Beach, please

We started our vacation! We had to drive 3 hours because the city our cave resides in can't seem to get it together with having decent (any) flight options. We were up at 4 to fly to Punta Cana. No flight delays, no problems getting through security. Except the kid in front of me tried to smuggle water through, seemed mildly pissed TSA really meant no liquids and didn't realize he managed to hold up the entire line because of it. They had the super cute doggos doing sniff checks so we didn't even need to unload electronics or take of shoes. I did have to remind Native 2 there was no petting the dogs about 5 times. Other than that completely uneventful...my favorite kind of flight.

Flight was definitely full, which I don't love even before Covid...but Southwest gotta make that money honey (shrug). Hunter sat with Native 2 and I got to hang out with Native 1. Immigration line was looooonnnnngggggg. Native 2 was not having it, but we made it through just fine. All of the too many bags I packed made it through just fine. In DR they have these great guys that load all of your crap on to a cart and help you get out to transportation, probably a racket of some sort, but I'm not gonna lie, I find it helpful and we don't mind throwing the dude a few bucks. Transportation was easy peasy, got walked straight to the transport bus which we had all to ourselves. It's about a 30 min ride from the airport to the resort area we like and I was shocked the Natives didn't pass out on the way. We arrived and check in took a bit but we were expecting it so it wasn't that big of a deal. The Natives were definitely restless at this point but all things considered I couldn't blame them at all.

We were assigned a concierge (Edwin, who so far has knocked it out of the park, big fan of the dude) and a room. We have a first floor room which is nice because no elevator, but it is near the plaza area so it was pretty loud last night when we tried to pass out early but we managed, probably because we were so tired. I'll review the room first and then I'll get back to the rest of the day. It's a smaller room, 2 queens, eventually we may have to start getting 2 rooms at these places or swing for a suite but it works for now. Our side is a bit older, the other side of the resort seems newer and more lively. Our view is rotten, we look over the back of the water park and back of the arcade, but other than me not having a great view while I write this waiting for Hunter to get back from the gym and the natives to wake up, we don't spend a great deal of time in our room so it should be fine. Bathroom floods like a biatch but nothing a towel or 2 can't fix. I prefer rooms where the bathroom has a separate area from the room, especially a toilet "room" and and a shower space but that makes me bougie and we were looking for spending less for more resort days. I guess the short of it is that the room is nothing special but it is nice (if I'm going with my sweet tea ratings I'd say like 3.75 sweet teas lol).

Edwin get points because he managed to get us in to dinner a Jade, sort of a Chinese, Asian fusion restaurant. We were dumb parents and we forgot the Natives distraction devices so it was almost an epic failure on our behalf. Native 1 watched them cooking dinner through a glass wall (I think he made friends with the chef, it was so damn cute). Native 2 was just hangry. We had stopped at the little burger joint near our room for a snack but meal times were just off with flying. We weren't impressed with the burgers and I think Native 2 may have been more hangry than anything. We ordered a round of apps and a mix of things we thought we would like and things the kids would like. We were least impressed with any of the chicken dishes but they were still pretty darn good. Of the chicken dishes Native 1's pad thai was probably the best and the chicken skewers (which the kids loved) were the worst as they were just too dry for me. They brought us out an extra soup which was very good just too spicy for anyone but me. Native 2 liked it but after 4 bites he gave up because of the spice (y'all it wasn't that bad, they are wimps!). Native 2 actually liked my mussles and we had a surprise fish dish that was also amazing. We order one of each of the desserts and the one I thought we would like the least (tapioca) we were all fighting over but we really enjoyed all 3 (rice pudding was the one we said we would skip in the future but it was still quite delicious)

No pool time or waterpark time just because of how travel worked out and when things close but we managed to eat, drink, and be merry so it was a great start. I got up this morning and did a 4 mile run before the sun came up but it was still humid. I did part of the run on the beach so it was slow going for about 2 miles but I still did it. It was interesting to see how the different resorts handle the beach erosion and the sargassum. Ours seems to grade the sand and they had already "swept" the sargassum by the time I had made my turn around (y'all my running shoes are not happy with what I did to them this morning, with sand and saltwater they may never be the same). Hunter hit the gym, I might later but he said it was small (no shocker) and that he had to work around people a little less serious about their workout but it was fine. I'm off to make the native get up before they waste the day away!