Krisha

It’s the climb: The beauty of Dunn’s River Falls makes for a memorable excursion in Jamaica. For more Caribbean travel ideas, browse our guide.

While cruising in the Caribbean last spring, my family and I booked an excursion to Dunn’s River Falls on our one-day stop in Jamaica. We heard the falls near Ocho Rios were an astounding sight — almost 200 feet high, descending to the sea in a stair-step fashion that is naturally carved by the current. Climbing these falls, which were featured in the James Bond movie Dr. No, and relaxing in the wading pools along the way are “bucket-list” activities that make Dunn’s Falls one of the most popular destinations on the island. 

I wasn’t sure if my then-7-year-old daughter would be up for the challenge as the cascading water rushed against her in full force. But our guide, and my husband, were determined to let her try. The climb is steep at times; the guide leads the group in a “human chain,” one behind the other, calling out essential footholds and crevices to scale the falls successfully. The rocks are slippery, and water shoes are required (you can buy them at the entrance if you don’t have your own). Adventurers choose whether to start at the base of the falls or begin partway down at one of several access points on the path to the beach where the river meets the sea. 

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South Charlotte resident Joy Callaway always knew she wanted to write when she grew up, but she never imagined being a full-time novelist.

“My brother and I weren’t really allowed to watch TV as kids,” says Callaway. “I filled my free time with writing plays, stories and magazines.”

The imagination that inspired the South Mecklenburg High School grad to create magazines led her to a career of writing six novels in seven years. Callaway’s fourth book, “All the Pretty Places,” hit bookstores last spring.

Callaway graduated from Marshall University and then pursued a graduate degree in mass communications at the University of South Carolina. A self-proclaimed “nerd and lover of history,” she often dug into newspaper archives, old letters, photos and ancestry records just for fun. When she tried writing a book, she received two rejections. But three years later, she signed a literary agent and got a book deal.

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After a successful career in fashion, Charlotte native Hadley Quisenberry left New York City in 2012 and returned home to raise a family and work alongside her mother, Lisa Britt, a longtime interior designer. Lisa Britt Designs rebranded to become West Trade Interiors, and by 2018, Britt retired and gave the reins to her daughter. The West Trade team continues to handle a range of design-build projects across the city, including a recent multi-room refresh in Myers Park. The client hired Quisenberry, whom she knew from their years at Myers Park High School, to update the living room, two bedrooms, and the dining room in her two-story, 3,500-square-foot brick home. As parents of two preschool-aged children, the homeowners wanted a grown-up space to host dinner parties and family gatherings. Quisenberry designed the room around the Schumacher wallpaper panels her client selected and incorporated some transitional pieces to give the space a contemporary twist. 

COLOR YOUR VIEW
Quisenberry says her goal was to “find the balance between a space that can be restful but is also vibrant and inviting.” She installed custom white linen drapes and added a blue leaf trim from Schumacher to pull in some color from the wallpaper panels. The pale blue tones in the Oushak rug add another subtle pop of blue, and the coral in the chair’s upholstery repeats in the printed lampshade—a find from local vendor International Shades—on the sideboard. The flowers and soft tones in the wallpaper lean more toward spring and summer, but Quisenberry says they “present a mood rather than a season.” The homeowner also rotates the tablescape with seasonal botanicals and foliage throughout the year.

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