Dominican Republic

It was our first vacation just the two of us since our honeymoon, which was almost 3 years ago. Crazy how fast time flies.

We relaxed. We ate. We drank. We enjoyed the time away, the first time J has ever left the country! Where it didn't matter what day it was, what time it was, just that it was the two of us with no plans. We did however, miss the sun. Apparently, it was opposite day or days rather. Instead of being sunshiney and gorgeous on our tropical island... there was this sitting on us...

What ended up as the first tropical depression of the season... and instead there was a record heat wave in Cleveland... where it was sunny and 95 degrees! What can you do? Believe me if I could control the weather I would. Originally we had wanted to make our trip in March when we had enough of all the snow but we couldn't with our work schedules. Ugh! How annoying!

So we made the best of it. We smiled and had a few of these to ease our disappointment with the weather...

After all, it was an all-inclusive vacation! Bring on the drinks!

We had a few issues (other than the lack of sun) while on our trip, unfortunately. The drive to the resort was... um, interesting to say the least, we will just leave it at that. And we were put in the wrong room to start off with. There was also a lot less English spoken than advertised... luckily some Spanish language remains in my brain and I was able to communicate more than expected! We finally ended up getting in the right room and we enjoyed the huge pools, swim up bars, and good food for our 5 day, 4 night trip...

There were flamingos...

and rain storms to walk in after hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms and fantastic massages...

We had a romantic dinner the first night with musicians playing at our table. The second night was a Brazilian steak house where for some reason the waitress thought we were invisible and would never offer us meat!

And then, on Saturday up in the sky.... there was my favorite star. The Sun. It was unobscured for almost 6 hours. Hours of perfection. Of pina coladas, fresh squeezed orange juice mimosas, lounging on the beach, in the water, and just soaking up our trip. 

 We had delicious lobster lasagna lunch, Internet access! (which Jared loved), and silly swan towels appear in our room after dinner...

Our last night we attended a show at the main building where they performed a Michael Jackson tribute. It was pretty good... especially since they were lip syncing English lyrics!  

On Monday we got a few more hours of sun. We saw pelicans diving in the water for food, some topless ladies walking the beach. Um, no, not me.

and then a rain storm made us run for cover under a little beach hut.

 Before we knew it, it was time to head back. I had been hoping there was a chance Dad would be able to switch flights and fly us home since it is the same plane he flies but no luck.

So we made our way back... back to reality, and to a whole lot of sun in Cleveland!