Babymoon

We got back yesterday from our fantastic babymoon. It was so much fun! The weather was gorgeous and the hotel was perfect. We were treated like royalty the entire time. The entire staff was great. Ken even brushed up on his Spanish while we were there.

The first flight to Minneapolis was pretty uneventful. However, the flight from Minneapolis to Punta Cana was tough. There was quite a bit a turbulence the entire time, but it got much worse towards the end. Then, to top it off, we were mere seconds from touching down when the plane was suddenly pulled up and we went back into the sky. The captain told us that apparently, a plane was going the wrong way on the runway. I guess it's better to have a sudden change in plans than to have a crash. We finally went for a second try and landed successfully with no problems. Poor Ken was starting to get a little nauseous and the sudden change didn't help. Luckily, he didn't get sick and was fine once we got on solid ground.

We took a taxi from the airport to the resort. It was mass chaos at the baggage claim area. A nice Dominican grabbed our bags and started leading us towards the taxi area before we knew what was happening. We just went with it and it turned out to work out. When traveling out of the country, it's so easy to get ripped off. We took the... uh... interesting ride to our hotel which was about a 15-20 minute ride... probably would have taken a half hour if an American had been driving. They definitely take more risks than we do.

We were greeted at the door of the resort with cold fruit punch and cool, wet washcloths. It felt nice since I was still wearing a sweater and jeans from Portland. The front desk upgraded our room (we had paid to upgrade once, but they moved us up to the top option) without us hinting or asking. Ken went to grab one of our bags and the bell boy quickly jumped in and took all the bags and led us to our room. In the room we had a mini bar that was refilled daily for free. It had bottled water, sodas, beer and liquor. I guess they saved money on us this week since we only drank the water and sodas.

From then on, we did whatever we wanted. If we were hungry, we ate. There was free 24 hour room service, restaurants, buffets and snack bars. If we were tired, we took a nap. We napped quite a bit by the pool and if we felt like going into the air conditioning, our room was so close that we could just go to our room. It was so nice and relaxing! I really enjoyed the water. It was so cool and refreshing to feel so weightless.

The staff was phenomenal. They were all so friendly and helpful. I don't know how they stayed so cheery ALL THE TIME. They all seemed to really enjoy their jobs. You could hear the waiters singing or humming tunes as they worked and did their best to make everyone happy.

The only stressful time we had was coming back home. The flight from Punta Cana was rerouted due to some storms on the East coast. This added an extra 45 minutes to our flight time. We only had an hour and 40 minute layover to begin with. Then, when we finally landed, we had a 15 minute wait to get to the gate in Atlanta. While we were in flight, they advised us that we would need to go through customs, retrieve our checked luggage, recheck our luggage, go through security again and then we could go to our next flight. By the time we got our luggage and went through customs it was 7:25 and our flight left at 7:35. There was no way we'd make it. We went to the Delta line to see about a different flight and she said that our connecting flight was delayed until 8. We ran, dropped off our luggage and tried to push the security as fast as possible. We ran to our gate (I use the term ran loosely, I'm sure I looked ridiculous with my cankles and waddle trying to hurry) and we the last in line to board the plane. Whew, that was really close.

Other than the near miss of our connecting flight, the vacation was amazing. I would highly recommend the Dominican Republic to anyone. It's beautiful and the people are great. The hotel was a steal for what you get in return. Now, the countdown is on. I'm 29 weeks today. Full term is considered between 38 and 40 weeks. I'll be considered full term in 9 weeks! That's nothing! We can't wait to meet him!!!!