Life in the Air-plane

Earlier this afternoon I was sitting at a swim up bar in a foreign country having a discussion with a friend about having a plan for our lives. Now I'm sitting on a cramped airplane with a window seat, a cramped foot, and possibly some feminine cramps... It's no secret how much I love traveling. How sitting in the airport people watching becomes an amusing past time of mine. Going on vacation with friends is an experience many do not get to have. I have had about a dozen friend-cations, and for that I am grateful. This time I took a trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with three of my amigos. We stayed at a 4 star, all inclusive resort. We fed our bodies sunshine, good food, and many, many delicious drinks. 

Flying to the Caribbean for the first time was exciting. I've never flown over the sea before. It is one of the most beautiful sites out there. The way the water meets the sky and you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. The way the sky is so clear, that when you look out your window and see the water below, you feel like it's just a mirror image of more sky. I didn't know what it was I was looking at, but suddenly I felt at peace in the deep blue. I watched a handful of large ships float down below that looked like itty bitty toys. I watched islands stand still as we flew past at over 500mph. My favorite part was watching the shades of blue change with every inch of water that took us closer to our vacation in paradise. The way the royal blue faded into the teal, or the deep navy blended into the bold turquoise. How it got lighter on island shorelines. I stared as waves rolled in repeatedly and caused white crests as they crashed into vacant beaches thinking they never went away, they were constant and it almost looked frozen in time. 

Our first day was spent getting acquainted with the resort and our butler, we called him Josi! We took golf cart rides to and from other parts of the resort to go to the beach and other pools. Debated on which buffets to go to and whether we should make reservations at all.

On our second day there, our first full day of enjoying the beautiful island we vacated to, we got a morning rain shower. It was a heavy rain for about fifteen minutes that was somewhat serene. So much so that while my friend still lay in bed, I grabbed my iPad and started writing. Once the rain quit it was "suns out guns out" and we were ready for a day in the sunshine. Little did I know the day would end with me blacked out, missing our dinner reservation, and with a broken foot.

When I woke up the next morning, I was in so much pain with my foot that I had to miss our booze cruise. While the thought of it was exciting, I don't think I could have even handled an alcoholic beverage at the time. Leaving the resort and having the cultural experience was what I was sad to have missed. My friends went out and sipped on drinks while anchored on a sand bar. Part of their excursion was snorkeling as well! They came back to me with a good buzz ready for some time in the sun! 

I had high hopes that the next day I would use the voucher I received for $50 off a massage for sitting through a timeshare presentation for an hour.  A word to the wise, don't call it a timeshare in front of them while they're presenting it to you, they will in fact get very defensive!... So instead of using my voucher, because getting around was difficult with my bum foot, the entire day was spent soaking in as many rays as possible before dinner at the resort's Brazilian restaurant. The four of us enjoyed every last second of our final full day in the Caribbean and let our skin absorb some color. 

Throughout the hours we spent at the pool, we met an abundance of world travelers like ourselves. The majority of our new acquaintances were Canadians. So after dinner where we fed our stomachs some scrumptious food, we proceeded to meet up with four other people we had become friends with. We sat outside having drinks and learning about each other's lives at home. Once that bar shut down, we moved onto the resort's discothèque.  

The disco was a reminder of what college bars were like... Young, overly drunk people, the slight aroma of vomit and the ever so annoying sticky floors from spilled drinks. Once we got past all the negatives and the weird girl asking literally every person in the bar if they had Chapstick she could use, the 8 of us really started enjoying ourselves. Dancing, laughing, taking pictures, talking. It was more exhausting than it sounds, I promise!

Our final hours the next morning were spent picking up small gifts for family, sitting by the pool one last time to add to the pink already on our shoulders, and indulging in the buffet for lunch. Getting in the taxi to go to the airport was something I can almost guarantee that none of us wanted to do... And then we realized, we never checked out... We laughed hysterically over this. Maybe to mask the unwant of returning to the north to a town where the sun hardly shines. Or at least that's how my heart felt. I can't really speak for the other three. After all, we were leaving what some people might refer to as heaven on earth.

It's hours later, the sun is setting, there's clouds and lots of green below. I'm over land about to be greeted back into my country to make my connecting flight back to Cleveland. There's rivers and lakes and from what I can see they're not very blue. They reflect the sky above that I sit in, but they look like southern muddy water to me. A significant difference from the sea I stared into only four days prior. As we sink lower to touch ground I see homes, cars, downtown, and mountainous regions. I can find the beauty in that, but I close my eyes to visualize the deep blue sea instead. 

It's not a bad landing and then I hear, "Welcome to Charlotte ladies and gentleman"