On Christmas Day we flew to Miami, returning to the U.S. for the first time in more than a year and a half. We went to celebrate Fred and Carolyn Mackey's 50th wedding anniversary. All four sons and their families spent a week at Daytona Beach relaxing, exploring, playing games, and eating. We had a great time with family.
After we returned to home, I told Rick I wanted to write a blog about our trip. "Oh, boy," he said. "I can't wait to see what you're going to write." He declined to share what he was afraid I might say!
So I thought I would let Ben and Elena share about the experience, since it was their insights that were very interesting. Some of the first observations were:
Elena (shown in a picture with her cousin) got a kick out of reading all the bilingual signs in the airport. She is in first grade and already reading English and Spanish. I realized that when we left the U.S. originally in 2007 at age 4, signs were beyond her no matter what language they were written in. She would carefully read both languages and then declare, "Yep, they say the same thing!" She had fun directing us through the airport using the signs.
Ben and Elena were both impressed with the car we rented in Miami to drive to Daytona Beach. They were bummed Rick hadn't picked the RED car though. However they were very perturbed that we insisted that they wear their seat belts. (We fudge a little on that in the D.R., especially when we stuff 10 people into our Suzuki SUV.) The long 4.5 hour ride up the straight highway was the longest they had been on in YEARS. You can drive that long and longer on our island, it just happens that we haven't done it. They were both sure they would be car sick, since most roads in the mountains where we live are windy. But they were amazed at how straight, smooth and flat the highway was. They were impressed that Daddy drove 70 miles per hour also. We never go that fast in the D.R.
As we drove along we asked them what they saw that was different or interesting. Ben asked, where are all the motorcycles? We began to count them and saw 7 by the time we arrived at our hotel. Most of them were huge compared to the little bikes dominating Jarabacoa. (Also I don't think too many people go out on the highway on their bikes on Christmas Day, even in sunny Florida!)
We were quite surprised to see two people begging. "Even Americans beg, Mom?" Begging is seen some in Jarabacoa, but is a given at every intersection in the major cities here. So we had a little talk about how people suffer everywhere in the world, even in America.
The kids had HUGE grins on their faces when, after numerous forays off the freeway to find a restaurant open on Christmas Day, we stopped at a convenience store and basically ate junk food for lunch. Equally exciting was the supper at Burger King that night. Rick and were not so thrilled; we were hoping for a real meal at a restaurant we don't have in the D.R.
Lest you think that everything was amazing and stupendous to our kids, they were underwhelmed by the ocean. The Atlantic in Northern Florida in December is a lot colder than the Atlantic/Caribbean in the D.R. Ben and Elena preferred the semi-heated pool.
A Trip to the Grocery Store:
I went to the Winn-Dixie near the hotel with Ben and Elena in tow. I was a little concerned that it would be "Mommy, Mommy, can we get....." As we crossed the parking lot, Elena asked, "Mommy is this were the girl found Winn-Dixie in the movie?" Well, not exactly. Before getting a cart and beginning to shop, we did a tour of the store. It's a lot different from our little grocery stores in Jarabacoa. For one thing its cold, very bright and there is music in the background (very annoying!).
I must say I was very proud of my kids. What did they ooo and ahh about? The candy isle? No. The snack isle? No. The fruit, veggies and dairy! "Mommy, can we get grapes? Mommy, they have celery-will you make peanut butter boats? Mommy make sure to get carrots and peppers! "Grapes are expensive compared to all the local fruits and celery here is very limp. Ben and Elena eat carrots, cucumbers and peppers almost every day so they couldn't imagine a week without them. They begged for frozen peas and corn. They also begged for frozen pizza! Fresh milk, pre-sliced American cheese, cheese sticks, and blueberry yogurt topped the list as well. I have to say I was very proud that they didn't try to fill the cart with junk food. There is plenty of junk food in the D.R. if only their mother would buy it!
I laughed when Elena dragged me to the canned beans isle and licked her lips saying, "Please, mommy will you make us rice and beans this week?" We settled for rotisserie chicken from the deli which tastes sort of like Dominican chicken. And we happy to see that the deli even had "moro" (black beans and rice).
We really enjoyed our time in the US. It was so good to see family. We think it had been about 5 years since Rick and his brothers had been together. Celebrating our parents 50th Anniversary brought us together, hopefully this will happen again before their 100th anniversary!
