Ted's year end early new year update, Pt. 1

Hey guys.  Apologies for starting a post and then not finishing it until several weeks later rendering it obselete—and ancient by internet standards—on arrival.  I've done this a few times, and I still have some stuff that I need to update from this summer.

First a digression: when I started this post, I'm was cruising above central Florida at around 39,000 feet and 445 knots, using free holiday wifi.  I continue to be impressed by how our lives keep progressing towards total, constant connection.  This would have been unheard of a few years ago.

Anyway the point of this post is to give an update on what I've been up to the past few days, weeks, and months.  Why was I on an airplane over Florida?  Well I was on my way to Minnesota from the Dominican Republic where my sister just had her wedding ceremony.  I've told some of you about this but this is probably news to some of you that I haven't talked to very recently, which is a sign that we need to catch up.



My sister and her now husband got together over 5 years ago now, and got engaged during the spring.  After wavering on wedding plans for a while they finally decided a few months ago that they wanted to do a low key, destination wedding before the end of the year.  This seemed like a good plan to me since it meant that I got a free vacation.

The location that they chose was the Casa Colonial in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.  We arrived last Friday, and I hit the beach soon after checking in.  The hotel is part of the Playa Dorada resort complex, so it's very much an enclave for first world vacationers in a third world country.  Although it's not the top end DR location anymore, I was struck by the disparity of wealth and lifestyle between us vacationers and the local population which waited on us and sold us their wares.

As an example, anytime we wanted to lay out on a beach chair, an attendant would quickly come over just before we sat down to lay out towels for us and move chairs, tables, and umbrellas around.  The constant attending was strange for me since it's not the kind of vacation that I'm used to or like taking.  But the economy is largely based on tourism, and even just a few dollars in tips is very much appreciated.

Although most everyone speaks some English, I took a few opportunities to see what I remembered of my years of Spanish classes.  My verdict was that I would be able to limp by if I could only converse in Spanish, although I could barely catch a word when they were speaking quickly (at regular pace for them).  This wasn't helped by their tendency to drop the endings of a lot of words, although it did make deciding between formal and informal tenses kind of a moot point.

Overall, my stay at the resort was superbly relaxing and enjoyable.  The weather was about 75 degrees every day, generally sunny in the morning, turning to partly cloudy in the afternoon, with only a slight chance of drizzle after the sun had already set.

The amenities at the resort were excellent.  And the chef at the restaurant was fantastic. I dined very well.

We found some descent snorkeling near an island off the point on the opposite side of the bay from all the resorts.

The tide was low the first time we went, making sharp coral and sea urchins a real hazard.  My dad and I tried going back during higher tide.  I brought my camera that time, but the snorkeling was actually worse since the breakers didn't stop the swells anymore.  I tried to take a few videos of the fish but it was difficult.  This is the best that any of them turned out:

My only real issue was the fact that staying at the resort sheltered us away from the rest of the Dominican Republic.  I like to be able to explore when I go someplace new and it was a little difficult to do so.  I did get to explore Puerto Plata a bit and got some wonderful, locally made extra viejo rum—it's almost like a good whisky—for a little over $10 a liter.

But mostly my sister and brother-in-law chose the location as a relaxing retreat from their hectic lives running a web design firm and opening a coffee shop.  I can't blame them for that and they certainly picked an excellent spot to do it.  And I appreciated the down time as well.

So now I've told you everything about my trip except for the reason that I actually went there, the wedding ceremony.  They told the resort planner that they wanted to be facing out towards the beach when they said their vows, and then she took care of most of the rest.  The ceremony was short and sweet, and afterward there were a lot of photos—I don't have any of them yet, but the scenery around the resort and the lighting as the sun dipped down was awesome and the photographer was amazing so I'm sure they'll be some really good ones.  Afterwards, we had a delicious dinner right next to the beach with some surprise fireworks.  Overall a pretty good way to do a wedding.

Oh, and if you're wondering—as most people seem to—I do like my new brother-in-law, so no worries there.

After all this I headed back to the freakishly unfrozen tundra of Minnesota for the rest of my break, but I'll tell you about that and other goings on in another post.