AuburnChick's Adventures

Two weeks ago, a little something-something began.

But first, my morning walk.

The sunrises I see each time I head out make getting up early . . . during summer break . . . so worth it.

I took a different route because I wanted to add more mileage.  The second half mile was long and boring, although going back home, it was all downhill and not nearly as bad.

I was pleased with the distance I covered . . . the longest during my continued ankle recovery.

It was important that I stick to my routine because it wouldn’t be long until I’d be changing that up.

I’d packed the day before . . . a trip looming on the horizon.

Isn’t it funny how fur babies know when you’re getting ready to leave?  The guilt they impart with their cute faces is always so hard to look at!

Chicky had been spending the summer around these here parts . . . visiting a friend . . . spending time with her grandparents.  She drove over so she could pet / house sit, and she wound up giving us a ride to the airport.

Because we live in Podunk, USA, getting checked in was a breeze.  The only thing left to do was wait.

And take silly selfies to send to Super Sis . . .

And not so-silly selfies with the Mr. to send to the children . . .

We should have been buying food because, as we’d later learn, we would, essentially, get no dinner since our flight was so late.

It wasn’t long before we got boarded and waited to take off.  It was just enough time for another selfie because y’all, I am all about documenting every second of every adventure.

To distract me, I got out my knitting.  I had started a new project a few days before, much to my happiness.  I hadn’t knit much in months!

Of course, our first stop was Atlanta because every flight goes through this metropolis.  I am usually a nervous flyer, but this time, I had a lot more peace, for some reason.  I also had a window seat, and our placement on the plane was perfect for looking at the terrain we were passing over.

We got a little nervous because as we neared Atlanta, the pilot notified us that he would be circling around a few extra times because the stormy weather had delayed other flights from landing.

We had a SMALL time-frame for our connecting flight and watched the minutes tick down.  We finally got on the ground and hopped out of our seats in the hopes that we would deplane quickly.  We apologized to those around us as we explained that we were in a hurry.

The Atlanta airport is HUGE, so we knew that we would have to hustle.  Fortunately, I’d installed the Trippie app (thanks for that tip, Megan).  What a great app too!  It showed our location in the airport and exactly where we needed to go to get on our next flight.

The only caveat was that the Mr. and I had to pee.  Really, really bad.  We were super worried about the time it would take on this pit stop, but when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.

Fortunately, we were able to hop on the train, which ran every minute and a half and was similar to riding the monorail at Disney.  It was super fast, but we hustled off, past the delightful food courts and restaurants, and to our flight’s waiting area with about fifteen minutes to spare.

We were able to line up first for our assigned boarding section, but then we learned that the flight attendants who would be on our plane had also been delayed by their incoming flight, so we waited.

I sure wish we’d known how long we would have to wait because we could have grabbed food.  By then, it was almost 9pm, and we were STARVING.  We were afraid to leave our station, though, so we stayed put, and it wasn’t long before we were able to board.

During this trip, we were flying with Delta.  I had downloaded the GogoEntertainment app to access in-flight videos, but it turned out that I didn’t need it because each seat had its own screen.

I was also super pleased to discover that I could charge my phone through the screen (something I figured out when I saw someone else do it).  Yay!

Y’all, there were so many options on that screen!  There were television shows, live TV, and recent movies!!!!  I was psyched!

Hello Liam.  You always make my heart go pitter-patter, even during a thriller like The Commuter.

Now, I had made a bit of a bonehead move and left my earbuds in my carry on bag, which I finally got the Mr. to get down from the overhead bin for me.  Unfortunately, the new earbuds for the new iPhone don’t have the correct audio end to plug into devices, so I was screwed.  Well, until the flight attendants passed out free ear buds.  Yay!  Except that mine didn’t work very well.  I guess I could have asked for a different pair.  Hindsight, y’all.  Still, I made do the best I could.

Because it was late, I didn’t want to turn on my light to knit.  I just didn’t want to bother anyone.  During this leg of the journey, there were three seats on our side, and a nice man was sitting beside me (beside the window).  He never said a word to me, but I didn’t want to disturb him.

After my movie, I played a word game.  I finally won a game . . . minutes before we landed.

The view as we neared the airport was breathtaking.

So, are you wondering where we wound up?

Here’s a clue . . .

That was another neat thing we had access to on the screens in front of us – flight information.  I loved playing with the map . . . zooming in . . .

To see that we were within spitting distance of our Rooster and his sweet wife.

Yay!

When Rooster was here in March, we had compared our calendars and booked our tickets.  I’d been anticipating our visit for three months!!!

I think that I’ll end the post here.  My plan (fingers crossed) is to blog about each day we spent in California, one post each.

Filed under: Vacation | Tagged: empty nest, Vacation |