Flying the Friendly Skies

The few days after the graduation party were

busy, busy, busy.

We, plus many pieces of luggage, were heading east.
"We" being: all of us, except Rudy, plus my parents.

 Gathering luggage for weighing.

We ended up with 12 pieces of checked luggage.

Keeping track of, transporting, and collecting that

much was quite the challenge.

Then we had to fit them into the vehicle and still 

have room for seven people.

Due to the length of our trip, I chose off-airport parking

and had a really good experience.  The shuttle driver did most

of the heavy lifting.  He wondered if we were moving because

it seemed like the stream of luggage never ended.

My row mates:

This was Tiana's first time flying.

She was equal parts excited and apprehensive.

The looks on her face during take-off and landing were priceless.

One side of me (never a dull moment!)...

The other side of me was a lot calmer...

It's always fun to look out the window and try to guess

where we are by the landscape.

I was thankful for the non-stop flight from one coast to another.

It made life easier all the way around.

Our final destination was Baltimore, MD,

where I picked up this snazzy car.

While the car was comfortable and easy to drive,
 due to the slope of the back window,

it was very hard to see out of while backing up.

Between the car my parent's rented and mine,

we managed to load up people and luggage

and head south toward Washington D.C.

Our body clocks said it was only 6 p.m. but it was

dark and our hosts were winding down for the day.
The shock would come the next morning when we were to

be in the big city at a time where our bodies were still used

to being deep in sleep.