Becoming Amelia's Mom: Back to business blues

Jimmy and I are back from Punta Cana, and boy, have I had the back to business blues today. So I decided to cheer myself up by telling my blogging buddies about my trip. Punta Cana is in the Dominican Republic which occupies about 2/3 of the island of Hispanola. Haiti occupies the other end, but its a several hundred miles (and worlds) away. The Dominican Republic is a Spanish nation full of cowboys, horses, cattle ranches, and sugar cane plantations. It is also laced with some of the most spectacular beaches in the Caribbean. Its kind of like an exotic, tropical Texas!

When we go on vacation, I always make Jimmy take this little quiz: what was your favorite meal? What was your favorite day? What was your favorite moment???? Well, I'll get some eye rolling for this ;) but I think my favorite moment was when we first arrived at the resort and sank into a big chair waiting to check in, fruity drink in hand, and inhaled my first whiff of the ocean. I don't think there's another sensation like that in the world. The first breath of warm, salty ocean air when you've been away from it for a while. As you can see from the pics, this resort (Ocean Bavaro --I'll do a full review on tripadvisor.com) is a lush and beautiful resort.

And guess how we spent most of our time???? That's right! Being completely useless (but completely relaxed) on the beach. I got in a fair amount of reading, and am almost finished with a book titled Taipan which is a fictional novel written in the 60's about the founding of Hong Kong. I'll review it later in another post and tell ya what I think. (its definitely written from the English perspective, though)

On the last day of our trip, we got antsy and went on an excursion to the uninhabited island pictured above. Very beautiful. We took a speed boat over, snorkeled on the way, held some star fish the size of a dinner plate, had a beach BBQ on the island, and then took a catamaran back. Ok. This leads me to my very least favorite moment of the trip!!!!!!!!!!! I occasionally get motion sick. I did fine on the boats with the fresh air and all, but what really got me was the hour plus bus ride across the mountain to the boat! Holy Moly, I threw up out the window of that bus like a 3 year old! So for the worst moment.....hm..........I cant decide.........Was it when I heard a girl behind me hiss "oh my god! That girls throwing up!" or when I finally stumbled off the bus (thanking GOD for stable ground) to have Jimmy whisper "oh honey.....You have dried throw up covering the whole side of your face." that's right folks.......I was so sick, I just threw up and kept hanging my head out that window the rest of the way and had NO CLUE my face was coated with quickly drying breakfast. My humiliation was complete.........But Jimmy got a little guffaw, so I guess it was all worth it right? NOT :))) After that, the day was great.
This is Jimmy drinking the coconut juice from the coconut we bought from some guy selling them out of a wheel barrow. Ever had coconut juice strait from the source? Think I'll stick with Kruger. (not that coconut juice is usually a big item on my shopping list anyway)

Here we are on the catamaran for the ride back home. Me still feeling a little unstable, and praying that I wouldn't have a repeat performance of the bus ride debacle. I did talk the guide into letting me ride up front with the bus driver for the ride home though.......Whipped them into submission with my own brand of torture!
And here we are, heading home. Our flight was delayed, we had horrible turbulence (which produced more motion sickness), we waited an hour for my mom to pick us up from Marta (the train)in the middle of the night, freezing cold in shorts, and then I got a ticket on the drive home. But hey..............I still had the stunning blue of the Caribbean burned into my eyes and the scent of coppertone on my skin. Cant complain.