I got up early this morning again. I have to say, i really dont want to miss anything………………..waste any of the glorious sunshine.  Had some coffee and headed down the beach to get some milk before Mary got up. I felt so energized and grateful to be here – smiled at everyone. Patted all the beach dogs! Must have looked a little crazy! LOL

When i got back, Mary was up. I headed up to the roof top with my jump rope and exercise band and did a little workout. Felt great. Ate some great bakery bread and peanut butter and had some more coffee.

We decided to head down to a place we saw last year and hang out on the beach and have lunch. We were advised by a few people not to walk that direction because of safety issues so we called a cab. He told us it was only open for dinner so we decided to go the other way to a place we have been hearing about called Em Bocca. Luckily it was open. We got there about 11:30 and they were just getting set up for lunch. We said we would hang out on the beach for awhile and they came running with this huge lounge mattress that looked more like a king sized bed! Wow! How cool was that!

We hung out on the beach with another banana mama drink. Have decided we are addicted!!!!  We felt quite decadent sitting in the sun on the beach. We were no longer in the sheltered bay of Cabarete and had the full force of the wind upon us. The ocean was extremely rough. We were mesmerized by the waves. What power. There was no question about swimming in that part of the ocean! A big NOT! : )

When we got hungry we ventured into the restaurant for lunch. We were the only customers so service was great!  The restaurant was beautiful, different levels of wooden deck surrounded by a swimming pool. They had mosquito netting flowing in the breeze………….well, actually, almost gale force winds! LOL They had to be tied down!

Lunch had been recommended to us by Lilian, our friend here at Nanny’s – vegetable tempura. Wow! Carrots, eggplant and zuchini in a really light tempura batter with soy sauce and something else (we couldnt tell what it was!) drizzled on top. Delicious. Then back to the beach for awhile. Mary hung out in the gazebo with nice big cushions while i went back to bed! : )

We decided to walk the beach to get back home. Figured it would be at least 4-5 miles. Were looking forward to a good calorie burn. We hadnt gone more than a half a mile and we recognized some of the buildings we had run to, earlier in the week, so knew it was less than three miles. Funny, it seemed like such a long way in the taxi this morning. So much for the calorie burn. Got back to Cabarete and stopped for another fruity drink and a shrimp cocktail to fortify us for the long walk home…………..by then, a half a mile!!!!

So, we did good today, nutritionally…………………fruit, vegetables and protein! LOL

Now it looks like rain is moving in.  So we may not venture out tonight at all. Saw an add that said the pizza place delivers! We might be in trouble!

Hasta manana!

Love this!!

Jorge

Leninson

Maximo

Beautiful Adry

Joseph

Crawling into the bag!

Wearing his bag!

Talk to the hand!

Fabia and Adry

Enjoying chocolate!

Adry’s new dress

New raincoat!

Almost a smile on Juan Carlos!

Chocolate Face!

Goofy David!

Dawn and Delian

Delian & a rocket balloon.

This is Dawn writing. We both got up to an alarm clock this morning to join Linda on a run.  We only ran 4 miles but felt like much more slogging through the sand!! We unanimously decided to ditch the alarm clock for the rest of the vacation……………thank you very much!! : )

Hans stopped by on his pasola……………his truck broke down last night and Mary and i had dinner on our own. Had to cut our visit short because of leaving for Fabia’s. 

Fabia’s son picked us up and we loaded all the gift bags in the back seat with Mary. A typical Dominican ratty car but the speakers sure worked. We vibrated our way over to her house. Apparently the kids had been asking about us since about 6:00 this morning. I am more popular than Santa Claus!! : )

She had a fabulous lunch prepared – rice, beans, mixed vegetables, breaded eggplant, yucca fritters and shrimp in a buttery sauce! Yum. Of course, we topped that off with her famous flan de leche which we all try to steal from each other. The kids absolutely love that! : )

Jorge, the 10 year old cutie was a perfect helper/waiter whisking away plates that were just barely finished. The quicker we eat, the quicker they get their gift bags! So, the fun began – handing out all the bags and then total chaos!!! Mary has some great video and pictures that we will post later. What a riot, watching them all. Especially the little kids. One little guy wore his bag around his neck for awhile and wouldnt let anyone take it from him. Delian, Max’s 4 year old was hysterical – she was flinging stuff out of her bag, yelling, clothes, clothes, clothes! She only wanted the toys and chocolate on the bottom!  Too funny.

Then we hung around for awhile watching the kids play and gettting caught up with Fabia. Such a nice afternoon. A highlight of our visit, for sure.

We arrived back at the condo about 4:00 and headed right for a beach walk. We have covered about 23 miles of running and/or walking so far. Not near enough to burn off all the calories we are eating, but we are still blissfully hopeful. : ) Today is the day when a lot of Dominicans go to the beach with their families and we got a table on the beach and a couple of fruity drinks and people watched.

So, we are pretty tired after all the activity and will probably not venture out for dinner. It is not like we need it. Besides, Fabia gave us some Flan to go! That would make a great dinner as far as i am concerned!

