new friends

 We've fallen into a comfortable (and healing) routine… Up earlish, breakfast at the restaurant by the beach, then we spend the morning into the afternoon at the beach - water and sand! Isn't ‘grounding’ a thing? Sometimes we have lunch while still at the beach and sometimes back in our room. The hamburgers at the beach are fantastic and the salsa for the nacho chips is fresh and tasty. Today we ate at the beach, went into the sea one last time before coming back to our room.

Tomorrow morning we might take our floaties so that we can bob in the gentle swell of the undulating ocean - that would be pretty calming!

A dip in our own pool refreshed us for more relaxation… I feel spoiled! Today I feel recovered from the previous stressful days and I only expect to feel better and better as the days pass.

Tonight, after a rest and refresh, we ventured out for supper dressed in our finest. It was too early for the restaurant so we enjoyed a gin & tonic (hi Edna!) at the bar to whet our appetite. We were just about to leave when the couple that sat next to us a few nights ago passed by with the same destination - dinner company! It started a bit awkwardly as we sussed each other out, but soon conversation was flowing and we were having a great time. One of the things we loved about crusing was meeting people so we were delighted to have the same experience here! We exchanged contact details and hopefully we'll see them again sometime!

After we all turned down dessert, we went our separate ways… us back to crash in our room. We are lightweights! We had in our minds that we'd head back out to see the show at nine… that obviously was not happening!

All in all it was an excellent day and I ended it feeling as good as I started! I am confident that tomorrow will be a great day too! I just have to figure out a way to sleep through the night…

Awesome!

“the sun”

“the feeling of the sun on my skin - I've got plenty of sunscreen on and am actually still pretty white! Carm however has a bit of a sunburn…”

“meeting new people”

“feeling great at the end of the day!”

"Christina & Clive"

are we crazy

 I’m not sure how it happened or why… perhaps all the sugar in the giant pina colada or maybe all the meat or I'm going hypo-manic, but by the end of the day yesterday I was feeling better than I was in the morning! I have a little mantra in my head: ‘the sun and sand is healing and nurturing’... and of course the little ditty: ‘every little cell inside my body is happy and well. I'm so glad, every single cell is happy and glad’. Maybe I'm starting to trick my nervous system into relaxing!

After a day in the heat, and then a rest in our freezing room, I got ready for supper starting off with a bubble bath in the giant tub :-) I was even feeling good enough to get slightly dressed up. We ate at the Mexican restaurant - the food was delicious BUT we have to be more careful about what we say to the waiters… we ordered fajitas but told the waiter that next time we'd order the chef's special grill. Well, they brought us BOTH! Yikes! It was a plethora of meat - skewers of beef, chicken, shrimp, sausage on a hot grill that they put on the table. And then a sizzling platter of beef fajita. Oh boy. It was a bit off-putting to be honest.

We chatted with a nice couple from Ohio (no politics!!!) during dinner. One of the things we enjoyed about cruising was meeting with different people. It's a bit harder here as we aren't all jammed together but I guess we managed! It was also nice to be able to escape to our private oasis :-) The best of both!

It was another early night so we were up early today, leaving us enough time for breakfast at the preferred restaurant. I had eggs benedict which was good but not as good as our local restaurant. But the serving size was good with only one egg and half an english muffin. Even that, along with cups of coffee and TWO mimosas left me stuff to the gills… oh and the little pastry to start 😱 

We mooched around (listening to a presentation about the vacation plan which drained most of my energy…) and then spent the rest of the afternoon by our little pool which is just what I needed to recover from our morning adventures. Even with a bit of construction noise, it was a relaxing and rejuvenating afternoon :-) We dressed up again for supper tonight. I wore a slightly slinky dress (while I can still fit into it! All-inclusive is filling!). 

We went to the French restaurant tonight… the food was good but then I started to freak out worried that the scallops might have squid in them (I'm horribly allergic!). I was already pretty wiped out from the day but when the waiter put my main dish in front of me I fully crashed! It was a huge lamb shank, not at all like the osso bucco that I was expecting and instead was an overwhelming huge plate of meat… I could barely eat any of it :-( I'd hit my energy limit for the day… Today was especially stressful but I know tomorrow will be better.

Awesome!

“the sun”

“beach front breakfast”

“some of the staff already know our names!”

“plans for the future”

up up and away

 Up up and away! 

We made it here in the early afternoon Sunday after a rather grueling day… up at 2am, flight at 6am was a rough start to the day. I felt really weird about it but a few people recommended a wheelchair for the airport and I was so glad that I did, especially as I was already dizzy and fatigued by the time we reached the airport... There would have been a lot of walking and it also saved me from ages standing in line. Because of the short night sleep my battery started off low and took a nose dive with the travel. 

It's pretty confronting to realize that this is where I am now... but! I'm going to get better.

We had more good luck on the flight as it wasn't full and we have started doing a ‘cheat’ of booking window and aisle hoping for an empty middle - and we lucked out! So I was able to stretch out a bit and have my feet up which really helped! It was a godsend!

Unfortunately the wheelchair never showed up at the airport in Punta Cana so I ended up walking which was okay… but it wore me out even more… by the time we got to the resort my body battery from my Garmin watch was at 23/100… with the rest of the day ahead of us…

It turned out that we had a private transfer from the airport to the resort so we were on our way as soon as we wound ourselves through the airport. It seems that the driver was in a rush to get us to the resort… Carm was hanging on for dear life (I just closed my eyes but even still was having heart palpitations)... the traffic was heavy and fast and he drove like a maniac weaving and passing… Carm thought he should tip us for the trip instead of the other way around!

Once here the resort staff escorted us into the preferred lounge to check-in - nice and cool and quiet after the hubbub of travel. Our room wasn't ready yet, so our (shared) butler! drove us to the preferred restaurant for lunch, picked us up to bring us to the lounge to finish waiting for our room to be done. Then Edgar came to pick us up, brought our luggage, and voila! We were quickly unpacked and settled in - just in time for a short swim in our private pool! Luxury!

We took a quick walk to the beach and then crashed out in our room for a while before going for supper. By this time my BB was at 5 - the lowest setting… Everything is a million miles away which last year would have made me happy, but this year, I calculate what each thing is going to cost me… by the time supper was done I was so exhausted that I could barely stand up - getting back to our room took a herculean effort… I had to stop several times and could barely put one foot in front of the other… but I made it back, got into pjs, then crashed for the night. Carm was tired too so our lights were out by 8:30!

So much has changed in the year since our trip with Olaf & Steph. I was in the best shape of my adult life and now I can barely walk - DON'T TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED!!!

Today has been restful :-) A good sleep-in, then breakfast at the restaurant near the beach, a few hours of lazing on the beach, back to our room for a swim and rest, lunch in the buffet, and now, back in our room… or should I say patio as we are outside enjoying the weather. And honestly, we have to come outside to warm up - they keep the rooms at arctic temps! I was glad I brought a pair of lounge pants and a sweatshirt ‘just in case’... well, the case is here!

Tripping back home to the weekend… Pat came Saturday at supper time to get settled in - the dogs were happy to see her! I know that the pets are in good hands with her there :-)

Awesome!

“getting here safely”

“dappled sun on our terrace”

“cold water in our pool”

“getting great chairs on the beach”

“amazing staff”