We had always talked about going to Atlanta, but it just never happened. My uncle bob is always really busy, and we just never got to it. So when my mom was emailing my Uncle Bob back and forth talking about ideas for the summer, I never thought that we would be going down there. I was wrong. In the next couple of days, my uncle sent my mom and I buddy passes to fly form Dulles to Atlanta on Monday, August 3rd – Thursday, August 6th.

My uncle works for Delta, so he each bought my mom and I buddy passes to come down, each costing about $80. A buddy pass is basically just like flying standby. You go to the airport, wait for them to call your name, and then they seat you in the plane based on the experience of the Delta worker who gave the buddy pass to you. Delta workers are only allowed to give away 8 buddy passes a year, so I was really thankful to Uncle Bob. And since he has been working for Delta for 20+ years, my mom and I got to sit in first class.

The flight was really great. It was only an hour, but it was really fun. I knew that flying first class was a once in a lifetime experience. The service was awesome. There was one flight attendant for just first class, and there were only about twenty people or so. Overall I really enjoyed it.

After the flight, bob met us at the gate. I think the Atlanta Airport is so much better than Dulles because in Atlanta you don’t have o take the stupid mobile lounge to go to the other terminal. Once we got out of the airport, we headed over to Bob’s $80,000 Lexus SUV and drove to his house.

The first day we were there we went to the 737 simulator. It was incredible. Bob’s son Rob was visiting with his kids, and he is in the Air Force so he knows how to fly too. The sim was so realistic. When we got out it felt so weird because you felt like you just got off a plane. It was defiantly an experience I will never forget.

The next day we just hung out around the house and talked about everything. It was really fun to talk to everybody. I hadn’t seen everyone in a really long time and it was fun to catch up. That night we all ate that the Speedi Pig, a restaurant Bob’s son Andrew really likes. It food was great and it brought back a lot of memories of the family.

Our last full day in Atlanta we all went to the Georgia Aquarium. It’s actually the biggest aquarium in the world, with six different exhibits. All of the exhibits were really amazing. It was really fun to see Rob’s kids having such a great time. Overall we had a really good time.

The next day my mom and I got up and headed for the airport. We really didn’t want to leave after a really short visit, but we had to. Luckily, we got first class.

One of the best parts of the trip was the flight back home. Before we took off, the flight attendant announced that there was a soldier on board and that they were going to upgrade him to first class. I thought that was really awesome.  I really gave a lot of credit to Delta for doing that because I doubt the other airlines do that.

We called my dad when we landed, and he was there right at the gate when we got off. On the ride home we talked about the trip and all the fun we had. I hope we get a chance to go again next year.

This entry was written by ben and posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.