Welcome!

Welcome and thanks for visiting my blog! I'm assuming you've stopped by either because you're a family member or friend, or found this blog after performing a search on 'Dominica' or some other various key phrase that led you here. No matter how you found my blog, welcome! I'm very interested in your responses to my blog postings. If you have ideas, suggestions, or helpful hints that might help me out, that would be great! If you're correcting any misinformation that I may accidentally include in a post, I welcome that too. Feel free to leave your comments frequently!

Let me give you some background as to why I decided to create this blog in the first place. This past year my mom and I went on a Carnival Cruise that took us to the island of Dominica. Prior to booking the cruise, I had never heard of the island, so was interested in discovering this new tropical paradise. While in port in Roseau, Dominica, my mom and I went on a whale-watching excursion. It was an incredible experience and we're both glad we went! (I tried uploading the video for this post but for some reason it didn't work.)

Unfortunately, having gone on the whale-watching excursion, we were limited on time for exploring the island once we returned back to the mainland. What we were able to see was part of Roseau (the capital), the craft market, and the beautiful mountaineous landscape beyond the city and port. Unlike other islands in the Caribbean, Dominica is much less developed and is not as "touristy" as other tropical destinations. That was probably the main reason both my mom and I decided we would someday return to Dominica on vacation to explore the rest of the island and experience the culture. We're "off the beaten track" kind of girls and love vacations where we can explore, meet the people, really experience the culture, and leave with a greater sense of appreciation for nature, different ways of life, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences that we'll take with us for the rest of our lives.

Well, we're going back!

Next spring my mom and I will be traveling back to Dominica (via Puerto Rico) and will be staying for ten days! I graduate from my master's program the week before we leave for Dominica, so it will be a great way to celebrate my completion of grad school, and a great way to kick-off the beginning of a new chapter of my life. We've already begun planning what we're going to do in Dominica, and have our accommodations reserved. We are planning to rent a car while there. (Any suggestions on that??) Not only will we be exploring the island by car, but also by foot on several hikes around the island, and by water on swimming, tubing, and kayaking trips.