This past weekend we were in Huntsville, AL for Nic’s wedding. There were a lot of folks from LA Tech there and we had a great time visiting with everybody. Read on for the details and pics …

Friday afternoon, we flew from Houston to Birmingham, AL. It was a lot cheaper to go there and drive up to Huntsville than fly directly to Huntsville. And, since we needed a car anyway to get around once we were there, we went for it. We left Bush-IAH around 2:30pm Friday and got into Birmingham a little after 4. No problems getting our rental — we had reserved the cheapest economy car on a great rate, and lucked out when we got a Grand Prix!

We made the drive up to Huntsville (about 1.5 hrs) and got checked in to the hotel. After a quick bite to eat we headed over to the prenup gathering at the clubhouse. It was great — way more LA Tech peeps showed up than we had expected, and it was really good to catch up with everybody. After the get-together, most of us headed back to the Holiday Inn lobby where we proceeded to blow up what seemed like hundreds of balloons to stuff inside Nic’s car for after the wedding.

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to the church for the ceremony. Afterward, back to the hotel for the reception in the ballroom. When it was over, Nic & Petra had to pop a bunch of balloons just to get in the car to leave. Guess we did our job. Later on, a big group of us (20) went to Tokyo hibachi restaurant and then over to Robert’s place to hang out for awhile.

Sunday morning we hopped up early, checked out of the hotel, had some breakfast, and took a few pics of the space shuttle, rockets, and space camp buildings. Then we headed south and made a stop in Cullman at the Ave Maria Grotto, full of hundreds of miniatures by Brother Joseph. This place was pretty impressive.

Finally, we made it down to Birmingham for our return flight. FYI, this airport is ghetto. Make sure you eat before you checkin for your flight. We made the mistake of checking in first. On the inside for Gate C departures, you have 3 food choices: a deli, a pizza hut express, or another pizza hut express.

We went to the deli first, but the meats looked questionable at best, so we decided to pass. On to the adjoining pizza hut express.
“Can I help you?”
Pepperoni combo.
“We don’t have no breadsticks.”
Umm, ok. just two pizzas then, pepperoni for me, and cheese for lisa.
“Ooo we ain’t got NO pizzas neither!”
Uhhh. (no pizzas, no breadsticks — that’s all they serve!) OK, should we go down to the other pizza hut express?
“I don’t think they got none either … let me call. Nope. They out too.”

Astounding. Both pizza hut restaurants had absolutely no food to serve. And apparently they just figured it out when we ordered, even though somebody had to have gotten the last one prior to us being in there. Anyway, the girl went “upstairs” to a different place and came back with some pizzas after about 15 minutes. They were good, so we were glad.

Not an end to the ghetto-ness however. To start it off, our flight was out of Gate B @ 2:50pm. There they told us it had been changed to C5 — no big deal. We get to gate C and on the departures board is our flight, listed at C5 (yay!), but at 3:47pm and “on time”. Now one of those two columns has to be incorrect, so I ask the girl at the counter for C5. “Oh this ain’t the Houston flight” but I was assured that it would “probably” be there later. OK I’ll wait.

So our flight was supposed to start boarding at 2:15. At 2:05, people inexplicably get up and start heading over to board. I ask again if this is Houston. “Nope. This is Raleigh/Durham”. So what about the Houston flight? “Oh it will be here later”. OK, I’ll wait some more. But this time I ask what about the 2:50 vs. the “on-time” 3:47 on the board: “Oh, it’s probably wrong.” Way to inspire confidence.

So why all of this? Her response: “We doin’ this cuz it’s alot of planes.” I was amazed. An airport has a lot of planes. Go figure. Now I do know what she meant to say, that Gate B was full so they pushed my flight over to C5 to offload gate B, and that makes perfect sense, but still … wow.

Anyway, we got off a few mins late and the flight was smooth. I had exit row seats so it was quite comfortable. But alas, there are some stories to tell from this quick weekend trip. And congrats Nic & Petra!

Link to pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/jhindmon/sets/72157603819495516/