Our Home Away From Home
Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ching under Travel.
This is where are resting our heads this week.
Not much privacy but you can’t beat the location. We are on the far West end of the resort, where it’s quieter and there’s not as much traffic.
We have our very own lounge chairs and we’re just a few steps from the beach.
La Piña is right by our room. This is a bar but it’s not like the other bars. They only serve fresh pineapple and fresh coconut drinks and only on specific days. It closes at 5 pm so the noise factor isn’t an issue. And they actually shut down early when they’re out of stuff. The thing to remember is that the pineapple and coconut drinks aren’t included in the all-inclusive package. The pineapple and coconut drinks are actually $1 for the non-alcoholic version or $2 with booze so, if you venture out this way looking for one of the fancy drinks, don’t forget to bring cash.
There are a couple of outdoor showers right outside our room. It’s actually come in handy several times. We’ve made good use of them.
The sidewalk spans the length of both Barcelo properties: Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe (the main complex and family area) and Barcelo Bavaro Beach (the adults only side).
Here are a few more pictures of the resort.
This is the beach that is directly in front of the Barcelo Bavaro Beach pool area.
Orange towels represent the adults only side. The Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe guests get yellow beach towels. We’re allowed to play on their side but they’re not allowed on our side. Thank heavens for that!
There are a lot of people staying here but the beach never feels crowded.
The beach on our side never feels crowded anyway. It’s a different story on Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe side. There are people everywhere. You can’t escape them.
You don’t have a choice but to go over there though, because that’s where you get equipment like kayaks, pedal boats, etc. for water sports.
The pool was really crowded on Sunday, but nothing compared to the family side. They have a much bigger pool and it’s always crowded. At least on our side we’ve only seen it super packed one day. On the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe side it’s packed everyday.
There are several lobby areas so be specific when meeting someone.
No worries if you are not so fond of taking long walks or if you get lost because there are trains that make several stops throughout the Barcelo complex. There’s one every 15 minutes (sometimes sooner, and sometimes more than one). The trains run until 4 am, we’re told. We’ve not tested it though.
Anyway, it’s getting late and almost time for bed. I will write more about our vacation next time. Check back soon.
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Journey to Punta Cana
Posted on June 8, 2014 by Ching under Travel.
The trip to Punta Cana was smooth and uneventful. Other than that it was our first time flying in first/business class seats, there were no major hiccups or surprises. Since it’s a first, I naturally have to document it. LOL.
This is Brian making sure that our passports are put away.
When you are flying out of the country they check your passport at the gate. We didn’t think we would need it for the domestic leg (ICT to ATL) but they actually asked to see our passports when we were boarding. It makes sense. If you have forgotten your passport it’s better to know before you’re hundreds of miles away from home. If you don’t realize it until you’re at your connecting airport with only minutes to spare, what are you going to do? I’m sure there’s many other reasons why they check your passport from the start even when you’re still in the US, but I’m thinking that avoiding angry passengers who are unable to make their connection because they forgot their passports at home is probably a big one.
Brian picked our seats so we were in the very first row. Bulkhead seats are great if you want lots of leg room. There is no under-seat storage, however; so factor this in if you want easy access to your bags.
Oh, and notice the pillows and blanket. Throughout my years of flying I have experienced where you got food and blankets on economy/coach (it was standard back in the day) and then over the years service dwindled to where you rarely even get peanuts. On one of our recent trips (we flew coach because we are too cheap to pay for upgraded seats) I was cold and I asked the flight attendant for a blanket. The flight attendant told me they didn’t have any. I guess they were just too nice to say, “We don’t have any FOR YOU” because everyone in first class got a pillow and a blanket on our recent flights.
Actually it probably depends on the airline. I remember asking for a blanket on coach once and the flight attendant gave me one. I’m sure they probably just took one from first class or maybe they had extras. But then they wouldn’t have enough for everyone so maybe that’s why they quit doing it. Who knows?
Here are some aerial views of Wichita.
The extra leg room came in handy. I’m actually short enough that I can stretch out completely. They just need little pegs on the wall to hold my feet up.
The perks of first class also include free drinks. They didn’t have any champagne on our ICT to ATL flight and it was a little early for a screwdriver so I just got plain OJ. You can get OJ in coach too, but it’s served in a plastic cup instead of a regular glass like this one.
Here’s a picture of us on our ATL to PUJ flight.
This flight had champagne and they offered us mimosas before we could even get our luggage put up in the overhead bins. I’m not turning down mimosas. I got two. Just kidding. The other one is Brian’s.
Lunch enroute to Punta Cana was actually not bad.
The inflight entertainment included Veronica Mars. Neither of us had seen that movie. We hadn’t seen any of the TV show either but we’d heard of it. The movie made the three hour flight go pretty quickly.
Here are a series of pictures that I took from the air. Hurrah for window seats!
