Post-Trip

We're home. I'm glad to be home. Trips are great but it's always wonderful to get home.

The trip there was full of... disappointments. We missed our first flight so were put on the next one 1/2 hour later, the computers were down so they messed things up and it took awhile to get us on... (we got to the airport AT the cut off time due to many varied reasons... cost us an extra $300... NOT a good way to start). Then the flight had a stop in Toronto, so it was two flights to Montreal, the first of which made me feel not so good. The other one was fine. Got to Montreal and found out that we needed to get a taxi to bring us to the airport the next morning when we were told we had shuttle service... but it only started 1/2 hour later than we needed it to. An extra $15 cost (not much... but by now I was already upset and crying). Got a rash from flying... how, I don't know. The flight to Dominican had me behind some guy who doused himself in cologne... sickening. I held a towel over my face for most of the 4 hour flight. The movies were nice to watch though. Then, we get to our hotel to find out that we have to wait 4 hours before we can check in... and it was 30C with high humidity making it feel like 40-45C. I felt horrible and wanted to turn around and go straight home.

Things got much better when we got our room though. It was beautiful! We were on the third floor (I don't mind stairs) and the high ceiling made it feel amazing. The A/C was nice. The power went out our first night there however at around 2 am... I noticed cause I had to pee, and couldn't turn on any lights so had to feel my way to the toilet. We kept the room reasonably cool till they had the power running again 18 hours later. It was a major cable that fried. They had the generators keeping the water pumps going and the main area too... on lower power of course. There were a number of people really annoyed, but I think most understood the situation just fine.

The resort was beautiful, the staff kept everything so nice and clean... the beach was gorgeous... I don't like the vendors much, but they didn't bug you if you politely said "no". Chuck got heat stroke our second or third day... but he felt better shortly... I forced water into him. The food didn't agree with us... till we realized it was the cooking oil, so we stayed to the raw fruits, yogurts (no eggs for breakfast), and breads and seemed to do ok. It all tasted great though! Too bad they didn't use canola oil, lol. The pizza was excellent (cooked in a stone oven).

We didn't buy any souvenirs except for one petrified wood item (a sea lion) from ocean world (we went and it was a blast). We saw the sea lion show, the bird show, the shark show (that one was hilarious as the trainers were just so funny. They played on the whole killer shark thing like crazy. They all had one shark in the water that they'd lift on the people who wanted to do the shark encounter, and each had a name. The one guy, during the time they flip the sharks so you can see their bellies, decided to blow on the female shark's belly like you would to a baby, then he "danced" with her, it was hilarious), and my fave, the tiger grotto. The tigers were so gorgeous. I got lots of great pics. They have in the grotto a pool people can swim in that has windows right next to the the tiger pool. The orange one came right up to us and there was literally just a pane of glass between me and the tiger. He was SOOOO CUTE! I wanted to hug him. They have gorgeous eyes!

I also really enjoyed the aviary. My fave part there was the lovebirds, as we were given food and then they would flock to your arm and you'd have 15 birds on you. One was on my shoulder and seemed to think my hat looked tasty, lol. Chuck looked so cute with one on his shoulder too. We also did some snorkelling. They have a "coral reef" in glass that you can snorkel in, and so I snorkelled for the first time ever. It was great! Oh, and all the stuff we did was included in admission which was $55/person. Unfortunetly we missed the dolphin show as there was only one, and we were taken on a tour we were promised would take 20 minutes (40 mins before the show would start) and we got back 10 mins into the show so only caught the last 2 minutes. Sigh. I got to see the dolphins otherwise though!

We managed to join in on some of the resort fun too! They had games and water aerobics every day, and in the evenings a show (one for kids first, then for everyone else). We were part of an "ice breaker" for one of the shows. They got 5 couples on stage to play "rum, rice, whiskey" where when he said "rum", you dance with your partner, then on "rice" you switch partners (and he'd say rice so often so quick you'd hardly find a partner before you were rushing to the next), and "whiskey" means run to your original partner as quick as possible. Last couple together would lose, and the rest would continue. We were the third couple, and when the guy saw that we were still there, he was suprised that I was able to do so, lol. When we first got up in the line he patted my belly and said I'd have to "keep it slow" and not jump around, but to the next girl he said "you can jump though", lol. It was fun. Then there was the morning water aerobics, which I joined in on Friday. It was GREAT! Then Chuck actually joined the fun games that day too! It was a water balloon toss to their team member in the pool. Their team won.

There were a few disappointments, as there always are, but overall a great trip. Very relaxing. My belly grew too. Some of the girls noticed as well. I couldn't wear my non-maternity shirts that I brought closer to the end of the week.

I would post pics but somehow the card isn't working. When we went through security at Puerto Plata, we figure something messed up the card's ability to transmit the data currently on it to the camera... doesn't work on the computer either. The pics are still there as the memory card is full, but they aren't accessible. Hopefully we can retrieve them... if not I'll cry. I have the pics from the flight home... there was no problem in the other security checks!

Oh, we did get one real nice free souvenir... found a conch on the beach! Not something that happens often! I cleaned it real good, and we are going to give it an acid wash and laquer so it's good and sealed. It's big... about 7 inches long! I was suprised we could take it home! I'm so thankful I pressured Chuck into going for that walk along the beach on Friday, lol.

Oh, from that tour we went on where we missed the dolphin show, we got a free bottle of... I'm not sure what it is really. It's got wood and other plants in it that you put 1/3 rum, 1/3 honey, and 1/3 red wine into to soak for 3 weeks, then drain and add rum to it, and you sift the rum out to drink. Not gonna happen, but it's supposed to be really healthy or something. So, we brought 3 things back with us from Dominican.

So, that's a brief (ok, so maybe not so brief) account of our trip. We arrived in Winnipeg at 10:45, and were in bed by 12:30 after unpacking everything, getting ready for bed, and an hour drive or so.

The baby didn't move terribly much during the trip until it was cooler (thursday it rained and we were thankful we brought an umbrella, so it was cooler). Mornings and evenings mostly. Baby would wiggle around so we could tell it swiched positions completely from morning to evening, and then during the night again. My belly shape would be completely different morning and evening. Baby is moving a lot now! Guess what? Baby was just kicking really good and I was able to get Chuck to feel it! He's thrilled! Good swift 3 kicks into the front of my lower belly, lol. Awww!