Souvenir Haul – This is my hobby.

I’m still crashing back to reality after spending the past week in literal paradise.

We immediately started back to work, so my house is a disaster. Bags are unzipped and halfway unpacked, stuff spilling over the sides.

The laundry is a mile high, I have 31 unread text messages and a few voicemails, and I don’t have the courage to peek at my gmail inbox until I’ve cleaned up my work mail.

During weeks like this, I ask myself: how long is too long for a vacation?

I think the sweet spot is 5 nights. We left for 8 (Vince’s preference) and the effort to catch up has brought the tension back to my (now perfectly tanned) previously relaxed shoulders!

I have, however, found pleasure in unpacking our souvenir haul, which I’m happy to share with you now.

I was so tempted by the hand woven baskets for sale throughout the island, but didn’t have much room in my suitcase to bring one back.

Luckily, the resort greeted us with a little welcome basket full of goodies I can add to my basket collection.

My favorite items in the welcome gift where the patchouli oil and soap. I used the entire bottle of oil during our stay — not only does it smell great, it’s also a mosquito repellent!

The resort didn’t have more, but I plan to scour the internet in search of more of this elixir.

Of course, I searched for shells on every beach we visited. I didn’t have much luck, but did find a piece of brain coral and an old conch.

I purchased a necklace from a vendor stand at Champagne Reef during our second day trip.

On our first day trip, we visited a chocolate factory, where we learned about the entire process of chocolate being made, from fruit to bean to tasty, hand-packaged treats!

We bought a bag-full of different flavored chocolates to share with family and a book about the factory owner’s great grandmother who shed her life in London society to live a simpler life on Dominica.

I grabbed a belt with shells on the buckle from the resort gift shop, along with two children’s books for Elaine on island lore.

Naturally, we all got t-shirts and Elaine selected several hand-beaded items from the duty free shop at the airport on our way home. My fave is the parrot she’ll put on her backpack (she already has a little pegasus from last year’s visit).

The guide we hired for our day trips, Dave, was so wonderful. When we met his family, we learned that his brother is a chef and makes amazing cakes but is currently out of work and recuperating from a car accident at home.

When Dave picked us up for our ride to the airport, he brought two cakes his brother made for us, plus some coconut fudge (he heard us gushing over it after we bought some at a stand during one of our day trips).