I didn't blog about our May trip to the U.S. because I felt kind of guilty going to the U.S. and also like people might judge me, but I did mention it and no one judged me and now I want it in my memories somewhere because it was a really great time.
To recap: Angus lives in Charlotte, North Caroline, working for Tread Athletics. Matt and I went down for Labour Day weekend shortly after he had moved but before he started working. He came home for over a week at Christmas and we hadn't seen him since then. My husband has a colleague/friend who lives in Atlanta Georgia who invited us and a couple other colleagues he is friends with to come to Atlanta so he could take us out for a nice dinner and we could come to his twins' high school graduation party. This would dovetail nicely with an Angus visit.
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| When we realized we hadn't selfied yet so took one at a crappy rest stop |
When Matt first mentioned this, I was a little apprehensive about both going and telling Eve about it. She would just be moving home after leaving her student house and close friends for the last time and had mentioned that it would be good to have something to look forward to. I proposed this tentatively and she said it sounded pretty sick actually (I double checked that this was positive) and shortly after that her phone coughed up some ads for the Georgia Aquarium and well, you know how Eve and I feel about an aquarium. And Angus said he would come to Atlanta with us, so we were all in.
Eve and I started looking at the tasting menu for this Michelin-starred restaurant on the plane and were shortly doubled over laughing at the fact that we didn't even know what half of the words meant. Jimmy Nardello pepper? Is that a red pepper in the witness protection plan? Is that a red pepper that pissed off Jimmy Nardello and had to go into the witness protection plan? Honshimiji? We tried googling this and got a desktop digital pet, re-googled and found out it was a mushroom. Chirashi? Sorghum tuile? I told Matt we might not be fancy enough for this restaurant.
We flew in to Charlotte on Thursday night and had dinner with Angus at an Italian restaurant near his apartment that we tried the first time we were there and marked as an instant favourite. We were kind of just hoping there would be something for Eve on the menu that wouldn't be too lactose-laden, and then worried when it didn't look like there was (she can do pesto but not pesto cream, and the pesto was creamy), but the waitress and kitchen were amazing and basically just let her invent a pasta/olive oil/garlic/grilled chicken thing. This was really nice since on the plane it was basically like the menu had been planned by someone who hates the lactose intolerant. The choices were pasta with cheese or lasagna, which is basically pasta with cheese. The flight attendant found her a fruit bowl and a roll and then said "do you want dessert? Oh never mind, it's cheesecake." We had packed snacks so it was fine, just funny.
Angus drove separately from us to Atlanta on Friday so he would have his own car to head home while we flew home from Atlanta.
We drove by the peach - Todd (Matt's colleague) confirmed that they do actually call it The Butt. I love peaches, but there's a small chance that blowing one up to this size to welcome people to your city sends the wrong message?
As we were approaching the hotel I saw someone in what I thought was a mascot costume and Eve said "I think it's furries."
You guys - it was Atlanta Furry Weekend. It was a thing of wonder. They were everywhere. It was unseasonably cool, which thank goodness, because I get that Atlanta is probably a safer space in a conservative state, but FURRY. HOT.
Neither of our kids is especially adventurous when it comes to food. I am not especially adventurous when it comes to food. We told them to just roll with whatever happened at dinner and we'd go to McDonalds after if necessary, but it was a really great dinner. They explained everything in great detail, there were a bunch of little courses, there was almost nothing that really freaked us out (raw fish and mushrooms are kind of no-go areas), and we were neither hungry nor uncomfortably full at the end. They switched a couple of courses out for Eve, including dessert, which made her feel special.
One of the other colleagues brought her daughter who was around Eve's age, and the other brought her exceptionally cute baby, who was named Evelyn but Camille calls her Evie, the same as we call Eve Evie, so when Eve was carrying around Evelyn (which was often) they were called the Evies.
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| This baby had rizz to burn |
Angus having a moment with the baby:
Camille asked me to recommend books for her to download for the plane, and we had a really fun book discussion - she and Eve both had James on hold and were comparing what number they had in the queue. For all the sciency women I know who read, I should probably make more of an effort to science?
Matt had booked us into the Ritz (because it's a Marriott and as Marriott goes so goes our family nation) and they upgraded us to a health and wellness suite, which meant a yoga ball and a noise machine. We kind of made fun of this and then were all addicted to the noise machine by the end of the weekend.
