Rested and renewed!

A week in the Dominican Republic with family and friends is exactly what the doctor ordered. Plenty of sunshine, good times and great food, has renewed my spirit. I will post photos when I get back to Miami. We had a wonderful week of catching up, celebrating birthdays and enjoying the surf and sun. Villa Lazy Heart was spectacular and the service was amazing! Even the two dogs Paula and Paulo were great. On many days it was just watching the sunrise, walking the beach with the dogs and listening to the thunder of the waves. On Thursday, we experienced something very tragic, a man drowned and was pulled on to shore in front of our home and carried up the stairs to the house two villa's down. The man was from New York preparing for his son's wedding today, Saturday. Even though he and his other son were advised not to swim, because of the bad currents and waves, they decided to take on the waters. The  son was getting tired and decided to swim back in, when he looked back for his dad, he was not there.
The son searched for a half hour before calling for help. We saw dozens of people looking out to the sea from the bluff, I thought they were looking for whales. Shortly thereafter, I saw a small boat and then some swimmers brought the body to shore. The man still had his fins on and was foaming at the mouth and purple. Lauren (my daughter) had never seen a dead person and was very upset and in shock. Even the most experienced of swimmers should not have been in the water that day. This sent all of us in to a quick reality check, it is times like this that you truly realize that life is short, that one should not take things so seriously and that one must live life a little lighter and love a lot more, the material things are just that and at the end of the day it is in God's hands. Sadly we came to find out that the couple has delayed the wedding. They will not get married today, they took the mans body to Santo Domingo for cremation and will take him home to New York.
Enjoy the time with family and friends and let go of all the small stuff, and to tell you the truth, it is all "small stuff". Enjoy life and live, you never know what tomorrow will bring. May he rest in peace and may his son find peace.
Thank you D.R. and my friends for a beautiful time!