"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." ~ Dr. Seuss

My sister, Dawn, and my brother-n-law, Richard, left yesterday morning after a very good time was had by all here in the Dominican.  It always flies by so fast when people visit, but I'm clinging to my favorite Dr. Seuss quote that I appropriately made the title for this post.  Dawn and Richard said that they wanted to "roll in the donkey dung of the Dominican Republic," and so we set out to show them as much as we could in a short amount of time.

We took them to the end of the island where the road literally ends at the ocean, drug them to some fabulous beaches: Playa Rincon, Playa Fronton, Playita in Las Galeras.

Playita:  a little patch of paradise!

Playa Fronton:  well worth the terrifying boat road, right?

Dawn and Richard getting their "relax" on at Playa Rincon.

We put Richard on a little fishing boat with a dominican guide that didn't speak any english and with some fierce waves that made even a seasoned captain a little woozy.  This is actually the first boat, which wouldn't start after about 20 minutes of multiple Dominicans attempts, making captain Ricardo a little itchy to get off of the boat, which he eventually did . . . . only to get on a boat significantly smaller than the one pictured, "no bigger than my bath tub" said Richard.  The bathtub boat took Ricardo way off one of the points of the bay, where he got to see the bow of the bathtub boat vertical above his head.  How's that for "donkey dung?"  Good times.

We had dinner at the beautiful El Cabito restaurant, which is situated on the edge of a cliff that drops off about 50 feet to the crashing ocean below.  We enjoyed the sunset, a whale sighting way off in the distance, and some very good food.

It is something like 15 meters to the crashing see below.

I think Jon would have taken the kids to the very edge where people jump if I had not emphatically stopped him.

The beginning of a beautiful sunset.

We drove the highway 5 along the north coast and showed them Laguna Dudu, a beautiful blue lagoon, Playa Grande, Playa Precioso, and managed to squeeze sninner (snack/dinner) in at Cabarete.

Playa Precioso

We took them to lunch at JCS where one of their adoring nieces showed them her classroom, introduced her friends, etc.

And this is  how she looked when I told her it was time for us to leave . . .

But kids are very resilient . . . .

They loved on us and we loved on them.  It was glorious! 

Oh, and there was a fight that Richard picked with a couple of coconuts.  The first coconut won, when opened producing a nasty, sour, coconut jelly, but the second coconut was conquered.

There are many more memories and photos to be shared.  Dawn has many good ones as well so this is not the last of the tales.