the DR...part 2

Day 3 - Saturday
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I woke up pretty early considering how late we were out and that I hadn't slept a whole lot in 2 days, and went to the fitness center. It was pretty decent, but it felt really hot and humid in there, even though it was air-conditioned, so I didn't have much stamina!

When I got back to the room, I woke Richie up and called Lisa and Tony and we all got ready and went to lunch at the World Cafe. The World Cafe is served buffet-style and they have a bunch of different stations where guys will make you hamburgers and you can make your own panini sandwiches. They had other things like pasta and a salad/fruit bar. The food was o.k., but nothing spectacular. Overall, I always was able to find something I liked, though - the best was that they had a basket of fresh croissants (they bake their pastries on-site)! I love croissants so I would always eat a bunch of them (they weren't huge croissants - just slightly bigger than a crescent roll).



At the resort, most of the staff aren't native English speakers - they all speak Spanish mostly. My high school Spanish and daily conversations with the janitor at my work were coming in handy. Anyway, so we were all getting burgers at the grill and the guy was making Lisa and Tony's burgers then. Tony wanted 2 hamburger patties on his, so he tells the guy, "Dos patties" (and he straight said "patties" with a Spanish accent) and of course the dude had no idea what he was talking about, so he takes the cheese off of Tony's patty and puts it on Lisa's, and gave each of them only 1 patty, LOL. As Tony was walking away, he's all, "Hater." It was the most hilarious thing. Poor Tony, we all got a laugh out of that one for the rest of the trip.

After lunch, we went to the pool again. I managed to grab a mat (this became my mission every time we went to the pool - to find a mat as quickly as possible) pretty quickly, and Tony got a mat when someone else got out of the pool and offered it to him. So we had 2 mats to share amongst the 4 of us. About 20 yards in the distance, I saw an unused mat and told Richie to hang onto the one we had already. I swam/ran in my combination of freestyle/backstroke/doggystyle (as discussed in a previous post) and just as I was about 5 yards away, a little kid looked like he was about to take the mat before I could get there. I was all, "Noooooooooooooooooooo" all in slow motion like in the movies, and the kid looked up. Oops, it was one of those moments where you think you're going to say something in your head and instead it actually comes out of your mouth. Anyway, it ended up working because the kid looked shocked and hesitated, and I swooped in and got the mat. Yup, that's my Chinese side kicking in. I don't claim it often, but in this case, I'm pretty sure that's where it came from.

After we left the pool, we got ready to go to the wedding. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so I don't have any pictures to post, but hopefully I'll get some from Lisa and Tony and I'll post them later. The wedding was on the beach, which was risky considering how much it was raining and storming the evening before. But it ended up being beautiful and a little bit overcast, but never actually raining. And actually, since it was overcast, it wasn't unbearably hot out on the beach, so the conditions were just perfect. The ceremony was really nice and I started crying as soon as the bridal party started walking in. I really started to lose it when Angela came in with her dad, who is just the nicest person.

After the ceremony, we walked back up toward the lobby area and had hors doeuvres and drinks before the reception. At the reception, I had rack of lamb which was probably the best dinner I had at the resort. It still wasn't the best rack of lamb ever, but it was decent! Poor Richie doesn't like lamb or halibut, which was the other option, so he got the vegetarian option. The vegetarian option just meant a heaping portion of the side vegetables that came with the other meals. But it wasn't a huge deal because he wasn't that hungry.



During the reception, Angela changed to a Samoan outfit and did a traditional dance. She was so beautiful! After that, some of her Samoan friends from home did a chant and dance, that was so awesome. Everyone crowded around to watch, so it was really moving. I wish I had video of it to post. Anyway, after that, Angela and Nkem changed into Nigerian outfits and danced together to some Nigerian music. It was really nice, and I don't know Nkem's parents very well, but they both looked so happy!



The rest of the night, they mostly played hip hop and everyone was up and dancing. We moved the reception down to the club, but we only stayed there for a few minutes. Lisa, Tony, Richie, and I went to the casino and played blackjack for a bit. I ended up even and Richie lost a little bit. He's decided he hates blackjack. Tony won a little and Lisa lost a little. After that, we went to bed.