The party was lovely but big - we mostly stayed in our corner and took turns juggling the baby, although her mom was so casual about lugging the baby around and texting one-handed and was totally my hero.
Presents for twins! When I saw this I wondered if we should have bucked the trend and treated them as individuals, but oh well.
Matt met these twins many years ago when they were around ten and had a spirited discussion in which he tried really hard to convince them that the metric system was superior to the imperial. This has been a recurring theme with Todd and the kids, so in addition to some money we gave them these:
We went back to the hotel after and the kids got room service and Matt and I had a really nice dinner with the other colleague and her daughter.
Saturday Matt and Eve and I went to the aquarium with Camille and the baby. It was very big and very cool.
The beluga whales had toys!
Eve really really likes an aquarium.
Eve having a moment with a penguin.
We happily gave the dude below a little extra room. Do you still call someone a Furry if the costume is a fish? Does that make it a Scaly?
One thing that seemed weird was that we went looking for postcards at the aquarium - one of Eve's housemates had had something terrible happen near when they all moved out and Eve wanted to send her a care package. There were no postcards anywhere in the aquarium, and when we went to the airport and looked there, there were three available and two were really ugly. Are postcards not a thing anymore, or was this a regional aberration?
More furtive furry pics:
Our trip home was wretched, not in a way that stained the trip or anything, or even in a way that's worth talking about except that we are massively privileged travelers at this point, so it was kind of hilarious. I hate flying and always assume it's going to suck, so anything less than a fiery crash is a win to me. We got to the airport and checked in, and then went through security which was a gigantic clusterfuck. There were no bins to put your stuff in, and then there were bins but no conveyor belt, and they wanted you to put all your stuff in separate bins and then somehow push twelve bins down to the x-ray machine while simultaneously taking off your shoes, and they hollered at everyone non-stop to keep the line moving. When we finally got through I marched decisively over to the little machine that asks you to rate your experience, with five little faces ranging from happy to sad. I punched in the sad face and the next screen asked me for my name, whereupon I completely chickened out and flounced off in a fit of performative outrage.
After this we got on a bus that was supposed to take us to our gate. Well, we got on and then we got off because they kept waving people on, but then realized there were no seats left and standing wasn't allowed, so we got off again. Then we got on one and it started driving.
And driving.
And driving.
Eve asked if we were being abducted.
Matt became convinced that we were on the wrong bus, which sort of enraged me because this is a thing he does. He will ask me to read a map (I assume it is evident that map-reading is not my forte) and if I manage to read it he will say my directions are 'counter-intuitive' (you're the engineer, man, east is east and west is west). We had checked multiple times that we were going to the international terminal, so I checked again. We were still going to the international terminal. We saw a building and a bunch of planes, and prepared to gather ourselves and exit the bus.
We drove past the building and planes.
Eventually we got to the terminal, and flew home on some tiny cramped planes.
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| Eve being over it all. |
We were standing up ready to get off the plane and Eve and I were next to a young man who had helped the flight attendants get some heavy things into the overhead bins before we left. He mentioned that he was monitoring his luggage and was worried that it looked like one piece hadn't gotten on the plane, and it had something really expensive in it. Eve saw my eyes widen and basically hissed "DON'T ASK IF IT'S A FUR SUIT" (it was totally a fur suit, I regret not asking, everyone we encountered from the furry community was super nice).
Do you enjoy flying? Does anyone? How are your map-reading skills? Man, this question thing is hard.
15 comments:
The fancy food looks precocious, the baby looks adorable, the t-shirts are fabulous (I envy places that have the metric system), and the aquarium looks marvelous. Yes, furries can be fun to observe - there is a convention of them here sometimes, but yeah, I don't know how they survive when the weather is hot.
I used to love flying. The moment of take off is so thrilling! The physics of lift is fascinating to me. But these days flying is just a horrible slog of lines and getting your photo taken by the government, and proving you are who you are, and sitting in a too-small space with everyone around you coughing. The last flight I took, there was a cat on board. A constantly meowing cat.
