We finally made our way out in public. It's our first vacation since 2019. My goal was to enjoy our vacation without being exhausted. I'm that momma who does so much organizing and scheduling and strategizing and meal planning, I come back more tired than when I left. This time I was determined to vacation differently. It started off a little rocky with the Hartsfield -Jackson airport situation. I booked all of our flights, but when it came to Pre-Check, only the boys and I had it. Now why would I allow my 70-plus year-old mother to go through regular security while we sashayed through Pre-Check? I respect and understand security, but the attitude of the agent who stood flat-footed and lightweight yelled that we could go but my mom was on her own, was a bit rude to my liking.
We hauled ourselves to general security, removed shoes, all devices, explained nebulizers, inhalers and EpiPens, and finally got on our way with just a few of my nerves aggravated. Once we got my well-organized suitcases back together, I was ready to face the walk to Gate B. Y'all remember when I put on my Darth Vader mask at the start of this panoramic? Well, let's just say our travel get-up was a close second to that. We had on N95 masks, face shields and came ready with airplane seat covers. The photos will give us a laugh one day, I hope.
My bestie and I devised a plan to avoid the people-packed trams and escalators, which meant we would walk to our concourse. God smiled on us and let it be Concourse B. Did y'all know it was a five to ten minute walk between concourses in Atlanta? The artwork is so beautiful, we actually enjoyed the scenery along the way.
We made it to the concourse with an hour and some change to spare. We hustled ourselves onto the plane with our four carry-ons, ready for the sun and sand. Did I mention we got up at the butt-crack of dawn to catch an 8:30 a.m. flight? I wanted to be sure we got every nanosecond of beach time each day. We landed by 10 a.m., checked in to the beautiful Nobu hotel (view from our suite above) and were chilling on the beach by noon. That night, the moon over Miami was full and golden over the ocean and all was right with the world.
Editor's Note: This blog was published in 2022 but written in 2021 to capture our first beach trip after the panorama. Unfortunately, I got sick after returning to Atlanta, and I didn't discover that I had never published one of the family's best beach vacations. So here they are in all their year-late glory.