This is my new motto. I love all-inclusive resorts. I love to eat and drink on vacation like fat cells don’t exist! A must for me also is excursions included. I will pay a little more for a resort, just to have non-motorized sports and a few excursions included. This is what I love about Couples Resorts. We took a Hobie boat out for a sail, booked a catamaran (it ended up too windy), and took a glass bottom boat to go snorkeling. We could have gone to Margaritaville, but we chose to relax close to the resort instead. Finally, if you’ve seen my other posts you know, we went to Dunn’s River Falls. With all of that we came out paying exactly what I had budgeted. It was perfect! What are your must haves on vacation? Am I missing something you love?
Travel
Dunn’s River Falls – Ocho Rios, Jamaica
By now you probably already know my love affair with Jamaica. It was stunning, the people are great, and I had the time of my life. One of the excursions offered by Couples Resort is a Dunn’s River Falls waterfall hike. This is a 900ft waterfall climb. Closed toed water shoes are highly recommended. If you, like me, failed to read this small detail before traveling and brought Chacos thinking they were good enough, they are not. I was, however, able to purchase a beautiful neon pink pair of water shoes from the roadside. (I actually love them. They say Jamaica and have the Jamaican flag on the top. What a great $10 souvenir!)
Once arriving at Dunn’s River Falls you are introduced to your personal guide. We had a guide for our group of 20 and our own photographer who designs and cuts a video with pictures for you. We did not buy this video package and instead Timo made ours. You actually walk down some stairs to the start of the waterfall at the beach. I found it ironic to walk down just to go back up, but it was a fun adventure that I do not regret. The water is cold and you will get wet! Also, if they can find a spider to pick out of a web and show you, your guide will. Eek. Enjoy our adventure!
This is How We Do it in Puerto Rico – Carnival Cruise 2017
Why fly to Florida and have only three or four ports on seven day cruise when for the same price you can fly to Puerto Rico and have five ports! Side note: I lived in Florida for a few years. Florida is no longer a vacation for me, but more a place filled with memories that I don’t necessarily want to remember. I’m bias; however, Puerto Rico is a hidden jewel. If you haven’t been, you need to look it up and plan a trip. It’s well priced, the people are incredibly friendly, and the views are spectacular. Also, drink all of the Puerto Rican coffee. I actually prefer it to Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.
We flew into San Juan a day before our cruise. We stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan. It’s directly across from the pier to board the cruise ship. This is important for two reasons: 1. You don’t have to pay for transport to and from the ship; 2. You can board early and unload all of your luggage. It’s also a beautiful hotel with a roof top pool and a restaurant that overlooks the ocean. 
Arriving early allowed us to explore San Juan on our very first day. We rented a VRBO for a week after the cruise, but in a different part of the island since San Juan doesn’t have an accessible swim beach. We spent our afternoon walking around Old San Juan and out to the Old Fort on the tip of the island. We ran into an outside market and found lots of snacks. There are a ton of cats wondering around San Juan, so be prepared. Large tubs for them to bed down on and eat are also in the bushes. Sophie tried to chase them all and pet them. She was, thankfully, never successful.
Carnival Fascination
Our seven day cruise itinerary looked like this:
- Day 1 – depart San Juan at 6:00PM
- Day 2 – St. Thomas
- Day 3 – St. Maarten
- Day 4 – St. Kitts
- Day 5 – St. Lucia
- Day 6 – Barbados
- Day 7 – Fun Day at Sea
- Day 8 – San Juan
I mean… can that itinerary look any better?
St. Thomas
In St. Thomas we booked an excursion through Carnival and snorkeled with sea turtles. Do it. It’s incredible. Even Sophie put on a snorkel and saw a seaweed knot in the anchor line that she swore was a sea turtle. I didn’t argue with her. I let her believe that’s exactly what she saw. She wasn’t too enthused about having her face in the salt water (we had been practicing in pools and the bathtub). We saw many sea turtles and the catamaran ride to the cove was stunning. Unfortunately, this was before the purchase of Timo’s DJI Action Camera and I came home with two pictures of this amazing event.
St. Maarten
Full disclosure: I was 6 months pregnant with Noah on this vacation. This severely limited my options for excursions and fun. For the record I do not suggest taking any type of all-inclusive vacation while pregnant, especially to the beach. One can only drink so many virgin frozen drinks.
The reason for the disclosure is to tell you that Timo got to go watch planes fly over his head and land at the St. Maarten airport. I got to go shopping. See what I mean about pregnant options? Not that I dislike shopping, but if I’m going to shop in a foreign country, then I want the full cultural experience. I want to shop where the native islanders shop and eat their local cuisine. This was not that. This was a cheap taxi that drives you from the port to a little shopping center on the beach filled with souvenir t-shirts and kitschy gifts. There was, however, a beautiful beach behind the shops where Sophie and I were able to collect some small shells and get our feet wet. It’s a beautiful island and I’m glad I’ll get to visit it again in 2020 when I will most definitely pick something to do that allows me to see more of what the island has to offer.
St. Kitts
Oh, dear St. Kitts. Not only was this one of the most stunning islands I’ve ever seen, it had secret gems hidden that we didn’t know about ahead of time. This is my regret. I would like to travel back to St. Kitts some time and visit it’s partner island, Nevis, and hike the volcano. Yep, a volcano. Yes, you can hike it. Obviously, pregnant I wouldn’t have made it up the volcano anyways, so it’s probably better I missed out. We took a taxi from the port and asked for a nice beach. We were taken to a resort in a quiet cove. It was perfect. Small fish swam around our feet and the pool waves were calm enough to enjoy the water instead of fighting it.
St. Lucia
Same story. Different island. We took a taxi. This one came with a short tour and they drove us to the highest point on the island for pictures before taking us to the beach. The tour guide in the taxi was very knowledgeable. She told us about local culture, their school systems, what fruit was in season. She really knew her island and how to engage her audience. At the beach in St. Lucia a gentleman came up in a motorized canoe (I’m sure this boat style has a proper name, but in a Oklahoma it would be a motorized canoe). He sold fresh pineapples and coconuts. He sliced the tops off on the beach and if you weren’t pregnant (insert eye roll) he would top it off with local rum. Yay me. This did, however, allow me to share with Sophie. And alas, provided the only photo from St. Lucia. Aren’t you glad our photography skills have gotten so much better?
Barbados
White sand beaches and hospitality beyond measure. Barbados is incredible. For a $20 taxi ride we were chauffeured around the island to see historical land marks, celebrity golf courses, monkeys, a cricket stadium, and a beach. I love learning about locations we visit and I love seeing how the people really live. We traveled the summer before Hurricane Maria (cat 5) wrecked her havoc. Seeing the conditions most people lived in before that devastation only broke my heart more imagining what they must be going through after her. Barbados is another island I would return to for a liger visit to truly explore and enjoy the culture. 
Side note: Full face snorkels are on our must-have beach travels. The first time I ever snorkeled was in Key West in 2005. It was open ocean over a small reef. Needless to say, I panicked. Not being able to see beyond the dark blue line, tiny jelly fish looking creatures flying past my face, and breathing through what felt like a straw was simply too much for me. I couldn’t handle it and I had to return to the boat. I’ve worked through this fear over the years and this year in Jamaica I was able to snorkel with a regular snorkel and mask (I let my girlfriend use my full face snorkel because she had the same fears as me). The full face allows me to breathe normally or quickly, when I get anxious, and I don’t worry about water coming in the snorkel thanks to the shut off valve. I absolutely can’t travel without it and we are upgrading Sophie to one this year. We purchase ours on Amazon for around $25.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is a hidden American jewel. Not really hidden, actually, forgotten maybe? We booked a VRBO through Home Away and had a condo on the beach. 
We used Uber to get around. You may not Uber from the airport. The taxis and Uber drivers have quite a bit of tension between them, so if you decide to Uber know it’s a competitive market. We found it the easiest way to get where we needed to go and to know the price ahead of time. It was around $30 round trip to get back to Old San Juan from Carolina where our condo was. We often walked the beach and explored our new neighborhood. We always felt safe on this vacation. Timo went to the rainforest and zip lined one day, but due to the threat of Zika at the time and my pregnancy, I spent the day in the condo relaxing. We also wanted to do the bioluminescent bay at night, but didn’t seem to make it work. We are planning a trip and another cruise from San Juan next year, so the bay is on our list! Until then, I will be dreaming of Puerto Rican beaches and coffee. 
Marriage is Hard: How I Almost Lost the Man of my Dreams
I know what you are already thinking, “Isn’t this supposed to be a travel blog? What do your marriage problems have to do with travel?” It is. They do. I promise. I’m going to bring this full circle.
