Terrorist Baby Takes Atlanta
So! We are back (as of almost a week ago now) from our whirlwind weekend withdrawal to the dirty south. I was nervous about flying, because, well, I hate to fly. Flying really ups my chances of plunging to my death. I know I’m more likely to die of a spider bite while driving on the moon than in a plane crash, but at least then, I wouldn’t plunge to my death (unless I was driving over a very high bridge, of course).
I was also nervous about flying with a super rambunctious toddler.
Fortunately, due to the magic of Xanax, I did great on the plane. We did a red-eye flight to Atlanta, which meant we woke the Bean up at about 8:45 PM and drove to the airport, went through security, and took off about 11 pm. We landed in the ATL around 6:30 am. Or, if you’re wanting actual passage of time, 3:30 AM Pacific time. Then, we had coffee (adults) and milk (Alvie). We found our rental car and our rental car seat. The car seat was a disaster. I had to go find one in a giant storage shed full of reject car seats. The first one I found didn’t even have both sides of the safety belt!
We finally ended up with an almost too-small infant seat that smelled vaguely of urine.
We headed out to the architect’s family’s house where we had MORE! COFFEE! And breakfast. At about 1, we drove to check into the hotel (which was great, in a completely sarcastic way) and the Bean & I napped (kind of, if by napped you mean were quiet-ish) while the architect and family went to watch my oldest niece graduate from high school. After graduation, we all went out for dinner, and then the architect & I took our tired Bean back to the hotel, where no one slept due to the elevator shaft of noise on the other side of the head board.
Sunday we went to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. The Bean tried to swim with the turtles, but succeeded in only tossing his shoe in. We saw all sorts of birds, the aforementioned turtles, and a sleeping beaver. Heh. That night, we did some grilling (by we, I totally don’t mean me) and were adorable (again, that wasn’t me, either).
Monday we did…stuff? Like celebrate Memorial Day with real Southern barbecue. And possibly other things. I don’t remember.
Tuesday was a mixed bag. We checked out of the hotel and headed over to say good-bye to Papa, Nana, and the cousins. My younger niece and I went for a walk/run. I thought we were going for a mile, and made the mistakes of (a) giving an estimated return of 30 minutes, (b) not taking my cell phone, and (c) not checking the time when I realized that this was waay more than a mile. We ended up being gone for nearly 90 minutes and going 4.2 miles. BUT – it was amazingly fun. I had such a good time, and would say that walk/run was the highlight of my trip. I’ve no regrets. Except making the leftover family a leetle bit worried when we didn’t return. I have learned valuable lessons.
After that adventure, we went out for lunch and then it was time to say last good-byes and head to the airport. Between the crappy signage to get back to the rental car return (construction!), and the fact that Alvie Bean is a tiny terrorist (we were stopped at security FOREVER due to his explosive fruit pouches and a cranky TSA manager person; the explosives expert that was called in was NOT amused that he had to come check baby fruit), the trip home was…interesting.
However, finally we did get on a plane and did get to come home.
And so, we are home. And mostly recovered from the jet lag.
We got the rest of the garden in over the weekend, admired the cutest Bean in the history of the world, and now I’m back at a full work week! I have four whole weeks of work before my next vacation! However will I survive?
Follow me on social!