Day of Travelling

We left for our trip to the Dominican Republic on September 12, 2008. Our flight left at 11:59 pm, so we dropped our kids off at Mike and Ronda's after eating dinner with them on Friday night. Then we were off to the airport! The all-night flying thing is not my cup of tea. I can't really sleep on the airplane, so I played my DS for 3 hours while we flew to Atlanta, GA. When we arrived in Atlanta Jeremy and I were like walking zombies. It was about 3:30am our time, but we were starving so we stopped in the airport at McDonald's and got something to eat. I am actually boycotting McDonald's, but they were the only option, so I had to eat it anyway. It was DISGUSTING!!!! Now I have 2 reasons to boycott them.

After eating a McGriddle and feeling sick from eating it, we decided it might be a good idea to lay down and try to get some sleep. A lot of people from our group were laying down here and there. There was pretty much no one in the airport at that hour and we were in for a 5 hour layover. Jeremy and I laid down across some of the airport chairs. It was SO FREEZING cold in there that even Jeremy was struggling with being cold. It was so cold to me that I didn't get to sleep for more than about 1/2 hour. Then I woke up because I was too cold and my legs were numb. Here is Jeremy still enjoying his slumber. I'm surprised I could take the picture with my shaky freezing cold ice fingers.

We finally boarded the plane after about 4 1/2 hours in the airport and were grateful to receive our "complimentary" airplane blankets. Most everyone just wanted to sleep.

We took off late because the airport was so busy and we had to wait in this huge line before we could take off.

We flew over Florida and then down to Dominican. It was really neat to see all the islands along the way. There are some really pretty places down there!


FINALLY after about 2 1/2 hours in the air we arrived at the airport in Punta Cana. Now this was quite a different experience for us than the usual airport scene. We got to exit the plane on the stairs they push up to the airplane and walk down right onto the tarmac. Cool, I've never done that before. The second we stepped off the plane our flip flops were sticking to our feet because it was really hot and humid.

The airport was quite different too. Here is a picture of the baggage claim. There were a few pieces of luggage inside the locked gates and if one is yours, they unlock it and you go in to look.

Another airport picture. No windows, just open air and very hot.

Here I am trying to fix Jeremy's glasses that got broken in my purse. The screw came out.

So, after the airport, we got on busses that took us to the hotel. It was another 40 minutes on the bus before we arrived. Pshwew! What a day! We were so super grateful to just not be travelling any more. When we got to the hotel the workers in the lobby greeted us with a nice cool, damp towel. Then we checked in and went to our rooms.

I like to include pictures of where we stayed, so here they are!!! :) This first one is of the bathroom area. The toilet room is on the left and the big shower room is on the right. Funny enough, there was a telephone in the toilet room. I'm so glad they thought to include that.


This is the vanity and the big jetted tub.

Our great big bed. The bed was pretty hard and had a hump in the middle. Despite that, we slept really good while we were there.

Our couch.

And our desk.

This is the view we had off our balcony. The surroundings were very pretty and the grounds were maintained well.

The view coming back into our room from the balcony.

The first day there we did a lot of looking around the resort and the beach. We were told it would be better for us if we didn't come right to the hotel and sleep, so we followed that advice. We did end up going to bed early because we were so tired. I fell asleep at 7:30pm (5:30 our time!) and Jeremy fell asleep soon after. I'm glad we slept so long because it did put on schedule for the rest of the trip.