on the other side of the world and feel like you’re home.  Just about everything was the same; the way the meetings were conducted, the doctrine that was taught, the hymn book from which we sang. Except the faith of the people seemed stronger and purer in Jamaica.

The next day we travelled to Ray’s birthplace where his parents still lived. On the way, we stopped by more road stands for sugar cane and fresh coconut milk (drill hole, insert straw). The family had a private beach that had the clearest water, free of kelp so I could see my feet in the sand in shoulder-high water. Aaaahhh… After soaking up the sun there, we drove to a magnificent waterfall and admired God’s creations.

Then it was time to visit the touristy areas of Jamaica in Negril, Montego Bay, and Ocho Rios where we ate curry goat, braided our hair with beads, and rented a jet ski for fun. When we had our fill of fun, we packed our bags with some hemp jewelry, souvenirs, and Jamaican honey and drove back over to Kingston to catch our plane back to the states.

I returned from that trip feeling so renewed and fresh and ready to go back to work. I need a vacation like that right now to get out of the winter blues.  I think I’ll start saving and planning to go somewhere like Mexico or Florida or San Diego. In the meantime, tell me all about a sunny and warm place you’ve been.