Monday we were on to our Alpine Skiing even and the very last of our North American countries with Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic is the east half of the island with Hispaniola that is shares with Haiti.
If you're headed to the Dominican Republic you better be ready to party. It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean. It has not one but TWO carnival celebrations a year.
The world renowned meringue dancing that was born in Dominican Republic, has blossomed into the official dance and music of the country. Meringue clubs and drinking rum go hand in hand.
If baseball is your thing, you're in luck. The country that brought us Sammy Sosa, takes their baseball very seriously.
But, they also have a rich history. Our landmark of Zona Colonial was the first permanent settlement of the New World. After failing with their first settlement, Columbus and his men went with round two in the town that became Santo Domingo. Today it is the capital city, and you can still see the original stone of the first cathedral in the America's that was laid by Columbus's brother in 1514.
Of course, you can't mention Columbus without talking about the Taino people who once inhabited the island of Hispaniola before he brutally wiped them out, after they were hospitable to Columbus and his men.
The Dominican Republic is known as the 'Bread basket of the Caribbean' because of all it has to offer.
They're also known for their gorgeous palm-lined beaches (they often claim to have an 'endless summer)....
Excellent scuba diving, you'll find humpback whales off the coast, they travel there to give birth...
and a lush green mountainous interior, where you can find 27 separate waterfalls that come together together into limestone pools, creating nature's own waterslides.
You can check out the Amber Museum that houses the famous amber stone with a prehistoric mosquito preserved inside. (You know, the one made famous by its inspiration for Jurassic Park!)
The boys made their very last North American Postcard, how weird is that?
Calib printed out the middle of the flag, since he wanted to make his background look like the flag, but said there was no way he could draw it. His brother's argued you couldn't print anything out. I said just because nobody has done it for 189 countries didn't mean you weren't allowed.
Peyton's featured Columbus off shore in his boat.
And Hayden's featured the whales off the coast.
Before we got to our skiing event that night, we had some work to do on our skis. After we put them together Calib asked if they could spray paint them to make them more unique. Mom was happy to contribute and ended up buying them the paint so they could decorate their skis.
For Dominican Republic dinner we had Chimichurri Burgers, 'chip' (fries) for those who weren't super into the idea of Dominican Sweet Potatoes, strawberries and broccoli.
And for dessert (which took a few days to get to) King Cake, which they eat for Three Kings Day every year in January.
This meal earned six spoons up.
That was kind of a pat on the back for me, because I actually cooked most of it. Asa mixed the burger patties, but then had to take Peyton to his photography class at the library and run some errands, so I made the sweet potatoes and cooked and assembled the burgers while they were on their way back. It was a tag team type of event.
Even the people who weren't super into the sweet potatoes didn't mind them. Some even liked them! The burgers were good, though Peyton and Hayden did pick off their cabbage topping. (Peyton and mom also skipped the mayo/ketchup mixture. Mom just had ketchup, Peyton had his plain.)
And then, because we have these new fancy lights outside to help Etta at night (she gets a bit spooked), we were able to hold our Alpine Skiing event after dinner outside, even though the sun was long gone. It was a timed event where the boys had to run the course on their skis, going between the flags, and cross the crepe paper finish line.
Calib was the winner!
We held our medal ceremony for Alpine skiing.
And recorded our medals for the day.
Then we tallied it all up to find our leaders.
Since that was it for North America, we decided it was time to vote on meals for our 'best of' week. Each continent will get its own day next week, complete with a meal, Jeopardy, and 'best of' postcard collections. I complied a list of all of our 5 star dishes, and then we voted for our favorites of our favorites, to determine our meals. We pulled up my blog and used the Chromecast to cast it to the TV so everyone could remember what the dishes were. It got very heated and intense, but we think we've come up with the best of the best!
And with that, we colored in our last North American country. Dominican Republic got colored in yellow on the east half of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.
That's 190 down, only SIX to go!
Next Up: Just Curling, we took a break from the countries for a beach day!
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