Tom and I were both looking forward to a beach vacation and were thrilled when his
sister texted us in August and asked if we wanted to join them in Punta Cana in
January. Going to a warm weather beach destination in January is always a good
thing and we haven’t been to Punta Cana since our honeymoon in 2004.
We left yesterday, 21 Jan 17, bright and early from Tom and Linda’s house at
5:30a.m. A limo service picked us up from their house and took us to O’Hare. We had
a direct flight and no travel issues or delays. It sure seemed that there was more
people in the Punta Cana airport then when we were here in 2004, but then again we
came in June when it was offseason.
After getting checked in and surveying our rooms we swapped our room with Aunt
Janet, Heather, Ella, and Mitchell so that they could utilize the extra space that
we probably wouldn’t have touched. We ate in the buffet (which I thought was just
ok), and wondered around to get our bearings. We came upon the Mexican eatery and
pizza place and filled up on nachos. We were all exhausted and turned in for the
night by 10:00.
Tom and I woke up early and were able to make it out the door for the sunrise. The
sunrise actually didn’t come up until 7:09, but it was already getting light when we
left the room at 6:45. Tom was excited to try out some new flashes for his camera,
but realized that he forgot the battery charger for the camera at home. The battery
currently is at 50% so Tom is going to be picky of when he uses the camera. After a
few picutres I was off for a run. The map of the property showed a path that
circled around the property that was designated for running. Perfect! Until I
actually ran it and got stopped by the property security from going around the
corner, so I was unable to make a full loop. I instead turned around and cut
through the lobby and continued on my way. In all I ran about 2.4 miles, but I’m
not really sure since my watch died before I was done.
We were the first ones of our group to make it to the breakfast buffet, which is
totally unusual since we are normally the last ones. After a briefing from the
hotel staff on amenities and excursions, Laurie and I walked along the beach for
about 2 miles and back again. I didn’t remember having resort after resort along
the beach when we were here on our honeymoon. When I got back I Googled the resort
we stayed in last time and found it was actually more than 15 miles away from where
we are now, so it’s no wonder I don’t remember the beach. We weren’t even close!
Much like two years ago when we went to Aruba, we were once again on vacation when
the Packers were in the NFC Championship game. This time we found some areas at the
resort that had the game on. The lobby bar had the game on but without any sound,
and the snack area also had it on, with sound, but in Spanish. After going back and
forth between the two locations we ultimately watched it in the snack area.
Unfortunately the game didn’t go our way and when the snack area closed at 6:30 we
watched the rest of the game in the lobby bar. I had been surprised the Packers had
made it as far as they had in the first place, so I really wasn’t that upset with
their loss.
We wondered up to the pizza place for dinner and after hanging out for a couple more
hours we decided we had enough for the night. At this point, we don’t have a ton
planned for the week other than a catamaran excursion for 4 hours on Thursday. It
may just be a wonderful week of relaxation . . which is exactly what we need!
