The girls and I traveled to sunny Florida this past week for my sister-in-law’s wedding. The week before, we were a little concerned about tropical storm Alberto’s impact to this outdoor wedding, but thankfully he moved on well before the big day.
We flew down, and had a layover in Atlanta. While there, the fire alarm went off in the terminal. My experience has been that a fire alarm means “exit the building now”, but in this case, an automated voice announced that there was an emergency situation, and to wait for further details. After several minutes of flashing lights and loud sirens, the system announced that the fire alarm had been cleared, and everything was normal. In retrospect, it would have been a nightmare to shuffle everyone out of the building and then try to get them all back through security if there wasn’t a true emergency, so having everyone sit tight for a few additional minutes made sense. Still, it was a first for all four of us.
On a lighter note, there was a service dog at our gate, playing catch with her owner. The dog was friendly enough that she would catch the frisbee, and then walk up and down the rows of people looking for someone new to play with her. She found several willing playmates, including Lucy. When they started boarding people on the plane, the dog took off down the gate, to the amusement of several of the waiting passengers, and to the consternation of the agent. She came back fairly quickly when her owner called her, though.
When we arrived at the hotel, the girls walked in and started giggling and exclaiming “What the?!” When I caught up, I found that CJ had been selected as the Guest of the Day.
With the honor came a free drink and snack from the hotel store. Mmm – Oreos.
My niece mentioned a while back that Florida has a lot of small lizards running around – most no bigger than your hand – and they tend to turn up everywhere. The fencing around the hotel pool was apparently a favorite gathering point, because most of the times we passed it there were one or two of them hanging on the bars. They were very shy, though. If you got too close – and especially if you pointed at them – they’d dart into the bushes nearby.
The wedding was very nice:
And blessedly short given how hot it was. In fact, I think it was the mother of the groom announced “Let’s go have a wedding, and then run back inside!”
The groom’s family raise all kinds of birds, from racing pigeons and ducks, to more exotic ones like these peacocks:
The groom’s father led a tour, showing off the many different species, with a stop, of course, to see the newly-hatched babies:
They also raise bees. The girls got a kick out of a sign posted by the “bee area”:
“Caution. Honey Bee Yard. No Trespassing – bees sting! Hives contain up to 40,000 bees. Bees can fly 40 MPH. How fast can you run! Don’t make the bees chase you.”
Other than a delayed flight out of Florida, the travel home was relatively uneventful. None of us had been sleeping well while we were down there, so coming home and getting to sleep in our own beds that first night back was luxurious.
Mark Of Quality 