Our Trip to Paradise

Our trip to Punta Cana was a year in the making -- last summer, we planned to take a trip with our good friends to an all-inclusive resort and, although we love them dearly, leave the kids behind.  We loved our experience with the Excellence Resorts several years ago, so we decided to stay at one of their newer locations.  Around Thanksgiving of 2016, we booked the trip!  I maintained a countdown to vacation and updated everyone in the group throughout the year.  I was so excited!  We had such a good time in Punta Cana in '09, and I couldn't wait to go back.  There's nothing quite like having an endless supply of delicious food and drinks in a tropical setting (and never having to worry about what time it is)!

Danny found a crab in our room -- once we finally caught him, we released him back to the beach.

I tried to take a pic of the mountains in the distance on our way to the resort from the airport -- it reminded me of the movie Moana and Te Fiti.

I think this is the best picture we got while on vacation; it's the view from the patio at our room.  Danny surprised me and upgraded our room so we had access to the pool and a beach view.  I loved it.

I forgot to take pictures of the pretty room before we unpacked -- oh well!  We could see into our room from the bathroom between floating mirrors.

There was a nice rain feature in the shower.

The room also had a big sitting area.

And a hot tub!

Our pool connected to the pools of the 6 other rooms near us.  There was also a large pool nearby with a swim-up bar.  Our friends had a secluded pool that was nice, too!

Here's the area where most of the restaurants were.

We had lunch at Oregano (pizza/pasta) and the Lobster House (duh, seafood).  There was also a lounge at the top of the building with the split restaurant.  The whole thing was surrounded by the shared pool and swim-up bar.

We sat outside at the buffet for breakfast one morning - there are so many beautiful plants everywhere!

View from the top of the lounge at night.

One of the many outdoor bars -- some served alcoholic beverages, others served smoothies.

The buildings were super contemporary.

The beach was meticulously maintained.  They raked the sand every day.  In the Excellence Club, they would even set up your beach area and lay the towels down for you on your chairs!  They really make you feel like royalty.

There was a cafe/dessert spot that was so dangerous.  I think we had gelato every single day we were there.  I had to take a picture of the pretty "cupcakes" they had.  The frosting was delicious -- the cake, not so much.

We tried to hit up a different restaurant each night for dinner.  Luckily, Joe packed 2 pairs of long pants (Danny brought zero. zilch. nada.), so he let Danny borrow a pair.  Most of the restaurants required men to wear long pants and closed toe shoes.  Whoops, missed that on the memo!

Agave - Mexican cuisine; it was probably my least favorite dining experience.  It was good, just not "excelenté".

Basmati - Indian cuisine.  Probably my favorite spot - the food was so good and our waiter kept us entertained!

Ches Isabelle - French cuisine.  There was a lot of wine flowing that night; we had fun at dinner.

Spice - Hibachi.  We had a good time, but nothing extraordinary food-wise.

Sushi was on point, though.

There were some funky chairs in the lobby.

The staff at the resort had a big part in making our stay phenomenal.  They were all super friendly and super helpful.  One guy was a self-proclaimed Bruno Mars.

Our bartender at the sports bar looked just like Wayne Brady.  This isn't a great pic, but you can see the resemblance!

We found some flamingos and a crane on one of our walks around the resort.

Joe imitating a guy we repeatedly saw at the resort that we coined "Anthony Bourdain".

We had too much fun on this trip.

The kids were just fine while we were away (as you can tell).  Mom and Dad took great care of them -- thanks, guys!  The resort had excellent Wi-Fi, so we were able to FaceTime with them each day!