Day 4 - Sunday
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We got up early to go to a brunch for the wedding guests and to see Brenna off. We didn't set our alarm correctly, though, so we only caught Brenna for a couple minutes before she had to leave. The brunch was pretty good, though - they had potatoes that were cooked with onions and bacon (kind of like the potatoes mom makes with eggs, only there weren't any eggs) and chilaquiles, which was pretty good, too!

After brunch, Richie and I went to the beach. There were tons of beach chairs but most of the umbrella-like things were taken up so we were out in the sun for awhile and it was hot to the point of being uncomfortable. Eventually one of the shady things opened up, so we scooted down there and both fell asleep.



The water was really blue and refreshing. It was cool, but not cold - you could walk out into it easily. The water was fairly clear, but it wasn't anywhere close to being as clear as Maui. But we're pretty much used to going to Santa Cruz where it's too scary to even try to get into the water, so it's still better than anything we can get here! The beach wasn't very crowded, and there aren't any other resorts close by, so it felt pretty secluded.

Lisa and Tony eventually came down and joined us and we hung out on the beach for awhile before we ended up going to the pool again. We hung out at the pool with Angela, Nkem, and a bunch of the other wedding guests. We basically staked out the entire swim-up bar area.

After that, Lisa, Tony, Richie, and I went to dinner at the seafood restaurant. I got a shrimp dish and a bowl of soup - they both were pretty good. We all split a lobster quesadilla, but I'm pretty sure it was made with nacho cheese, so I wasn't really feeling that too much.

After dinner, we played in the casino for a bit (I ended up even again) and then met up with the rest of the wedding group at karaoke in the auditorium. Henry, one of Angela's friends from Oxnard tore it up with My Girl. Eventually, Lisa got up and sang Killing Me Softly (a favorite of hers from the PS2 karaoke game) and we were all cheering. They both were awesome. And this wasn't like karaoke in some small restaurant or bar - it's a huge auditorium with a big stage and there were easily a few hundred people there.

After karaoke, a bunch of people went to the club or the casino, but Richie and I were tired and wanted some time just relaxing in the room, so we split off from everyone else and hung out together.

Day 5 - Monday
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Our last real day at the resort... :( We got up around 10 and went to the fitness center. Richie did the elliptical and I ran on the treadmill (oh, I forgot to mention before that it was totally weird because the treadmill was in km, not miles!) and then we lifted weights for a little while.

After that, we met up with Lisa and Tony for lunch. We tried to go somewhere else besides the World Cafe, but we didn't see anywhere else open. Lunch was pretty much the same as before.

Lisa and I decided on a spur of the moment to go to the spa after lunch and we each got massages. They asked if we wanted to get our massages together and I was like, "No" and Lisa was reminded of our wild night together in Eugene, Oregon when we went on a road trip to Seattle with Brenna, LOL. (We stayed in a hotel and since Brenna's parents paid for the hotel, Lisa and I shared the other bed, only I'm so paranoid about feet that I made her sleep under the sheet and I slept on top of the sheet so that our feet wouldn't accidentally touch. I'm so odd, I don't know why.)

The massage rooms were these individual little rooms that looked like huts, and to get to them, you walk on this deck that's built out over a big fish pond. It was unbelievably beautiful, I wish I had pictures. The massage was nice, except for I forgot to tell the lady not to massage my feet (and I don't know how to say that in Spanish really, so I probably just would have confused her anyway). So after massaging my head for a few minutes, she went straight for my feet. I was dying - my feet are so ticklish that I can't even touch them, aside from not liking other people to touch my feet. I was all stressed out because I didn't want to laugh out loud, so I was cracking up with silent laughter. I'm sure she thought I was bizarre. Other than that, the massage was great, and I wish it had lasted longer - 50 minutes is not enough.

After the massage, we got to use the whirlpool area with various steam baths and showers, etc. The area was really nice and stuff, but it didn't compare at all to the Grand Wailea in Maui. Since that's my only other real spa experience, I think I'm spoiled - no other spa will ever live up to that one. If I had seen this one first, I'm sure I would have been in awe, but it was about 1/5th the size of the Grand Wailea spa so it seemed like nothing special.

After the spa, we met up with the boys in the pool. All 4 of us successfully retrieved mats and we just relaxed all afternoon, just floating in the water. Lisa and Tony reenacted the scene in Titanic - "I will never let go...I will never let go."

