Day 3-4

Day 3 was a day without the camera.  I woke up with my throat hurting so badly and swollen so badly that I could hardly swallow.  I couldn't sleep wondering what was happening to my throat and my lips.  My bottom lip was swollen twice it's size it hurt to talk, swallow, be wet, be dry..... it just burned.   I got up before it was light and took some Advil, I had a hard time swallowing them, it felt like they were lodged in my throat because it was too swollen to pass through.  We hung out at the pool and the beach all day, we stopped at the pharmacy for cough drops to see if they would help my throat.  $14 for 4 drops....... they better work.  As I was lying in the sun that day I thought about this being an allergic reaction to something so I stopped eating fruit and all fruity drinks, including Margaritas :(     My new dinner drink.... Amaretto on the Rocks..... YUMMY

Note to remember..... I have Benadryl in every vehicle we own, at home, at the cottage, in the 4 wheeler and I take it everywhere we go..... so why did I not take it with me to Punta Cana??????   My brothers experience with an allergic reaction while visiting my dad and getting to the hospital minutes before it could have been fatal, thankfully he took Benadryl as soon as it happened and that saved his life, makes all of us a little freaked out with allergic reactions.  

 John knows I don't have many pictures of me on the other side of the camera so as we waited for the neighbors we hung out on our balcony and he took pictures of me..... I'll spare you the other 30 that he took.  

On our first night we were getting to bed a bit late and my brain was going 100mph thinking about everything.  ( you'll notice we didn't sleep much on this trip, I'm not sure why but both John and I were awake most of the nights watching the clock tick)  

Me -  "I forgot my shampoo and conditioner in the motel in Minneapolis"

John - "they have shampoo here"

Me - "Noooooo I can't use that shampoo and 7 days without conditioner, you might as well shave my head"

John - "it will be fine Connie, go to sleep"

Me - "Nooooooo I can't, didn't you see those red bottles in the shower, you took a shower after me"

John - "No I didn't see them"

Me - "I got special travel size for the trip but not the small travel size but the smaller bottles, I can't be without my Redken products, I just found it and I love it"

John - "it will be fine"

Me - "I can't do this I must unpack that suitcase and look for it, I think I forgot my pic too"

John - "are you kidding me"

Turning all the lights on, unpacking a gazillion things to get to the bathroom stuff.....crawling back into bed......

Me - "Oh thank God I didn't forget them"

John - shaking his head and thinking I'm ridiculous...... "you happy now"

Me - "this is something you will never understand, you will never have snarled up hair that you can't get a comb through, my shampoo, conditioner and pic are very, very important to a good vacation.  We almost had to go home!"

John - saying nothing........

Me - "Oh I feel so much better, that was scary"

John - "Girls!!"

Even with my shampoo and conditioner my hair would do nothing so stringy hair it is every night.  I'm not liking myself on this side of the camera...... 

Day 4

Throat and Lips are so much better.  Throat is hardly hurting and not swollen at all.  My lip is missing the top layer of skin but back to normal size.  (okay one more thought that might have caused this)  During the 1st and 2nd nights I carried along a lip gloss to keep them moist and reapplied quite often..... well that lip gloss has snake venom in it to plump up your lips.  I think it may have worked very well on lips without the top layer of skin on them.....  (Another sleepless night helped me to think of that)

We had the active pool so there was water aerobics and Zumba everyday.  This is one of our guys that kept us entertained.  

As bikini girls and bouncing boobs would happen he would say "Oh My God, I Luv My Yob"  

Swim up bar everyday at 10:00

Paul doing water aerobics at the bar.

We had moved to a new location at the pool this morning and sitting right next to us was a couple that lives in Green Bay.  How crazy is that to sit right next to them.  They had a Packer mug and a Badger mug..... good tip for those going on vacation.  Take your states logos, the people from your area will find you very easily.  They were on their last full day and we probably didn't make their flight home very enjoyable.  We found out they have been to Beer Can Island where we party on the pontoon during our summer adventures with the neighbors.  

We did a lot of hanging out in the pool this day, it was HOT.  I love HOT and what's even better than HOT is having water to go with it.  

Our little Wisconsin group hanging in the pool drinking a shot of Mamma Wanna just because.....

More drinks needed

More hanging in the water

Then you wonder why your arms hurt the next day......

More hanging with the new friends.  They were great and it's like we've known them for years.  

