Punta Cana Moments - The Trip Home

For the past week my family and I have been in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to attend my sister's wedding.  It was a relaxing trip which included palm trees, swimming and buffets.  Of course the thing most fresh in my mind is the trip home, so that is what I will tell you about today.

To make our one-am flight we had to be all ready and in the lobby by nine, already past the kids bedtime.  Some rather pushy merchants happened to be set up selling various souvenir trinkets. I got suckered into buying two little drum noisemakers for the kids, and they promptly began fighting over who got to use the one with the crocodile on it (the other had a dolphin).  Shortly after that, Jadzia fell asleep, on my lap, in the lobby, despite the noise of the boisterous bar-goers. 

The bus took a route with many windy roads, and an exorbitant amount of speed bumps, stopping at several other resorts along the way. I tossed my still-comatose daughter at Adam because I was afraid I was going to vomit on her. I drank water, which helped a little at first, but then just wanted to come up.  But I made it to the airport without puking.  Huzzah!  William fell asleep on the bus.

Adam was already in charge of all the luggage, and I couldn't carry both kids so my mom carried Jadzia and I carried William.  That child has gotten a lot heavier since he lived in my belly five years ago. In the line up at Dominican customs, he woke enough to become delirious and started kicking me.  I put him down and guided the little zombie along, while Jadzia screamed as she attempted to find a comfortable position in Omi's arms.

We waited in the airport for a while, which is not air-conditioned.  In fact, the whole place is walls-optional.  I get that the Dominican doesn't get a lot of snow storms, but does it never rain sideways? Parts of it look more like a picnic shelter than an international airport.

Anyway, William nodded off again and I carried his limp body across the tarmac.  In the summer, I went portaging and had to carry half our gear in a giant pack.  That was nothing.  You know those tunnels that lead you right from the gate into your airplane?  Punta Cana doesn't have those.  Those tunnels are a good idea. I huffed and puffed along, up the stairs to the airplane, and finally chucked my first born onto the window seat. We set Jadzia down beside him and they stayed asleep until we landed in Toronto.

Then they had a great time with the moving sidewalks.