Spring Break 2017 Self-Review and Possible Travel Tips for Those Living Near Canada

Mom and Tristan hanging out poolside...

So another Spring Break came and went, and once again, my mother joined the kids, Thomas and me to our little house in the hills of Cabrera, Dominican Republic.  The weather was AWESOME! Perfect.  I'm so glad my order came through... gracias, madre naturaleza! Bad Spanish...sorry...

For those of you who might have been tuning in for my driving in the DR post, it's a work in progress. This summer we will be flying into Santo Domingo and going to IKEA and nuestra ferretería favorita ferretería americana in the shopping center Galería 360. There's another one nearby but as you will see from my 'driving' post later, "nearby" can be hours away in SD traffic! Not to mention take years off your life due to stress! I will take many photos where particular turns, roads, etc. are located and post a 'drive through' of sorts...back to Spring Break 2017 debrief...

Just like last year, my mom drove down and we all hopped into the mini-van and drove from Metro Detroit to Toronto, Ontario because Canadians get all the perks!!!  Seriously, just compare where their 700 airlines fly to our 4 and you will be ashamed.  I get it. They live in Canada, there has to be some perks, right?  (Like I should talk... living in Michigan...*sigh*)

No, seriously, there are some great deals to be had from Toronto and it's a 4 hour drive from us.  We could fly in two or three legs down to Santiago or Santo Domingo...but, the layovers would be nearly as long if not longer and the drive from airport to our house longer/curvier... not advisable as we all suffer from car sickness. One direct flight to Puerto Plata landing around noon and we pick up our rental car, (We definitely need a car down there...) hit the Super Pola on the way a la casa, and settle in for first day of vacay!

fun in the surf at playa grande...picture doesn't do waves justice...

The only extra expense traveling out of Toronto instead of Detroit is two rooms for one night either the day before if it's the preferred early morning flight, or the night after should the return flight be later.  Other families might be able to fit 5 to a room, but it works better for us with two.  I also found a useful site for booking parking.  We end up parking our car for a week whether at Detroit Metro or Toronto Pearson and have found parking more expensive in Detroit. Check out globalairportparking.com  for great deals on airport parking around Toronto.  I compared the individual hotels 'sleep and park' deals (where you get to park up to 7 days for one night stay) and found they are sometimes more expensive to bundle than just booking individually.  So, my recommendation, do your homework!  On the other hand, to save $20 -$40 you may have to park your car somewhere other than the hotel you stay at...so there are trade offs to consider...

I guess the question about whether or not my mom likes our new vacation home or not is settled. She really wants to spend Spring Break there every year!  Her decades of living  in northern Michigan, however, has created some difficulties in coping with the heat, humidity and sun.  But, as I mentioned earlier, the weather was perfect...and humidity lower than I've experienced it since summer 2015. I gauge this on the fact that some unisom pills in a jar that I inadvertently packed were still in 'pill' shape when we returned.  Normally, being addicted to non-habit forming unisom I have to bring individually packaged pills.  But, I was able to use these and NOT find a big blob of congealed lumpy blue crud at the bottom of the plastic bottle upon my return home.  We have a weather station that we bought at Costco, but have yet to install it.  If it works, we should have real data about temperature, rainfall, humitidy, etc. for the casa.

Here's the family photo I finally forced us all to take right before leaving...It leaves much room for improvement...

Thomas will have to use the drone to do this next time...