Although you can certainly view all the pictures from the gallery on my blog, in a very small number of cases where the picture caption is particularly long, they may get cut off (due, I believe, to a small technical issue with Shadowbox JS). Also, due to another technical issue (maybe kPicasa Gallery?), videos don’t seem to be working through the gallery (there are only 4 or so, so not a substantial amount). If you want the full, unadulterated viewing experience–i.e., no captions ever clipped, and videos–you can view the album at my Picasa Web Albums page.

The Dominican Republic was both fun and beautiful, all wrapped into one happy holiday tropical package, and punctuated with Cindy’s and Andre’s touching and dazzling wedding ceremony. Although things got off to a wet start, by the time the ceremony started, the clouds had parted, the sun was shining, and they were getting married under the most beautiful and remarkable rainbow I’ve ever seen. It was simply perfect. Congratulations to the both of you!

As for my experience in the Dominican Republic, since I won’t be going into excruciating detail right now (my creative juices have been flowing all night and I’m getting close to empty) I’ll just say that I think I squeezed in a good amount of leisure time and typical tropical resort activities–and yes, I don’t think those categories are necessarily the same thing! I spent lots of time lounging on the beach (with waters bluer than I’ve ever seen in my life), kickin’ it by the pool, getting a massage, lounging in the sauna, and enjoying the bottomless supply of food and alcohol. I also went snorkeling for the first time, hit the tennis courts, ran across the beach a la Baywatch style (for some distance, at least) and partied it up at night, all while coping with a mild case of news withdrawal (I suspect the lack of a meaningful supply of newspapers in the resort was an intentional decision). The resort was just beautiful; picturesque, spacious, loaded to the brim with all sorts of restaurants, activities and clubs; pretty much everything you’d expect from a resort.

All in all, it was a great and much-needed tropical vacation. So, now when I’m looking at those ads for tropical vacations in the back of the airline magazines, I can say, “been there, done that.”