After a quick 92 hours at home, Calib, Asa and I were headed north in search of this eclipse we'd been hearing so much about. A couple of months earlier, my nerdy cousins (thats an endearment term, by the way) started making plans to all meet up at my moms house to see the eclipse. After all, the path of totality was scheduled to go right over her house! Now, if I had not had all my cousins heading there, I probably wouldn't have gone. But them being there, coupled with the eclipse, well, I felt like I couldn't miss it.
In all of this, there was also a Waterstraut promise issued to my niece, Gwen, that we would attend one of her final drumline performances since it was her senior year and we hadn't been there yet. Now, that wasn't for like 12 days after the eclipse or something, so Asa and I had to make plans. We couldn't just stay in Fremont that long. We decided to make a whole trip out of it, but Calib was just down for the eclipse part. He rode up in the car with us, but flew back down.
Our first day we left on a Thursday at noon when Asa was done with work, made some Bucee's stops and got to Atlanta where we stayed in what we call a 'Jake Hotel' since Jake so kindly added us onto his friends and family Hilton discount (which is more than generous, it's why we stay in a lot of hiltons! Amazing rates). Anyway, I've kind of determined that I enjoyed leaving a little later in the day, and going as far as Atlanta. That makes the trip not so miserable.
Also, I wanted to go to Atlanta to go to the zoo. At the time, the Atlanta pandas were the only ones left in the country, and they have to be returned by the end of the year. I thought it might be my last chance to see pandas (and told Asa I would be 'simply devastated' if they left and I never got to see them). Since then, we've discovered some are coming back to San Diego and the National Zoo in DC (thank goodness). But anyway, I also currently have the FL Aquarium pass that gets me half off at the Atlanta Zoo, so it seemed like the perfect time to go.
We woke up early the next morning, had our free breakfast and made our way to the zoo. Parking was a little tough to come by, though we found some street parking not too far away (and free for that matter!) and we had no trouble getting our discount. It was a bit of a chilly morning at the zoo, and we were there right at open, so there weren't too many people around.
We made a beeline for the pandas, and there were so few people around, it was amazing. We spotted all four of the pandas, some even pacing right in front of us. One even did a couple summersaults for us. Apparently, they were so active because they were enjoying the cold weather! I sat and stared at them for a very long time. Calib and Asa were so sweet not to rush me. Even when I told them we could go, they were like 'are you sure? You can watch them as long as you want'. But, I knew the area would pick up soon (I was right, eventually you had to queue to get into the building to see some of them), and we wanted to get to Cort's house before dark.
Of course, the pandas were the highlight for me. I even used my $60 Fliff cash to buy a panda hoodie. Normally a splurge I wouldn't make, but I had the 'free money'. The rest of the zoo was also lovely though. We saw almost everything they had, and then continued on our way.
We drove the rest of the way through Georgia (to another Bucee's), all the way through TN and to KY before arriving in Ohio. By the time we got to Corts, Clint,Jess and their dog (the Professor) were also there. It is nice to have Cort right there on the border. We don't have to go too far into the state before we have a free place to stay. Otherwise those last 3.5 hours to moms house can be a lot.
Next up: Adding a plus one to our road trip
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