Winter Getaway: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Ok, so I guess I kind of left everyone (and I use that word lightly haha) hanging at the end of my last post, but I finally have a little time to put our vacation in writing...

So on Christmas night we drove to Chicago after stopping to see Chris's 97 year old great-grandmother, who is probably one of the cutest people alive. (She, by the way, has traveled all over, and told us that her top two places were 1. Norway and 2. Australia...both which we now plan to see in our lifetime, God-willing.) Anyways, we got to Chicago at like 10:30 and lo and behold, my bra, the 100 ways bra from Victoria's Secret that was the only real bra I brought on the trip because it goes 100 different ways...broken. Awesome. We are in Chicago on Christmas night getting ready to fly out of the country to a place where they probably don't even have bras, and there is nothing open. I know this because Chris asked the front desk clerk if there was a Wal-Mart or anything around because we had an "accessory mishap", upon which the man asked, "what happened?" and Chris told him that my bra broke...while I'm standing there not wearing a bra...awkward. Anyways, long story short, I did not find a place to buy a new bra, but luckily I somehow only packed dresses that had built-in bras or did not require one, and when I wasn't wearing a dress I was in my bathing suit...turns out I didn't even need one! If you can call that lucky haha...

Once we finally went to bed it was almost midnight and we had to wake up at 3am to catch the shuttle to the airport at 3:30. We got to the airport around 4am, checked in, which took almost no time at all, and then we waited at the gate for an hour and a half until they started boarding. Not many people know this about me, but although I love to fly, I often get what I like to call "eyebrow cramps". Yes, you read that correctly...cramps in my eyebrows. Sounds ridiculous, right?! However, this diagnosis has brought me to tears on more than one flight...in fact, probably more flights than I can count on my fingers...it's that bad. It happens during take-off or landing when the pressure change happens...where most people might have their ears pop a lot at worst, my symptoms include severe ear popping that feels like my ears are bleeding, a massive headache that feels like someone is trying to suction my brain out, and the infamous eyebrow cramps, which make everything else seem 10 times worse. It happened to me on the last 2 descents from our honeymoon (connecting flight and final flight), and Chris had never seen it happen, so I think he was mildly traumatized by it. So I say all this to say that I borrowed something from my mom...her last prescription muscle relaxer from when we were in the car accident. Since it is a direct flight from Chicago to Punta Cana, I cut it in half and took half on the way there and half on the way back. So here I am at the airport at 4am the day after Christmas cutting pills. I had also talked to a pharmacist before leaving and asked what she recommended...she told me that over the counter, the best I could probably get would be extra strength Tylenol and take 2 about a half hour before the flight. (She also told me that this "eyebrow cramping" problem is not that uncommon and it's all just connected to the sinuses, which I already suspected.) So right before we boarded I took 2 extra strength rapid release Tylenols and half a prescription muscle relaxer. My mom told me that one made her sleepy...and I was asleep before take-off. And I also did not wake up until a half hour before we landed. It's a 5 hour flight. Guess that adds up to a full night of sleep! I think it was a good thing I slept the whole time because I had the middle seat and Chris had the window and the guy on my other side (Floyd) was kind of weird. I wouldn't normally say this, and you probably had to be there, but I couldn't figure out if Floyd was actually a bit slow or just weird. I know his name was Floyd because his wife and some other people kept saying things like, "Floyd, I wouldn't do that right now..." and "Floyd, you better buckle your seatbelt while you're sitting down"...these are also reasons why I'm not sure if maybe they felt the need to talk to him like he was an idiot because he was slow or because he was an actual idiot. I never did find out.

Regardless of whether or not Floyd had issues, we landed safely in Punta Cana, only to be greeted by a mariachi band in the open air airport. We made it through customs fairly quickly and found our bus easily. The bus we would proceed to ride on for almost 2.5 hours. Mind you, we landed and were on the bus by 1:00 Dominican time...providing enough time to spend a small part of the day in the sun once we got to our resort. But we had to drop off a few people at a few other resorts...and by a few other resorts I mean approximately a dozen. By the time we got to our resort and got checked in and to our rooms it was almost 4:00. And the beach in Punta Cana is about 94% in the shade by 4:00. Bummer. We ended up just getting a snack, then cleaning up and meeting for dinner at El Pescador (seafood). After dinner we just sort of hung out in the Platinum Club, had a few drinks, and wandered back to our respective suites. The Platinum Club was a special hutted area where the "elite guests" could go ask questions, get premium liquor drinks, get a snack, relax, use internet, etc. We were Platinum Club members, thank you Denny and Cindy. And the first night we met what would be our favorite bartender, Ana. That was Saturday.

