Our final day of vacation is always the toughest. It's time to say goodbye and head back to reality. It also means it's travel time, which always puts me in a special mood. I got up early so I had a chance to say farewell to Mom and Dad as they got on the road to make the trip home in one day. The rest of the gang got up a little bit later so we could pack up and make the trek to Charleston, where we'd fly out. Armed with caffeine and DJ Mike's tunes, we were road trip ready. It was a very uneventful trip and we got to Charleston with some free time before Katie and Aaron needed to get to the airport.

Chicken Tenders, Biscuit, and Botato Rounds

It's not a trip to the South without a visit to Bojangles, so Aaron and I introduced Katie and Mike to the wonders of Bojangles. This particular location was attached to a gas station and the employees were very amused as we pondered over our best options as if we were dining at a 5 star restaurant. We each settled on some chicken variety and we all thouroughly enjoyed our meals. After Bojangles, Mike and I dropped off Katie and Aaron at the airport before we took our short detour to the outlet mall in Charleston. It was a cute, newer Tanger Outlets with the shoppes looking like old fashioned buildings. We wandered the mall and only ended up buying one pair of shorts for Mike. We stopped for a cookie and then headed to the airport because I was hot, tired, and crabby. We had a slight detour returning the car due to poor airport signage, but when we got to the right location, it all ran smoothly. Charleston's airport is tiny and we got our overweight bag checked in and through security rather quickly. Unfortunately, there were not many food options at the airport. It was under construction and it looked like there were several cool options coming in the future. We ended up with Lunchables and water as a snack before boarding. Katie and Aaron had a long layover in Baltimore, where there were Southwest agents dressed as superheroes. Our flight to Chicago Midway was fairly uneventful, however, I turned into the terrible traveler as soon as we landed. We had to make it from one end of the airport to the other in about 20 minutes for boarding. I took off at a fast pace (Mike thought I could be a competitive fast walker.), making nasty comments along the way. To be fair, I just wanted to go home and see my dog and I hadn't had caffeine in a while. Our flight to Austin seemed to take forever and I was so glad when we landed and were off the plane.

We found our luggage, which managed to stay intact, and headed over to Linda and Eric's to pick up Cecil. We were happy to see him and we could tell the feeling was mutual. We had a great trip and were sad to see it end, but happy to be back to our normal life.

Cecil is looking dapper in his new bow tie collar.

The New Austonian