That being said, Darren and I had something of an adventure with them yesterday. We spent the weekend in DC with Darren's brother's family (more on that later when I have time to edit the photos), and Sunday night we were supposed to have a nice, quick, nonstop flight back to Huntsville, arriving home around 9 pm. As it turned out, though, they'd overbooked the flight by four seats and were looking for volunteers to take an alternate way home. Did I mention that they were dangling two free round trip tickets (per person, so a total of four between us) in front of us as an incentive, and that those tickets were also good for travel to AirTran's international destinations?
Yeah, totally tempting, and something that I've jumped on in the past (normally I'm a pretty easy-going, flexible traveler) when traveling alone. Darren has a masters level biology class on Monday nights that he absolutely cannot miss, but he was up for taking a later flight that evening or another flight early in the morning, provided he could be back in time to make it to UAH.
The problem was that we were on the last nonstop flight to Huntsville from Baltimore for the night, and everything for the next day was completely booked, meaning it was going to be a total no-go. But then the counter agent offered to fly us to Atlanta, four hours from home, and pay for our rental car if we wanted to drive. After conferring with Darren again (and determining that we felt like driving half the night), we agreed, and five minutes later we had new boarding passes, had run to a new gate, and were on a plane for Atlanta. We were the last people to board, and we didn't even end up sitting together!
The flight was totally smooth, and we actually arrived in Atlanta half an hour early. We procured a rental car, and at 1:15 am we arrived at our house, exhausted but happy. Today Darren woke up, grinned, and said that the whole thing was actually fun. I know we're nuts, but we also just picked up free flights for an Aruba vacation we've been toying with taking in December, and we're toying with using the other set for a trip to Nassau next February. Totally worth it. :)
So, a couple of highlights from the trip (we packed so much in, and it's all kind of a blur right now)...
While out in Chinatown we ducked into Urban Outfitters for a bit, and Darren found this totally awesome Japanese Star Wars shirt for me. I love it! I wore it to TKD tonight. :)
I also found a Book It! t-shirt on the clearance rack and just had to have it. I was totally into that reading program as a kid, but I hadn't thought about it in years. Does anyone else remember it? (I couldn't find a picture of the t-shirt, but I did find one of the old-style logo).
I couldn't help picking up this cool little self-inking stamp, too (on clearance for $2.99!). This baby is so going to get used on some scrapbook pages!
Oh, and while Darren and I were standing in front of the National Archives waiting to cross the street, a shiny new yellow and black Camaro drove past us. I casually said, "oh, look, it's Bumblebee" (from Transformers) as it whizzed by.
You know what?!!?? It WAS Bumblebee!!!! Unfortunately, Bumblebee was involved in an (unintended) accident while filming Transformers 3 today...in downtown DC, right where we were.
Crazy- I had no idea they were even filming there right now.
And now, dear readers, I'm going to go reacquaint my head with the pillow. I'm really, really sleep-deprived at the moment! I was planning a geek post for today, but I hope you'll forgive me if I post it tomorrow instead. :)