DR TRIP: PART ONE

Last night we rolled in from our trip, and we are in the full throes of re-entry + I am getting ready to go on another trip, so things feel all kinds of topsy turvy.  That said, this trip cannot go undocumented.  It was far too wonderful for that.  We got to enjoy four nights and five days of bliss and views like this. 😎



This trip was hatched last December and booked last March, so to say it had been much anticipated would be an understatement.  We were ready to get out of dodge and spend a little adult time together and with some dear friends.



God was so gracious to us in so many ways, and we experienced extreme traveling mercies - everything went so smoothly.  We landed safely in the Dominican Republic and were able to adventure across the country to our resort without too much difficulty.  The DR is a gorgeous country, and we found ourself at one of the most gorgeous resorts: Sublime Samana, where we were given passion fruits to drink from on arrival and whisked away into our Casita that we would share for the trip.

We stocked our fridge with Bai brought from the States before heading down to the beach to see what it had to offer which turned out to be the most stunning display of sunset and clouds to welcome us.

We ate most meals on property most of the time, because they looked like this -



And after the first night and settling in to our surroundings, we decided to spend our first day chilling.  This meant laying on the beach -



Taking in the wild life -



Getting couples massages at the spa -

and acting out the Matthew McConaughey commercial with a perfect mountain backdrop in palm shadowed waters. 🌴

We ventured into the nearby town of Las Terranas for a tasty Italian dinner that included all of my shrimp looking at me before I pulled their heads off.  I'll spare you the picture of that, but I am thankful that I usually get headless/eyeless shrimp in the US. 🍤🍤🍤

For as absolutely perfect as so many things were, there were tiny disappointments as well.  These little biting flies tried to steal our joy and smooth skin, so we had to rub down with a concoction provided by the resort that Adam dubbed "Vomit Paste" due to the smell.  We also layered that with Deep Woods Off, because Lord knows, none of us wanted Zika.  Our hot tub never got nearly as hot as we would have liked, and the shower pressure was truly terrible.  (I fully understand that these are truly first world problems.)  Plus, we spotted a little black snake from our casita staircase. 🐍ick.  I told John that even though this trip seemed so heavenly, there are also little reminders that even in paradise, this Earth is not our home.  We are not yet in heaven, but I will say that Sublime Samana was pretty darn close.

Time away always feels like a gift, and we commented several times that it felt like our time was multiplied.  Our real life has a fair bit of intensity to it, and we really were able to check out and also have a lot of fun.  Tomorrow I'll write about our trip to the waterfall where everyone insisted we should ride horses, but we decided to walk instead.  😳😜

And - here's Court's take on the first part of our trip!