On Sunday we got up and went down to the beach...pretty standard practice. There was also a reserved area for Platinum Club members where they had beach beds (single, double, or big square size). That's where we hung out, all 6 of us. Ate lunch at the El Gaucho buffet by the beach, sunbathed some more, Chris and I ran about 2 miles on the beach (as far as we could see to our left), then showered and met at El Gaucho (steak place) for dinner. It was very good and they had this really yummy BBQ sauce that I would love the recipe for :) Sunday night there was a party on the beach. Melinda and Ian went while Chris and I hung out with his mom and dad for awhile. Once they were tired and headed to bed, we went down to the beach party to catch the last 2 songs...one of which they called their "national anthem" and we repeatedly heard it throughout the week, multiple times a day.

On Monday we decided to spend some time by the pool with the swim-up bar...a little something different. Boy were we in for a treat. Every day at like 3:00 they do water aerobics...well this particular day the lady had a few of the kids stand up poolside with her and help her lead...one of the kids being--excuse me for being so blunt--fat and pale. Don't get me wrong, he was adorable...but it was more in a "aww, bless his heart" kind of way. I forgot to mention that his butt crack was hanging out the majority of the time...and we were behind him. In fact, Chris took video of it. For anyone who is interested, we'll be posting that on Facebook, and possibly on here. Also while at the pool, Chris and I decided to test out our new water case for our camera...it allows you to take under water photos without damaging the camera...specifically for our model. And it was pretty fun, although in a pool there wasn't a whole lot to capture haha. Our dinner reservations at Sakura (Chinese restaurant) weren't until 8:00, so we decided to walk across the street from the resort where there were some shops and do some perusing. Chris and I got a photo album, and Denny and Cindy got a picture frame with 3 slots so that we can put a picture of each of us couples from the trip in it :) Dinner was really good, and we even got Cindy to try sushi...she didn't like it.

On Tuesday Chris and I decided to get up for the sunrise. The sun rises at 7:04 there (well, it did while we were there), so we headed out just before 7...me in my robe and glasses (quite a sight), and Chris in his clothes from the night before! Here's the problem with the sunrise in the Dominican though...you can't see the sun rising. The sky is pretty and pastel and a little hazy, but you cannot see the actual sun. Kind of defeated the purpose of "watching the sun rise" for me...but what we discovered was that the temperature was perfect for a run...what we decided though was that we would go back to bed and run another morning haha. Another morning in the sun, then for the afternoon we decided to go to a resort down the beach that we were also VIPs at. All 6 of us were going to go, but Chris and I started walking first...turns out there are 2 more hotels down the beach that we're VIPs at, so Chris and I were at a different one than the other 4 lol...oops! After we got back, it was "date night" and we all split up for the evening to have separate dinners and a little "alone time" with our spouses. Chris and I went to the restaurant Chopin (not french food, just a french name), and the restaurant butted up to water in the back and there was a boat going from side to side with a man playing the piano on it! It was really neat, and a very nice date night :) And it just so happened that the night we decided on for date night was the 29th...our 4 month wedding anniversary :) After dinner Chris and I decided to go to the casino and try our odds. We decided we would put in $40 and see how far we could go on Roulette. It was only a $5 minimum, but every time we put a chip on 29 for our anniversary. (Fact: We never won on 29.) In fact, we didn't win on anything and we got down to our last $10 and decided to each put $5 on. We won on 13 and got $35 back. So we each took $5 again and kept a chip on 29 and 13. 13 won again! Now we were up from where we started with $60. So we pulled our original $40 out and only played with our $20 winnings. We held on with that $20 for awhile, and each time we hit on a number, we would put $20 aside and play with the other $15. At one point we were up $70 from where we started, held $20 back and played our last $15 (leaving us up $55). We lost that $15, but cashed out of the table with $55 EXTRA on top of what we put in. Not bad for beginners...and even though we didn't hit on 29, we still got lucky on our anniversary :)