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Tanya’s Soup Kitchen
Posted on June 7, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It had been a while since we’ve been to Tanya’s Soup Kitchen and I’d almost forgotten how much I love their food. I was reminded when we ate there for lunch on Thursday. It was Brian’s pick.
Brian got the Junie, which is what he always gets there. It’s like a Cuban sandwich, his favorite sandwich to get anywhere. He also always gets the tomato bisque. I don’t normally like tomato bisque because it’s too tomato-ey for me most of the time; however, Tanya’s is really good. I love the flavor and consistency of it.
I got the City Chicken with the cheesy potato soup. I like the City Chicken because it’s a lot like the Garbo at Caffe Moderne except without artichokes. I actually can’t decide which I like better between the City Chicken and the Garbo. They are both very good.
Here’s a picture of my lunch. It was so delicious. This picture does not do it justice. If you are ever in the Wichita area or if you live in Wichita, you must go to Tanya’s!
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Eating Out
Posted on June 7, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We really have to get our eating out under control when we return home. Here are some pictures from dining out over the last few days leading up to our vacation.
These are from Old Mill Tasty Shop. We had to get a turtle!
The next day Cari roped us into Bang Wednesday at Bonefish.
We had to get dessert of course. It’s not everyday that they offer strawberry shortcake. I just can’t resist dessert.
We have to buckle down once we’re back in Wichita, though. I look terrible in my clothes and my thighs are so much bigger than they have been in the last couple of years. I know it’s all the eating out and all the desserts I’ve eaten catching up to me. It’s time to get serious!
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Filipino Food Feast
Posted on June 2, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We hosted a dinner party at our house on Saturday so that I could introduce my new friend Kristine to Brian and mom and dad. I met her at Wichita Business Journal’s BizWomen Mentoring Monday event several weeks ago. She emigrated from the Philippines also so we instantly connected. We met up for lunch once day and decided that we should get together on a weekend so that our families could meet. She is married and has two beautiful daughters.
My friend Jan was able to join us also so that was a real treat. I hadn’t seen Jan in months. It was nice to be able to catch up.
Of course, I got pictures of all the food but forgot to take pictures of people. Oh, well. Maybe next time. I’ve already decided that I want to have another one of these parties and I want to bring all of the Filipino people I know together so they can all meet. I think that would be fantastic. We could have Zumba party in the driveway and really drive our neighbors crazy.
Speaking of, the house next to us just sold. I think it went on the market on Thursday and it’s already sold so it wasn’t even for sale for a week. I hope the new neighbors are nice or, at the very least, tolerant. Brian and I can be kind of odd.
But I digress, here’s the food pictures with brief descriptions.
Kristine made Filipino spaghetti. You can always tell Filipino spaghetti from regular spaghetti because we add red hotdogs. The sauce we use is also very sweet compared to regular spaghetti sauce.
She also made chicken tinola. I hadn’t had chicken tinola in years. It was very good.
We had some chicken tenders mostly for Kristine’s six year old or anyone else who might have wanted some American food. I think we meant to get chicken nuggets at the store for the kids, but somehow ended up with chicken tenders because that’s what we had in the fridge but we kept referring to it as chicken nuggets all night. LOL.
Mom made kinilaw with salmon. I couldn’t tell you what it’s like because I don’t eat that stuff. It’s probably very good, but it’s just one of those dishes that I grew up avoiding. I’m convinced that I don’t like it through, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t really know because I’ve never tried it.
Mom made lumpia. We didn’t end up with any of it left here at home. When we took some food to grandma she was really disappointed that we didn’t have any leftover lumpia for her. It’s her favorite Filipino food.
Brian made apricot pork roast in the crockpot. I felt really bad because I didn’t know (or if I knew, I forgot) that Paul couldn’t have pork or beef. Beef wasn’t really an issue because we don’t eat much beef in our household but we eat a lot of pork.
We had Reby, Aaron, Jay, and Becca over for dinner a few weeks ago and we served our creamy chicken dish that we eat with rice. After the party Brian and I agreed that had we known about the pork situation we could have served the pork to Reby, Aaron, Jay, and Becca, and then made the chicken dish on Saturday night. I guess we’ll know to plan better for next time.
I made fruit salad with coconut. It’s one of my most favorite desserts. I’d eat a gallon of it in one sitting if I could. Of course, I wouldn’t because that would be very bad. Even though the dessert is made with fruit, it’s not the healthiest choice. It’s got heavy cream, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk so it’s got a lot of sugar.
Kristine made buko pandan, which I’d never had before. It consists of coconut and gelatin cubes. She said you would normally use green gelatin but the store ran out of green so she used red. I wouldn’t have known the difference.
This dish is great by itself but I had the brilliant idea to mix it with my fruit salad and it was amazing. The red gelatin turned the fruit salad pink and added an interesting texture. I think it made it ten times better. I’m thinking next time I make the fruit salad I’m going to add gelatin cubes.
That’s pretty much it for the pictures. I hope someone reminds me to take pictures of the guests next time. Pictures of food are great but they get old after a while.
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