My husband and I were given an amazing wedding present from our Best Man and a Brides-Matron (they're married).  They bought into a Timeshare Group called RCI and they gave us two weeks at at of their resorts anywhere in the world!  Anywhere!

We decided to go to the Caribbean, one week on one island then hop to another island for the second week.  We selected the Dominican Republic first, because of the unique history and culture, then we decided to head to St. Maarten for the gorgeous beaches.

We flew on American Airlines and they lost our luggage.  My husband and I landed in the Dominican Republic with the clothes on our backs and the latest Harry Potter book (which weighs a ton!) and had to make do for the next two weeks with what we could scrounge up.  What was to be a lovely vacation, turned into something right out of a National Lampoon's movie.

Our honeymoon really didn't start until the third day because American Airlines told us our luggage was "on the next flight" which pretty much left us full of hope (doi!) and sitting in the lobby (in the same clothes!)  for the first three days of our honeymoon because we didn't have ANYTHING.  Believe me, more people have told me that 'you don't need anything on your honeymoon' but ya know...I will verify that you do!

The fun began on that third day, we bought ill-fitted clothing, shoes & swim wear and took some excusions.  We got a chance to see the real Dominican Republic, we took a walk through the jungle...(ok that was crazy!), we swam in the surf (European style!  I'm a fan now!) and traveled through the country. 

The people that live there all have little motoscooters and they will pile 4-6 people on one scooter.  Then when you are driving along in a bus (VW bus), you may have to pass a donkey in the road and other psychotic drivers...yikes.  (I closed my eyes a lot.)  But another interesting fact is that some of the country is very, very poor.  Many homes don't have windows or doors, but the funny fact is that they are baseball FANATICS, so most had satellites for watching the Anaheim Angels.  Talk about priorities!  The buildings are neat colors, and the lifestyles are just very different from the US and my other travels.

We snorkeled on Paradise Island, which was a kick.  We took this little boat out in the ocean to this amazing, little island that had baby-powder-feeling sand and it was tiny!  We snorkeled with a guy I like to pretend was Jacques Cousteau because he was very French and just fun.  The guides would dive down in the water with food, and sift it between their hands as they drew the fish up to us.  That was amazing.  The only scary part of all of this (for me - cuz I am a wussy) was that nomally I have snorkeled like this: 1) land, 2) me, 3) coral reef, 4) Big Open Ocean, 5) Jaws.  But this time around, I was scared by the arrangement of above stated items.  It was 1) land, 2) coral reef, 3) me, 4) Open Ocean and Jaws.  I usually like big things between me and possible Jaws attacks.  But oh well.

To be continued.... (thank you for reading!)