OK! OK! here it is!

As many of you know, Aly graduated this year. I'm getting a DVD shortly and will post more on that when I get it.

We went to Georgia for one reason, Jim's wedding, and also found another great reason to go, meeting Aly's dad again.

Our trip began with a long drive, as we chose a flight from Phoenix instead of Las Vegas due to our tight budget (gas and meals figured in). So we left at 6am on our drive. We began listening to World War Z, a zombie novel told from the point of view of those who survived. I heard the first few chapters before falling asleep. With only one stop in Wikiup, we made it to the airport and found out our plane would be late. With some time to spare, Mike and I ate some Sbarro pizza, but it didn’t agree with Mike as his slice was underdone (this is a national chain, and usually it’s really good). We went to a bar and each ordered a drink. His beer seemed to settle his stomach, but my $10 margarita (not even top shelf!) made my stomach sour and to not do that again.

We had a very uneventful flight to Georgia (thankfully!) and was on a flight long enough to watch a film! It was Bride Wars, and while cute, it seemed to grate on my nerves at points. It did keep my mind off of being in the air for two hours, so that's a bonus as I seem to not enjoy flying as much as I used to. In fact, I'm surprised I was awake after taking the Dramamine. For the remainder of the hour, I listened to The Music Man (which Aly and I had seen recently in Las Vegas) and was actually able to figure out all the lyrics on the opening song. It was the original stage version of the play with Robert Preston, the only Music Man.

Arriving in Georgia, we picked up our rental car, and drove to his Aunt Carolyn’s place. She was very happy to see us as was Jim. We were a bit late due to our flight, but she had a delicious chicken casserole for us.

The next day entailed some shopping (Aly’s present from Aunt Carolyn – two summer dresses of Aly’s choice) and I found a dress as well as a few scarves, one of which matched the dress I planned to wear to the wedding (same dress as I wore for Aly’s grad as well). Aly chose two short, cute dresses that were her style. One was low cut, but with the scarf she had, she wrapped it around her under the dress and it looked so much better! She wore this one to the wedding the next day. On our shopping trip we also searched for pink flamingos (inside joke – I’m not sure what) but we never found them. Instead we bought mass amounts of bubbles and a poster board for Aly to decorate. We then went shopping for several kinds of fruit for kebabs.

That afternoon we went to Sherry’s place and met her family, all of whom were friendly and fun. I quickly joined the “porch people” out on the deck and we talked for hours. Upon returning home, we realized that we still had to do the fruit kebabs. Carolyn wasn’t back yet and Jim complaining, so I roused the troops (Mike and Andy) and began cutting – get this – One whole watermelon, 3 cantaloupes, 2 honeydew, and 2 pineapples. That’s a lot! It took us over an hour and we finally went to bed after midnight.

The next day, Mike and I were ready for the wedding early, but others were not. Aly was getting ready, as was Aunt Carolyn, and we waited for her neighbor, Connie. We were supposed to leave at 8am, but didn’t get out until after 9am. We were on the way, driving much slower than we wanted, not sure we’d make the wedding. About halfway through the trip, Aunt Carolyn pulled into a McDonalds to get her breakfast. Mike was incensed! I was flabbergasted! We are already running late and you’re getting breakfast! We continued to follow her after her brief respite and made it to the ceremony as everyone was gathering on the porch; in fact, the pre-ceremony music was already playing. Luckily we had made it.

The ceremony was simple and lovely in its simplicity. Jim and Sherry were dressed nicely, but not formally. One of the daughters sang songs throughout the ceremony. They exchanged vows and kissed. After the ceremony, we were posed in groups for various pictures, only two of which involved us (If I get copies I’ll get them to all). One of the cutest was Sherry’s mother with her great grandchildren. Yes, four generations were present, very cool! After the ceremony, we continued the pleasantries of the previous day. Aly made her poster and we surreptitiously placed it in Jim’s truck (again, I hope to get a photo). Many of the family saw it, but we left before the newlyweds, so I don’t know their reaction.