I break from the pool to take pictures of the Ocean.  It was a bit seaweedy still but getting better.  

See the piles of seaweed lying on the beach.  They would pick it up every night and morning but it just kept coming in.  John and Paul are re-thinking their job of being seaweed pickers.  

A sunken ship just off the shore.  The water was quite high since it's not sticking out much, just can see the splashes from the waves.

yep it's seaweed folks.

More pool time.... and it's time for games.  Paul and Sean were picked today.  

The girls started it out by holding a gallon jug 1/2 full straight out......

Then I filled up a memory card and my others are back in the room so it's walk time for me.   I stopped to take a picture of the window at the end of the hallway.  

And leaned out to get Paul and Sean below.  

When I got back they were all done already.

A tall little palm tree above the swim up bar caught my eye with the sun peeking through the clouds.

Another Wisconsin crew found us.  I have to be honest here...... I didn't remember this happening until I looked at the pictures when we got home.  I remember it now but not much of it.  

It was time for a group shot, and I don't mean a shot with the camera.  They have a shot in the Dominican that is called Mamma Wanna.  It's Dominican Viagra, during our welcome talk in the lobby the first morning they told us that Momma Wanna will do the same thing as Viagra if you have 3...... if you have more than 3 you won't remember if it does anything.  So a fun thing to do was to drink Momma Wanna as a group.  

It's bark, roots, wood, and other weird stuff soaked in red wine, rum and honey.  It's actually not bad tasting, I could taste the wine mostly.

I'm not sure why John is going the wrong way..... he must not want Momma Wanna.....

This guy is bringing Renae and I our shots since we are sitting on the side of the pool.

Oh no worries John is back in the group.

I think she's giving the Wisconsin sign :)

The guy in the yellow hat thought Renae and I didn't get a shot so he's ratting us out.

And ordering 2 more...... yep we drank them.

Another walk to the beach, not sure why I wandered off alone ..... really I'm not sure why John didn't miss me.   He didn't even know I was gone until we got home and looked at these pictures.   See I told you we made Sean and Renae's trip back home a bit miserable.   

My trip down to the water was a wonderful surprise.  The seaweed is gone, I remember that part.  I remember talking to a couple that was walking by as I was letting the waves hit my feet.  We talked about how the seaweed was just magically gone, and just then a naked girl walked by us..... there weren't many naked people but there were some.  You seen everything on the beach......

The last of the seaweed piles that will be picked up during the night.  John and I could do this job since we don't sleep anyway.  :)

Oh My God I Luv My Yob

Our new friends Sean and Renae (see you again on Beer Can Island)

We stayed in the pool until they closed down the bar..... we walked back to the rooms as a group and played the snorting game.  The Luv My Yob guy was hauling his equipment back and we taught him the snorting game too and then more people came up and we had a big ole' group of snorting fools....

Pretty much dark by the time we got back to the room to shower for dinner.  

We were gone so long that day that the flowers the maids had left us were dead already.  

Dinner and many drinks later we call it a day.  No more throat issues and we should be able to sleep tonight.  (no such luck, we seen many hours tick by and got up early for sunrise on the beach)..... more to come.

Day 1 and 2

Day 1 we arrived late afternoon to the Bahia Principe, Ambar 1, in the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana, it was an amazing view from our balcony.  I took a quick shot 

Then a quick shot down the hallway.

And a walk to the beach was necessary for our health.

And this is what we saw

And this......

We spent some time walking and exploring the beach and pool before heading back to the room to dress for dinner.  I only took one picture of the buffet but there could have been lots more with as big as it was.  

After dinner we had a few drinks, and few more and closed down the lobby bar.  

John and I didn't sleep well...... new place, too excited.... my throat started to hurt, it was painful to swallow.  The night was very long but as soon as morning came we rushed out of bed to hit the beach.  

We reserved chairs on the beach and at the pool, best of both worlds.

Our first drink of the day.

And the drinks continue at the pool.   If you're making a list of what to do or what not to do on vacation this is a DO.   Bring along insulated cups for drinks.

More beach and more walks on the beach

Kathy wanted to do this and she had me talked into it.  Maybe later in the week though.

On one of our walks there was a tractor trying to get rid of the seaweed that had washed up on the shore from a storm that had just happened the night before we arrived.   All those piles behind the tractor is seaweed and they lined the beaches.  

