Celebrating our First Year

Hubs and I went to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic to celebrate our First Wedding Anniversary. I guess you could say the paper part of the "Paper Anniversary" were the boarding passes for the plane.

We spent most of the first day in transit. The islands are always amazing from the air, especially with the cool clouds on that day.

On the first night there was a fire and water show at our hotel. It was pretty cool.

On the second day, we hung around at the pool and beach and then there was karaoke at night.

The third day was pretty much the same as the second: lots of lying by the pool and then the beach. Then at night there was a bonfire party on the beach.

On the fourth day, Anniversary Day, we went on a catamaran excursion. It included two snorkeling stops, both of which topped the snorkeling on our honeymoon by far.

For our Anniversary Dinner, we went to the "nicer" restaurant at the resort. Basically, "nicer" means it requires a reservation and a collared shirt for men. We'd eaten there the second night, so we knew it'd be good. It was nice to sit down with candlelight and not have to fight crowds at the buffet.

On the fifth day, we were both suffering from a bit of "too much sun the past few days," so we hung around the room in the A/C most of the day. For part of that time we played Monopoly, which was in Spanish. Hubs whupped me, as usual when we play Monopoly. Apparently his strategy has no language barrier.

That night we went to the folklore show, which was a lot of traditional DR dancing.

On the sixth day we went on a city tour. It was really cool and included a trip up a cable car to the top of Mount Isabel de Torres, where the views were breathtaking.

There is also a statue that is pretty much a replica of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which is cool because I doubt I'll ever get to go to Brazil to see the original.

The city tour also included a stop at Puerto Plata's Central Park, their amber museum (which inspired the amber in Jurassic Park), a souvenir shop, cigar shop, an old fort (Fort San Felipe), and the Brugal Rum Factory.

On the seventh and final day, we ended up having to get up really early to go to the airport because of a taxi strike. It was kind of a bummer because we lost half a day by the pool, but the trip was so great that we didn't let it get to us.

It was a really great trip and I'm so thankful we were able to take it. We have been blessed in our marriage already and it's only been a year. I can't wait to see what the rest of our life together has to offer.

Blessings and Happy Tuesday!