Before dinner, we met up with Angela and Nkem in their suite and hung out chatting for awhile. There were only about 20 or so of us left from the wedding group and we grabbed dinner at the grill restaurant. It took forever for them to seat us, though, since we had such a large party. We just hung out at the bar, drinking and talking while we waited, though, so it was fun.

For dinner, I got a beef kabob. The beef was cooked just how Kimi likes it...dry and tough like beef jerky. Lisa and some of the others pretty much thought it was inedible, but I didn't think it was so bad. The rice that came with it, and the veggies that were on the kabob were really good, too.

After dinner, everyone was tired of the club, so we went to the casino. I was still even from my previous 2 casino visits, but that time I ended up losing $50. I was going to stand up when I was even, but Richie said I should just keep playing. So I did and boom, boom, boom, I was done in a couple minutes. We think that they stack the deck in the house's favor by removing some of the 10's. It was uncanny how many 5-card 21's the dealers would hit. We all called it an early night since most of us were leaving the next day.

Day 6 - Tuesday
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We got up early to finish packing and get up to have breakfast with the group. This was when we realized that we really missed out on our whole trip. Breakfast was AWESOME! Too bad we only discovered it on our last day there.

They had the potatoes and chilaquiles that they had had at the brunch, but they also had an omelette station, and a section where they had all these homemade pastries. They had the croissants that I had been getting everyday at lunch, but also some other sweet cinnamon-covered bun-like things, and also fresh doughnuts covered in sugar. Oh my god, I was dying. I ate 2 doughnuts, 2 croissants, and the cinnamon thing. I pretty much decided to get my money's worth at this one meal. :)

Oh, and they had an area set up with a bunch of different juices that were fresh squeezed from various fruits - strawberry, watermelon, cantaloupe, guava, mango, etc. The strawberry juice was sooooooooooooo good.

After that, we got on the shuttle with Angela, Nkem, Ijeh (Nkem's brother), and another guy from the wedding group. Angela, Nkem, and Ijeh were all on our flight to Miami, so we hung out at the airport together in Punta Cana and Miami before heading our separate ways. Angela and Nkem were continuing their honeymoon on another Caribbean island, and Ijeh was on our flight home to SFO (he's working in SF for the summer). He didn't have anywhere to stay that night, so we invited him to stay at our apartment. Poor guy had to try to sleep on our couch since we don't have the air mattress anymore. I dropped him off at the BART station a few hours ago.

Other miscellaneous thoughts
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- I was a little bit worried about spending so much money on this trip since we're down to one income right now, but it was so worth it. It's our first *real* vacation since the cruise -- we've done a bunch of long weekends in the last couple years to Vegas, Seattle, Tahoe/Reno, the East Coast, etc., but this was our first time taking several days off and going somewhere new.

- The trip was so much more relaxing than other vacations we've taken, where usually, we like to go exploring the area and doing stuff. When we went to Maui, we did so much sightseeing and various excursions that we didn't really have a whole lot of downtime. But since this resort has everything you could want on-site, we just spent the whole time at the resort, and that made for a very relaxing time. We had so much time to just lay out at the pool and on the beach and we didn't have to worry about driving anywhere. I would definitely do the resort thing again, and the all-inclusive part of it really also made it a lot less stressful since we didn't have to worry about bringing a lot of money for food and drinks.

- The mosquitoes were ridiculous. We bought a small bottle of bug repellent and went through the whole thing in the 5 days we were there, and we still got bitten. I had around 10 mosquito bites by the time we left and I was still finding more on me this morning. I have one on my forehead that looks like a huge zit, and one on my ear that made my ear look like Sloth's in Goonies. Lisa had one right on the front of her neck that looked like an Adam's Apple.








- Ooh, I almost forgot - there was a lot of wildlife on the hotel grounds! We saw turkeys, chickens and roosters with baby chicks, a bunny, and we had a frog outside our patio door on one of the days! At first I thought it was dead because it wasn't moving, but Richie tossed a rock toward it and we saw it blink slightly. It was still there several hours later, so we tried to rehabilitate it by pouring some water on it. Later that night, it was gone, so we think it got better! :)