Many people were complaining about the seaweed but it certainly wasn't anyones fault, it's nature doing it's thing people.  Yes there was a lot of it, they did what they could to make it easy to around it but there was just so much of it that they couldn't keep up.  John and Paul were planning how they were going to quit their jobs and more there to pick up seaweed.  They thought it was a dream job.....

A little guy hunting for treasures.

I put the camera away for the rest of the day.  I promised myself that my camera wasn't going to lead our vacation, we were going to enjoy the moment and capture a bit of our paradise in small increments.  It worked and we have plenty of memories from what I did take.  

When back in our room before dinner we could sit on the balcony and watch the sunset.  It was always warm.  I am never a warm person I always need a sweater or jacket after the sun goes down..... the times we went to Mexico I always had a sweater with at night...... not once did I need sleeves of any kind.  

After dinner we had more drinks and I think we might have closed the lobby bar again.  Thinking the sun and fun would have caused us to sleep well tonight...... not so lucky.  John and I didn't sleep much at all.  This night my throat was worse and my lips were hurting terrible.  My night tossing and turning with my head thinking about what I was going to do with a sore throat that was getting worse and I was having a hard time swallowing.   A doctor visit in a foreign country didn't sound like fun to me.

More days to follow soon.......

Fun times.....

Tonight the neighbors came over to look at all the photos that we took and they took.  It was so fun to laugh and remember our fun times.  

We couldn't ever walk around the pool to get a drink we had to walk through the pool to the swim up bar.  Best idea ever....... I was bringing back the drinks trying to swim with my arms up.  

We met some people from Wisconsin on our 2 day, their last day.  We had so much fun with them and have plans for meeting up this summer.  I think they might be good for us....... or not :)

We met others from Wisconsin at the pool that day and they were having a group shot of Mamma Wanna (Dominican Viagra) the guy in front is bring Renae and I our shots.

Drink up!!

The guy in the yellow hat thought Renae and I didn't get one so he's ordering us two more....... Sean face on the right is priceless.... t's suppose to be like Viagra after 3 shots.

After my shots I walked down to the beach for a few photos.  This is the path..... in case you didn't notice there are no people..... we were about the only ones left partying.  

I even got creative.... not sure how with having that much to drink but I guess I knew what I was doing.  

Our new friends Sean and Renae, I miss them already

A little dancing on the boat

Neighbors and Friends forever

Met some more people on our island adventure.... more stories about that later.  More drinking

Jenny trying to protect Johns sunburned head..... she's a little late

This one of Kathy just cracks me up.

No one was sitting in the water until we got there.  They all had their chairs on the sand..... we've done this before in the river.... chairs go right in the water..... soon everyone had their chairs in the water.  

Don't ask...... I'm not sure what I'm doing but it makes me giggle.

Okay Connie much better....

Not for long........ I'm not used to being on this side of the camera and I acted a bit stupid in front of it..... or as John tells Lynn....... you mother was drunk.    Lynn...... "really?"

I'm not sure how I'm going to show you all the pictures without you getting sick of them but I promise I will........... and theirs lots more stories.  I might be planning next years trip already.

A few more favorites

The color of the ocean is so unpredictable, it's green, it's blue, it's blue/green, its so many layers of beautiful colors and then the blue skies make you stand and stare for hours.  Add a white sailboat and I burn up lots of memory cards.......

Our resort was huge, it had several buildings that were close to the lobby, or close to the pool or right in the middle.  We were closest to the lobby but could see the ocean looking straight down all 3 buildings.  I ventured up to the building closest to the ocean one afternoon when I filled up a memory card and had to take a walk to the room for another one.  This view is amazing with the dark hallway.  

Then this is the view looking out that opening.  Our two favorite places..... the pool and the ocean.  We would wake up, walk the beach, head to the pool, eat a little breakfast, head to the swim up bar, soak up the sun, head to the swim up bar, soak up the sun, walk the beach, soak up the sun, swim up bar, soak up the sun on the beach, swim up bar, soak up the sun at the pool, swim up bar....... oh yeah we should eat lunch...... more sun, drinks, beach...... repeat, repeat, repeat...... until the sun went down.  It's was tough to do everyday but we managed pretty well.

Ola my friends

We're back from paradise.  

This is my favorite photo from our vacation in Punta Cana with our awesome neighbors.  I cannot tell you how beautiful this place was, it was an all day adventure and we might have had a lot of fun that day....... and the other 6 Saturdays we had that week.

More pictures will be coming and more details about our little get away.