Day 1, our flight in

DAY ONE

We flew out at 11:50 something. 

Getting checked in at the airport was awesome. 

Art flys so much that we were able to upgrade. My ticket was picked for an even easier check in. 

I basically by passed security. 

Xander wanted to wear the CBA travel gear, we hadnt gotten our polo yet. So Jay & Cheri let us barrow one of theirs!

 A nice touch, the back of the CBA polo has the American flag. He wore this to the banquets too. I did hear a few parents mention Xander because of the polo.

The flight was nice. We all slept.  They gave us pillows and blankets.

We landed in Atlanta had a 2-3 hour layover. At this point I had no idea what time it was or even the day. I thought it was still thursday..

We we get on the plane (business class). They asked us what we wanted for lunch.. I was so confused. I got the chicken salad. It was good.

(I will always remember this meal. Was my last real meal in a week)

Stopped in Atlanta first:

We landed in the Dominican Republic at about 1. 

We had to go through customs, which wasn't that long (cause we got off the plane first!)
 

After we got our stuff, we got into the airport area where the hotel staff was there to get us. The airport was hot and sticky, flys everywhere. It was pretty dirty. We met some players there, and loaded the bus. 

The bus.. omg. I don't know what Dominicans have to do to get a license to drive but I know that they don't actually take a driving test. People LOVE to honk their horns. Red lights and stop signs are totally optional, and so are lanes. If you want to drive on the dotted line, you can. No rules….

We got in and had our orientation meeting. Got our arms bands, and was able to pick restaurants to eat dinner at for the week.

Our room.. very large room, we have 3 “full” size beds. Has a musty smell. a few cob webs here and there.. But beach view. I wasn't going to complain about the room, because I was already well aware that they were probably crappy, this is a 3rd world country. The staff is great though. 

The beach. White sand. Never in my life have I seen white sand (in person, under my feet). The water clear! I can see all the way to the bottom. 

They have our private beach roped off with netting, so hard for bigger animals to swim in (or thats what I was telling myself.. sharks cant get in). Xander did see a fish though. The chairs at the beach, are old and run down. There is a bar thats extends into the water, with nicer furniture. I haven't seen the pools up close yet. Xander said theres a ton of chlorine in them.

We went to the Buffet for dinner. I was so afraid to eat anything due to research and what I have been told to avoid. They had a salad bar, but I skipped it. They had a fruit bar, but I skipped that as well. The rest of the bars…. I was hesitant due to the amount of flys in the restaurant. I got rice, bread and butter. That was it. They had a pizza station that Art and Xander were at (of course) and that was actually good (I mean better than other stuff). But the line was always long. It was like fire brick pizza. (is that whats its called?). 

We went back to our room and crashed. We had a busy day tomorrow!