Sunday, 2020 March 15

I slept almost eleven hours, not waking up until around 0700. That, quite literally, never happens - I'm usually lucky if I get more than six hours of sleep. Krista also slept quite well, and quite late.

After a leisurely morning we went to breakfast. This is served at the main buffet, and was a very nice spread. They had a bit of everything, but (as is typical) I concentrated on the meats and a few other things.

The bacon was probably the best I've ever had (which is saying something, as I'm quite partial to the bacon I make myself). The flavor was quite good, but they cook it somehow to make it almost melt-in-the-mouth tender. I don't know how many strips I ate, but I'm sure it was more than I should have. I'm hoping to figure out how to combine my homemade bacon with their cooking style to make truly unbeatable bacon once we get home.

Beyond that, there were some other standouts. The black coffee was quite good (and I'm someone who doesn't generally like the taste of coffee). The fresh fruit was delicious, particularly the pineapple. They also had zucchini rounds that were scooped out and stuffed with an egg-and-cheese mixture. I liked the idea, but it was inconsistently executed. The key seemed to be in the ratio. If I could do this consistently, I think this concept could be extended to any number of summertime appetizers.

There was also a local sausage, which I was honestly not a huge fan of. Plus a black rice pudding sausage which, while weird, grew on me. It's a very unique flavor and texture, though.

This was a very lazy day - basically, after breakfast we went back to the room, gathered up some stuff, and then found a two-person seat on the beach. (I'm not sure what it's called - it was basically a large gourd-shaped structure.) We read, relaxed, and people-watched for probably a good five or six hours. We also, of course, had a few drinks. I had a couple beers plus my first mojito of the trip - that is my official vacation drink. Krista tried the piƱa colada and found it quite good as well. I was much smarter than I had been in St. Thomas and applied sunscreen liberally. About the only places I was a little worried were my upper lip and chin - my hat didn't provide much protection when I was laying back.

We went back to the snack bar a couple times - conveniently, it was located about fifteen feet behind our seats (the downside was that I was smelling grilled food all afternoon, which made me very hungry). Krista liked the roasted chicken even better than I did the day before, so I started looking for recipes. Once we get back I'm going to start with this recipe and see what happens. She also liked the crispy wings (the other chicken dish), but clearly the roasted chicken is the standout.

We headed back to the room to clean up - our original plan had been to go out. But, once we were "in", we decided neither one of us really wanted to go back out. We called up room service and ordered a club sandwich with fries for me, and a burger with fries for Krista. (Plus they brought water, Diet Coke, and wine.) Once again, Krista's choice was superior - the club was solid but uninspired, while the burger was delicious.

I had been confused about the time this entire trip. I finally figured out why at some point this afternoon. When we booked this trip, the Dominican Republic had been four hours ahead of Seattle because it's on Atlantic Standard time. However, when we arrived it was apparently only three hours ahead. It turns out that this is because the Dominican Republic stopped observing daylight savings time in the 1970s, so when the US "sprang forward" the time difference dropped an hour. (Editorial aside: daylight savings time is fucking stupid and should be abolished everywhere. Bravo, DR.)

We took a couple quick showers to get off the last of the beach sand, then went to bed. Krista was asleep by 2000, while I stayed up reading until around 2140.

Saturday, 2020 March 14 Monday, 2020 March 16