Vacationing in the Dominican Republic

John, the kids and I went on a great vacation this past week. Five nights in a beach resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. All-included resort. We got the deluxe suite with a jacuzzi bath tub and shower, patio, drinks stocked daily in the mini fridge, fresh fruit plate each day. Pool in the front of our villa, beach right at the side, and right next to the kid's club. Here's a view of the villa we stayed in.

The room was pretty nice. We couldn't control the A/C though and it was always set at 21 degrees Celcius which was just too cold. Especially when you're running into your room from outside in the evening and you're wet from the pool. We almost always had the A/C off and just the patio doors open for a nice breeze.

The first night we were there, Asia got sick. I think it was from the milk I gave her to drink in the lobby. They had snacks and she wanted some milk. There was a carafe of milk next to the coffee, so I gave her some of that. I gave some to Zach too but he didn't drink much because he said it was warm. He doesn't like warm milk. It dawned on me later that this milk carafe must have been sitting there all day unrefrigerated. Poor Asia. She was nauseous at dinner and didn't want to eat. She ended up falling asleep on my lap. Then when we got to the room, she ran to the bathroom, but nothing happened. She woke me up in the middle of the night saying she didn't feel too well. So I put a trashcan near her bed and a towel. She woke up a few minutes later and puked all over the floor - near the trashcan. But pretty much on the floor and on my feet when I ran over to her. We used up most of the towels in the room. In the morning, I put them all in the balcony and then showed them personally to the cleaning lady so she'd know to take them out. Asia was still a little queazy during the day but by the evening, she was her old self again.

Here's a picture of Zach on the boogie board. The kids had a blast with it and then we left it in the hotel lobby when we got on the shuttle to go to the airport. Oh well.

One of the things we did at the resort was horseback riding. It came with the package. A 2 hour ride. I've never been horseback riding. None of the kids have, besides riding a pony on a fair. But those ponies are usually led by a trainer or tied to some kind of ring or something. This was like - here, get on a horse, and there you go! I swear the guide for our horse ride was swearing under his breath in Spanish and saying stuff about the Devil, like "what the devil?" John was thinking that more likely one of the horses was named Diablo - like the horse John had. It was so tall - perfect for John. But also a little headstrong. At one point when we stopped and were getting off of our horses, John's horse kicked out after John got off. The horse kicked my horse some (more my foot) and then almost kicked John! The horse that Asia and I rode liked to torture us by riding along the edge of the trail so that we ran into trees or were whipped by the bushes. I kept trying to steer the horse back to the middle and it would jerk his head. I think maybe these horses were just tired of being ridden all day? I tried to show it who was boss, but the last thing I wanted was for the horse to buck off me and Asia. And what do I know about horses? Just whatever I read about training dogs. Wonder if you can use the Dog Whisperer's tactics on horses? Here's a picture of me on the horse right after John's horse kicked my foot.

Zach got to ride on his own horse.