A week ago Thursday, Cliff and I went on a mini vacation to South Carolina to attend the wedding of my best friend, Cheryl’s, son. We flew out on Thursday night and flew home on Saturday night. Mini indeed, but not micro. Micro would be even shorter. But, I digress…Little did we know that the length of the trip would not be the only thing that was mini.
We left our home at 4:30 pm for our mini flight to South Carolina. After sitting on the runway for half an hour, we have no idea why; we were off. Fortunately for us, it was a mini flight, just slightly over an hour; so we spent minimal time in the air. And began our mini vacation.
We knew we booked a cheap flight. We knew we had to pay for everything, carry on luggage, seating selection, snacks, drinks, use of the bathroom. Well, maybe not use of the bathroom; but I didn’t go, just in case. The plane itself was probably the biggest thing about our trip. It was an Airbus, think Noah’s Ark with wings. We sat three-by-three on both sides and the seats were packed in, tight. We got to sit together, so that was nice. However, once seated I began to notice a few things. Things like although the plane was big, the seats were mini in every way. When I sat, there was not the usual couple of inches of cushion on either side of me. There were also only a few inches between my knees and the back of the seat in front of me (remember, I’m only 5’2″). The seat backs in front of us were made of some kind of metal, making me realize that one hard stop or bad turbulence could give us either a concussion or broken knees. The seat cushions were not very thick and I did notice that they did not tell us they could be used as a flotation device. Essentially, we were sitting on folding chairs bolted to the floor. Fortunately, there was no turbulence, nor hard stops, and we made it to our destination in tact.
We landed in a small, but not quite mini, airport; got our compact rental car, and headed for the Microtel Inn and Suites.
From the outside it looked nice and big, from the inside, not so much. There was a micro reception desk with a macro woman behind it. She welcomed us, gave us our room keys and pointed us to the one elevator, which was 5 ft. from her desk. We opened the door to our room and stopped just short of hitting the opposite wall. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. I could take 10 steps before I hit the wall. Ten. The main part of the room, excluding the mini entrance way, was maybe 10 x 10. In that space was our queen size bed, two micro end tables suspended from the wall, a micro desk also suspended and a small but efficient television mounted on the wall. It did have a nice window seat that extended out to make the room look more spacious. The bathroom was not too small, but the toilet was only two feet off the floor. Can you say ‘squatty-potty’? We were only there for two nights, so all-in-all it was fine, and it made us laugh.
In the morning we were greeted with a mini hot breakfast buffet with most of the usual fair, eggs, small sausage patties, tiny muffins, coffee and hot water. Little cups were placed by the orange and apple juice machine; and tiny regular and chocolate milk containers were in the mini fridge.
Outside, there were mini signs of fall. Meaning there were a few trees with color scattered here and there. Still very pretty and I was able to get my “fall fix”. We drove into town and wandered around. The downtown area was beautiful with a sprawling park, water falls, and bridges taking up a good portion of it. There were lots of signs explaining its history (which I love) and lots of little mom-and- pop book stores, coffee shops, and breweries giving it that quaint, cozy feeling of home. We ate lunch at a small bistro and sat at a little table in the outside area overlooking the river.
A wonderfully relaxing day followed by a wonderfully relaxing rehearsal dinner. They served delicious ‘burgers’ with all the works because, after all, we were there for the Kwast-Burger wedding! What could be more perfect?
On Saturday we checked out of our hotel and when asked how we liked it my ever-gracious, too-funny husband answered, “It was a very tidy little hotel.”
The wedding, was perfect. It is always a blessing to see and know that two young people are perfect for one another. The ceremony was short and sweet, though I didn’t understand one little word. I’ve decided that South Carolinians must have a language all their own. But still, it was simply beautiful.
Right after the wedding, and I do mean right after, we headed for the little airport we’d flown into, dropped off our compact car, and waited a little while for our turn to board. It was still to be a little flight on a bigger plane and security confiscated the hand cream I’d bought. I should have gone with the flow of the trip and remembered to get the mini jar, but really it was not that big a deal!