Dawn was up to an absolutely beautiful sunrise and did a 3 mile run on the beach. Mary totally missed out as she slept in….again.  Tomorrow, though, we are planning a run on the beach with Linda (remember her from last year Suanne, the nice runner girl with the totally skanky husband?!?!) for 7:15 am.  After breakfast we did a 4 mile walk, down the beach past Cabarete. We took a lot of pictures. A few posted so check them out. We were so cracking ourselves up taking “Glamour” shots on the beach!!  HA!!  We were falling all over and slip/sliding.  NOTHING glamorous about us…..LOL!!! 

Had lunch in the condo today. Suanne’s famous garlic/tomatoes/basil/mozz on the really good bakery bread….YUM! 

Then back down to town (via the beach, of course) for a quick trip to the bakery. Its pretty hot today so we decided to go in the ocean, which we rarely do. Dawn is much braver than Mary. The waves were really big today so we stayed close to shore. But very refreshing!  Then, back to the pool for a quick showering off, a little time in the sun and back to the condo for reading/blogging. 

Tonight it’s off to the Saturday night buffet at Tropicoco. Hans and Marta are picking us up at 7:30.  Have to nap now so I can stay up that late

Like everything else down here, the DSL service is completely unreliable. Sometimes its there and then its not. So blogging is slow and unreliable. If you see partial stuff that doesn’t make any sense…just wait a few hours   There’ll be more!

Later…

Almost sunrise this morning! Gorgeous!

Mary’s first walk on the beach

Horses!

Just build around the tree!

Lovely flamingo pose! LOL

We could walk for miles here!

Gorgeous beach with anonymous runner dude.

We liked that pool of water!

Until something bit my toe!

Dawn’s GLAM shot…we were totally cracking ourselves up!!

Mary’s GLAMOUR shot….hee hee!!

Lunch ala Suanne

Well, our first full day is passing all too quickly! Yikes!  I want time to slooooow down here. We walked down to town for lunch, since we didnt have much in the way of supplies, here at the condo. That was kind of cool for a change. In the past we always prepared something here so it was a nice change to sit on a terrace in the heat of the day and people watch.

After lunch we did a big grocery shopping and got a taxi to haul it home. Now we have food in our fridge and not just CAKE! : ) Yes, Suanne, i said CAKE. When we arrived yesterday we were unpacking things and opened the fridge and discovered this beautifully decorated cake there. We know that there is a wedding party somewhere here on the resort and thought it was there by accident. But when i looked at it, I said, “Oh it says Happy Birthday on it, so guess it is not for the wedding!!!!! So, we trekked down to the office and said to Maria, “Hey there is a birthday cake in our fridge!” And she looked at me kind of strangely and said, “Yeah, today is your birthday, right?”  DUH!!!!! I couldnt believe how CLUELESS i was! And Mary too. We both just thought it was for someone else! How embarassing. Maria, said, “Maybe you both need some sleep?”  Yeah, how about it. That’s why we went to bed about 7:30 last  night! : ) We went to the office and properly thanked Maria this morning after a good night’s sleep.

Guess what folks! We have a resident cat! OF COURSE! How do they know? We saw this really pretty kitty walking by this morning and the next thing you know, she is walking in and making herself at home…………………………right in the middle of Mary’s bed!!!!!!!!!! LOL  Probably the ONLY person allergic to her on the entire resort!!!! So Mary dislodged her from her bed and she is now in between MY pillows on the bed. Well, as long as she doesnt scream to be let in (or out) in the middle of the night!

That is it for now. Hasta manana!

OK – for all of you that have asked, the picture on this blog is a WordPress theme called “Ocean Breeze”. It is not Cabarete. Looks like a gorgeous place, though, wherever it is. 

It was a picture perfect day today. Had a late lunch on the beach and generally just hung out and walked the beach.  Nice and relaxing.  are some pictures.

Dawn’s birthday cake

Our resident cat, who managed to find the most allergic person in the entire place and decided she’d sleep in my bed!

Our pretty kitty

Dawn sitting on the beach wall

On the beach steps from the condo

First day on the beach!!

Cruise ship

Lunch on the beach

Hola! From Cabarete, Dominican Republic! 

We had an uneventful trip yesterday. Everything went like clock work. We arrived to 80 degree weather and sunshine.  Our faithful cab driver, Eduardo, was waiting for us at the airport and got us quickly to the condo.  After we got settled in, we walked the beach down to town for Dawn’s birthday dinner … our favorite shrimp at Lacosita. Then a quick shopping trip (milk, coffee, fruit…the basics).  Walked the beach back and got to bed early!  We were both tired from a long day traveling.  Dawn will post the funny tired/birthday story….LOL!

Dawn was up early and out to the bakery for morning chocolate croissants and bread. I slept in After breakfast we did a long beach walk. Its beautiful out today!  I guess I slept right through the morning rain..hee hee. Now, nothing but sunshine!!  

Dawn is making all her calls to friends here to announce her arrival then we’re off to lunch in town…to the fabulous pizza place.  We’ll post some pictures soon.