They say, metaphorically speaking, that the honeymoon is soon over for newlywed couples, but I recently learned that the honeymoon is quickly over in a literal sense.
The days that followed my nuptials passed like a blur. Amber and I were married on a Saturday. Sunday was spent rolling out of bed before the hotel-mandated noon checkout and eventually making our way to my parents’ house to open gifts. Monday was a very short day reserved for packing.
I say short day because our flight to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic was scheduled to leave around 6 a.m. on Tuesday. That meant our airport shuttle driver — he also answers to the moniker ‘Dad’ — would arrive at our apartment at 2:30 a.m. Of course, New England and New Orleans played on Monday night football, and I stayed up for most of the Saints’ blowout victory.
Needless to say, we were dog tired heading into our flights from Chicago O’Hare to Charlotte Douglas and then onto Punta Cana International. By the time we arrived at the lovely Ocean Blue Golf and Beach Resort, I could barely keep my eyes open as our guy Alfredo at the front desk gave us a welcome. We eventually got to our junior suite and went right to bed — and not in the sense some might expect.
By the next day, we were more refreshed and ready to enjoy ourselves ... at least once we completed our “welcoming tour” (which was nothing more than a way for us to be pressured into purchasing future amenities from the hotel chain). We eventually got to our lovely stretch of beach, which is where we spent the bulk of our non-sleeping time the rest of the trip.
There were plenty of other activities on our resort in case we got sick of the ocean. Calling Ocean Blue a resort sells it a bit short — it’s more like a miniature commonwealth. It includes 10 different hotel buildings or villas, none of which is more than three stories high to comply with the Punta Cana regulations against having hotels that stand higher than the tallest palm tree.
Each of the resort’s two pools came equipped with a bar — and they were only two of the 10 bars located on the grounds. One was located near the theater at which musicals were performed each night, and another was inside of the disco, which was open until the wee hours. It was not, however, open as late as the sports bar, which served hamburgers, hot dogs and etc. until it closed around sunrise.
During more traditional dining hours, we had no less than seven restaurants to choose from. One served the best lobster I’ve ever had on the beach, and another was an authentic Dominican restaurant.
There was a standard buffet and other themed diners — including one called Route 66, which served American food. That was the only restaurant that didn’t require an additional charge which we avoided.
Ocean Blue boasts a bowling alley, a casino and free rentals of beach items like boogey boards and pails and shovels (not that I would know about the last part, of course). If you wanted, you could depart the resort for one of several excursions. Amber and I did just that to swim with dolphins, and were also set to go zip lining ... until I realized how high off the ground you’d need to get to do so.
As for the weather, it was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny every day, and usually not cooler than about 75 at night. It did rain twice. The first time lasted all of 30 seconds or so. The second was enough to chase us from the pool up to our room ... but the rain stopped after 20 minutes or so, and the sun was immediately beating back down on the area.
Weather was, however, the reason for the one down part of our honeymoon. We got back to Charlotte fine on our departure day, but we were stuck there for about 3 hours past our scheduled takeoff time back to O’Hare. The reason was that no flights were being allowed into sweet home Chicago due to snow and ice. Finally, long after everything had been closed at Douglas Airport and we thought we might be stuck there overnight with nothing to eat but stale U.S. Airways granola bars, we re-boarded and made it home.
Even turbulence for the entire 2 hours from Charlotte to Chicago couldn't dampen an otherwise fantastic honeymoon. Great food, great fun and a great girl helped make it an experience I'll certainly never forget. And while I was initially happy to be home because I missed my dog, my family and friends and my Blackhawks, I'm now very, very ready to go back. Unfortunately, the honeymoon is indeed over.
Mark Johnson is a sports writer for the Morris Daily Herald. He can be reached at (815) 942-3221 x 2027 or by e-mail at mjohnson@morrisdailyherald.com