Punta Cana

Recently my grandmother turned 85. To celebrate her birthday, she treated my entire extended family to a trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. There are about twenty of us, so coordinating everyone’s schedules was a bit difficult – but in the end, the miles-long back and forth e-mail chain was worth it. The time we spent together laughing, eating and lounging was extremely special; the perfect way to celebrate the family matriarch, our Nanny.

Right after we took the above picture, the fam loaded onto a local deep sea fishing boat to catch some Mahi. We all had different expectations for the excursion. I was picturing something like Goldie Hawn on Overboard with fishing poles. Instead, it was more like Dominican fisherman ‘Take your NY family to work day.’ There was hardly any seating, let alone a mechanical shoe closet, and maybe one of us threw up over the side of the boat. I did catch a barracuda, which was exciting but then instantly sad after I realized he was never going to return to the ocean. Needless to say, we had them turn around two hours early and will likely never board a fishing boat again.

In order to recover from our tumultuous day at sea, we spent several hours lounging in private beach cabanas. Both J and I fell asleep for hours outside, safely protected from the glaring sun. I would wake up and read a chapter in my book before passing out again. It was basically perfect.

Trying to redeem ourselves from the fishing boat flop, we scheduled another outing to celebrate my younger sister’s birthday which overlapped with the trip. She chose an afternoon of dune buggying with a stop at a local cave.  It was a great excursion that allowed all of us to wear bandanas for function instead of fashion.  The whole fam even decided to jump into the icy cave waters; the scene was unreal and the opportunity could not be passed up.

We all left the vacation feeling tan and well rested.  My Nanny could not have been more happy having all of her children and grandchildren together. We all really enjoy and value each others’ company but also happen to be related. It’s Kardashian-esque minus the private plane and Rob.