Random DR Photos from everyday

One of the best parts of a vacation is the food.  We love trying one different restaurant every evening and eating at the Condo for the other two meals.  This one was the first night and we were starving so we picked the closest one.  It was about a mile walk down a cobblestone walkway to get to the main part of town.  It was very dark and we often chose to walk on the beach instead, but it was beautiful in the daylight.

Another one of my personal favorite things to do on vacation is Yoga on the beach everyday.  Alayna knows quite a bit of yoga moves, so she led and Erin and I followed for a great workout and a relaxing start to the morning.

This is in the wrong place but one bad thing about the trip is I came home COVERED in bites.  There are these tiny bugs every evening, and apparently the last night I stayed out too long and I was covered for an entire week.  I itched sooooo bad.  I took benadryl constantly and put mellaleuca on many times everyday.  It was miserable.

Trying to get the conch out of his shell.  It stunk so bad and I am not sure they even got the entire thing out.  Jake was out spear fishing and caught two crabs and this eel came after him so he took care of it too.

This is called the boardwalk where all the restaurants are.  It is right on the ocean.

The walkway from our hotel to the beach.

Every morning Shane goes out treasure hunting.  He loves doing it but sure missed his best treasure hunting partner, Cody.  He did find quite a few Dominican Pesos, but no diamond ring like he was hoping for. 

These little dudes were everywhere all around the condo.  

On the airplane home.  What a great group of people!!

This is how close to the beach we were.  Jake and Alayna carried their chair from the pool down everyday.

Dominican Republic Day 4-7

We were planning to have a relaxing day at the beach after a long day of zip lining and so we decided to try out a game that the locals play there called peytanque.  It is a bit like bocce ball.  You throw a little ball and then throw bigger balls to be the closest one to earn points.  Local french men gather to play it every evening right there on the beach so we went in the morning to try it for ourselves.  It was a blast, I think we need to invest in a set.  Shane was the champion I believe.

One day Shane and I went for like a 4 to 5 mile walk alone down the beach.  It was such a relaxing fun adventure.  We swam in the ocean when we got to the end and discovered many cool things along the way.  We talked and laughed and took photos and found sea shells and remembered why we fell in love all those years ago.  There is nothing like a week long vacation to help us remember how great we think each others company is.

These are views of the hotel room.  It had three rooms inside and we stayed upstairs by ourselves in a beautiful room with our own balcony.  It also had a private pool that I used quite a few times, but only talked everyone into swimming one time.

On our last full day we decided to rent some kayaks and cruise to some hidden beaches that Shane had seen on Google maps.  I love to kayak but had forgotten how much of a workout it is to go long distances.  Shane and I and Bryce and Erin went to two different very small beaches and Jake and Alayna went further around the point to another bigger beach.  On the one we found there were crabs everywhere.  It was a blast watching them and one time we gathered a whole bunch of them and had a crab race.  While we were distracted with the crabs the ocean swallowed on of Erin's flip flops as it washed away down the rocks.

As we drove out of town to the airport we stopped for a quick snapshot to say goodbye.  Thanks Dominican Republic, you did not disappoint, in fact we will always have a fondness in our hearts for your breathtaking beauty and your kind people.