Vacation

I realized that I posted a few shots from our most recent vacation, but never really talked about it. It was a good vacataion. Punta Cana, as you can see in the photos is absolutely beautiful. The beaches were amazing. The weather was great. We had a little rain now & then as you can always expect when you head off to a tropical destination, but not so much that it caused us to miss out on anything. We stayed at the "Excellence Punta Cana". It is an all inclusive, adults only beach front resort. The food was okay. A couple of the meals were wonderful & the rest were just alright. You always have to keep in mind that you are going to basically the equivalent of a third world country & a foreign country as well. They don't have the same food as we do here. The presentation was always beautiful & the service wonderul. We had included 24/7 room service available. We took advantage of that several times. One thing will always be true; the U.S. knows how to do food. Don't get me wrong though, the food was good & is always an experience in & of itself when traveling to a far off land. Each day they always had a beach party. They would cook something right on the beach & play music. We would all watch them cook the entree' & then sit around eating, visiting & getting to know each other. We met so many wonderful people. Everyone is so relaxed. You know, it is so easy to be in vacation mode when your biggest decision of the day is which beach bed to choose in what location! The service is always exceptional & was this time as well. The native people are so awesome. They have a genuine spirit & a carefree way of going about their day that we admire. This is one thing that a lot of Americans could definitely take a lesson on from service workers in other countries that we have visited. They are so helpful, polite & happy to assist you in any way that they can. They are very thankful for their jobs & always seem so happy & thankful to be at work, singing & dancing as they go through their day doing their jobs. Our room was beautiful too. We had a big jacuzzi tub in between the bedroom & our bathroom. We had our own private balcony with a beautiful ocean view. We met a great couple who we are keeping in touch with now that we are back home & hope to one day visit them at their home in Brooklyn N.Y. (Hey Kareem & Tyrin!) They were so much fun...& FUNNY! Oh my goodness. We enjoyed them so much. They had gotten married the weekend prior & were on their honeymoon. We hung out together did some Karaoke, danced at the Discotech, played a little (okay, a lot) of BlackJack at the resort casino, watched the resort shows, hung out at the beach & just sat around talking getting to know each other until 2:00AM. We feel so grateful to have gotten to know them & to have shared some good times with them. We enjoyed the beaches & the pool & many fruity/frozen drinks that were very yummy! There was one that was actually made for you in a hollowed out cocconut. It was so yummy. It was like a meal. It filled you up, but was so good. We walked up & down the beach. We stopped along the way & did some snorkeling. Thomas LOVES to snorkle. We had a couple of little problems at the very end of our trip. First let me say that we used sunscreen just like we were suppose to. We put it on in the room, let it dry, re-applied etc., etc. Well, the sun there is not like the sun here. Thomas snorkeled for several hours. He was on top of the water...his back & his legs were sun exposed enough even though he was in the water...the back of his legs-oh my goodness. I wish we had taken a photo. The only description that I can give you is raw hamburger meat. That is what they looked like from right below his knees down to his ankles. Ugh. Thankfully, if this had to happen it happened the day before we left so it didn't spoil much of his time. We hit the resort spa for some relief. Thomas got this cooling aqua gel wrap. It lasted over an hour. They dipped his legs in an ice bath & then wrapped him in these ice soaked, gel covered towels & such. He said it was great & helped him so much. Me? I had a massage/pedicure. Loved it. It was so nice. I am now addicted to pedicures. Then, I got sick. We only drank bottled water. (even to brush our teeth) The water on the resort is all purified/filtered. It is checked/tested several times a day & weekly by an outside company. Anyway, I don't know if I ate too much fruit or what happened, but the day before we left I couldn't get very far from the bathroom & it took a ton of PeptoBismol to get me through our travels home & miserable doesn't even begin to describe how I felt while we traveled home. I was so sick. Again though, thankfully this didn't occur until the day prior to us leaving. Our travels, other than me getting sick were great. We had a layover getting there in Miami & coming home & everything went smooth. We departed early for most of our flights. One time we had a little delay on the tarmac due to some computer glitch on the plane, but it was only about 45 minutes & we just hung out there on the plane. Wasn't too bad really. The Dominican Republic Airport was great too. It was so pretty. It has thatched roof tops & although, seemed very safe & had lots of shops & restaraunts it was nothing like the airports here in the states. It was very tropical & some of it without doors. We call it "open air". It gets hot, but wasn't bad. We had no problems with customs either, just in & out, pretty uneventful. I find all of that fun & interesting. I just love to travel so I take it all in.

As far as tropical destinations out of the countries we have now been to Jamacia, Mexico & Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Many have asked us which is our favorite. Our answer is we love them all. We love each of them for different reasons. For some reason Mexico stole our hearts. When we leave these places we always think that we would love to go back. However, our hearts desire is to see as many places in this big ol' world as we can in our lifetime. So, even though we love each of them, chances are we might not ever see them again. Maybe, but it is likely that we will always choose a different destination. Upon retirement, we hope to be fortunate enough to have a little beach front property in one of these destinations or another one that we will someday visit. We will be inviting all of our friends & family to come & stay with us...so, if you are reading this, plan on it! :o)