Vacation Update...FINALLY!

Okay so I'm finally getting a chance to update on our vacation. We were very very pleased with our resort, the food, the service and the friendliness from everyone including the other vacationers we met.

Our trek to Punta Cana began on Saturday, April 26th and it was a long one that didn't end until Sunday afternoon. Martin, my brother-in-law, was kind enough to drop us off at SFO on Saturday close to 7pm. Checking in and checking in baggage was a breeze and so was security. Then we had about 2 hours to sit around and wait. We grabbed a bit to eat and then sat and waited for our plane. The flight to Miami was about 5 1/2 hours and once we arrived in Miami we had a 5 hour wait til our next flight :o( of course we ate again :o) and then sat around. Flight from Miami to Punta Cana was about 2 hours. It was all pretty uneventful and all went well. We then had an hour drive to our resort from the airport. We figured out that with sitting in airports, flying, eating, getting luggage, traveling to the resort, it took us about 18 hours from leaving one home to setting foot in our home for the 7 days. That was a bit crazy and by the time we arrived at our resort we were exhausted. Oh but how lovely our resort was and we couldn't wait to get the vacation started.

Yikes I can't remember much of what we did that first afternoon. I think we just ate a late late lunch and then it started raining pretty darn hart. At some point we did leave for dinner but then headed back to the room and pretty much passed out. It was fine though because outside was a major major thunderstorm. It was still pretty warm though so it was no biggie.

Monday we woke up nice and refreshed.

Our routine pretty much every single day was something like this

wake up

take shower

put on bathing suits

put on suncreen

put on clothes

go eat breakfast at the breakfast buffet...yummers!

got back to room and grab our floaties and our books

go look for our lounge chairs under a palapa by the pool

sit by the pool or in the pool until lunch time (or at the beach)

have lunch (lunch was bbq everyday from a grill at the beach where they made hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages everday)

back to our place at the pool til about 3pm or so

either nap by the pool or go up to our room and nap on the lounge chairs on our balcony

get showered and dresssed

dinner

watch the enterainment group do their nightly shows

go to sleep

and repeat :o) for 7 days that's all we did. All Rocky and I wanted to do was relax on this vacation and that is exactly what we did.

For dinner we were able to pick from 7 different restaurants. We tried all of them befor we left except the Japanese one because it was packed each time, no biggie though. All the food was great and on our anniversary we went to the fancy restaurant and I even got to have some lobster, yummers! Happy 1 Year Anniversary to us :o)

We had lots of beer and lots of fruity drinks with fresh fruit to garnish them.

We had lots and lots of fresh fruit especially mangos.

The entertainment group there is amazing. Those guys work 18 hour days for 15 days then go home for 4 days off and then come back and do it all again. They entertain you all day long at the pool or beach with lots of games and activities. In the evening they put on shows in the theatre and then they head to the disco to have some more fun with you. It's crazy but they are so good at what they do and always with a smile on their faces. I was grumpy after 18 hours of traveling. Those guys work 18 hour days for 15 days straight and no one was every grumpy. The smile and say HOLA every single time they see you and they try to get to know you. It made being there fun.

We also met some people at the pool that we ended up chatting with everyday at the pool and of course we'd see them around during breakfast, lunch or dinner. HI MATT & DAYNA! We had fun hanging out with them and they are planning a trip to Napa so maybe we'll see them again.

The service by everyone at the hotel was great. Our travel agent had told them it was our anniversary so the first day we were greeted with a basket of fruit and bottle of champagne, which for some reason we never drank but it was nice that they provided it.

On Wednesday we also had massages at the Spa and we got to use the rest of the spa area for an hour before. We sat in the big hot tub with lots of massage jets massaging our backs. It was really nice and relaxing.

We did though get a sunburn which sucked :o( the sun there is much harsher and somehow we both managed to get a really icky sunburn. For a few days it was uncomfortable to take showers and even sleep. OUCHIE :o( I think the last 2 or 3 days we didn't really come out from under our palapas. We'd go in the water for a little while to cool off and then back under the shade to read. The first 4 days or so we lived in the pool, haa, haa, gee I wonder how we got burnt :o)

Sunday it was time to return home and the trip home pretty much was like the trip there except we had to do the whole going through customs thing in Miami since that was our point of entry. We had to get off the plane, get luggage, go through customs, check in luggage again, go back through security and find our gate. We had a 4 hour layover so it all went pretty well with no glitches and we didn' t have to run to get through our gate like some other people.

Rocky and I had such a great time and can't wait til our next vacation. We are always on the go and have so much going on that it was really nice to just hang out together and do nothing. It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever taken.

Here are a few pictures for you to see, I'd add more but adding pictures to blogger is such a pain.