Much has happened since my last post from eons ago. Let's rewind...
I accepted a promotion in November and traveled to Jacksonville, FL and Salt Lake City, UT for training. Jacksonville was sunny and beautiful. Spending time there only helped to further convince me that I'm destined to live somewhere that palm trees and beaches provide a postcard worthy landscape. Salt Lake City was 70 degrees colder than it was in Florida, but I enjoyed the picturesque views of the Rocky Mountains.
For Thanksgiving, we jetted off to the Caribbean to spend a week in Jamaica. We stayed at a resort in Negril on the far west side of the island. Josh was feeling extra brave and decided to try cliff diving. Before he jumped, the person standing beside me jokingly asked if Josh had a current life insurance policy. The cliff he jumped from 3 different diving platforms. The highest was 100 feet above the water and only the local "professional" divers were allowed to jump from this spot. Josh jumped from the 35 foot platform. There was also a spot 15 feet above the water for wussies to jump from. I myself was too much of a wimp to attempt it. Post jump, I learned that the week before our visit another tourist broke their tailbone jumping from the same height that Josh did. Instead of gracefully entering the water like an Olympic diver, that tourist hit the surface of the water rump first.
We ventured off the beaten path and went for a boat ride on the Black River. We learned that the Black River appears black because of the peat moss at the bottom. The river is home to many crocodiles, all of whom have been named by the local tour boat guides. Our guide was absolutely nuts and at one point leaned over the edge of the boat, lured a crocodile in with pieces of raw chicken and then grabbed it's arm in an attempt to lift it out of the water for us to get a closer look.
Appleton Rum is the rum staple in Jamaica. We toured the factory and were lucky that we didn't have to crawl to the car when we left. We sampled rum at the beginning of the tour, we drank rum during the tour, and we ended the tour with samples of all 13 varieties of rum that are produced by Appleton. We stood in a warehouse full of aging barrels and learned that workers are not allowed to spend more then 30 minutes at a time in the warehouse. The evaporated alcohol in the air from the aging barrels can intoxicate most people after just 30 minutes.
In December, we made a whirlwind trip to Kansas to spend time with our families for Christmas. I swear I took pictures while we were there but cannot find them. Maybe we were so rushed running from party to party that I never even pulled the camera out of my purse!
This past weekend we took a bus up to New York City. It was this country girl's fist time in the Big Apple and thankfully it was not as scary as I had anticipated.
Stay tuned for more...
