The Dominican Republic

 Our First Official Family Reunion!

Now that we live in 3 countries, we have officially had our first family reunion.  A trip to the Dominican Republic was a Christmas gift for all of us.  

We drove to JFK at midnight and flew into Punta Cana on Jan 5th around 11 am. We had a private van (that I found on FB, LOL) drive us to Jennibelle's in Santo Domingo. Luckily, my anxiety meds were still kicking in because the D.R. has the WORST drivers.  There seem to be no rules. They are very aggressive, but not at all angry. It was over a 3 hour drive.

Jennibelle showered us with Christmas gifts and then walked us to her local mall so that Jack could get his phone screen fixed for 1/2 of the USA price and so that we girls could get manicures.  I paid $60 for 3 manicures and Jaylee's eyebrows done. Services on the island are cheap, but objects are more pricey. Jennibelle's leaders (Challo and Bear) made us a delicious Dominican stew on rice for dinner. Jennieblle then took Jay over to meet some of her friends. Me and the boys fell to sleep quickly.

Saturday AM we headed to the ourskirts of Santo Domingo to The Three Eyes National Park.  A 1/2 hour Uber ride for all 6 of us together was $11. And they don't tip Uber drivers... or anyone really.  

It was amazing to still be in a BIG city (Bigger than Philly) and then when you head into this park you can hear the highway, but when you descend into the cave, you are transported to your own little quiet peaceful world. I did not expect anything like it. And, pictures don't do it justice at all. We were there for quite a while.  Jimmy loved seeing the iguana and tried to text his friends the photo (he is at a neat age). We even took the $1 boat ride to the bonus side of the park. The boys could not wait to stop at the fancy mall and get McDonalds for lunch afterwards. I thought the motorcycle parking lot was funny.

After that, we took an adventure on the Santo Domingo Subway.  Jennibelle was the only one of us who spoke Spanish so she had her hands full. "STAY HERE AND DON"T MOVE!!!" we heard more than once.  Everyone stared at u so the subway. we were the only white people around and obviously did not really now what we were doing.  Two or three people were kind enough to offer us help. One guy eyed up Jason's wallet until we yelled at him and made a scene. When the subway gets to the really poor pat of town, the subway section ends and you get onto a "sky train". It is fun, but boy-oh-boy is it eye opening and sad. My boys were especially fond of this part of our day.  They could not believe the level of despair and realized just how lucky they are. There were large trash piles that wild horses were grazing on. And there was trash- everywhere. Many shacks line the river's edge. When there was terrible flooding a few months back, many people in this neighborhood lost their life.We were lucky enough to catch the beginning of the sunset while we were up there.

We then quickly headed over to the Malecon, which is a walkway along the ocean. It's one of Jennibelle's favorite places to be. It's mostly volcanic rock with big waves crashing on the walls.  It could really be a nice, beautiful place,  But, there was trash everywhere and I when the boys were climbing around on the beach, I was worried about drug needles... which was not even me being dramatic. We watched the sun disappear and then played frogger across the 5 lane road to catch our Uber back home.  We even got to see that Spanish immersion school that Jennibelle attended for a while. We are starving when we got home and too tire to cook. We ended up being in the D.R, ordering dinner from an American restaurant that we don't even like, LOL.  But, we all enjoyed our meal from Chili's... maybe we will have to start eating there(?).

Jennibelle took Jaylee to her favorite Bachata and Meringue dance clubs after we all crashed.

