We started out for the airport at 6:00AM for an hour commute and an 8:00 AM flight. It was nice to sleep in for a little while since we usually have a 6:00AM flight out of town and have to be up at some crazy time like 3:00AM to get showered and on the road.
The kids did their usual grumble for a minute or two before popping us and gathering their travel bags. Even though their was an overnighter, we still traveled light. We had a total of five carry on bags, one of which was a small cooler. Lil' Bit had my old fanny pack which was big enough for a headset, her kindle fire and her PSP
The bag was almost as big as she was and I was afraid that she would eventually tip over. But she took the job of carrying her own stuff seriously and refused my offer to load in onto the stroller. Oh, yeah, we brought the stroller. And a small booster seat for the rental car.
We brought the cooler but we only used it for some mini donuts (I just couldn't stand the thought of McDonald's for breakfast. We decide to splurge a little on this trip and let Big Boy buy breakfast and all three of us to eat out for lunch and dinner. The kids have been really good about doing the sandwich thing so I thought I would give them a break from it.
Big Boy had a sling style backpack with his Kindle and PSP and I had two small bags which had a change of clothes and all of our power cords.
I was going t bring my cannon Rebel camera since I had a car to stash it in but I realized halfway to the airport that I had forgotten it.
Our flight was empty enough for us to be issued boarding passes right when we checked in a the gate. We had seats together and had a very smooth flight. I slept for a good part of the 1:25 hr flight.
We arrived in Nashville at 9:00AM Nashville time. We had booked a car through Enterprise and ended up with a small red compact. The kids declared it a great car and wanted one just like it. That was when I realized that we already had one just like it. Our car at home is also a Toyota Corolla. The difference was that this one is new and shiny and not full of crumbs and dents and 150K miles.
Our first stop was the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. There is a tree house exhibit that I thought would be a blast for the kids. Since they spent so much time playing at Millennium Park in Chicago, I left a lot of time on the agenda for the tree houses. As we approached the counter, noticed that students had a reduced rate of $5 rather than the $12 adult price. I told the woman at the counter that I was a newly returned college student but had not thought to bring my ID. Almost the truth. I am anewly returned college student but i have not been issued an ID for my online college. She believed me and charged me the student rate.
Lil' Bit loved them from the first moment. Big Boy was not so enthusiastic. he grumbled and complained and refused to have fun. He ended up perking up a little bit as the morning went on but never had the sparkle that Lil' Bit had.
While the tree houses were interesting and fun for Lil' Bit, I found the arboretum to be a bit of a let down. They were nice, don't get me wrong, but I have been to nicer gardens so I wold say that the gardens alone wold not be worth the trip. We left the gardens just before 1:00 and noticed that they were starting to get crowded as we were leaving.
To Be Continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment