Saturday January 6th, 2017. When we woke up it was raining pretty heavy. The rain was actually kind of nice since Jess was a bit hungover and didn't want to do much. We did eventually walk down to the pool that we got married by to get some pizza. On the way we passed the covered stage where one of the many talented employees decided to put on an impromptu show since most activities for the day were canceled. As we walked to the pizza place which was attached to the pool area we noticed part of the hillside was starting to wash out and into the pool. The sidewalk was covered in clumps of dirt and the pool was filling with brown water. The rain was relentless and the river of mud just kept flowing.
While we waited for our pizza to be made we sat in the covered stage to watch "Super Shelly", as she called herself, sing and dance. We had met her two days ago at the pool before the talent show when she sang for us there and told us to come watch the show. Today she was singing by herself and there were only 6 other people watching. She new that we had been married yesterday and sang a song for us. She also made sure we had a drink while we were there, a little hair of the dog. She is a great singer and it really made us feel special on such a crappy day. Our pizza was finished right after she finished her last song. So we grabbed our pizza and headed back to the room to eat and hang out for a bit longer. There was really nothing else to do since we weren't drinking and the rain was relentless.
By the time we had to head out for dinner we were both feeling pretty good and the rain had started to let up a bit. We had our white glove dinner tonight which really meant nothing other than our waiter would occasionally wear white gloves while serving us. We ate at a French restaurant that was quite delicious. Afterwards we met up with our friends for a few drinks before turning in for the night. Thankfully there were no issues with our room this night.
Sunday, our last full day on the resort. Jess was scheduled to have a facial done at the spa at 10am. Unfortunately it turns out the spa had issues with flooding and after waiting for a half hour after her appointment she found out they had no rooms available for her. She decided that she would rather spend her day enjoying the resort rather than sit and wait any longer for the spa. We were also supposed to go on an excursion this afternoon to a blue hole but that ended up being canceled due to flooding.
When she got back to the room we decided we were going to make the most of the day and head for the pool even if it is raining. We spent most of the afternoon in the hot tub with the rest of the patrons that were tired of the rain. It stayed dry for most of the afternoon with a few passing showers and downpours. We decided on the way back to the room that we would get in the ocean before going to shower and get ready for dinner. It wasn't really worth it. The ocean smelled terrible and upon getting out we were very sticky. Luckily we were just going to shower afterwards anyways.
We met up with our friends and had sushi before our dinner reservation at the hibachi restaurant. The sushi there was quite good as was the drink of the night, just don't ask me what it was. After sushi we went to wait for our hibachi reservation and to my surprise the restaurant had kirin which is a Japanese beer and apparently the only beer the resort carried other than red stripe but it was only available at the Hibachi restaurant. It was a nice little treat at the end of our stay.
The following morning we showered and made sure everything was packed up before grabbing one last drink and a bite to eat. As fate would have it when we went outside it was absolutely beautiful out and the perfect weather for hanging out on the beach or in a pool. We did not get to enjoy either as we were being picked up at 12:30. After we finished our drinks we headed to the lobby to wait for our shuttle back to the airport. It was a two hour ride back to the airport and along the way there were massive rockslides and flooding causing traffic backups. Upon arriving to the airport I realized it was Monday and the airport was crazy busy. Once our bags were checked and we got through security we found out our flight was delayed an hour.
We decided we should get lunch for the plane and ordered from one of the bars in the airport. It took quite some time to get our food and right as we were arriving at our gate our boarding numbers were going through the gate. Luckily we were able to get in line with our friends and get scanned in only to stand there and wait another ten minutes before they opened the terminal to the plane. Once we were on the plane we were informed by the captain that the baggage belt used to transport bags was broken at the airport and we would be waiting even longer for them to hand load and make sure all the bags were onboard.
After about another 30-40 minutes of waiting on the plane we finally departed Jamaica. It was bitter sweet since today was actually sunny and nice. I was happy to be heading home but I would've really liked to have been on the beach soaking up some sun. Nevertheless after about a three and a half hour flight we landed in Houston. We had around an hour until our flight to Austin started boarding but we had to collect all of our bags, go through customs, recheck our bags, and go through security before we could board our plane.
Unfortunately we could really only move as fast as the airport decided it would let us move. It seemed like a long time before our bags started coming up the belt and then when they did it was an even longer time before our first bag arrived. We ended up waiting until all the bags had come across the belt and had been collected only to find that one of our bags never made it to Houston. Now we were the last people in line to get through customs.
As we were standing in line for customs with our one bag there was a bat that was buzzing our heads and creating quite the commotion. It seemed like this slowed things down even more. When we finally go through that line we still had to recheck our bags. Thanks to the bat flying around the two girls working the desk to check bags had gone out of that area and were waiting in the main airport. Now we had to wait for them to return to the desk and turn the system back on to check our one bag. At this point I was convinced that it was a waste of time and we would end up having to rent a car and drive back to Austin anyways but we checked the bag nonetheless.
Now we got to stand in the surprisingly long and slow security line. Before we even got to the conveyer belt to put our things on the airport was calling our names for boarding. Again we have no control over how fast we can go at this point and can only hope that we get through security without issue. Unfortunately for us luck is rarely on our side. Jess was carrying the jar that we filled with sand for our sand ceremony in her carryon bag. As fate would have it they decided that was suspicious and took their good old time taking it out of the bag and out of its box and unwrapping it to inspect it. While this is happening they are calling our names again for final boarding. Jess is frantically gathering the rest of her things and alerting the TSA agent that they're calling our names for boarding and that's just sand form our wedding. To which he responded ok I'm done here you can go. Jess grabbed the jar put it back in the bag, grabbed her dress and started running.
I've never seen her run so fast. As we approach our gate we see that to our surprise the doors are still open. We were the last two people to board the plane with three minutes to spare. Almost every middle seat on the plane was open but only the middle seats were open. It was ok though it's only a twenty minute flight. When we landed in Austin we went to baggage claim and Jess filed a report for our missing bag while I collected our bag that thankfully made it to Austin. I was so done with this trip and happy to be home.