On Wednesday we headed down to the beach...only to find 2 things: 1. the tide was extremely high...actually it was as high as it was the evening before (at it's highest during the night it was coming almost to the back of the beach), so everyone had their chairs scooted pretty far back, and 2. it was ridiculously windy. However, here's how we found this out: we found 2 chairs close to the ocean, where we liked to lay, and had the darnedest time getting our towels to stay put because of the wind! As we were putting our sunscreen on we discovered that you could not leave your beach bag, shoes, or anything else on the sand because the water kept coming up very close. So we moved back a bit, out of the way of the waves, and layed down in order to hold our towels down. It was 9:15 or so by this point, probably about 85 degrees, but we were both freezing! We decided that it wasn't even relaxing to be in that spot, so we packed up and moved to the back of the beach where we were blocked from the wind a bit, and far enough from the high tide. For lunch we went to our favorite spot with everyone: the lobby buffet. After the lobby buffet, we smuggled some bread and fed the ducks/mallards, herron (he didn't eat the bread, but the bread brought fish to the surface for him to eat), geese/white ducks, peacocks, and even flamingos (who ate right out of our hand!). It was really cool, and I would venture to say that was one of Cindy's favorite parts! The big white ducks, however, not so keen about eating out of your hand...well I guess they would have liked to, but I ended up just throwing my bread down and running because they were getting a big too vicious for my liking! After that, we walked across the Mangrove Bridge where the complex has a wildlife preserve area. There were parrots, macaws, HUGE iguanas, and a lame loon (he literally had a bum foot). I wanted to help him but Chris said no. Before getting ready for dinner, Chris and I went on another run...this time we ran as far as we could see to the right (only about .5 miles round trip), then as far as we could see to the left (same route we ran previously)...so total about 2.5 miles, and it felt so good! It's amazing how running on the beach brings motivation and stamina to running. Wednesday night was our special dinner at the French restaurant Licey's (not li-sees, but lee-says). It was delicious, and we were some of the only patrons in the restaurant! Afterwards we decided to go down to the casino and try our luck again with everyone. We know now that you should not go to the casino with people who are either A. not planning on gambling, or B. don't have any idea what they're doing. Not that we were casino sharks, but we had enough knowledge to get us through without looking like we didn't know what we were doing. We lost $40 of our winnings. Oh well, still came out on top...can't complain!

Thursday...New Years Eve...it was windy again, but not near as windy as Wednesday. They had a special lunch up by the beach because all the restaurants had the same menu for New Years Eve and they were all prepping for the big night. The 3 of us girls had gotten some Christmas flip-flops on the day after Thanksgiving at Old Navy, and I wanted to get some pictures of us with them on, so we did that, which was really the extent of what we did during the day other than drink several Banana Mamas :) It was funny because I had read online before leaving that New Years Eve in the Dominican can get blurry really fast because there are so many time zones represented and everyone wants you to celebrate with them...often with the choice shot of Mamajuana. It was true. Starting at I think 4pm (while still on the beach), people were yelling "Happy New Year" and toasting each other...that was Russia I believe. At 5pm there was more yelling and toasting done by the Italians, which I promptly participated in. At 6pm it was Germany. Then we showered and got ready for dinner. We ate at Bella Pasta (clearly Italian), but like I said, the menu was standard for all the restaurants...but I think that was one of the best meals we had while we were there. After dinner, we headed up to the lobby where there was supposedly a party going on. We got a perfect spot in the corner near the bar at a table with chairs and everything haha, and then a lady named Linda, who we had met at the Platinum Club earlier in the week, and her husband Murray came up and asked if they could join us. So they did...they are from Canada and were both very funny and easy to talk to. There were also these really annoying girls next to us who we had seen on the beach earlier that day wearing, for lack of better term, lingerie. They appeared to be models of some sort and, well, they thought they were awesome. I am not exaggerating about this, EVERY TIME we looked over, they were taking a group picture of some sort. It actually became quite comical when I offered to take one of their many group pictures and one of the girls handed me her camera and said, "You just push this button on the top, sweetie"...really?! HAHA, do I look that incompetent? Or maybe she just learned ealier that night...lol. Oh well. Anyways, the hotel also provided a bag of goodies to celebrate with...hats, noise makers, beads/leis, etc. The Dominican is an hour ahead of Indiana, so we celebrated their midnight, and then stuck around for another hour to celebrate our midnight. I called my mom real quick, then we headed back to our respective rooms and called it a night! What a great way to bring in the New Year!

