The Harrells: The Dominican Republic

Scott and I were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic for Home Instead's Leadership Conference and lucky enough to have grandparents to watch Caden all week! Thanks Grammy and Pops! And for those of you wondering, yes the Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti. We were in Punta Cana, which is the furthest point from Haiti, so we did not feel any effects from the earthquake, but being that close to that tragedy made us feel helpless, sad, and greatful at the same time. We are still praying for the people of Haiti.

First night dinner...

Matt and Ansley Cohn from Louisiana...

Unfortunately, we had bad weather the first three days of our trip and actually didn't see the sun until the day before we had to leave, but we made the best of our trip and ate and drank all we could on the resort. The resort was nice and had some activities for us to do - I enjoyed the spa and Scott enjoyed the casino :). Here are some pictures of the resort...

Flamingos hanging out near the lobby...

We had booked a catamaran trip not knowing that the weather was going to be terrible, so we went ahead and did it anyways...It turned out to be fun (the bar on board might have had a little to do with that :)).

Here's some pics from the catamaran. Scott and the boat captain - he always seems to make friends with the bus driver, the captain, the tour guides...

Bad weather...it kept raining off and on that the crew of the boat put up a sail as a roof over our heads on the boat.

Ruth Maguire and Teresa Banark from Omaha.

Look closely and you'll see the mast of a ship - a ship wrecked into the coral reef...

And the most important person on the boat (well that's how the tour guide introduced him to us)...the bartender. He was actually a deaf mute (not sure if that is the correct pc term or not), so you had to grab his arm sometimes to get his attention then you pointed to the drink you wanted on a sign...It made me happy that the tour company hired him - perfect job where he didn't have to talk!

The last night we were there, the resort kept putting up signs about a Michael Jackson show...we weren't quite sure what it was going to be, but it actually turned out to be very entertaining! They had an impersonator and dancers, they did songs all the way from the Jackson 5 to Thriller to Smooth Criminal to Bad to Black or White...and you get the picture. We were impressed!

Here is Michael himself...