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My wife and I returned home yesterday after spending last week at an all-inclusive beach resort in Puerto Plata. If you have been paying attention, you may note that this is, in fact, our third trip so far in 2017. When I mentioned that we were hoping to begin travelling more, I was quite serious.
I will need to sort and upload photos, and there will probably be a couple more entries detailing the trip, but this trip was mostly about relaxing on the beach, enjoying endless food and bottomless drinks, while making new friends. And I think we managed to accomplish all of that. We managed to find some quite lovely spots on the beaches, in the shade of the palm and mango trees, where we could relax in the breeze off the Atlantic Ocean, listening to the surf, while sipping cold drinks. The restaurants were good, and a couple of the meals were quite excellent. And we met wonderful people...a young couple from Charleston who were celebrating a slightly delayed honeymoon, and another couple from the Netherlands who were in the middle of a two week stay.
There were minor bumps along the way, including some drama at the airport before we even really got started. As our flight out of Washington National Airport began boarding, a young man with a guitar rushed to the gate, anxious to get on board. The gate crew pulled him aside...they had already made several announcements about how full the flight was and asking for volunteers to gate check some of the carry-on baggage. I'm sure that the airline personnel simply wanted to make sure there would be enough storage space for this guy's guitar, but he was sure he was going to miss the flight, demanding to be allowed to board. When the gate agent who had been speaking with him turned her back, he dashed down the jetway with his guitar, which prompted calls for security. He only made it as far as the aircraft doorway, and after a loud debate, he was eventually convinced to return to the gate area, but not before they airline staff had threatened to cancel the entire flight! Needless to say, when we finally finished boarding and departed, he was not on the plane.
Beyond that, our travel was mostly uneventful, which is about the most you can hope for these days. Modern air travel is no longer fun, but a chore to be endured in order to get where you want to be, at least for those of us who can't afford to sit with the 1% up at the front of the aircraft.
I will need to sort and upload photos, and there will probably be a couple more entries detailing the trip, but this trip was mostly about relaxing on the beach, enjoying endless food and bottomless drinks, while making new friends. And I think we managed to accomplish all of that. We managed to find some quite lovely spots on the beaches, in the shade of the palm and mango trees, where we could relax in the breeze off the Atlantic Ocean, listening to the surf, while sipping cold drinks. The restaurants were good, and a couple of the meals were quite excellent. And we met wonderful people...a young couple from Charleston who were celebrating a slightly delayed honeymoon, and another couple from the Netherlands who were in the middle of a two week stay.
There were minor bumps along the way, including some drama at the airport before we even really got started. As our flight out of Washington National Airport began boarding, a young man with a guitar rushed to the gate, anxious to get on board. The gate crew pulled him aside...they had already made several announcements about how full the flight was and asking for volunteers to gate check some of the carry-on baggage. I'm sure that the airline personnel simply wanted to make sure there would be enough storage space for this guy's guitar, but he was sure he was going to miss the flight, demanding to be allowed to board. When the gate agent who had been speaking with him turned her back, he dashed down the jetway with his guitar, which prompted calls for security. He only made it as far as the aircraft doorway, and after a loud debate, he was eventually convinced to return to the gate area, but not before they airline staff had threatened to cancel the entire flight! Needless to say, when we finally finished boarding and departed, he was not on the plane.
Beyond that, our travel was mostly uneventful, which is about the most you can hope for these days. Modern air travel is no longer fun, but a chore to be endured in order to get where you want to be, at least for those of us who can't afford to sit with the 1% up at the front of the aircraft.
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