Vacation in Punta Cana

On Tuesday morning, we left early in the morning (oh-dark-30 -- actually 4am) to drive to the airport to start our journey from Virginia to Punta Cana.

After parking and taking a shuttle, we got to the Richmond airport at about 4:40am...

... got checked in for our flight, passport and documents checked, through security...

... and finally on our first ever flight together by 6am.

We flew to Charlotte, North Carolina...

... where we connected to our flight to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

I was surprised by how large the American Airlines presence is at Charlotte. Quite a number of Caribbean and Mexico flights going from there. New terminal.

I knew American had closed their hub in Raleigh/Durham several years ago, but I didn't know they had opened a new one in Charlotte.

Now on our second flight, first *international* flight together!

The plane had USB power ports and access to entertainment via your smartphone.

There were also more traditional power ports (with outlet configurations for many different international plug types).

After arriving at the airport in Punta Cana, we went through immigration and customs, and found our pre-arranged ride to the hotel. We got to the hotel (Riu Palace Punta Cana) a little after 2pm - check in is at 3pm, so they got us all checked in, but could not assign a room. They invited us to go get lunch at the restaurant that was open at that time, so we got our first buffet meal at this all-inclusive hotel. We got back to the front desk a little after 3pm, they were able to assign the room, and we got our luggage and ourselves to the room by soon after 3 -- only about 11 hours traveling!

We got our swim suits on and went to the beach, enjoying a fruity drink with our toes in the sand! (No pictures - we left our phones in the safe in the room.)

In the evening, we enjoyed another buffet - this one at the main restaurant (La Isabela) -- a picture of the dessert options we had to choose from! The diet has no chance during this week!

We walked around the property a little after supper -- gives you a little idea of the hotel and grounds.

We are here until November 9 -- and it appears that we have pretty good internet. I can't promise that we'll have something to write every day... but we'll try to do some posts from here.

And... I've had a couple friends ask about kitty care -- Miss Kitty (and Gracie, the motorhome) are on the farm in Virginia and Regina is kindly looking after Miss Kitty. We are so grateful to them for providing a place for Gracie to park and care for Miss Kitty!