Sunday  morning, we attended Jennibelle's home church. They were so excited to have us that they changed their church time and everyone brought an authentic Dominican meal for us to brunch on.  There is about 20 people in her house church... most are related in some way and they are all very close. Once a month, all of the house churches get together. During the week, they also have youth groups, women's studies, etc pulling from the large group. We were supposed to meet at 10:00, but in Dominican fashion, things began around 11:30. Jennibelle is now used to this way of life. his would drive me crazy. I always taught my kids "if you are not 10 mins early, you are late." But, we were on vaca so it was easier to go with the flow. Since we were ready on time, the boys had time to throw the football around Jenni's parking garage, then her security guard showed us the park.  Everyone was staring at us. We were the only white people and we were throwing a football. I almost asked a couple boys to join us since they were so curious. At church, the boys finally got to meet the infamous Cocoa dog. Jennibelle was sent us (literally) hundreds of videos of this snotty dog. The dog LICKED us- from the time we got there until the time we walked out. I hav never had a dog lick my legs before. After brunch and the service, everyone hung around for about an hour chatting. We got to tour the house where Jennibelle was living while she was in Spanish Immersion School. She never told us that she had a pool- right  outside her bedroom door, even though she's on the 2nd floor! It was great meeting the people that she has become close with and to see how much they cared for her. 

Eventually, our family grabbed Uber and headed to the Colonial District where a lot of the historical landmarks are. This area is quite touristy, so there wasn't nearly as much trash. Unfortunately, they decided to start construction on a lot of buildings at the same time-and all within the last few weeks. There were hundreds of people sitting outside eating/drinking/talking, multiple live musicians, street performers and cute little tourist shops. The kids decided to get a cartoon portrait done of themselves. I was quite annoyed because I knew it would take a long time and it was already mid afternoon, but they all ended uo loving it and it is a great memory that they now share. Jennibelle took us on a history tour.  Since Christopher lived there for so long, we saw the first church, hospital and college of the modern day America's. The hospital wasn't standing much, but the other two were still in great condition. The area was really quite lovely. Jennibelle took us to her favorite ice cream shop, where the ice cream is all served on a stick. Yummy!

As the sun started to set, Jennibelle walked us out of the touristy area to our "surprise". We walked through a sketchier area and turned the corner to find 10 ARMED policemen "We're here!" she yelled with a huge smile. There was a free neighborhood concert with dancing as the sun set. The concert took place right in front of the first hospital of the America's. We rented chairs and a table for $1 each. Everyone was happy and kind, and chatting with each other. There were new born babies and 95 year olds. There were food trucks and a Mojito station. The boys had the "best chicken of their life" from a shish kabab pick up truck with a grill on the back bed. The band was so lively and entertaining. People started dancing immediately. Jennibelle took the boys and Jason out to teach them how to do the Bachata and Merengue. Then random men asked her to dance.She really is fun. And the Dominican men LOVE her. I don't know how many times I heard Jason ask "Do they not see me standing here?"  Jimmy asked me to dance with him, which was so fun. Jennibelle asked me to dance, but the band then went on break and we ended up leaving during their break. In retrospect, I feel bad that I was so nervous and scared at first. Those big guns and the cops threw me for a loop, especially when we stick out as tourist targets. Agin, we were the only white people out of 2,000 people. I have lots of video but no way of getting them on here... darn!

Monday was our last full day in Santo Domingo.  I did not realize that she was living in such a large city.  just thought she was "living on an island". I really am naive sometimes, especially for how intelligent I actually am. We started the morning by walking to the mall and FINALLY picking up Jackson's phone. The "You come back in 2 hours" turned into 3 days for them to finish it. This did not surprise Jennibelle at all. Then we swung into their "Superstore". It really was super. I couldn't think of anything that the store did not carry. She said that she Never shopped there because it was too big and too expensive.  We bought Jackson a new book bag since his shoulder bag was killing him... we did not figure out the correct exchange price.  We realized later that the small book bag was $41. Walmart would have charged me $10 for it. Whoops. We had to swing by the place where Jennibelle got her ears pierce 2 weeks ago, since the bars they used were too short and her cartilage was turning purple. They could NOT get the bars out, so we were there for 90 minutes!!  I think people thought the the boys and I were homeless tourists because we were calling asleep against the biding in the shade and spoke no Spanish. 

