We were not home 24 hours and Yoli was flying to Ohio with Marie to visit Mitch for the weekend. So not wanting to stay home by myself, I went to the airport with Yoli and jumped on a plane to Sacramento standby to visit family in Napa. After our first day of wine tasting yesterday, it was the right choice, love catching up with friends and family.
Today was a long day. The car service picked us up at 10:30am right on time for the 40 minute trip to the airport. We had two hours and all went smooth through the exit process. Since we stayed more than 30 days, we had to pay up $126 more to DR Gov services for our "Extended" stay. At least we did not get in trouble for not having a visa. All was good, flight was good to Miami. Miami transfer was another story, we had to pickup our luggage and recheck from international to Domestic. It took an hour just to get all our luggage rounded up. We only had two hours and had to make it through security with less than 45 minutes. We made it, the plane was delayed 15-20 minutes so all was well. We made it back to DFW, rounded up our luggage again, and met our neighbor Don Moore that was there to meet us. I had him bring my truck because we had a lot of baggage with my kite board bag. We just brought too much stuff too so next time, we pack much lighter. Home about 9pm and Old Fashions are in order, we drain my Woodford, chat it up with Wes and Don, the. off to bed by 10:30pm. A great trip, one for the books, or I should say YouTube, coming soon...
Today was our last full day in Dominican Republic. The family had to go back to work so we slept in late and spent a couple hours packing our bags. We brought way too much stuff, we will not do that again. Besides the kite bag, we have 4 suitcases in which 2 are 50lbs, way too much. Ilsa got home from work just after 1pm so off we went for hair cuts and pedicures. Ilsa and Yoli got pedicures yesterday so it was my turn to get a pedi while they got hair cuts. We then went for ice cream at Valentino's, yum. Back to the hotel for a couple hour rest up, then back to Ilsa and Fernandos. We decided to eat out and had some local food, and all I can say, is we have had great food here in the DR but the only thing consistent was the service, always SLOW. We had a great time in the DR in Cabarete and Santo Domingo with family. Until next time...
Today we did a road trip to Casa De Campo Marina to see a boat. This boat is the make and model of one we would like to purchase to do the great loop in the next year or two. So we are starting to narrow down our search on the type of boat we want and so far this is it. We were disappointed in the condition of the boat. It was a 2012 model so we expected it to be in excellent condition. It was in good condition, but not what we are looking for. The trip was nice and we had lunch at the marina bakery and pizza shop. They had great pastries in which we had FOUR between the three of us. Ilsa, Yoli, and I split a pizza as well from their beautiful pizza oven. We had quite a bit of traffic on the way home, but no incidents, so all was well and a great day in the DR.
We met up with Ilsa and Fernando Gonzales, Yoli's Cousin is Ilsa, but I think of Fernando as Uncle Fernando, he is 74 and a wise man. He is still working as a consult for companies globally that due business in Dominican Republic. We spent the afternoon Saturday just hanging out and catching up on family stuff. They all chipped in and had nice rice & Chicken mix. Sunday for lunch, we headed to the 100 year old country club that Fernando has belonged to since 1967 and further back his father as well. He knows everyone in town or at least who's who at the club. After we had a wonderful dinner that Otto and Anna-Gabby their son and his fiance joined in, we went home and talked business, bitcoin, real estate, politics. Uncle Fernando spent an hour showing me how to light and smoke a Dominican cigar. Not sure it is in my future, I was not very good at it.
We packed it in at the Villa in Cabarete this morning in preparation for our private car drive to Santo Domingo. Justin James came and picked up our rental car this morning and the private car was scheduled for 10am. The AirBnB hosts showed up at 9:45 to check out out. A brand new 12 passenger Toyota van showed up for our ride, how sweet. We loaded our way over packed suitcases and my kite board bag in the van. I will certainly not pack so much next time. We have like 5 bags which at least 3 are 50lbs each. Way to much stuff. It was a nice drive over the mountain on a very curvy road. Looked like the road had been repaved in the last year or two and was actually very nice. It was about a 4 hour drive from Cabarete to Santo Domingo and we hit some pretty intense traffic in some towns we went through. The lines on the roads and traffic lights for that matter are "Suggestions" as many don't follow or stay in their lane. We got to our hotel around 2:30pm and met up with Ilsa, Yolanda's cousin for dinner at Boga Boga. It was a nice restaurant, with white cloth napkins and table coverings and servers all wearing suits. I had pork chops, Yoli had fish, Ilsa had what looked like bean soup with blood sausage. We finished it off with brownie cake and a chocolate mousse. Ilsa lives just around the corner, so Yoli and Ilsa took their dog "Banana" for a walk and we called it a night at the Plaza Florida Hotel downtown Santo Domingo.
