Mike and Elizabeth of the Caribbean: Part 3

Last little bit of our fabulous vacation...In our driving we passed a rest stop that had this amazing creature! The great Log Lizard. He was very tame and even let me touch him!

One of the most beautiful trees in the D.R. is the flomboyan tree. They were in flower while we were there and are just breathtaking! The picture hardly does it justice, but they are wide spanning trees with bright red flowers. Gorgeous!This is another neat plant picture. These enormous vines overtook the trunk of a thick tree and it looked like a Jack and the Beanstalk vine. The whole thing had to be 5 feet across. It was pretty cool.

When we got back to Santo Domingo there was scaffolding all up the spire of the temple. They were resurfacing Moroni, but his trumpet was gone. Pop made some phone calls and we got to go see Moroni's trumpet in the basement of the temple! We were thrilled! How many people get to hold Moroni's trumpet?

The temple is so beautiful inside and out. I had my first experience of wearing a translating headset in a session. Let's just say I have a new appreciation for those who have to wear them.

The grounds of the temple are just gorgeous. I mean gorgeous! I should have gotten more pictures. And just next door to the temple is a church owned building that houses people who travel long distances to get to the temple. They have bunkbeds and little kitchens. What a neat set up!

Here are a couple of fun pictures of Lydia's own vacation courtesy Oma and Opa. Lydia had her own fun in the sun with her own personal pool and lifeguard!

And here is Lydia's first fishing trip, of which she wasn't a huge fan. Opa says she wanted to put the fish back in the water.

We are so grateful to both sets of parents for making this great vacation possible, but we're happy to be home and back together!

Mike and Elizabeth of the Caribbean: Part 2

We took a break from the beach and spent a day in the city Puerta Plata just outside of Cabarete. We rode the gondola/cable car thing up Mount Isabela. It was cool! I didn't get a good picture of the mountain, but here's us in front of the giant phone booth looking thing that actually tansported us up and down the mountain. On the mountain is a giant Christ statue, similar to the one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but not as big.

There was also a beautiful garden up on the mountain and we found this giant millipede! While we were there Mike found a new hobby of taking pictures of flowers. They had some beautiful ones there:

Our next stop was the Amber Museum! It was so cool! In fact, they had the piece of amber that was used in the movie Jurassic Parkwith the mosquito inside. Very cool! They also had gorgeous amber jewelry for sale, but as I wasn't feeling like spending $500 or more I passed. But it was neat to see!

We also went to Fort San Felipe that was built in 1540.

It was also used as a prison at one point. Here is Mike trying to escape.

And here's me by a little door. The people must have been much shorter in those days.

We ended our day in Puerta Plata with some shopping. I found a nice necklace and earrings that are reversible green amber and the light blue stone called larimar. The jewelry that is reversible between the two native stones is refered to as "happy hour." Kinda cute. :)

Mike and Elizabeth of the Caribbean: Part 1

We just got back from a glorious trip with Mike's parents to the Dominican Republic! It was wonderful! Lydia got to play with Oma and Opa in Ohio while we were gone. But here's a review of our big vacation!We arrived in Santo Domingo on the first day and this is the view from Mom and Pop's balcony! They're on assignment there in the D.R. for the Church. Rough huh? They're right next door to the temple. Look at the gorgeous palm trees and the ocean too! Wow!

Next day we traveled up to Cabarete, a resort town on the north coast, where we stayed about a week and enjoyed the beach. Cabarete is big into windsurfing. Mike and Pop tried their hand at it. Mom and I stayed on the beach and applauded them when they could stay upright for more than 2 minutes. Here's a picture of Mike trying to wrassle the thing.

Yay, Mike and Pop upright at the same time! Amazing! They had fun though.
We also went snorkeling out on this tiny sand island that we had to take a boat to. It was gorgeous! White sand and crystal clear water! It was my first time snorkeling and I was convinced I was going to drown or get lost or eaten by a shark. But Mike held my hand and I was okay. Don't we look fetching? The t-shirts are so we didn't sunburn our backs.

And when we in Cabarete if we weren't in the water we were either enjoying the view in our "apartment" (look at those plants!)... or we were eating at a restaurant right on the beach! The food was decent, but my favorite were the pina coladas!