Our flight to Costa Rica is scheduled for 7:15 am which means we need to be at the airport by 4:15 am or 5:15 am depending on who you talk to. Given the early hour we decided to stay at a hotel near the airport last night and being frugal we decided to leave our car at my mother's house in Burlington and have my brother drop us at the hotel.

Today started with me jumping out of bed and shouting "we slept through the alarm". Then I realized that it was only 2 am and I had dreamed sleeping through the alarm. We didn't need to get up till 3:30 am. (we went with the arrive 3 hours before your flight option) Unfortunately, I don't think either of us got any sleep after the 2 am mistake. Checking in was uneventful even though we still aren't use to self check in with computers. We had to switch planes in Charlotte N.C. so we had to go through US immigration which is also done on a computer terminal. The computer takes your photo and compares it to the photo on your passport. If the computer doesn't think the photos match (mine didn't) you get sent to an immigration agent.

Costa Rica immigration was done the old fashion way ---- we got to stand in a long line till the next agent was available. Even though the line was long it moved pretty quickly. Customs was also a breeze, you fed your bags through an X-ray machine, picked them up and walked out the door.

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On approach to the airport in Charlotte North Carolina.

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The hotel doesn't look like much from the front but it's really pretty inside --- tall ceiling in the lobby with stone work, gardens blend into the walkways to the rooms, the dining room is open to the pool and courtyard.

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There is a geocache within walking distance to the hotel. Guess who had to do that right away. Luckily, there aren't very many geocaches in Costa Rica.

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The hotel has an outdoor building set up for weddings and there happened to be a wedding taking place while Ed and I were enjoying our dinner.