A Whole New World!!

One afternoon Kevin and I decided to take a snorkeling trip. We had done a little snorkeling in the swimming area, but we were ready to see more!! We took a speed boat a few miles out...and in just a few short miles we saw a whole new world!!






Neither Kevin or I had ever snorkeled before, and we were so amazed at what we saw! My sister has some salt water tanks, and I've always enjoyed watching the colorful fish swim around in all the coral. I never thought I would be swimming IN it quite like this! The first thing I said to Kevin was, "I feel like I'm swimming in Jody's fish tank!!" It was amazing all the coral and fish we saw....it truly was a totally different world!

Our Trip to Saona Island!

This picture pretty much summarizes our trip to Saona Island.....PERFECT!!

Our Trip to the island was an all day excursion. We left at about 7:30 in the morning to drive to the other side of the Dominican Republic. (We were staying on the Atlantic Ocean side, and drove to the Caribbean side) Once we reached the ocean again, we took a catamaran to Saona Island. It took 1 hour and 30 minutes or so to sail to the island...it was gorgeous the whole way. We had a good time on the boat mingling and meeting new people.

While we were on the island, they gave us about 3 hours or so to relax, swim, eat lunch, search for shells....whatever we wanted to do! This beach had a lot more coral and shells, so it was fun to walk around searching for cool shells for our collection. We had so much fun on our trip to the island together. I think this was one of our favorite parts of the whole trip!!

Once we left the island we took speedboats back to land...but we had one more stop!

They stopped us in the "Natural Pool". It was part of the ocean that only came up to our chests where we could swim with the starfish. This was SO much fun!! What an amazing experience!! And notice how clear the water was! Again, you could see straight to the bottom!!

This was us in the speedboat on our way back to land. What a perfect day!! I had no complaints, that's for sure! It was a gorgeous day, beautiful scenery, fun people....and my man by my side!!! I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Our Very Unwelcome Visitor!!

One night we were awoken from a peaceful sleep by the crashing of water bottles onto the tile floor in the living room. We sat straight up, both a little startled and trying to get a grasp on what just happened. So I did what any girl would do, and sent Kevin out to the living room to see what happened! Kevin turned on the light and was about to walk into the living room when a little brown mouse scurried into the bathroom and hopped through the vent. We thought that was it for the night when we suddenly woke up again to this horrible gnawing on wood sound. The little guy was apparently very hungry and the wood vent in the bathroom was the best he could find....either that or he really just wanted to torture us! The next night we heard him running around again. Kevin again got up and turned on the light. As he stood near the bathroom to see if the little guy was around; he looked up at the vent above his head and the mouse was sticking his head out of the vent. He ducked back into the vent and we didn't see him again. Kevin gave the vent a good beating to try and scare the mouse away. The next morning Kevin woke up and took a look at his thumb and noticed this little visitor was out for blood! The mouse bit him while he was sleeping!! There were definitely 2 little teeth marks engraved in Kevin's thumb! As we were up and getting ready, I looked at a pair of jeans Kevin had laying on the chair - - MOUSE POOP!! (Keep in mind I didn't get bit or poop on my clothes) That mouse really had it out for Kevin!! That was the last we saw of our very unwelcome visitor!!!

Some Fun Pictures From Dominican

We loved going up to the Premium Lounge. We could hang out, check our emails, eat breakfast, private check out....and so much more! This is where Kevin taught me how to play chess!!

We met great people! This is our friend, Rosa. She always made sure that everything was perfect for us!

Manuel was such a nice guy! He helped us set up our excursions, and always made sure we were having fun!

You know what I really liked about Manuel??? He made Kevin smile for this picture! I love his smile!!!

We ate REALLY good food!!!

We had SO much fun just hanging out together!

Dune Buggies!!!!

The Dune Buggies were a blast!!! We took a bus to a ranch, where they had dune buggies and horseback riding. We were with a group of people from other resorts, and we drove our buggies through the little towns and countryside. We got to see up close what life was like there in the Dominican for the natives outside of the resort areas. It was quite an eye opener!

Our first stop on the dune buggy trip was a beach on a different part of the the island. We hung out there for awhile, waded in the water and "shopped". The vendors would always say "it's free to look"...but you knew once you went to look they wouldn't let you go until you bought something! We met another couple, Sarah and Justin, on this trip. They were from a different resort a little ways down the beach from us. We had a good time hanging out with them on the trip.

These pictures were actually taken by the tour photographer. He road along with us and took pictures along the way. I had my water camera with me, but don''t have those back yet to post those pictures. After we left this beach area, we went to a cave that had a natural pool in it. That was a lot of fun! They said we could swim in it if we wanted to....so guess who the first person to jump in was??? KEVIN!! I was a little apprehensive at first. The water was kind of cold, and you couldn't tell how deep it was. They told us that the water was about 20+ feet deep, so I thought it would probably be safe to jump in. I finally decided that this was a once in a lifetime experience and I just needed to do it. So I jumped!! It was great - the water was SO fresh and clean. It was perfect!! After that, we got back in our buggies and headed back to the ranch where they took us on a little horseback ride around the grounds. It was a really good time!

Beach & Pool Fun!!!!

The first few days of our trip, our primary goal was to get fully relaxed! We didn't plan a thing and just went at our own pace. The resort was beautiful! The beach and pools were amazing! I have never seen the ocean as clear as I did there. We could stand in the ocean and see straight down to the floor. It was gorgeous!!

Our days usually consisted of getting up and going for breakfast. Then it was to the beach we went! We spent about half of the time in the ocean then the last part of the day in the pools. For lunch we usually hit the grill. They had burgers, pork chops or fish to chose from. Then inside you could get all of your sides; like vegetables, fruits, fries, rice, bread, etc....

The beach at our resort was awesome! We had fun playing in the ocean and ridin' the waves. We both had a great time body surfing, swimming, and snorkeling. Kevin also did some kayaking one morning. The snorkeling was fun. I was a little nervous, about getting water down my tube, but did pretty good once I got use to it. Kevin was a natural! I think he's part fish - he was diving down and finding all sorts of cools shells and coral for me!

In the evenings, we usually had a reservation at one of the 7 or so restaurants there. They had everything from Italian, Japanese Steakhouse, Tex Mex, and French. It was all really good, and we both got brave and tried new things. Each of these restaurants had a delicious 4 course meal for us. Tokio, the Japanese Steakhouse, was definitely our favorite!!

OK - - - that we're relaxed.....it's time for our excursions!!!

Our Own Little Movie Scene

As most of you know, when I left for my flight I didn't know at what point I would see Kevin. Would I see him in Atlanta? Would I get to the Dominican first? Or would he get there first? I got to Atlanta and made it to my gate. As I sat there waiting to board the plane, I was talking to my mom a little bummed out because I didn't see Kevin anywhere. As I talked to her I found myself continuously scanning the crowd. Suddenly I saw a soldier that caught my eye walking in my direction. I was so excited, I hung up on my mom (oops!), ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him. It was so hard for me to let go of him. I felt like it was a scene in our own little movie! Handsome soldier in his uniform walking down the terminal, when his girl spots him in the distance. She runs to him, not noticing anyone else around her. All she sees is him...

After Kevin peeled me off of him, he went on to explain that he was originally suppose to fly out the next day, but he had already talked to the pilot and got a spot on the plane and a seat by me! It was the most wonderful moment ever! Shortly after that, we boarded the plane together! I couldn't have been happier or prouder to be with him right then; as we got onto the plane full of beach bound travelers, I walked on holding on to his arm. ....Let the R&R begin!!