Livin' Our Dream...: Excellence Punta Cana

May 12-19 was a fabulous week spent in paradise!! Jenny and Mike have been going to this resort for years and I always wondered how they could lay on the beach all day and do nothing. Well, now I know! It's really easy to lay under a palapa, drink in hand listening to the waves all day. The first three days that's all we did and it was wonderful! Kenneth, Mum and I boarded a plane in Shreveport early May 12 (after Daniel dropped us off, raced home to get the suitcase I forgot and got it back in the nick of time!) and ended up in the Dominican Republic around 4:00. I finally got a stamp in my passport! When we went to Canada and Mexico, they just looked at the passport at the border and let us through with no stamp. Excellence Resort is awesome! We got Club level so we had champagne on arrival, private check-in, a private beach, access to all restaurants including Magna which was the best restaurant there, private pools, water spa treatment, petit fours every evening in our room, and every other special treatment you can think of! Every morning on the beach we were greeted by Gabriella (I'm so sorry I didn't get a picture of her) who set us up with chairs and palapas and Hector kept our drinks full all day long. Around lunchtime, someone would come by with a menu and we'd order lunch on the beach. Around 4:00, we'd head to our rooms to shower, relax, fix more drinks, have a snack and then meet for dinner around 6:30. After dinner, we'd set up in the theater for more drinks and the evening show. Then next day, we'd do it all over again! The landscaping, scenery, restaurants, the people - EVERYTHING was so awesome that we can't wait to go back! We did a little more than lay around and drink and eat. Kenneth and Mike went fishing one day, we did a spa day and took an excursion with Punta Cana Mike with Pat as our tour guide. The excursion took us to the REAL Dominican Republic and we visited a school, chocolate factory, tobacco factory and a rum store. We also had the best meal of our whole vacation on a beach cooked in a kitchen with no electricity or running water by Mama who has been there for over 30 years cooking for the locals. We picked our lunch out of ice chests - everything had been caught that morning and by the evening it would be gone. Mama cooked our choices plus fried plantains, rice and beans. What a wonderful way to experience the Dominican! Looking forward to our next visit there.

At the airport in Charlotte waiting for our plane to the Dominican Republic

Champagne on arrival - Mum loved how they spoiled her the entire trip!

On the steps at the entrance of the resort

Kenneth found a great spot to wait for us to take in all the beauty of the place!

View from our balcony!

Pano view from our balcony

First night shots of Mamajuana

Jenny is ready!!

One of the Excellence Club pools

Kenneth has his new hat and he's ready for the beach!

This was our view for six days...ahhhh....:)

Mum with her Coco Loco

Mike and Kenneth smokin' their Cubans after dinner

Hector kept our drinks full ALL WEEK!!!

Pano of our beach set up

Kenneth catching some waves

Happy 60th birthday, Mike!!! Boy, did we ever celebrate - all day long!!

Hector serving Mike champagne on his birthday.

Mum toasting Mike

Getting lunch

It was Tuesday - Kenneth had to have his pizza!

Petit fours delivered to our room every evening

Mike's birthday dinner

Getting some birthday cake

Birthday shots of Mamajuana

Happy 60th, Mike - so glad we got to spend it with you!! I would say you had fun...

Getting ready to go fishing

And look what he caught!

Me and my sister!!

Mum with her sangria

We all had fun with the parrots!

Michael Jackson show. All of the shows were very entertaining!

One of the Haitian kids outside the school. They aren't allowed to go to the Dominican schools.

Fighting over a phone someone gave them to play with while we were waiting to go into the school.

Heading into the Shalom school

Trying on my sunglasses!

Third grade class. So well behaved!

Teaching us a local dance

Pat giving them school supplies and some other things we brought.

All the shampoos, lotions, etc. I brought went to the teachers.

Just a random street scene in the El Hoyo de Friusa neighborhood

Chocolate factory tour

Making boxes for the cigars

Using the 100+ year old printing press to make the cigar box tops

Heading into the rum store

SO many to choose from!! Pat is giving us some help.

Tasting the rums before we choose. I got the 50 year and some creamed rum that kind of like Bailey's.

Tobacco drying room

Inside the humidor - there are between 200,000 and 250,000 cigars in here!!

Rolling the cigars

Mama's kitchen

Mama!!

He was real keen on posing for a pic.

Lunch!!

Isn't this awesome?

Lunch view of the beach.

Pano of the restaurant

Fresh pineapple while we waited for lunch

Mine and Kenneth's lunch-our fresh seafood, fried plantains, rice and beans. SO good!!

Our strolling musicians playing traditional Dominican music and singing for us.

We took Daniel's old baseball equipment to donate. Mama's late husband had started a local team and their son manages it now. They got some gloves, balls and bats. Our driver for the day took the catcher's gear, gloves, bats and balls to a baseball school in his hometown. All of the equipment is older than what they want here in the states but in the Dominican it will be put to good use!