Honeymoon Part 1: We arrive in Punta Cana

As most of you are aware we decided for lots of reasons to wait to go on our honeymoon.  Our initial conversations had been to wait and go the week between Christmas and New Years but the prices to go to a nice warm island that week are well RIDICULOUS!  So after some conversation we decided to go the week of Thanksgiving.  I did have to miss my favorite holiday, but I only had to take 2 days off work (all the vacation days I had) so it was really the only thing that was going to work.  It turned out the be great timing and an amazing week.

Saturday before we left we hosted Nick's family at our house for Thanksgiving dinner.  I should have taken pictures given that it was the first Thanksgiving meal I had ever prepared and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Then Sunday morning we were up very very early and off to the airport:

Nick and his coffee at the airport

On the airplane

The flight was about 5 hours and as much as I would have liked to I didn't sleep on it at all so it was pretty boring but before we knew it we were landing in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic:

No you aren't seeing things the airport is several buildings with thatched roofs.  It was quite an interesting thing to see from the air and then realize oh wait that is the actual airport.  It didn't take too long to get through customs and once we were through customs we were herded (and I mean that quite literally) to get our luggage and onto the bus to our resort.  I think the travel company wanted to make sure we didn't wander off. It was a bit overwhelming but in the end we were efficiently shown the way:

on the bus

Luckily the bus was a nice charter bus and had air conditioning cause it was already hot and humid!  After about a 30 minute bus ride we arrived at our resort:

When we got off the bus we were greeted with some champagne and quickly checked in.  We were then escorted to our beautiful room:

Isn't it so bright and cheery?  And yes that is a jacuzzi tub on our balcony!  Also notice in the second picture our complimentary bottle of rum and "fruit basket"  Sadly the "fruit basket" was a plate with 2 strawberries and 2 apples and Im pretty sure the strawberries had been sitting out for a few hours too long- but it was a nice gesture.  We also had a fully stocked mini bar in our room that was included in our all inclusive rate that came with snacks so it was ok if the "fruit basket" wasn't up to my standards the free diet coke (or coca-cola light) and banana chips made up for it!

Once we settled into our room we decided to go for a walk and acquaint ourselves with the resort.  We were staying at an adults only resort but it was attached to a family friendly resort.  This turned out to be an awesome unexpected bonus.  We were able to travel back and forth between the 2 while the guests of the other resort were not allowed on our side.  This meant we had access to twice as many restaurants including the kid friendly buffet which I greatly appreciated.  While I like to be adventurous, sometimes I just want a cheeseburger and fries like the average 8 year old.   Here is what the rest of the resort looked like:

The beach

The beach cabanas

The courtyard 

The pool and swim up bar

I think I took most of these pictures on the day we left which was a bit overcast but most of the time we were there it was sunny and gorgeous!

Stay tuned for some posts about how we spent our time and found a special way to celebrate Thanksgiving!