The reason for this post (and before I get too deep into our travels) is to show the “real” side of us. I’ve learned, especially through social media, how easy it is to look at the photos and quick lines someone posts and to think “what a perfect marriage/life they have”. You see up until this year I didn’t realize what work you actually had to put into a marriage to make it last. Was I naive? Yes, I was. Up until this year, I thought WE were the problem and everyone else was doing it right. I didn’t even know others had my struggles until our world almost fell apart.
Timo and I met at a bar in Germany in his hometown. I was studying abroad and he was out drinking away his sorrows over his ex girlfriend. Solid start, right? After too many whiskey shots I got the nerve to persistently ask him to join our group. It took a bit of convincing, but he finally gave in. We’ve basically been inseparable ever since. 
It sounds like a fairytale and it was. We lived in Germany for awhile, had our daughter, and decided to move to the States. We started over. Both of us built successful careers. I got a Masters degree. We bought a house, had our son, and focused all of our energy being great parents and excellent employees. So how did everything go so wrong? We spent all of our energy being amazing at everything else, we totally lost ourselves.
After 8 years of rebuilding, parenting, and moving up our career ladders we had no idea how to be adults and more specifically, adults who were in love. We were like two shells of human beings moving through life. Any energy we had, we gave to our children. I couldn’t take it anymore and I left. I thought our marriage was over and we just weren’t meant to be.
This was the turning point. From the moment I left, friends (who were in successful marriages) told me their stories of how they almost left. It was this moment, seeing other people feel the same way I was and getting through it, that really showed me the sham of social media. I was only seeing the best of their lives, but didn’t realize how much they had actually been through. I also started to go out and have fun again with friends. I had always felt guilty before either about leaving Timo with the kids or leaving the kids in general. What I discovered, though, is that I’m fun. Like really fun. I’m a giant ball of fun. I had completely forgotten how much I loved to laugh.
Then there was Timo. God bless him. He never gave up on me. He fought for me tooth and nail when I wasn’t worth a penny. He eventually broke down my wall of fear and once we started to spend time together again, I remembered exactly why I love him. I discovered that when we put us and our marriage at the forefront, we have something special. It was never gone; it was stored away and forgotten in all of our daily stress. This is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, but also one that showed me the greatest thing that’s ever entered my life. I learned to fight, not against Timo, but for him. I learned how much I want to fight for him.
So again, you ask, “what does this have to do with travel?” Travel is how we reconnect with ourselves and with each other. You have to leave that stress behind. You’ve got to get away and remember that you are fun! This is why Jamaica was so important to me and to us. This is why I will make necessary sacrifices to be able to get away with Timo alone. He’s worth it. Our marriage is worth it. I never want to forget how close I came to losing him, so I always remember to fight for him.
I wanted to write this post, so other people who might be going through a rough time in their marriage and see our pictures and think how “perfect” we may look, that we aren’t. When you pull the social media curtain away, we are a normal couple who has disagreements and gets annoyed with each other. But we are also now a couple who refuses to go to bed mad at each other. Don’t look at others and think you are doing something wrong. Not everyone shows the ugly side. This is our ugly side and it made us the strongest we’ve ever been. So fight through the ugly and go on a trip. Get away and discover how great you can be again. When you get back, come tell me where you went, so we can check it out. Preferably all-inclusive and adults only. (If you haven’t tried it yet, you need to.)
Thanks for listening.
The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go – Canmore, Alberta, Canada – June 2018
Fact about me: my parents divorced when I was ten and after that I moved into a new house/apartment A LOT. It’s a habit I kept as an adult. I blame the nomadic lifestyle for my lack of “home” feeling. However, from the moment we arrived in Canmore, both Timo and I felt at home.
We flew into the Alberta airport, rented a car, and drove to Canmore. Originally, we wanted to stay in Banff, but I read somewhere that Canmore was like Banff’s little sister and cheaper. It appeared to be small enough to walk around, so we took the chance. We rented a VRBO through Home Away and had a perfect vacation. We are a fan of VRBO rentals with kids because it gives us an opportunity to sleep in, cook meals, and have relaxing evenings together as a family. This VRBO came with a National Park Pass and if visiting this area, I highly suggest making sure that a pass is included with your rental. It will save you money and time being able to enter different parks with zero hassle. Here is a glimpse into our vacation.
