Of Lost Luggage, Rubber Bands and Sandy Beaches...Or A Honeymooner's Tale

Macie and I have been married for a little over a month now. So far, it has been an adventure. While we were dating, Macie often joked of making me a t-shirt that said "Ice cream eaters make better lovers!" Lately, I have been thinking of what a t-shirt that I made for her would say. I have come to the conclusion that her t-shirt would probably say in big bold letters across the front "Survivor" which I would probably cross out and write "Thriver" in sharpie.

The truth is that I really love this woman and I often feel like shouting her praises from the rooftops. Seeing, however, that our home is surrounded mostly by orchards and spacious fields, I think that more people would hear if I shouted it into the proverbial abyss that is the internet. That being said, let me tell you a couple of the reasons why I love my wife so much.

Mostly, I can’t believe how resilient she is. It seems like trial after trial can be heaped upon her but she somehow always rebounds. Things didn’t exactly go smoothly for her during our engagement. As if having to once again retake the math class of doom wasn’t enough, she got Bell’s Palsy mere days before we were supposed to take our engagement pictures. The way she was able to greet with a smile a setback that would reduce many would-be brides to tears was nothing short of inspirational.

Anyhow, in the midst of all of our pre-wedding plans, I realized that it was my job to make sure we had a place to go on our honeymoon. I thought about this for a while. I wanted to go somewhere that would be exciting and memorable and the best place I could think of was Latin America. So I went to my travel agent to see what kind of deals they were running and the best deal in Latin America we found was for an all-inclusive five star beach resort in the Dominican Republic. We paid next to nothing for our stay there at the resort, so I felt like we would be able to afford the plane tickets. “Besides,” thought I, “it will be a great way to see how Macie reacts to a people and culture I love so much.”

Since I had never personally been to the Dominican Republic, I realized that I had some studying to do about it. I went online to get an idea of where this resort was located and to learn a little bit more about it. I came to find out that there was an airport somewhere near the resort but unfortunately it didn’t show up that much on cheaptickets.com so I booked a flight to the capital city. “After all,” I again thought to myself, “how long can a quarter-of-an-inch drive across this island country really take?” So we made our preparations and decided to fly into Santo Domingo. I also found that it was cheaper to fly down on Delta and then get a plane back on JetBlue.

Well as luck would have it we ended up having a flawless wedding day. It seemed as though the very heavens were stayed just long enough for us to finish the day. As it turned out though, we ended up paying for it in spades on our honeymoon.

After leaving our wedding dinner, we realized that Macie’s car had clutch problems so we scrambled to find another mode of transportation to our Salt Lake hotel where we would stay the night. After finding a car, we had no sooner left the city of Orem when we found ourselves in the midst of a torrential downpour which followed us all the way to the airport. Fortunately for me, Macie was praying for me the whole way up. Therefore we made it there alive.

The next morning the real fun began. We hopped on our flight out at 8:30 am. Everything was smooth for the entire flight. We had to hurry to make our connection in Atlanta. When we arrived in Santo Domingo, the flight attendant got over the loud speaker and told us that some of the bags for this flight didn’t make it and that customs had a list of those who hadn’t received them. An hour and a half later, we found out that my bags made it, but Macie’s didn’t make the flight. The baggage represenatatives assured us that her bags would arrive at our resort by Sunday. Unfortunately for us, today was Friday.

After leaving the terminal to meet our taxi driver I realized (somewhat to my chagrin) that it was dark and we had to travel all the way across this third world country. Upon meeting our taxi driver, we found out that a four hour drive awaited us. We got in the taxi and after two quick stops at an ATM and then a sketchy neighborhood to pick up the taxista’s brother-in-law we were off.

We arrived at the resort at about midnight and checked in. Honestly, it was a miracle we made it alive because our headlights kept going out randomly in the middle of the freeway. There waiting for us was a midnight buffet and an air conditioned room that we found was to our liking.

The next morning, we took to the beachside shops to try and find Macie at least a swimming suit so that we could do stuff until her luggage arrived. Unfortunately, there isn’t what you might call a large market for one piece swimming suits in the DR so we had to settle for a black string bikini and a bright orange wrap to go over it.
So there we were at this beautiful beach and all Macie had were the clothes on her back, this little bikini, a wrap, and a rubber band to do her hair with every day. That was it for her. Truthfully, she looked stunning.

On Sunday, we decided to go to church at a ward the next city over. Personally, I think that this was one of my wife’s shining moments. She wrapped that bright orange and yellow wrap into a skirt, put on her green shirt that she wore on the airplane and she and I went to church. We had a great time. After spending 20 bucks on a fifteen minute taxi ride there, however, we decided to take the bus back.

Busses (or güagüas as the Dominicans call them) are often times little more than modified mini vans into which twelve or more people are crammed. This is a far less comfortable way to travel but at 20 cents a person, it’s manageable.

We enjoyed the rest of our stay at the resort snorkeling, swimming, and kayaking. One day we even went on a back roads ATV ride through the sugar cane fields. All in all, it was a great time.

When it came time to leave the resort, we decided to again save a bit of money and take the bus back. We found the bus ride back to the capital city was much more enjoyable than our taxi ride to the resort. Anyhow, our last night we made arrangements to stay at the hostel next to the temple there.

When we got there, it felt like going home. Suddenly all the worries and stresses were gone. That afternoon we went to a temple session and enjoyed dinner across the street.

The next morning we got up to go to the airport at 2:30 am. When we got there, we found that there wasn't anyone there to check our bags. Three hours later (when the flight was supposed to leave) we realized that the flight was canceled. Too bad no one told us anything.

After finally getting seats on the flight the following morning, we returned to the temple compound broke and with yet another day to spend in paradise. As we waited for the temple housing office to open up so we could , a white haired woman came by and struck up a conversation. We told her what we were doing there and found out that she was there with her husband serving a mission.

Anyhow, this couple took us in and fed us all three meals and showed us all the sights there are to see in Santo Domingo. It was awesome.

As we finally caught our flight home the next morning, I sat and stared out the window at the clouds and realized that I am easily the luckiest man in the world. Through all this adventure, my dear wife took everything in stride; even better...SHE SURVIVED LATIN AMERICA!! I knew she was the woman of my dreams!