On Thursday during the afternoon tea break, while I was on my SQL 2000 to 2008 upgrade course, I received a phone call from Karen. Robert's fiancée visa had been turned down, so they were going to get married in Georgia next Tuesday. This led to a few frantic phone calls and a few frantic people. Could I get time off work? Could Jo get to the show she had tickets for on Monday evening. Could we get flights and visa approval?
More discussions on Friday moved the big day back to Wednesday.
Work said I could go - indeed they were very good about it. Jo could get to her show.
I set about buying tickets. Booking late is a bad idea. Ticket prices are not only very expensive but they change every few minutes. After a number of attempts on Opodo.co.uk I gave up - I could not get as far as the payment screen before it timed out. I tried Expedia, but by the time I got there the return flight had sold out. Even there I could not get through the web screens. I phoned them on different flights to the ones I wanted. I was finally able to book flights, but the return trip was over night. I've done over night's west to east before, they are the worst for jet lag. The ESTAs went OK, I bought train tickets at work on Monday - something I hate doing.
Early Tuesday morning we set out for Atlanta. I still hadn't managed to get to the 'check-in' site for the flight so I was not expecting that we would be able to sit together. We arrived at Heathrow almost four hours before departure, only to be told I was too early for baggage-drop (is baggage drop a prediction or a promise?) . We again tried check-in, and needed help to complete it. It had to be on the Delta flight number (which Expedia didn't give me), not on the KLM flight number I had booked. Anyway we got the last two seats together on the plane. Then it timed out while I tried to find the address or the hotel where we would stay (Robert had booked it for us). Back to the desk, where they seemed oblivious of the ESTA requirement to log the first nights address with the airline. Delta check-in at Heathrow is a mess. Still the flight was uneventful, and the extra hour to get out of Atlanta Airport was similarly uneventful. You get your bags from baggage claim, go through customs, give up your bags to security, go all the way to the opposite side of the airport to pick the up again. We walked because the signage is unclear - its a loooong way. We had also arrived 20 minutes early after boarding 45 minutes late, so we had to phone Robert - who came and picked us up and took us for a meal.
Wednesday morning I found that the nice white shirt I had picked up belonged to my son and was 2 sizes too small. That was the only problem with the day. The rest of it went very well. We travelled to Lithia Springs Baptist Church via Robert's mother's house, where we picked her up. The service at the church was attended by Robert's family and friends. We then went to a local restaurant for lunch. After lunch we went to the Douglasville Court House where the registration of the wedding was completed and they were legally married.
After returning to the hotel to change into less formal cloths we visited Robert's Aunt Pat for an evening reception where more of the family arrived to wish the happy couple well. They had a proper wedding cake, which was amazing given the short time there was to make it.
The following day we had a quiet morning - I was trying to prepare a sermon for Sunday, and in the afternoon Robert took us into Atlanta to visit a mall and later to the Aquarium. Unfortunately it had closed early because of some special event happening in the evening, so we visited the World of Coca-Cola instead. It was an interesting exhibition but they could have done so much more - where were all the TV adverts?
After a meal in the CNN centre - which reminded me of a Bond film - it was time to return to the UK.
We again arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. The security leaving is nothing like the security coming and we soon found ourselves bored at the gate waiting for the plane. It was the most uncomfortable Atlantic crossing I had ever experienced. The seat belt signs were on the whole way. There were children being sick. Serving of food was stopped as the flight crew had to strap themselves in. I was very glad that we were all in one piece when we landed at Heathrow.
A big thank you to Robert and his family for looking after us while we were there.
Best wishes to Karen and Robert for a long and happy life together.
There will be a number of things to add to the 25-things list form our little adventure, I'll work those out later.
No comments:
Post a Comment