 We then head back to the Melecon during the day to see the sights. It was actually much scarier in the day time. There was a large homeless population there. The trash was out of control. Ocean front properties were literally crumbling to the ground. Grant it, you can't actually get IN the ocean any where in the city, but these properties still had amazing views. There were stray dogs everywhere- my boys disagreed with me that they shouldn't pet them and Jackson actually got quite angry with me. One day he will be as wise as me. The area was probably really something in its prime. There were swings, historical navy bases (with canons) and a nice walkway. There was even an amusement park, though Im not sure it was still in business.  She took us to lunch at the D.R's most famous pizzeria.  They make their mozzarella sticks with corn in them!!  I liked it. They put corn in a lot of random things, now that I think of it. I did talk to her later about the Melecon not being the safest place to come to read books. She assured me that she never comes alone and that she is always very observant. "How else can I witness to these people? They certainly aren't going to show up at our church in the gated community." I love her heart. I don't want to take away her innocence or make her see the worst in people. I have to trust that God will help her make smart decisions. 

After an afternoon siesta, Jennibelle took us out to the coolest dinner. I wish I could envy how AMAZING this food truck dinner was. When she said we were going to the food trucks for dinner, I didn't expect much. This beautiful, fun, lit up, fenced in, organized food truck extravaganza was AWESOME.  There was a bear in the center for drinks, surrounded by 12 or so food trucks. Each truck had a theme. We grabbed a table and then a waitress from each truck brought us a menu and told us any specials.

- well, told Jennibelle. Once we each decided what we wanted, we held over our head the menu we were ordering from- and a waitress from that truck appeared quickly, out of no where. All beverages came from the bar. I think we ordered from 9 different trucks with appetizers, drinks, meals, dessert. The food was the best food truck quality I've ver had.  I think it was called Garden Food Truck Park.

On Tuesday, Jan 9th, we were supposed to get on the bus to head to Punta Cana. But... Jennibelle makes friends with everyone and one of her Uber Driver friends offered to drive us privately for 1/2 of the normal price. The 3.5 hours trip in a private car cost us $140. We tipped him too, even though we never tipped any other Uber drivers. The entire time in Santo Domingo we never ran over a motorcyclist!  I thought for sure we would have. We arrived at our resort, RIU Palace Punta Cana right at checkin time, 2:00.  We were all BLOWN AWAY by how beautiful it was.  We don't usually get fancy places. We grabbed a quick lunch and then went straight to the ocean. It was warm, and blue and breathtaking and just perfect. There were waves that were the perfect size but right past where they broke it was so calm. It literally was the perfect beach. all trees and chairs everywhere. The girls quickly found the pool bar, since this was their first time at one. The boys rode waves, threw a football, hit the pool and got Shirley Temples from the bar.  We girls got dressed up for our first dinner. The buffet was beautiful- all sorts of food- but nothing tasted good. It was such a disappointment. Not even the OJ or soda was good. Jaylee and Jennibelle enjoyed their food though- they each ate Dominican rice, beans and avocado most meals. Each night there was live music with dancing.  While we had drinks and listened to music, the boys were off throwing the football- until Jimmy took it to the nose and had a massive bloody nose. They really enjoyed having independence this trip. Everywhere we went, Abba music was played, Jennibelle was happy! Jason and I hit the discotheque before bed just to check it out. We were there for an hour or two and there was only (maybe) 10 other people there in that time.

