Austin - Travel day

As if we needed to be traveling again ... Bob had to go to National Instruments in Austin for a meeting on Monday, July 7. Delta just happened to have some good last minute deals to Austin, so just four days after returning from Omaha, we had the whole family back on a plane to Austin. Crazy people!

Par for the course, our travel day was hectic. I had a scrapbooking thing that I didn't want to miss Saturday, July 5, so I scrapbooked from 9:30am to 4:30pm, went home, packed and was on a plane by 7pm.

Although getting to the airport was an adventure in itself! Colin really wanted to take MARTA to the airport. There is a MARTA station about 3/4 mile away from our house, but no overnight parking at the station, which means walking 3/4 mile with kids and luggage in tow. It's 100 degrees in the shade, typical Atlanta weather for July, we are plugging along, with four suitcases, one umbrella stroller, and two kids, when a car stops and someone asks us if we want a ride. In my heat exhaustion, I didn't even recognize this person at first, but accepted the ride away! Turns out it's the former President of the neighborhood association and friend of ours which is even better. Getting a ride from a stranger is never a good idea, you know!

Made it too the MARTA station, then it was a matter of navigating all the stinky elevators to get to the trains, Colin and I would hold our nose in the elevators especial the one outside at the Inman Park station. The transfer point at Five Points where we had to get another train was also tricky. First we went to the wrong side of the tracks for our train. Then a couple more elevator rides, but first locating the elevators, we were on the right side of the tracks. Fortunately these elevators smelled a little better, but Colin still held his nose.

Finally we were at the airport and getting on the plane. Oh yeah, our seats on the plane were in four different locations, so another challenge (more for the gate agents), in finding two seats together in two locations. Then after we arrived in Austin, there was rental car issues. Finally we were checking into the hotel, Nathan fell asleep in the car on the way to the hotel. So getting the kids to bed the first night was really easy.

Coming next blog, the next morning (Sunday) we were getting up early to go on a boat ride, then visit the caves near Austin.