Vacation in the Dominican Republic

We came back from the DR a week ago.  We had gone down there for a vacation/friend's wedding.  We had talked with my cousin K, who is 4 months older than me, about he and his wife and A and I going on vacation together sometime this year to celebrate our 50th birthdays.  Then A's friend P & his fiance announced their plans to get married in the DR in September.  Since that fell just days after our anniversary and a month after my birthday, we decided to make that the big trip.  It was so much fun!  The country is beautiful.  It is clearly poor, with some more well to do areas. We stayed at an all inclusive resort, in the adults only section.  There were about 45 people there for the wedding - great turnout.  We were among the earlier arrivals.  That was determined by our using frequent flier miles to get there.  We had a 6:30 am flight out of JFK.  That doesn't sound too bad until you realize that you need to be there 2 hours early for an international flight.  And that means leaving your home about 45 minutes before that, so getting up about 45 minutes before that!!  We got up at 2:30.  The limo was a little early, but we were ready.  When you get to JFK at 4 am, going through security is a BREEZE!  Downside - nothing, but nothing was open.  As we sat in the gate area, there were other people on our flight who were chatting at a volume that was a little louder than necessary - and worse - they were speaking Spanish and too fast for me to understand, so I couldn't even eavesdrop!  ( I do that at airports sometimes.  :D )  So, we get to the DR, get in our shuttle, head off to the resort.  Our shuttle driver likes baseball.  He named all the Dominicans who play in the majors.  First off - Robinson Cano - one of my favorites!  The resort is lovely.  We were shown an upgrade room and then our assigned room.  Aside from the huge patio with bed style lounges and a second jacuzzi, the upgrade room had the distinct advantage of being on the other side of the resort from the three rather overweight men sitting at the pool bar in their speedos, one of them graciously sharing his butt crack with the world.  I said Si! to the upgrade.  There were several pools at the resort, two of them restricted to the adults only guests.  There was also a section of the that was adults only, but topless sunbathing was everywhere.  The worst was leather lady.  She is seriously anorexic.  You could count her ribs.  Her legs were the size of my forearm and she was topless with these little prunes sticking up off her chest.  Ugh.  The ocean water was not as warm as I expected, but definitely better than the Cape.  And it was a lovely blue.  There was lots of wave activity, which was fun.  But we spent more time in the pool.  A decent number of the wedding guests did not do the adults only, so we spent a lot of time at that pool.  Plus it had the swim up bar!  We had so much fun hanging out with everyone.  The wedding was a blast.  It was kind of warm and we were all soaked, sweating from dancing.  We went to karaoke one night, a Michael Jackson show another and to a Circ du Soleil type show another night.  We met some other couples who hung out with us and even crashed the wedding, much to the delight - seriously - of the bride.  We ate Japanese one night, Italian another, barbecue on the beach and the steakhouse 3 nights!  The wedding dinner was surf and turf.  A gave away his lobster tail because of my allergy.  The friend he gave it to was beside himself with joy at a second lobster tail.  There are so many stories - from Grandma, to the gay guy who is the only one who doesn't know he's gay, to the two firemen we swear never slept in their own room, to Applauso!  Applauso!  to the beer barge, the tramp stamp and Johnny Bravo.  So much fun!  It got sadder day by day as people left.  We want to go again.  And now, the newly married couple, the best man & his wife (who officiated at the wedding) and A& I all have anniversaries within a two week period - I see mutual anniversary trips back to the DR in our future!!