I lived in North Carolina until I was 11 years old. Even though we did not visit the area where I grew up, there was still a little nostalgic pull for me when I first considered planning our vacation there.
The night before we left I read a Disney story to Jaxon. It was Goofy Goes to the Airport. At the end of the book there are a couple of pages of pictures related to the story and we always go through them with Jaxon telling me what they are. That night he pointed to the flight attendant picture and I told him that the flight attendant helps us while we're on the plane, like getting us a drink or a snack. He said, "Like brussel sprouts?". What? Haha. Something like that little man.
I hardly slept the night before our flight because I was so excited. Jaxon must have been excited too because he had been doing GREAT at night for the prior couple of weeks, but that night he woke up twice. ugh!
The big trip started at 5:30 am with a shuttle (Thanks Heather!) to the airport.
Things went very smoothly and we were on the plane before we had a chance to stop and realize how tired we were.
Jaxon was absolutely terrified of flying. Take offs and landings were especially hard for him. He held tightly to the arm of the seat and the parent sitting closest to him, trembling and saying things like, "I don't want to do this! I want to get off! We're tipping!" Etc, etc. Not much crying at all. Just sheer, raw panic.
We had an especially helpful flight attendant who distracted him for most of the second landing.
Once we got to cruising altitude he was pretty much okay on both flights to NC.
I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have gotten him onto the plane at all if not for the fact that he was carrying a back pack full of "surprises". Huge source of courage that turned out to be!
Two of the items in the backpack were Lego kits. Is that what they're called? kits? This was our first move into the world of Legos.
Here's what I learned about Legos. He LOVES them. Told every single person who spoke to him, including the pilots, all about the presents his mom bought him for the trip. lol However, they are NOT as wonderful for plane and car trips as my trusted friends had advised. 4 hours of picking up tiny little pieces that fell from the tray table onto the floor kept us busy in ways I did not really enjoy. ugh! But, they made him happy and helped him pass the time. So I guess that counts for something. And now we know he loves them. So on the Christmas list they go.
We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina which, in hindsight, wasn't the best option. Norfolk, VA would have been closer to our final destination. Ah well...We grabbed the rental car and headed for our hotel which was practically made just for me! Gorgeously decorated in purples, brown and chartreuse. Chartreuse! I couldn't believe how much I liked that with the purples and browns. Roger, not so much.
We had dinner at the hotel lobby restaurant. As such, I didn't have very high expectations. In my experience those restaurants usually aren't very good at all. But we were blown away. It was fantastic!
Roger and I shared two entrees, as we did for most of the trip, so we could try more things. Because it's all about the food, right? Or is that just me?
We had Shrimp and Grits and a Peach Barbecued Chicken Sandwich. Both excellent!
Note to self: Find recipes for "Red Eye Gravy" and Peach Barbecue Sauce. Immediately.
When we travel we like to try the local wines and Roger likes to try the local beer so we shared a bottle of Childress Viognier . This label is owned by a Nascar team owner. I bet my brother is familiar with him that way. I'm not a Nascar fan but his wine was pretty good. ;)
After dinner we were all so ready for bed.
We had a long drive to look forward to in the morning.
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