vacation – Audrey's 74

Dominican Republic – Samana

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:43:32 +0000

We took a much needed break from the Arctic cold and headed south to Samana in the Dominican Republic. This area is less developed than other areas in the country and only has four hotels. I don’t usually book all inclusive, but this year an easy warm vacation seemed like the right thing to do. We didn’t regret it! The hotel was very nice, the food was quite good, the staff was amazing, the amenities great and we had a wonderful room.We mostly hung out at the beach and pool. The kids enjoyed the water immensely, however, we decided to head out on a whale watching tour, since all the humpback whales were in Samana bay for birthing and mating. Seeing the animals that close was amazing. The Dominican Republic is part of a huge research program related to the humpback whales, with very limited tourist visits and detailed tracking of the whales.Next up a full-day excursion of the peninsula, visiting a school, plantations, marble quarries, small towns, road side restaurants and more beaches of course. It was a wonderful break from the cold. All of us loved it! Enjoy the photo overload!Photos by Giulia Doyle and Bruno Doyle

A Cape Cod Vacation

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 09:36:54 +0000

We loved it so much last year, that we went back to Cape Cod this summer. There’s something about that place – it relaxes you immediately and everyone is content, happy and friendly. We did some of the same things as last year and a couple of new things and it ended up being the perfect vacation – I didn’t want it to end. The weather was great all week, except for one rainy day. We started off with the small beach five minutes from our rental cottage. We brought our bikes this year, so zipping to the beach was a breeze. We enjoyed the sun, the water and had to collect our shells. This was our rental cottage. It was wonderful and perfect size for the 7 people staying there (we went with my mom and my grandparents). The house was completely renovated and the owner appointed it with lovely things – the perfect combination of old charm with modern conveniences. Plus a very large yard at the end of a long driveway, so the kids could play safely. The amazing thing about Cape Cod are the beaches – there are many of them – a lot of small ones, some larger ones – ones on the bay, others on the Atlantic. We made sure to check out a couple of them. Both Maëlle and Desmond enjoyed the water and were not afraid to dive right into the salty waves. One day we spent at Nauset beach, which was on the Atlantic facing part of the cape. While the beach is very popular and very crowded – the water is crystal clear, the waves are much bigger and people are having a ton of fun with their boogie boards. We were told that weekends are crazy and that the parking lot fills up by 9 am! The kids got a Frisbee with their lunch, which made for great entertainment and exercise. Right past main street Chatham, there’s the lighthouse beach. While we didn’t spend the day there, we visited while the sun was setting and caught some of the pink skies. Maëlle’s neon pink dress was glowing in the dark and I had to fiddle with the camera settings quite a while to capture what I was really seeing. I can’t go to the beach without having seafood. We ate our share of fried clams, lobster rolls, halibut, shrimp and one night we steamed a 5.5 pound lobster. It was delicious! We even managed to go out to a restaurant for date night – what a treat. Our last day on the cape we wanted to take a fishing boat out, which we had done last year. But the winds were too strong and they weren’t sending out the boat. So we decided to try the sea kayaks. While I was useless at steering a tandem kayak, it was fun nonetheless. A little exercise, fresh ocean air, paddling on the water…relaxation!

The one rainy day we ventured back to Provincetown. It was crowded, as expected, but we took a trolley tour this year and got to see a bunch of things we didn’t see last year. We did some shopping,sightseeing and ate more seafood.

I know I’ll be back one day, there’s something special about Cape Cod. I could go on and on about the trip, but I think I’ll let all the pictures speak for themselves.

Vacation away from the cold

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:23:53 +0000

We are away this week, enjoying some sun, magic and a dose of pixie dust! While this is not the most exquisite food adventure – there are many things that make up for that. I’ll be back with regular programming next week – just in time for a Valentine treat.