Dominican Republic Part 1: Welcome to Paradise

Saturday, August 10, 2013 TJ & Vanessa 0 Comments

To kick off the month of May, TJ and I hopped in a taxi, boarded a jet plane, and took off for a MUCH needed vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Oh and did I mention, we coordinated with our awesome friends Trevor and Kathryn to meet us there?


Get ready for lots...and lots...and lots of pictures, as I'm going to let them tell the story. A story that is going to take FOUR posts to even partially do our trip justice. It was the perfect paradise and escape from our crazy life. Punta Cana is a lovely place; the beach was beautiful, the resort exceeded our expectations, and I got to eat dinner with my husband eight nights in a row! All luxuries that I definitely haven't gotten to experience in the past year since moving to Manhattan and TJ starting his new job.

Let's get this started with part one - Welcome to Paradise!

The coolness factor automatically goes up 10 points when you get to un-board the plane on the tarmac. Welcome to Paradise!

Our favorite walkway to sit and swing.

Behind TJ is where we ate breakfast overlooking the beach. It was heaven.

The rooms were so NICE! We had a double shower as well, which we couldn't get over all week.

Our own private balcony and cabana. Time for a little romance ;)

This is how everything looked as you walked around the resort to get to various restaurants.

With so many beachside lounging options at the resort it was hard to pick where to start our week-long beach bum careers.

Heading to the beach!

From the outside

Under those straw umbrellas became our "spot"

So unbelievably relaxed.

We LOVED these hammocks. We came by every day to soak in the sun, and every night to look up at the stars.

More hammock time. The camera flash is too bright to keep our eyes open!

These two lovebirds did better with their camera flash.

I miss hammock time.

Jammin' to music on the beach when the sun went down.

Check out those good looking couples!

We ate SO MUCH food. It's kinda what happens at an all-inclusive resort and it was all delicious.

Getting ready for dinner after getting a full day in at the beach.

TJ was one happy guy night after night, with each delicious meal.

Let's not forget the amazing drinks (without alcohol of course!). We probably had at least a dozen per day per person.

Pool time. This was just before we made the boys join us in a water aerobics class where I'm pretty sure the male instructor had a crush on them.

Beautiful pool that wrapped around several islands of trees and a swim-up bar to grab something refreshing.