It was Thanksgiving break and we wanted to take Hazel to the beach with Granny again. We did some research and ultimately decided on Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We could get there in a single day of travel, with no overnight layovers, and it was extremely affordable.
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| Hazel was excited |
We stayed at a beachfront resort with several pools, nice gardens, and palm trees scattered along the beach. Each morning, we would get dressed in our swimsuits and find either a cabana by one of the pools or head straight to the beach and find some shade under a palm tree.
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| Hazel playing on the slides in the little kids pool |
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| Our favorite section of the beach right next to the wedding venue |
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| Hazel loved playing in the sand |
We had just settled in when a local lady offered to braid our hair. Hazel really wanted hers done and I love the simplicity of not having to deal with constant tangles from the wind and water. While Angie braided our hair, we chatted about the area and learned that she had moved to the Dominican Republic from Haiti for safety reasons.
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| Angie braided our hair on the beach |
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| Hazel was proud of her braids |
Hazel really loves playing in the sand and we built several huge and fun sand castles on the beach. Each day it seemed we had to add something more extravagant. We started with a basic piles of sand dumped out of buckets, then progressed to pyramids and multitiered designs with shapes and animals, water features, tunnels, moats, and patterns in the surrounding sand.
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| Hazel would work all day on the sandcastles and never get tired of it |
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| Once they got too tall for Hazel to reach, Dad would have to shape the top part |
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| Granny would come down to the beach and enjoy the water |
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| Hazel always took the lead and encouraged us to build with her once she got started |
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| Hazel wasn't tired after building one castle, so she built another baby castle next to the first one |
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| Hazel got to be good using the sand shapers by the end of the week |
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| Of course, part of the fun of building sandcastles is stomping on them at the end of the day |
Justin enjoyed playing in the shallow waves and invented a game called "huge" that Hazel loved. Basically, they would wade into the water and wait for a big wave and then she would yell huge and Justin would fly her up into the air over the giant wave and crash into the water on the backside. She laughed and laughed and wanted to play far more than our backs could handle.
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| Justin and Hazel headed into the water |
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| Hazel is ready to fly over the wave |
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| "HUGE" |
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| So much fun enjoying the ocean |
Justin and I went on a diving excursion to a nearby reef named Coral Gardens. We took a small boat out and a gentleman from Germany joined us. Having just been in Curaçao earlier in the year, neither of us was super impressed, but we did see some interesting fish including a sting ray, a turtle, a lionfish and a bunch of other fish and corals. There was a lot of surge and the ocean was rough making the visibility poor. Justin got sick and decided not to do the second dive with us. Later that afternoon, one of the boats that was moored along the beach started taking on water from the rough waves and a dozen tourists along with a few guys from the dive shop ran out there and pulled it into shore to keep it from totally sinking.
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| There were cool statues at the ranch where we went horseback riding |
Horseback riding was one of the highlights of the trip. Hazel had first shown interest in horseback riding earlier in the summer when we were visiting Glacier National Park in the US. When I had inquired about it at that time, Hazel was well below their age limit and the cost was far more than I thought was reasonable. This time, in the DR, there was no age restriction, and the cost was extremely fair. A driver picked us up at our resort and drove us north to Rancho Macao. It wasn't clear what all was done at this ranch, but there were lots of horses, some of which were working by carrying wood around or doing other things. A ranch hand saddled up a couple of horses and took us on a trail through the rainforest that eventually led to the beach. Once on the beach, he let us go. Justin, who was riding a horse named Pedro tried to pass Hazel and I, on Principe. Principe wasn't going to let that happen and took off in a full gallop. We were bouncing out of the saddle and Hazel started laughing so hard that our guide stopped us just to make sure she was okay. We laughed some more and assured him that she was definitely enjoying herself and he let us continue on as fast as we wished. When we came to the edge of a resort, we turned around and explored some more in the other direction before returning to the ranch.
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| Hazel loved riding Principe and even managed the reins herself part of the time |
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| We had a private ride. It was just the three of us with a guide. He wasn't a traditional guide, he mostly trailed behind and was just there if we needed help or directions. |
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| Enjoying the horseback riding on the beach |
We enjoyed time around the resort. Although we didn't participate in many of the things they had going on, we did go to archery one morning where I won a bottle of rum.
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| Justin at the archery range |
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| Laura won the contest by getting closest to the bullseye out of maybe 20-25 other participants. We got three arrows each. |
One afternoon while we were lounging by the pool, they brought out these inflatable jet skis. Hazel had a lot of fun riding them around the pool. It was a little like bumper boats with all the little kids on jet skis. She also invented another game to entertain herself and help her practice swimming; she would throw her beach toys into the pool and she would have to swim to them. Sometimes there are 12 or 13 out there at once and she would keep swimming continuously until she retrieved them all and brought them over to the side.
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| Hazel riding the inflatable jet skis |
