Titus has wanted to fly for a very long time and going to the National Taekwondo Tournament in Atlanta was the perfect opportunity. I'm not a great long distance driver and Chris needed to work so the only logical solution was for us to fly. Since we were flying alone, Chris insisted we fly First Class (he didn't want us dealing with some jerk) and it wasn't that much more than coach. Titus was covered under my existing TSA pre-approval pass so we'd done all we could to assure smooth travel, now it was just a matter of going.
After the family dropped us off, we got through security with no problem. RDU is an especially pleasing modern looking airport and since we had time, we decided to explore a bit. Titus absolutely loved the people movers and we were pleasantly surprised to see a Le Farm bakery right next to our gate. Therefore, we enjoyed a bite to eat of their yummy food while we waited to board our flight.
First Class is quite a difference from coach, our "Butler" was a really cool gentlemen that took great care of us. Titus had no problem flying, in fact he loved it. Our "Butler" even got him a Plane Collector Card (Didn't know that was a thing) and a picture with the pilots hat on at the controls when we landed. I must say Chris has now created a monster, I don't ever want to fly coach again LOL.
I knew from previous experience that driving in Atlanta is to be avoided, so we chose to take the MARTA instead of renting a car, plus it was huge cost savings. However, navigating the MARTA did take a bit of learning. Thankfully, we met a nice lady that helped us buy tickets and then miraculously sat next to us on the train talking to us the whole trip. We did accidentally get off 1 stop too early, but we quickly spotted a police officer that showed us how to walk to our hotel. It's amazing how different one block can make in the look of a city, it was a bit stressful.
The hotel was quite nice. Titus had quietly said to me he hoped we were on the top floor and so I asked the check-in lady if we could be. She couldn't get us on the very top floor but she kindly got us on the 26th floor, just one below the top. Titus was thrilled.
Once we were settled in our room, we decided to see what our dinner options were but first we stopped to check out the roof-top pool. There was a big college football game in the stadium next to the convention center that weekend and apparently the Kentucky team was staying at our hotel and their players filled the pool. Once back in the lobby, we stopped at the concierge desk and asked about dinner recommendations and availability of discount tickets to the Georgia Aquarium. We scored on both counts. We bought extremely discounted tickets and found out the hotel restaurant had great food and beautiful outdoor seating overlooking Centennial Park. After dinner we watched a movie Titus had been wanting to see called "Red 2", then we curled up with our over stuffed beds and pillows for much needed rest.
We had purposely arrived a day early so that there would be no stress about delays or worry about arriving late. Therefore, Titus didn't have to meet with his team at the convention center till late Friday afternoon which gave us the morning to have some extra fun. As I eluded to earlier, since we were just across the park from the Georgia Aquarium we decided to spend the morning there, but first we needed breakfast. There was a different restaurant in the hotel that was open for breakfast and boy was it delicious.
With our stomachs properly filled, we then walked through Centennial park to the Aquarium which was amazing. We arrived just when it opened, which turned out to be "Quiet Hour" which made exploring truly unique experience. Slowly we made our way to the big Shark Whale viewing area. It was so peaceful to sit quietly watching those incredible animals swim past in a dark room that made you feel like you were almost swimming with them.
Before we had to leave, we managed to see all the exhibits and shows.
The Seal show was rather entertaining and the Dolphin show was up there with Sea World shows of old. Titus liked the adorable otters, thought the Beluga whales were funny, was impressed by the big gar and pike but of course waddling through the tunnels next to the penguins was tops on his list. The aquarium had a healthy cafe so we decided to lunch there before enjoying a walk through the strangely empty park back to the hotel to get ready for the tournament.
As luck would have it, the hotel was on one end of the convention center and the venue was litterally the last unit on the other side, making it nearly a mile walk up and down lots of different elevators though a deserted convention center, deserted that is except for all the TKD students from all over the country working their way down, to the venue. As it always goes in tournaments it was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. The venue was very nice and the team performed really well (Here's link to video).
When they were done, it was rather late so we ate at the hotel again (some of his team mates did as well). The fresh air on the patio was much appreciated after the long time inside the convention center.
Friday was the team competition and Saturday was individual competitions. Titus was competing in Pomsae and Sparing. I was very proud of him and I loved how the younger kids looked up to him and how he made sure to find and cheer them on in their different events.
My job was simply to tag along at a distance and make sure people were eating and drinking as they waited (we had found a great bakery in the hotel so I went back and did a cookie run at one point). We walked many miles back and forth but in the end Titus had an awesome showing. His Demo team placed 4th in the nation, he got 2nd in Pomsae and 1st in Sparing. I was so proud of his sportsmanship in sparing.
There was so much waiting that he made friends with his competitor while they waited. In the end, Titus was a much better sparer but instead of beating the kid up, once he had the points to win he backed off and even let the kid get a couple hits in so he wasn't skunked (not that the kid could tell that but I certainly could), I thought it was very kind, his Masters were a bit confused but that's okay. Titus competed fairly early in the day (due to age) but we stayed around supporting the team till 5:30pm.
Then we headed up to our room to change into swim suits and enjoy a pizza pool party arranged by some of the parents back at the hotel. It was wonderful evening hanging out with friends and burning off steam after two very long days of competition.
Sunday was our flight back home. We ate leftovers and cookies for breakfast and walked once more through the park, this time to the proper and much safer MARTA station to get us back to the airport.
I don't know why everyone who flies doesn't get TSA approved! It is so much easier and the regular security lines would have had us waiting an hour and we were tired, instead we just walked through. Atlanta is one of my favoritie Airports and we had plans of exploring but after the previous two days we were just happy to sit and play some gin while we waited to board our plane. The flight home was on a newer plane than our flight out and just as nice. The new "Butler" gave Titus another trading card, so now he had two for what I predict will be a lifetime of flying different planes. We had an absolutely incredible weekend together, but it was still good to be back home.
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