Friday was our last full day there, so we made the most of it and just layed in the sun ALL DAY. Once the beach started getting pretty shaded, I decided to live out one of my life-long dreams...being buried in the sand. Chris, God love him, said he would join me since he knew I really wanted to do it. So we dug a pit to lay in, and Cindy promptly covered us up. It was surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be...I mean we were obviously covered in sand afterwards, but we just went to the ocean, rinsed off, and played in the waves! Special thanks to Cindy for not only aiding me in accomplishing this, but also for playing photographer the entire time. Chris also built a volcano that he named "Mt. Thompson" :) And then once we got everyone rounded up we took our group and couple pictures by the ocean...perfect. So according to Denny and Cindy, we had saved the best restaurant for last: Tanuki/Teppanyaki (Japanese). You are seated around the grill and the chef makes you everything...first you get sushi as an appetizer (I personally liked the Chinese sushi better), then the chef made veggies, fried rice, beef, chicken, and optional shrimp. It was the latest we ate all week: 9:45pm, but it was so worth the wait! Denny and Cindy were right, that was our favorite meal we ate all week! I wish I could have boxed it up and taken the leftovers...there was so much food! I can honestly say that was the only time the whole week that I ate until I was completely uncomfortable...and it was worth it!

The next morning Chris and I got up for the "sunrise" again, this time with intention of running. My goal before I left was to run a 5K on the beach...and I think we accomplished it. We ran to the right first...but a lot farther than we could see this time. We actually ran until there was practically no more beach and the resorts trickled off...then turned around and ran as far as we could see the other way. I think we figured out we were gone for about 40 minutes (our suite was one of the closest to the beach), so if it wasn't a 5K, it was close! I can say with confidence that I would actually be a "runner" if I lived near a beach that I could run on. (My calves, however, burned for DAYS after we got back!) It was the perfect end to a perfect vacation. We had to catch a bus to the airport at 10:10, so we showered and got our last-minute stuff around (we had packed the night before, before our late dinner), then headed to the Platinum Club to check out and say goodbye to the wonderful staff. There was a carriage for couples who get married that was right across from Denny and Cindy's room, so after we checked out, we went and took pictures on that. Then we hopped on a beloved trolly tram that picked up our luggage at each of our rooms and dropped us off at the lobby. An hour and a half bus ride later, plus an hour-long check-in line, plus a 15 minute customs/security check, plus me needing to find something to eat and drink to take medicine...and we were holding up the flight. Oops...at least they held it for us since it's a chartered flight through Apple. We actually only got on the plane about 5 minutes after it was supposed to take off, and there ended up being a wait for the runway too, so it wasn't a big deal. Chris and I were in the very last row, even though the other 4 of our family got the first row with lots of leg room, but we had an extra seat and were across the aisle from another couple we had met and talked to in the check-in line. They were about our age and had gotten married the day before us (this was their honeymoon), and we joked and laughed with them quite a bit. For instance, the seats in the back of an airplane, as some of you may know, are upright to say the least. They are, in fact, forcing you to bend forward a bit in my opinion. So when the flight attendant told everyone to make sure their seatbacks were in upright position, we all had a good laugh, reminding each other of this rule to abide by. Maybe you had to be there...

We landed at O'Hare around 6pm Chicago time, got our bags, went through customs, and found our shuttle to the hotel where our cars were parked. Once back at the hotel, the girls stayed in the lobby while the guys went to start the cars and pull them around/warm them up. (There was, afterall, a 90 degree temperature drop from the Dominican to Chicago.) We decided to go to Giordano's for some Chicago style pizza (one of my favorite Chicago places anyways!), so we ate and then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. We got back to Fishers around midnight and headed straight for bed, setting an alarm to get up to go get Rudy at 8am. We got there at 8:04 and realized that for some odd reason they are only open from 3-5 on Sundays?! So we got really sad because we missed him so much and were so close but couldn't get him! Chris did some work that he was actually supposed to do on Saturday but couldn't because we were gone, and by the time he was done and I had done a fair amount of our laundry, it was time to get our doggy! He was so excited to see us, but I don't think he was half as excited as we were to see him! It was such a relief to see him and know he was ok! We had been gone for 11 days, which is by far the longest we've ever left him! And you know...as much as I love vacation and being away from the "real world", it's good to come home.