I have only been to the Atlanta airport a few times but I think it is one of the biggest airports ever and so nobody goes there because it is too crowded. One of my favorite airports is the Saint John, New Brunswick airport - one tiny security apparatus. A tiny gift shop. Two gates. Passengers walk out on the tarmac to get on the plane. Sort of like it probably was in the 1950s.
I’m so glad that you didn’t let the Orange Jackass keep you from seeing family! I support the boycott, but also, exceptions are made for those with family here, right?
I’m surprised to hear about your Atlanta TSA experience. I have only flown out once, but we didn’t have to take off our shoes (this was 2018, so not recent) and they got us through really quickly. Interesting that your experience was so different.
As someone who collects/sends postcards and looks for them everywhere, I can say there does seem to be a HUGE downtick in the availability of postcards. It is so discouraging. I LOVE sending postcards, and it used to be one of my favorite parts of traveling; now I go somewhere and literally can't find any postcards, or there are a few really bland ones of a nearby area (not where I am).
I feel kind of...TOUCHED? that you would visit the United States. Things are so bad here, and it's really encouraging that you came by and I am glad you got safely home. Airport security is so bad. So much yelling, as if we do this constantly instead of only once in a while! Arbitrary rules! Silly bin policies! Etc.!
I can confirm it is extremely hard to find postcards these days. I think in general...people just aren't sending things in the mail. I just heard a news report from Denmark that mail delivery is going private because almost no one gets/sends mail in the country. Which seems...sad. But, also, I suppose more environmentally sustainable.
I have a sister in SC and a new great-nephew but we haven't made it to the US, yet (mostly because my husband feels especially strong about not going).
Flying can be SUCH A DRAG. And it's confusing and exhausting and, also, like you point out a privilege. So I always feel guilty complaining but, still, IT CAN BE SUCH A HUGE FAFF.
You saw dolphins!?? Too cute. And they had toys!
Looks like a fun trip. That baby is adorable. I dislike flying so much that dreading it basically ruins the anticipation part of any trip I take that involves flying (though not the actual trip, so I should just get over it). I haven't tried to read a map in decades. Was never much good at it.
DRUNKEN LOBSTER. OMG. Yes! That is how I feel about the metric system! I don't actually mind flying, weirdly. It helps that I have become a total princess and fly premium now and also only take carryon. But I kind of get excited being at the airport even though there's always SOMETHING.
Constantly meowing cat, omg. I've been on flights with dogs, and I understand why some people don't like it, but it's always been just extra enjoyable. I like hearing about people liking flying - I guess it just doesn't play well with my anxiety. I've never been to the St. John airport, but the Halifax one is also very relaxed.
It was TERRIBLE, I have no idea why. We were both enraged and laughing, it was so absurd.
That's the whole dilemma about visiting the U.S. I hate Trump. I loathe people who love him. I LOVE many, many other Americans. And while it's sort of satisfying to see the reduced numbers of Canadian visitors to the U.S., do the people who should take a lesson from it REALLY take a lesson from it? Ughghghghgh,
Oh, and I think the postcard thing is sad too. I guess snail mail is down, but I would think people would still buy them as souvenirs?
So guilty complaining! Literally a mostly first-world problem.
The decline of paper mail does seem very sad to me. And paper is so much more easily recycled, in my head. But there's still the travel to transport it. But it's so romantic! Sigh.
So agree about the flying thing blighting the excitement for the trip. I was in such a state before we left for Vancouver. It's less bad when we're with my husband because he does it so often we just follow him. When I'm the most senior traveler I'm a mess.
That's actually really nice to hear. If I could wrap my head around only doing carry-on it might be a bit better, but luggage isn't the biggest part of it.
What a darling baby!!
This was an utter delight to read and the photos were spectacular. My favorites are the captions about Eve and Angus separately having moments, and the one about the baby’s rizz.
I would never judge you for visiting the US. I live here and I am ashamed a lot but I also love a lot of the country and I am confident that most people are decent and kind. Maybe more hopeful than confident. Maybe more delusional than hopeful. I don’t know. But I want you to come visit meeeeeee.
The dinner sounds terrifying especially because I can identify maybe 15% of the (gorgeous!) things you ate; I am so glad it was a good experience for you.
I hate flying. It is the worst. I am still traumatized by getting stuck overnight in Chicago even though it all worked out okay and no one was in danger at any point.
(This is Suzanne.)
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