Posted on July 18th, 2018

On Tuesday, July 2nd, I hopped on a plane to Dusseldorf, Germany, then another plane to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to go to one of my friend’s bachelor parties. As you might remember, Kelly was at a science conference in Nantes, France at the time, and we’d be meeting in Estes Park (near Denver, CO) for a wedding. The first flight was just an hour long, but the flight to Punta Cana was over 10 hours long – easily the longest flight I’ve ever been on, and I had a middle seat (in the last row of the plane). Because of the magic of time zones, I was able to arrive in the DR at around 6:30 pm Eastern (they are in the Eastern time zone) on the same day, even though my flight took off at 2:25 pm (Paris time).  It was pretty funny – in the morning I had to speak French, by lunch I was trying to speak German, and by dinner, I was trying to speak Spanish (and English to my friends) – 4 languages and 3 countries on 2 continents in one day!

Once I arrived, I got some money – pro tip – don’t exchange your money at the airport like I did (or at least double check the exchange rate and fees before you do), they give me a horrendous exchange rate. After a taxi, I got to the resort – it was an all inclusive resort, all the food and drinks included. It was an amazing time, and great to hang out with some very old friends and some great new ones.

The Dominican Republic is beautiful, and the weather was great every day. We even got to watch the France – Uruguay World Cup game, which, of course France won! I do wish I got to spend some more time outside of the resort, but it was really nice to just relax for a few days.

After a few days in the DR, I started my journey to Denver, Colorado (Estes Park to be exact) for a different friend’s wedding – but before I could get to Denver, I had an 10 hour layover in Miami, Florida. I had tried to meet up with some of my family there, but the timing just didn’t work out. All wasn’t lost though – I wound up going to the Wynwood neighborhood, which is most well known for it’s graffiti art. It was an amazing area – nearly every wall had beautiful art, some of the most interesting, impressive, and creative pieces of art I’ve ever seen.

I was also able to find a bar to watch the Russia – Croatia game at – which was also amazing – two scrappy teams putting it all on the line.

Then it was back to the airport, for a hour hour flight to Denver, then another hour and a half drive in a rental car to Estes Park! I ended up getting to Estes Park at 2 am on Sunday (the wedding was about 12 hours later) – but more on that in another post!