Nate and I had a chance to take our first long vacation without the kids. Daren and Heather came along with us. The only reason we were able to do this is that I have such great family who were willing to help out and watch the kids. My sister Nona stayed with them all week and my sister Cindy came after work to help each evening/night. I think most of my family pitched in time to help care for my kids while I was away. So lucky to have them.
We flew out on a red eye flight to JFK on July 11 and then had like a 5 hour layover before our flight left to the Dominican the next day. We flew in to Santo Domingo, rented a car and then drove about 2.5 hours to Punta Cana which is where our resort was located. We stayed at the Presidential Suites in a 2 Bedroom Condo. It was niche although the kitchen was not stocked with very many dishes and there was no washer and dryer as advertised.
Luckily we had Heather along who could speak a little Spanish or we would have been totally lost. This was the first place Nate and I have traveled where it was hard to find English speakers. Maybe we need to learn a little Spanish.
And this is the view we got to enjoy from the beach everyday. I LOVED the Cabana Beds.
We ended up spending a lot of time on the beach. I loved to go out there and just read a book and relax.
On Monday we decided to venture out and find some local seafood restaurant on the beach. (This is how we celebrated Jace's birthday without him)
This night had the very best sunset. It was beautiful.
.JPG)
Everyone enjoyed their seafood, while I enjoyed eating some chicken.
We walked back to our resort and settled in for a Michael Jackson Tribute concert which was a lot of fun and featured great dancing.
.JPG)
On Tuesday we went on an excursion that took us on a tour of a cigar plant, horseback riding and zip-lining. I had barely reached my 6 week recovery date from my surgery so I was a little nervous about this one. It didn't end up not being too bad, but I was sore afterwards.
We left the touristy zone and traveled through villages. This is what most housing looked like in the Dominican Republic.
Nate got a chance to roll his own cigar.
We went horse back riding to the place where we were going to have lunch and do the zip-lining.
Getting ready to go zip-lining. I only did the course once so as to not put too much pressure on my incision area, but it was fun.
Getting ready for our ride back.
It was a fun tour and I am glad we went on it.
On Wednesday we stayed around our resort. Nate, Heather and I walked up the beach a little ways and found this crab in the water. I was glad that is actually was not alive because I almost stepped on it.
That evening we went out for a stroll hoping to get some good sunset photos, but it was a pretty plain sunset that night.
On Thursday we went in search of other local beaches. We tried visiting Bavaro Beach which was supposed to be one of the nicest, but when we arrived it was just super dirty with a tall line of seaweed everywhere. We ended up leaving and went to Macao beach. It was beautiful. I would have loved to spend some more time there, but this was out last available evening of the trip. We did have fun taking photos though.
We went out to dinner later and were able to Facetime with the kids for the second time of our trip.
On Friday we booked an all-day excursion to Saona Island. We left in the morning and took a 2.5 hour bus trip to the area where we would be taking off by boat. While we were waiting to load on our boat, some local guy came and started placing iguanas on Heather and I and then expected us to tip him for the photo op.
We took a speedboat out to a starfish lagoon where one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was filmed. The water was shallow forever and there were starfish everywhere.
Next, the speedboat took us out to the private Saona Island where we had lunch and spent a couple hours.
This crystal clear blue water is why we love the Caribbean so much.
Saona Island
All of the bees did ruin it a little for me. I just wanted to finish my lunch as quick as possible and then get away from them.
We had a 1.5 hour Catamaran ride back and then our 2 hour bus ride back to the resort. It made for a very long day.
The next morning we had to pack up and we drove to a hotel closer to the Santo Domingo airport. I booked a really nice room, but we ended up with a "bate and switch" type situation which was a disaster. And the room had no A/C even though they assured us that it did. I don't think anyone really got any sleep that night.
At least we were able to find some nice food for the evening.
Sunset from our penthouse (don't let the word fool you) apartment.
There was some sort of weird wall shower in the third bathroom.
The next morning we had a whole mess with our flight which was a huge headache, but we ended up making it home only 1 hour after our original scheduled time. It was a great trip though!
