Photo of the Week

I have a really cool birthday. It's literally cool in that my birthday is in the winter -- February in fact. This was not cool when I was a little kid who was limited to sleepovers for birthday parties since it was too cold to do much else.

But as I grow older, I love when my birthday falls. I am proudly an Aquarius sun, which I find fascinatingly accurate.

I also get to share my birthday with a lot of cool people like Bob Marley, Babe Ruth, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Natalie King Cole and Tom Brokaw. I also share my birthday with less cool people too like Ronald Reagan and Axl Rose.

I've always admired Bob Marley and found a personal connection with him and his music. So, for my fortieth birthday a few years ago, I decided to take a trip down to Jamaica to celebrate. Initially I wanted to spend our birthdays together in Kingston. However, in wanting to be culturally sensitive, I did some research and found that it might be insensitive for someone not of the Rastafarian faith and/or not a person of color to visit this city on this day.

So, I decided on a couple of alternative ways to spend my birthday. I visited Bob Marley's home in the small village of Nine Miles. It was incredible and the below photos are from that trip.

However, the photo above was taken during the White River Bamboo Rafting & Blue Hole Ocho Rios. Their website is under construction, but you can research ways to take this tour through several travel sites. The tour is breathtaking with the clearest waters you've ever seen. I highly recommend making this a part of your trip to Jamaica!