Dominica to San Juan to New York to Utah

Stephen is finished with his first year of medical school! He is officially a second year Medical Student. It has been tough but he has done so well. I am very proud of him. Unlike Christmas break when we stayed on the Island for about a week before coming home, we left this time the day after finals. We couldn't wait any longer for a much needed break from school and especially the Island.
Like always it is a frustrating adventure leaving Dominica. We headed home on the 23rd of April and chose to use the airline seaborne in hopes that we wouldn't have a horrible repeat of Christmas break. We spent that morning packing up last minute things to be moved to our new apartment and then headed for the airport. Going through security was fine, besides the fact that they took away my comb and a beautiful conk shell we had found by the ocean. The worker said my comb could be used as a weapon and then demonstrated how. She then said the conk shell was considered a rock of Dominica and couldn't leave. We were pretty furious and then saw over a hundred conk shells outside the airport that I'm assuming came from other disappointed people leaving the Island.
When boarding came we all made our way outside to get on the plane and waited for a while. Then we were all asked to come back inside to wait for a while. They moved everyone from our plane to one side of the airport and when one student left to the other side to talk to some friends they moved him and said we couldn't cross a certain line. We all felt a little like we were prisoners. Then they individually checked each of us and all of our personal items before letting us all on the plane. They were throwing out everyone's chapsticks and lipglosses until one girl passed around a ziplock baggie for everyone to put theirs in. As long as it was in a bag while being checked it was fine. Once we were done being checked we could take it out of the baggie. It was quite ridiculous honestly. Finally we all got on the plane after having been checked multiple times and Stephen joked that this was the safest flight he has ever been on. After saying that the flight attendant made two people on the very back row move because of balance issues during the flight. We didn't feel quite as safe after that; but we survived and made it to San Juan.
Once we got to San Juan we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the San Juan Intercontinental Resort and Hotel. It was incredible. If we ever stay in San Juan again we will definitely stay there. We had a door man bring up our bags and he was the nicest guy ever. I'm not really sure how to describe how awesome this guy was but I'll just say we left him a pretty awesome tip. We absolutely love the people in San Juan. They are all so welcoming and kind. We ate dinner at this awesome little place and had authentic Puerto Rican food. After dinner we headed to the pool area and it was again incredible. We sort of regretted not staying there for a few days. The next morning we saw a little bit of Old San Juan. It was pretty early in the morning before all the shops opened up but it was fun to see before heading to the airport. Flying to New York and then to Utah went very smoothly. We made it home on the 24th at midnight. Two long days of traveling but finally made it home!

Old San Juan

All the conk shells

Stuck in the very back to New York and Utah.