Levi and I both love road trips. And adventures. And going places we've never been before. When we were talking about where to go for our honeymoon, we instantly knew we wanted to do something fun and different that would make memories. We'd talked about going to New England "one day" but had never really put a date on when "one day" was. Levi surprised me by suggesting that we just go for our honeymoon! We started planning and looking at places. To be honest, I didn't realize how compact New England is. In the south, you can sometimes drive for hours and not see any cities or really anything at all other than small, empty towns. Not so in NE. Many of the places we definitely wanted to see were only a couple hours apart! A road trip would be so do-able! Plane tickets were purchased (stand-by tickets... see below), locations were researched, and Bed & Breakfasts decided on.
B&B's rock, btw!!
Our itinerary for New England: Atlanta, GA -> Boston, MA -> Kennebunk Port, ME -> Portland, ME -> Montreal, QC -> Niagara Falls, NY -> Newport, RI
Day 1: Atlanta & Airport Angst
We started out in Atlanta and stayed at the Maison LaVigne in Hapeville, GA. Gorgeous B&B! Very charming with lots of historic touches, a resident cat, and excellent hosts that make excellent breakfasts.
We left the B&B well rested and well-fed and arrived at the airport in plenty of time to have many flights for our standby tickets. Levi had worked out multiple options to get us to Boston, so we just knew we had no reason to worry. Ticket sales had looked promising the night before, and standby lists were short.
However, soon after we got settled into our seats at the gate, we realized pretty quickly that flights were looking very full. As in overbooked by 5-10 seats.... Levi talked to a few of the counter attendants who quickly told us that there was "absolutely no way" we were flying out of Atlanta on standby that day. We checked flights out of nearby airports and decided our best chance of getting to Boston that night was to get to Charlotte and catch a flight. Since a plane wasn't going to get us there, we decided to rent a car and drive 3.5 hrs from Atlanta to Charlotte and take our chances there.
So we rented a car. However, it's Masters Weekend.
Any non-golf fans, lemme fill you in. Masters is a huge golf tournament in Augusta, GA, that happens every year and floods the tourist industry with much needed income... and forces car rental prices to skyrocket. So yes. We rented a car. And mortgaged our firstborn to do so. BUT we got a car and made our way to Charlotte, finally making it after dark. We get to the airport, check-in, and the ticket counter attendants inform us that Charlotte, just like Atlanta, is overbooked, and there is only one flight that we might maybe perhaps get a couple seats on. So, we wait. And wait. And wait. Checking on other flights, watching full planes take off without us, and get more and more exhausted (remember, tail end of wedding weekend!).
Finally, last flight out. 11:45 pm. We're the only standby passengers left with the airline. We're watching all the full-paying customers line up, get their tickets scanned, and board the airplane. I knew we weren't going to get on this flight. No way. We'd missed too many all day. And I cried. I'll admit it. Sobbing, sloppy mess... crying in the airport. And nothing I could do about it. All the stress, all the exhaustion, all the mad dash from here to there finally caught up with me.
20 people left in line. 17. 12. Still no call for us. Levi gets up one last time to check with the counter. The lady shakes her head no, no more seats. More sloppy sobbing.
Suddenly, the other attendant says,
"Wait a minute...." and starts counting who's left in line.
"Hold up. Seriously." He makes a call to the plane.
I'm watching from across the room, holding my breath....
"TWO SEATS! There are two seats! Hurry hurry!!"
My sobs turn to hiccuped laughing, Levi fist pumps the air in victory, and we run onto the plane, the last two passengers on the last flight out that night. I didn't even care that my bag didn't fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of me. I didn't care that the lady next to me fell asleep leaning on my shoulder. We made it to Boston! At 2:30 am. But we made it. And we crawled into our bed at the Beech Tree Inn and slept until lunchtime the next day!
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