Honeymooners

A honeymoon is a nice thing, even if you've been a couple for 13 years by the time you go.

Actually, this was our first real vacation together, can you believe it??? We go back and forth to Chicago a lot, and we had gone to Philly and L.A. for weddings, but other than that, nada. Also, while Jason has gone on vacation with friends over the years, this was my first real vacation since we met.

We went to the Dominican Republic for 8 days and stayed at a resort called Royal Catalonia Bavaro. Neither Jason nor myself had ever been to the Dominican Republic, and this was also our first stay at an all-inclusive resort.

The resort was nice and right on the beach. The food was not great and gave my stomach quite a challenge. It was interesting to mingle with people from all over the world and I appreciated not being with a bunch of Americans.

The key to our honeymoon was the room, which was great because of our deck. The room itself was a 2-level suite with a loft-style bedroom area and it was nice to have the space. Our deck was great!!!!! It was fairly private and we had such a large plunge pool that we didn't have to go to the resort's pool at all. That had been the thing that we wanted most for our honeymoon and this room totally delivered. Plus we could see the beach from our pool, and it was amazing to sit out and read in the evening with the sounds of the ocean.

We loved spending every day, all day laying by the pool and then at night we watched DVD's that we had brought with. I really loved spending a week doing something that I can't do at home.

We are back in the U.S. now. By the end of the vacation, I was definitely ready to come home and sleep in my own bed, eat my own food and snuggle my cats.

All in all, I would not return to the DR (although I'm glad to say that I've been) and probably would not do another all-inclusive. As a choice for our honeymoon, this was a great choice and I'm so glad we were able to go.

The question is...where do we go next??