The trip begins

9/20- 9/22: Miami

Dad and I left for Miami on Thursday morning. We walked down the Art Deco strip Thursday night and visited the Everglades National Park on Friday (on the Golden Pass, yeah baby).

We got up at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, showered, and headed to the airport. We actually beat the Delta staff to work! We had to wait until 4:30 a.m. to check-in. My checked luggage weighed 49 and 50 lbs. I was more than 99.73% happy that I had decided to lug the scale to Miami with us and, furthermore, to make a re-adjustment in a moment of channeled nervous energy (shifting nearly all of me 35 lbs. of books to my carry-on).

I arrived in Atlanta with little consequence and set up camp waiting for the rest of Team 9 to meet me at the gate, which they did after about an hour. We shared a round of hugs and handshakes before settling into some friendly banter. For a moment, Kirby and I were convinced that we were sitting next to each other (something I thought supercool since I had booked my flight separately and randomly chosen my seat). Alas, Kirby was looking at his boarding card for his RIC to ATL flight =(