Our family has been blessed over recent years in the good fortune to have traveled in North America and abroad. We've mixed up the locations and activities with a wide variety of purpose... sometimes focused on education and culture, others peppered with entertainment. We've planned in workmanlike fashion with tight itineraries, but also for relaxation and respite. In many ways, it has changed the way we look at things. Instead of thinking about how interesting a place might be to visit or how much we'd like to experience an event/location, we now set a goal and save towards making it happen. The world is suddenly much smaller... but our understanding of others much broader.

This year the sting of winter caught up with us... and to be truthful, I really didn't want to plan! Hard to argue with the all-inclusive when the stars lined up. Our first time at a "sun" destination saw us in Varadero, Cuba, and we loved it. Always liking to shake things up, this time we decided the Dominican would be the port of call. We had some folks around our workplaces that had gone before us. They had great input. In the end, however, we spun the roulette wheel of resorts and packages to come up with the Bavaro Princess. With designs on a comfortable room, access to pools/beaches and potential excursions, it more than fit the bill.

So with Peter and Monica leading the charge, and under Eileen's watchful eye, we scratched together the essentials for a choice March Break. My grandfather had a line that went "If you don't have fun it's your own fault"... the saying applies so nicely to this type of vacation. We were going to relax, regardless, and do some things we wouldn't normally do, like visit the city established by Christopher Columbus, sail on a catamaran, swim in the Carribean near a remote island, eat a really fancy meal, drink a tropical cocktail... you get the picture!

I've thrown a few notes together that article some of the time spent. Check out the gallery if you're yearning for some place warm and relaxed. Monica also did up a video on her iPad mini that I'll post on youtube in the left index so you can see the trip from her point of view as well. Next trip I post in the index is #20 over the last seven years. Suffice to say... think we have the bug!!!