Lake Louise
Full disclosure: I used to watch the Bachelor religiously. Don’t judge. In one season (Sean Lowe’s, maybe?) they travel to Lake Louise and stay at the chateau in the picture. That was the first time I’d ever seen Lake Louise and knew I wanted to see it in person. Timo’s company has business in Alberta and his boss told him about Banff after a work trip. When Timo showed interest in traveling north, I was all in! Lake Louise is one of the best highlights in the area. It was warm enough to hike around the lake and climb some of the smaller cliffs and still cold enough that Sophie was excited to see snow on the ground! There is a restaurant inside of the Chateau, but we chose to grab a snack at the small cafe inside. The restaurant did not seem like a place to take our two wild children.
Johnston Canyon
Johnston Canyon was a great hike! It was easy enough to do with two kids, but still provided multiple beautiful waterfalls (where the rest of those pictures are is the real question). There were also some lovely cabins at the entrance of the hike that would be the perfect place to stay in the woods. I prefer a more city like vibe on our stays, but if you are an outdoorsy camping type, these cabins are calling your name!
http://www.johnstoncanyon.com/
Food
Since we had the VRBO we cooked and shopped locally for quite a few meals, but we did check out a couple local restaurants in Canmore. One of our personal favorites was the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. They cook the flatbread pizzas in a stone oven and it is so delicious! My pizza (pictured) had arugula, red onion, blue cheese, and bacon! I’m still drooling over it.
https://www.rockymountainflatbread.ca/
Our other favorite was The Grizzly Paw Pub and Brewing Company. We both tried a flight of their locally brewed beers and because they are so awesome, Sophie got to try a flight of their locally brewed sodas! She thought it was amazing! We also tried the poutine and it was a new favorite. On our last night we ordered take out and ate it all over again back in our apartment.
https://www.thegrizzlypaw.com/
If there is one thing a good German loves, it’s bread. We discovered a French bakery, Le Fournil, within walking distance from our apartment. Timo loved the fresh baguette sandwiches and I, the dessert lover, tried every sweet concoction I could!
Finally, for all popcorn lovers, there is a delicious popcorn shop called Timothy’s in downtown Canmore. We enjoyed window shopping and checking out the small shops in the downtown. We had to try the popcorn and took some with us.
Drumheller
At the time of our trip Sophie was quite intrigued with dinosaurs. She is a lover of all things science and when we told her we could drive a few hours to the dinosaur capital, she was pumped! We stopped at the Hoodoos and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. I recommend both, but also suggest planning bathroom stops. It is quite the drive from Canmore and pit stops are few and far between. You will see bathrooms along the road, but they are fancier versions of port-a-potties and smell the same if not worse.
Explore
The best part about this area is the simple fact that you can get on the road and explore. We spent hours in the car looking for wildlife, following road sign suggestions, and simply enjoying the gorgeous views provided by the Canadian Rockies.
Banff itself is a lively town with a natural hot springs pool, a waterfall, and a gondola! We checked out all three and explored the downtown. I fell in love with a Christmas store! Although I said we do not like to revisit locations, we will be returning to Canmore this winter. We are beyond excited to explore the snowy mountains and to show our kids all of the mountain adventures possible in the snow!
Bad Weather Days – Elevation Place
We never had any bad weather, but it is of course possible. In the event the weather is too yucky to go out and explore, Canmore has the perfect indoor recreation facility! Timo and Sophie climbed rock walls while Noah and I watched. Then we all swam in the indoor pool! Check out the website for all the rec center activities!
https://canmore.ca/recreation-facility/elevation-place
ATTENTION: Adults Only! Couples Resort Tower Isle – Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Timo and I have been married for nine years this December. During that time we have gone on multiple vacations, but only TWO without our children: our honeymoon road trip from Oklahoma to San Diego (December 2010) and a babymoon to the Alps in southern Germany/Austria (Summer 2012). That means as a whole we haven’t had decent alone time in our marriage. At all. We were long over due. As a mom it’s easy to get lost in the role of being a mother. It’s easy to forget how to be a wife, how to be patient, how to be kind. This trip was the most relaxed I’ve ever been in over 10 years! I highly recommend an adults only resort getaway for all couples. Timo and I are going to try to take one every year now. Here is a review of our trip!
Waldi- Party of Four 