June?!

I cannot believe June is halfway over... MORE than halfway over actually.  We have been super busy and traveling (Craig traveling more than me due to work).  We went to Ft. Myers, FL over Memorial Day weekend.  Let me tell you - when you're going only for 2-3 days and it's not a direct flight, the weekend can get pret-ty short due to missing connecting flights.

Long story short - we were late leaving Raleigh due to storms in Charlotte (where our connecting flight was).  We left 2 hours late, and while en route to Charlotte, the airport shut down AGAIN, so we circled for a while.  Finally the captain came on and said we were just going to have to land in Columbia, South-Freakin'-Carolina until CLT opened back up and to get more gas because they didn't have enough to keep circling.  Super.  Now there's a chance we'll miss the 2nd and final flight to Ft. Myers for the night.  Not only did we stop in Columbia but we sat on the runway for 2 HOURS.  As you can imagine, people were grumpy & hungry(okay, maybe that was just me).  But people really were testy.  They had no food & barely any water.  I hadn't eaten in Raleigh bc I knew we had a layover in CLT.  Bad idea.

At one point, the guy sitting next to Craig asked the flight attendant how long they were legally able to keep us on the plane.  The flight attendant answered, and then about 2 minutes later, the "senior flight attendant" comes up to him and starts lecturing him about wanting to get off the airplane and how it would jeopardize us leaving at all.  You can imagine our surprise at how quickly things had been blown out of proportion.  Imagine the movie "Meet the Parents" when he said "bomb" on the airplane.  She seriously stood there and ranted for about 10 minutes about why he shouldn't get off the plane.  It was insane.

Anyway - we finally got to CLT around 1am, and obviously missed our flight(s).  So we went to a nearby hotel and got the 2nd flight to Ft. Myers on Saturday morning because the 1st flight was full.  Once we got there, the trip was really smooth.  Nice hotel, we went to a baseball game for the NCBA World Series, toured Thomas Edison and Henry Ford's winter homes.  They shared a huge lot in Ft. Myers and it's open to the public.  Surprisingly enough - it was interesting to see what they viewed as "luxury" back then.

Our next trip was the following weekend.  We went back to Asheville to visit the Biltmore again.  He took me there a couple years ago for my Christmas present and I've been wanting to go back to see the house in it's "normal" state and listen to the everyday stories from the estate.  Again, it was pretty interesting and also fun to note the differences in Thomas Edison's winter home and the Vanderbilt's home.  If I had to guess, I'd bet they were in different tax brackets.

The Asheville weekend was also Craig's 1-year gift to me since our actual 1-year mark was during the NCBA Regional playoffs.  After we visited the Estate all day, we got back to the hotel and my back was aching and my feet were sore (I chose to wear Rainbows against my better judgement).  He then decided to inform me that he had already scheduled me for a massage at 5 (there was a spa in the hotel), followed by a nice dinner later that night.  Talk about good timing!  Can you imagine him wanting to dance around as I complained about my feet, legs and back hurting before I even knew there was a massage scheduled?  He was pretty proud of himself... as he should've been. :)

He took me to a really nice restaurant at the Biltmore Inn and they had a really impressive menu.  I always know it's impressive when I have no idea what's listed - fancy schmancy stuff that I can't pronounce.  I'm sure the server had me pegged as a sheltered bumpkin when I was asking her what everything was (not saying she was wrong).  Craig just sat back and laughed as he shook his head at my questions towards the server.  I usually never disappoint when it comes to my naive ways.

All in all, it's been a great month - it has just gone by too fast!  This weekend is Father's Day where I hope to get to Greensboro to see my Dad and also Craig's dad in Randleman.  The next trip is NYC on July 4th weekend - YEAYA!  :)