The Honeymoon... Part 2

Wednesday January 23, 2013 we were still in Santo Domingo and spent some time exploring the city.  We headed toward El Conde to eat the most delicious lunch ever, Sancocho, and then go shopping.  The food was so good!
Shopping was an adventure.  I got to watch Travis use his negotiating skills, which totally stresses me out.
I loved the city!  It was crowded and exciting.  The people were so kind and welcoming.

This is an example of what the insane traffic was like.  I was grateful that Travis had experienced it before so he knew how to handle it.  So nuts!

 

 This was the view from our hotel window.  That pool was the pool at our hotel.  Beautiful right?!

 

 

Thursday January 24, 2013 we left our lovely hotel in Santo Domingo and headed east toward Punta Cana.  We had a reservation at a resort there for a few days.

 

When we arrived we were overwhelmed by the beauty of this beach paradise, but a little homesick for the excitement of the city.

 While exploring our new surroundings we discovered this chess board.  Travis was a little disappointed when I told him that I do not know how to play chess, but we made the most of it.

 

 The private beach at the resort.

 Travis out searching for seashells.  We spent a lot of time doing that.  We came home with some fun shells.

 This was the lobby of the hotel.

 Dusk

 Friday we got to explore the resort.  Part of the resort is an ecological park called Indigenous Eyes Ecological Park.  There were several natural springs throughout the park, a few of which we could swim in.  I loved it.  The water was perfectly clear.  If you look closely you can see the fish.

 The husband

 See what I mean by clear water???

 Yes, it really was that color of blue.

 Swimming in one of the natural springs.

After our long walk through the ecological park we played on the beach.  The ocean water was so blue and so warm.  It was amazing!

 I was lucky enough to fall asleep for a little while.  I wish I could nap on a beach every day...

 Friday night we ventured toward the lobby to visit the bar.  It was time for our fancy drinks, a tradition my family introduced Travis to during our trip to Hawaii.  I got some juice that Travis introduced me to in Santo Domingo, Canola, and I just couldn't get enough of it.  Travis had lime juice.  So yummy!!!  We listened to the DJ for a bit and watched the drunken tourists.

 Saturday we headed out to explore the island outside of the resort (much to the dismay of the resort employees).  There are gates everywhere and we had to check in and check out every time we left.  They really wanted us to just stay put.  But, we couldn't resist discovering a new part of the island.  It was so incredibly different than the city, but the people were just as humble and kind.

We got back to the resort and went for our nightly walk on the beach.  It's a hard life...

Sunday came, and sadly it was time to go home.  I couldn't leave without seeing Santo Domingo once more, so we woke early and headed back toward the city.

 Sunrise

 I thought this bridge was super cool.

 Hooray!  Back to the chaos of the city!

 We did some shopping to get last minute souvenirs.  I just loved this city so much!  I can't wait to go back.

 This was the worst part of the entire trip, knowing I was leaving in just a few minutes.  These are my last couple views of the Dominican Republic.  I cried as the plane left the ground in Santo Domingo.  We will go back.

 We had a layover in New York and when we got there we instantly started getting texts from family telling us how crazy bad the weather was in Salt Lake.  We watched our flight information anxiously, but left on time.  The Salt Lake International Airport had been closed down for a portion of the day and we were concerned our flight would be forced to land elsewhere.  Both Travis and I had to be back to work Monday morning, so we were concerned about this unforeseen change of plans.  Our flight left on time, and landed in Salt Lake at the scheduled time.  However, the airport closure had caused many flights to be delayed in landing.  We sat on the runway for an hour before it was our turn to go to a gate.  We then went to baggage claim where we waited another hour for luggage that never came.  Luckily I had kept our claim tickets in my carry-on and we were able to scan them at a kiosk.  We discovered that our bags were still in New York.  Awesome.  By then it was 12:45 a.m. and we were exhausted.  We entered our delivery information and headed to the car.  Our car was buried in at least a foot of snow, and frozen to the ground.  Travis, being the good husband he is, unburied the car.  It took him nearly 45 minutes.  We had been in 85 degree weather all week and it was a major shock to our systems to have to be back in the cold.  Yuck!  We finally got out of the parking lot and on our way home.  We got home about 2:00 a.m. and went straight to bed.  I went to work a couple hours late the next day because I had to go buy necessities to get ready for the day.  It was super hard to be home and back to reality, but it was nice to have a husband at home with me.  Onto learning how to be married!  Wish us luck!