On our way to Punta Cana

We stayed overnight at Four Points by Sheraton near the airport. We were hoping that would give us a little more time to sleep. They also let you park you car there, so you do save parking. I don't know how well the sleep thing worked out, but the parking was great.

We left the hotel at 5:00 am for our 7:00 flight. It is a good thing we did. The line to check bags at U.S. Airways was really, really long. Several flights had been cancelled and they were moving people around. But we were through in plenty of time, it was just atypical of MCI.

Our take-off was delayed, but it wouldn't be flying if we were. We actually had to return to the gate to adjust luggage in accordance with American Airlines policy. They made up the time in the air so we arrived in Charlotte and made our next flight without having to run since the departure gate was next to the arrival gate. A break for us.

The airport in Punta Cana is small and open air. It has a thatched roof and is pretty navigatable. The first thing you do is pay your $10.00 tourist tax. Long line, but moves very quickly, same with immigration. Our bags were waiting for us by the time we got to the luggage belts. They weren't marked well, so we just followed the other people from our flight, hoping they knew where they were going.

We didn't find our transportation right away. I didn't read all the directions. I was looking for blue shirts and they were actually green. At any rate we were in the van to the resort in about an hour. And we were at the hotel within another hour.

The greeting at the hotel is, "welcome family". Check-in was quick and painless. The conceirge, Roberto, greeted us and has remembered our names ever since. Pretty impressive. We were handed a glass of champagne to get us warmed up for all the drinking that ensued.

My room is in Building Three on the ground floor. I have a little patio and a hammock. If I look over the hedge, I can see the ocean. But there are flowers are on both side and palm trees everywhere.

Dinner was a buffet. It was just OK. The grouper was really good. And a few of the sides were good, but not overly impressive.

We stayed for the evening entertainmet, which was circus themed. So of the acts were very impressive. I tried to take so photos, but it was just too dark. The acrobats were very impressive; the jugglers, entertaining; and the trapesse people were good also. It was a nice show.