The kids loved having their own room. I think this stage of life is really neat- I still have kids but Jason and I can act like fun adults too and the kids can have a little freedom. On Wednesday we did IT ALL.  Breakfast, 7 minute walk to the RIU Water Park. I don't usually do water slides but these were fun. Jackson did (literally) very slide there.  He has no fear anymore- not even of heights!! Jimmy and girls did every slide except the red ones that dropped pretty much straight down. Jackson did manage to talk Jason into doing the straight drop with him. Yikes. Then we spent hours on the beach, where the boys loved the resort's boogie boards. The girls loved doing photo shoots together. Jason and I went to the steak restaurant right on the beach for a dinner date. The kids suck together for the evening. We were heading to the RIU White Party from 7-11. We were exhausted, so we swung by the bar for some pick me up shots. Even the alcohol at the resort tasted really not good. The party was SO MUCH fun!! I have Never been to a dance party with a pool. The age rage was 18-88. People were having a blast. We headed to the discotheque with lots of people from the party and had a great time. The DJ kept blaring an annoying air horn though. After that we got lost on the beach since you can't which resort you are when you are on the beach and we thought we were at urs, but we were at another RIIU resort- whoops. We found the BEST nachos and cheese at our Sports Bar at 3am.

We are all exhausted on Thursday. Jason even treated himself to a massage because his body hurt so bad. I pretty much just sunbathed all day, which was glorious. The kids did the beach for most of the day. We brought inflatables with us that we ha been savings since Hawaii, and they were perfect for the waves. And Jackson finally found the daily soccer game to play in. 

Friday was our last real day in the D.R. It was such a great day! We were supposed to get up early and hit the water park but everyone ended up sleeping in so we just hit the beach after lunch. I think we were in the water for 3 hours straight. We attempted to get a photo of the whole family in the beautiful blue water together, but it just turned into a fiasco. The girls, Jason and I were going to attend the RIU Pink Party that was 3-7 but none of us are ready t leave the beach yet. Finally around 3:30 we got out of the water and had a drink while Jennibelle taught us Dominican Dominoes. We finally headed out to the party around 4:30. The boys were excited to have a few hours to themselves. Jackson had been going to the Sports Bar each afternoon to tex friends and eat nachos.  Whenever he walked in the bar tender would ask him "The usual?" And Jack would say "yes please." and the bar tender would make him his Shirley Temple. Boy, did this make Jackson feel cool! So... he was excited to take Jimmy there to experience it. 

The RIU Pink Party is the first time we have ever really drank or danced with the girls, so we had such a fun time!!  This party had a totally different than the White Party. I expected there to be less people since it was in the middle of the day, but I guess when you are vacation, you party in the middle of the day (?). We danced and danced and danced.

We met up with the boys in the buffet afterwards. The boys have never seen their sisters drink, so they thought it was so funny. We gave Jennibelle coffee and bread for dinner. The most special art of my Punta Cana vacation happened while we were eating dinner that night. Jimmy got u to use the bathroom, across the big open patio area. He was skipping and singing to himself on the way back- he embodied PURE JOY. I hope I never forget that moment. Someone got it on video, I need to make suer they send it to me. The girls begged us to go dancing again when the Discotheque opened at 11. We said that we would try. Then they went and took and 2.5 hour nap. We night swam with the boys and walked in the beach until it was time to dance again. We are too old for this. We put the boys t bed at 11 and headed back out. We only lasted until 1. The girls came back around 2. YAWN.

Saturday Jan 13 was our last day. Our flight was at 4:30 so we spent the morning eating breakfast together, packing up, moving the kids stuff into our room and then heading t the beach fr the final 90 minutes if our paradise beach.  We played lots of football un the water and floated about. Jason enjoyed napping on the lounge chairs, since he felt like his BP was up a little bit. We quickly too turns towering in ur room and were ready for our taxi around 1:45. DR driving is scary, but this guy was terrifying.  It was the longest 30 minute drive of my life. I actually took my plane anxiety medicine 10 minutes into the drive. He was supposed to drop us all off at the airport and then drop Jenni would find a shuttle to the bus station. But as we were unloading our luggage she surprised us that he had agreed to just take her to the bus station for a cheap price. So, our goodbyes were chaotic to say the least- Im not even sure that Jason got to hug her. She surprised us yet again when she texted us 10 minutes later saying that he agreed to drive her all the way to Santo Doming for 1/2 price. I was so nervous because his driving was terrible. "haha." she said "I didn't even notice".