Review: Dreams from my Father (Barack Obama)

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
My rating: 3 of 5 stars




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Belated Honeymoon Bliss

the view from our room

eighty five.

i'm pretty sure that was the average temperature while we were in jamaica. not bad for the first week of january. and boy did we take advantage of it. we spent as much time as we possibly could outside. we snorkeled. we drank cocktails and read books on the beach. we ate meals outside, we took walks outside, and we sat on the couches outside and listened to guitarists, bob marley tributes, and other local talent. it was absolutely fabulous. we were told by a few people that the staff at whitehouse are the best at what they do; frankly, we couldn't imagine it being much better.

i decided early in the trip that i didn't want to have to wait to experience the trip through our photos. that is, as much as we wanted to be able to share our experience with friends and family, we wanted to worry less about "getting good shots" and be open to just experiencing such an amazing time. there's an article or video (which would be ironic) online somewhere of a band (perhaps Wilco?) asking their fans to turn off their cell phones and cameras and just be part of the show - part of what they were doing in that moment. it's made me think a lot about how much of experiences we might miss behind our devices because we choose to record them rather than take part in them. it becomes kind of a conundrum: some things are so precious, we feel that we must capture them. some things, on the other hand, are too precious to miss being a part of. i'm getting off track. in fact, this rant started as a way for me to explain why we don't actually have a ton of photos from our honeymoon. in fact, we don't have one picture of ourselves dressed up for dinner. we did, however, have an amazing time.

most of our days were spent sleeping in, wandering out the the beach, reading books, sipping drinks, wandering in and out of restaurants, taking a nap, getting ready for dinner, and ending the night with a tropical drink in front of a local musicians. not to shabby.

we did meet a couple from minnesota who we liked a lot. they got married two weeks before we did, snorkeled the day before us, and went on the zipline/waterfall excursion the afternoon before we ventured out. we kept teasing them that we were living their lives with a one day lag. matt's bengals lost their playoff game just about an hour before the vikings started what would be their exist from postseason football. that's about the only thing we were out in front on.

our one journey away from the resort was to YS Falls, a former sugar cane plantation that has been converted into a host of different things. many of them are tourist activities, but there is also a stud farm, apparently. we were there for a zip line through the canopy followed by fun in the water falls. it was perhaps the cleanest natural water that i've ever been in. lots of fun. even after my first rope swing attempt, when i was coughing and sputtering after getting quite a bit of it up my nose. . .

for better or for worse, that's really the gist of the trip. it was so wonderful. such a nice time away after such an insanely stressful fall (and not exactly moving slowly since our return, might i say). our tour guides helped us to make sure we got photos and videos of the excursion, though, so i can share some of those. we highly recommend it for anyone who wants to visit the caribbean. . . or who wants to finance a return trip for us!! :)

i've included some of our pictures - from the resort and from the trip to YS here. there are some more on my facebook page. and, of course, don't forget to check out the video of one of the ziplines (there ended up being 5 or 6 in total, i think).