We then headed to Buford to meet with Toby again. He had reservations for a place, but only Aly had a clue where we were going at the time. We sat visiting and then we were off again. He had made reservations for Medieval Times, a jousting reenactment. When we arrived, we were given our crowns and escorted to take a picture with the king (who I still say has a heavy metal band somewhere – just has that “look” to him). We waited an hour watching the events, then were escorted inside. Toby had gotten some kind of package deal, so we sat in the front row. We each received a picture from the opening, a DVD of the performance and a commemorative booklet. It was very fun and the food was great. Among the entertainment were a falconer, several horse trainers, and the aforementioned jousting/fighting. Our knight (as is usual for me) was out in the first round, but of course the prince and good knight triumphed in the end. Afterwards, Aly and I made the rounds for the signatures of the knights. Most were very pleasant and we commented on our having a good time. The blue knight, our last signature, did give Aly a hard time and was seriously flirting with her. I told her afterwards that he was cute, as were all the knights. She began commenting on how she’d like to work at this kind of place. Oi!

The next day we sat around with Toby and Betty and talked for awhile before heading out. Toby took us to see Aly’s paternal grandfather. He was very surprised to see her and was very happy. We talked for a bit, and then Toby, Mike and Aly wandered off. I was left with Joe and his wife, both of which are very kind. He kept commenting on how good it was to see her and how he never thought he’d meet her. He also said he’d been getting on Toby’s case about it recently and hoped that helped. I’m sure it did, but I think Toby was also ready to meet Aly. Joe also seems great on twisting the truth, as Jim and Mike do, so I saw him apply his craft on some of his “grandkids,” two girls in the neighborhood. When the others returned, we picked up Betty and went to Shogun, a Ginsu style restaurant. I hadn’t been to one in years. The show was great, with the exceptions of the rich rednecks, who had spent all day at “the lake.” It reminded me of the Californians who visit our area and visit “the river.” They had seemed friendly at first, but then it was apparent they were drunk. They shouted across the restaurant to their friends from “the lake” and was rude to our chef. They also doused their food in buckets of sauce and refused parts of the meal (guess who was sitting right next to them?!) They had disappeared outside for a moment, and while we thought they had jumped their check, no such luck. They returned, but didn’t say too long (the man didn’t want the “sherbet” and made a show of how he was going next door for “vanilla” ice cream, and how his truck was faster that his girl’s porche!) Once gone, it was quiet and the food was very good (without sauce, btw).

We spent the night with Toby again. At about 4am, we woke and said our goodbyes and left again to meet with Aunt Carolyn. We were supposed to meet with her the previous evening, but called and stated Aly needed more time with her dad, which Carolyn understood; however, we still felt guilty for breaking our dinner date with her. We knew we had left a few things behind, but once arriving, along with the earrings and book, we found our car keys (what luck we decided to stop!). We visited for about an hour, plenty of time for our flight, and left for the airport. We got caught for a bit in Atlanta travel and also got lost with our off-main car company. I made a few decisions along the way that probably helped us make the flight. One was at the car rental, we were waiting for another couple, and I said we had a flight to catch, so we left without the husband, who would catch the next shuttle. I also found an incredibly short line at security, and we made it through relatively quickly. While Mike said we weren’t the last to board (more on that in a minute), we left fairly quickly after boarding the plane and one wrong misstep, we’d have missed our flight. We made to Phoenix (I watched episodes of Bones throughout the flight), picked up our car and made it back on World War Z.

Luggage and our trip were quite an experience. We each had one carry-on and one personal item, but it seemed we were always in the wrong spot in line. On the flight out, we were told there was room for our carry-ons in the back, but once we arrived, there was no room, so we had to try to get back to the front compartments with all the people boarding. On the return trip it was worse. We boarded, and there was no room, so they began checking bags about 5 people after us in line. Once we boarded, there was no room for our bags. Not wanting a repeat of the “excuse me” plight of our incoming flight, I ushered all of us (mostly our group, but one or two others) to the back of the plane, let everyone else get settled, then check our bags and sit down. It worked well, but we were still a bit miffed that so many people had non-airline compliant carry-ons that we had to check our bags.