In the last week of December, we left behind the holiday craziness and the dark days of the northeast winter to head to the Dominican Republic for week of sun and sand. We were a bit apprehensiveabout taking Rowe to a country where they've had a a few cases of Malaria. But he did beautifully. Another reminder for us to give him a little more credit, thank you.
We stayed at the all-inclusive Occidental Grand. For a whole week, I didn't have to worry about what to make for dinner - heaven! The only activity was to change positionswhen the sun got too hot on one part of your body. :-) The weather was perfect, Rowan loved playing in the sand and watching beach volley ball, although the Atlantic left him cold (literally). But he LOVED LOVED LOVED the pool. He spent a good 2-3 hours wading around in the pool every single day. ( Thank the good lord for swimmie diapers).
We even took Rowan on a snorkelling boat - a fairly basic thing with a loud motor that had to be manually cranked. The ocean was really choppy that day and I was holding on for dear life quite a few times during the 30-minute ride to the reef. And amidst all that Rowan actually dozed off! Ha ha. ( See above comment about giving him more credit.)
Kedar checked out the tiger sharks while snorkelling while I, having chickened out, spent a bad 20 minutes in the boat with a sleeping Rowan. I mean, we were 10 feet away from those sharks. Granted they were caged, but I was convinced that would be the moment when one would finally break free and make a beeline for us.
That was as adventurous as our holidy got. The rest of it was spent eating amd lazing about. I was particulary thrilled with the fruit that was in season - mangoes, guavas and even chikoo, known as sapote ( sapo-tay).
After soaking up the sun, enjoying the balmy ocean breezes, and watching Rowan have fun for a whole week, NJ was hard! Still, it was nice to be back home in the U S of A.
