Jamaica and Key West

JAMAICA, mon...
Dunn's River Falls, my sister said. It was a must-see while in Jamaica...one of her favorite memories while on the island for her honeymoon many years ago. So it was nice to have that bit of guidance as we stepped off the ship and were bombarded with tour operators and cab drivers all clamoring for our attention.

And she was right. The waterfall was much bigger than I anticipated, and hiking up it was tremendous amounts of fun!

Rebekah got adventurous and let them slide her down a part of the waterfall. Also push her backwards into a deep pool...

Seriously one of the funnest things I have ever done....

On our way to the waterfall, our cab driver/tour guide took us to an overlook where we could see the bay and city down below. It was remarkably pretty.

On our way home a shopping stop was offered. But we were completely soaked through and only really had 45 mins till we wanted to be back on board the ship so we declined. Literally five minutes after returning to the ship the clouds opened and poured rain down harder than I've seen in a long time. I'm glad we hadn't been out shopping in that!

KEY WEST...
Key West had been my least anticipated port of the four we were scheduled to stop at. Key West was just Florida. And not to knock Florida, but I was on a Caribbean cruise and I'd wanted another Caribbean island. But see, I'd never been there. I'd not realized the delightfulness that is Key West.

We rented bikes and explored the island on pedal power. Because I had the most experience biking, we attached Lilian on a tag-along to the back of my bike and off we went, all six of us.

We pedaled past President Harry Truman's "Little White House." I would've loved to go in...I'm a big fan of Truman. We also pedaled past Ernest Hemingway's house which was also kind of fun because I just finished reading a book about his life a few months ago. We pedaled down to the dock and watched the pelicans and did other such sightseeing.

After biking for a few hours Brandon and Bryan returned to the ship while we girls continued exploring on foot...mostly the insides of little shops. We decided that in it seemed somewhat mandatory while in Key West to get some key lime pie. We wandered in to the first little place we walked past and got a piece. Rebekah motioned to some benches across the street as a place to sit while we ate...benches in front of another key lime pie place. Hmm...awkward maybe? We walked across and sat down anyway, mostly because the benches were in shade. Rebekah was taking a picture of her key lime pie with the opposing store's key lime pie sign when the owner came out and started giving us a (humorous) hard time about taking a picture of his sign with the competitors pie. So that was awkward, no maybe about it. Especially when he went on to share the back story of the friendship that went sour when his "friend" decided to go into the key lime business and steal his customers. He then took us inside his shop to show us how his key lime pie was made right there in the shop while the guy across the street just bought his frozen. Oh my, the time we spent chatting with this guy trying to make up for our own sense of guilt! We bought his chocolate covered key lime pie (after we finished the original stuff we bought) and agreed that yes, it was even better. And then he offered to take a picture of the four of us on his bench with another sign that he was getting ready to hang up. It all ended with him giving Rebekah college advice...mostly that she shouldn't go because it's a waste of time and money. What an adventure, just to get a piece of key lime pie....

Up next....Universal Studios and Harry Potter!