Day 1: Leaving on a jet plane...........

I was awake early, before the alarm went off.  Too excited to sleep!  We have been waiting for this trip since last June.  Lots of planning

and anticipation have gone into this, so let's go!  After going up to the teenage wasteland to wake up the kids, we packed the Brinks

truck up with 3 large suitcases and 4 carryons.  We left at 5:30am for our 1 1/2 drive to the Pittsburg airport.  Cheaper than flying out

of Cleveland, which is closer, but you can't have everything!  We left our car at the car park and a shuttle whisked us over to the

airport.  We checked the bags and since we already had boarding passes, we went to the security line, which was short.  The plane

left on time and got into Charlotte about 15 minutes early.

  We found our new gate, made a pit stop and got some cold drinks.  We left

on time and landed in San Juan early too.  The San Juan airport was much improved since our last visit there 4 years ago.  The bags

still take a while to come out, but two of ours made it pretty quick.  So, where's the bag with the formal dresses, the tuxes and dress

shoes?   I have starved and ran many miles to get into a fabulous beaded dress that is in that bag, plus we rented a tux for Andy.

Great!  No more bags!  Over to the USAirways office we go.  Fortunately, they know where the bag is!  For some reason it went

to Philly, and it will arrive on a 9pm flight tonight.

  We left them our hotel info and much relieved, went to get a taxi.  It took about

15 minutes to get to the Radisson Ambassador.  We got checked in and went to the room.  Then, since we were starving, headed

to the hotel's sports bar and grill.  Everyone had to check their NCAA Basketball Brackets, and they had the games on.  After eating

we walked around the area for a bit.  The beach had very high surf, so we just looked from a distance.  The kids wanted to try out

the rooftop pool so we went up there with them.   They didn't feel like doing anything else but showering and renting a movie,

so we left them to it and walked down the street for a nightcap.  I thought that Ashford Avenue had a slight "South Beach"

feel to it.  The sidewalk restaurants, the salsa music.   Very nice.  Since we were tired from traveling all day we only stayed out

about an hour before heading back to get some sleep.  Tomorrow is fort day!