Traveling to Phoenix

Our flight to Phoenix left Friday evening. It was a hectic time after work trying to get everything ready to go. There was a lot to pack for three weeks, and it was especially challenging to get it all to fit in our suitcases! Steven's suitcase weighed in at 50 pounds on the dot and mine at 51.5. I had to eliminate 1.5 pounds to get it under the limit. My hiking shoes apparently weigh 2 pounds and were demoted to a carry on. The 9 other pairs that I had packed were able to remain in the checked luggage! Don't worry, three of those pairs are flip flops. Then the rest cover all the basics (brown & black dress shoes, brown & black casual shoes, tennis shoes, hiking shoes, black sandals, and then 3 colors of flip flops). That was narrowing the selection down to the necessities.

We left our house an hour and a half later than we had plannedm but I had allowed for plenty of time at the airport. Brad patiently waited on us as we ran around making sure we didn't forget anything. Luckily it is only a 6 minute drive to the airport. The timing actually worked out perfectly. About a minute after we arrived at our gate they started boarding the plane. This meant no time wasted sitting around just waiting.

The first leg of the trip was to Atlanta. It was supposed to be a short one, only 1 hour and 6 minutes. The trip turned into twice the length as we spent an hour in a hold pattern 50 miles outside of Atlanta. We were waiting to land because there were some pretty severe storms. As we were finally taxiing into the gate, I looked at the time and it was 9:04. Our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 9:05. No worries, since planes were having trouble entering the city, they were also having trouble exiting it. When we arrived at the next gate, we were informed that our plane was scheduled to leave about 11:00. The Atlanta airport is massive and has tons of restaurants. To pass the time, we grabbed a table at Chili's and shared a sandwich and salad. By the time we finished, it was about time to board. The supposedly fully-booked flight appeared to be only half full. I am guessing quite a few people missed it due to the weather or the last minute gate change. Either way, we made it and had a row to ourselves. This was perfect since by this time it was past our normal bedtime. We hit some turbulence along the way, but safely landed around midnight Arizona time (3:00AM Indiana time!). By the time we made it to the hotel and got everything settled, I hit the bed at 6:00 AM Indiana time. We stayed very close to the airport at the Radisson. They were out of regular rooms with King beds and gave us a free upgrade to a suite.

I was thrilled that there was a Sleep Number bed! For those of you who are not familiar with these, look for a store the next time you are in a mall. I remember looking at these with my mom years ago. You can adjust the softness of each side of the bed to suit your taste. I like to sink in and made it as soft as possible. These beds are fabulous!

Here's the view from our window.