Honeymoon

Hey y'all!

Black widow update: Ben located it again this morning and promptly took care of the situation.  I only hope her last words were that no spiders should visit the Pattison house ever again.

Now for the honeymoon.  It was absolutely amazing and was very relaxing, which was exactly what we wanted.  We went to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and let me tell you, that place is stunning.

(on our flight, there is a striking resemblance between sleeping Ben and grumpy cat)

We had heard absolutely amazing things about Punta Cana and were amped for a week of paradise.  Once we landed, we were not aware that there was a tourist charge so that was exciting.  But all was handled well, we found our shuttle to the resort and immediately began practicing all of the Spanish that we knew. 

Once we got to the resort we were given a tour and found this little guy!  Our first time really seeing "Mr. & Mrs. Pattison" referring to us!

We were then escorted to our room.  We opted for the "private garden" room but were surprised and thrilled to find out that we had been given a private garden ocean front room.

(hot diggity for putting "it's our honeymoon" on the reservation)

Now, what we learned during this trip is that we are not exactly the best at "all inclusive".  Each night at dinner we sat awkwardly after finishing our food and agreed that it felt as though we were robbing the restaurant and that we felt as though we needed to pay for something.  But alas, all inclusive is what it means and so we gorged ourselves. 

 (this was my favorite of all meals. I could have actually eaten it for every meal and been perfectly happy.)

Ingredients: avocado, smoked salmon, fried plantains, cream cheese, and some sweet sauce. NOM

 (super hunky husband who is not quite used to the ring yet, but MAN does it look good)

(on our way to dinner one night)

Also part of the all inclusive deal is that certain watersports were already included and we just had to make a reservation and show up.  So, we went snorkeling one day and were able to see some beautiful, bold fish who thought the gropro was food.  And we went sailing on a catamaran, with Ben in charge of sailing.  He had never actually sailed a catamaran before, but turns out if you can sail a sailboat you can figure out a catamaran.

We also, of course, enjoyed lots of time beside the pool.  There were cabana-style beds all around the pool so the Pattisons claimed one that overlooked the pool which provided some good people watching opportunities (including the one time a child got into the adults only pool and no one knew what to do).

 (the view from our cabana bed)

(random me with my sheep friends. it took a bit of convincing to get Ben to take the photo)

All in all we had a wonderful time!  It was really nice to relax after the wedding and (good for the introverted soul) to be in a place where no one appeared interested in talking with us for extended periods of time.

 (bittersweet goodbye to paradise and onto the adventure of the wild west)

(have no fear, they sent us with two beers each "por el autobus" which we decided to be American about and not actually drink while riding to the airport #opencontainerlaws)

So that was the honeymoon!  The staff were extremely kind, our Spanish teachers would be upset with the actual lack of speaking abilities, but should be impressed by the number of people who we fooled into thinking we were fluent, and honeymoons are the best.