Paradise

After many weeks of hard work, Steven found out he had won a contest with work for a trip to the Dominican Republic. We were headed to Punta Cana to stay for 6 days and 5 nights at the Melia Caribe Tropical Resort. I never expected to love it as much as I did. We had only been there for a couple of days and we realized that we definitely wanted to make a return visit some day. The place was huge, but that didn't bother us. There were families with small children there and they had a whole area dedicated to little kids. It would be great to bring Emmaline back one day, but this time it was nice to get away with just my hubby (and about 40 other people that he works with). :-)

The day we flew out, we had to be at the airport before the sun was even up. We got up at 3:00 a.m. so by the time we got on our connecting flight in Atlanta we were still happy and excited, but VERY tired!

The Punta Cana Airport....this was the group in front of us waiting to get into the airport to go through customs.

Once through customs and retrieving our luggage we made our way out and got on the bus to head to the resort. We took it as a good sign that there was a rainbow.

Finally.......the beach! We just spent the first afternoon and evening exploring. I was so tired I ended up going to bed incredibly early and slept like 11 hours. It was incredible!

After breakfast the first full day there we had to go and sit through an informative session with the tour operator. This is what I heard....Blah blah blah blah blah....pool....blah blah blah blah....beach.....blah blah blah blah blah.....sand...blah blah....water....

Ready to hit the pool....

Our view of the beach from our pool side chairs....aaaahhhhhhhh......

Waiting in the lobby for our dinner reservation.

Tonight for dinner we went to the French Restaurant. I love French food and we had people tell us later that it was excellent, but this night was apparently an off night for their food. Steven enjoyed it, but mine wasn't all that great.

Getting ready to head out to do some shopping. We wanted to get it over with so we could enjoy the rest of the week relaxing.

Coming back to the resort after going across the street to the mall to find some souvenirs.

One of the many beautiful plants growing around the resort. I have mentioned it before, but I LoVe orchids!!

After dinner we spent some time in one of the open areas at the resort talking with the group and enjoying the warm tropical air and live music.

Since we got up so early to get our cabana, Steven was taking a little nap to catch up on his zzzzz's....... we are on vacation ya know :-)

I loved....loved......loved that pool!!

For dinner that night we went to the Dominican Restaurant. It was excellent!!! And if you have never tried goat....you should! I was really happy the next day at lunch to see that they had some of the Dominican stew on the buffet.

They had this little house in the middle of the restaurant, it was pretty neat....


Inside the little house....

We got up really really really early most mornings we were there so we could watch the sunrise and so we could get one of those sweet cabanas each day.

The sunrise was different each morning. God's artwork is truly amazing!

As soon as breakfast was done, they started weaving the palm branches and decorating for a festival that was to begin that night. It was fun to watch the ladies weave the palms to make this arch.....their hands worked so fast you almost could see what they were doing.

Live entertainment at lunch since the Festival was starting that day

Our last evening meal we went to the Thai Fusion restaurant. It was good, but we never figured out what it was "fused" with!

Our last morning we got up and went and watched the sunrise one last time. It was incredible!

After breakfast, I went and sat on the beach for a while longer so I could soak in the view before I had to return to reality...

Bags all packed, dressed in our "winter" clothes and ready to go. We were sad to leave but very ready to get home to our sweet girl. At the airport waiting for our turn to get on the plane. They entertained us while we waited. Can't say I have ever been entertained at an airport in the States before :-)

Good bye Dominican.....we will miss you......
But we certainly look forward to visiting you again!

I could have put another 30 or more pictures on here....I took pictures of everything. But I figured it was long enough and if you made if this far you deserved to be done so you could go enjoy your own life :-)

Thanks for reading!!!