The sun never sets ... On a day in airports.

Last week I took a trip to visit my dad in Florida, and Johan came too! Here was my first experience at the State College airport ... Resisted the urge to turn around and throw up some Nixon fingers.

I flew from State College to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Charlotte, and finally Charlotte to Tallahassee (at least Johan and I had the same flight for that part of the trip). I had to grab a picture of the 'Aquarius' water bottles, but not without explaining to the flight attendant that it was because of the song 'Age of Aquarius.'

As luck would have it, those Sky Mall magazines are FULL of entertaining gems. This was one of my favorites ... An armadillo beer holder. That's right, beer cozies are a thing of the past my friends.

I think my all-time favorite, however, was the one shown below. It took me a minute to figure out what it was, but once I realized I was all but laughing myself into tears. It's an irreverent twist on your average garden gnome - it's a pretend zombie trying to claw his way out of your yard. Brilliant, just brilliant.

I committed one of the ultimate Penn State student sins ... I went to a Florida State game before I went to a Penn State game. Not my fault, Dad got tickets to the game, because he decided it was essential that Johan learn what AMERICAN football is. FSU seemed like a good place to start. Here's Chief Osceola, on his horse near the entrance to the stadium ...

And here is a winning shot of me before the game started for proof, since anyone who knows me even a little bit would demand photo evidence. The crowd was packed by the time the game started, in case you wondered. This was the season-opening, ego-boosting, freshmen-initiating first game, after all.

Here's a video clip of the beginning of the game. FSU is famous for it's opening rituals, and there's certainly no doubt into my mind as to why. The video cuts out right before Chief Osceola rides his horse down the middle of the field and spikes his flaming spear into centerfield, but you get the idea. I love seeing the marching bands, their half-time routines were all Beach Boys hits!

Here's my dad's baby, Charlie's brother, Barney. Barney and I had never met before, and he seemed thoroughly unimpressed by my lack of catch-playing interest. When I got a bit feverish and slept through the whole afternoon he was happy to cuddle though, so that worked out well.

Here's a picture of me with my dad :) Obviously no family resemblance there ... Riiiiiiight.

And here's a picture Johan and I took in the airport! He forbid me to put up any of the others from the game, where he had a baseball hat and aviators ... I might point out that this was when we got to the airport around 5am. For flights that ended up getting bumped later or changed entirely ... Awesome.

This is in the Tallahassee airport, FYI. I thought it was funny for two reasons:

1) Tipp Hill in Syracuse

2) Obviously built to serve the massive Irish population of north-central Florida.

Coming back was a beast, because I got bumped off my flight and onto one through Atlanta (I HATE flying through Atlanta) and then took a 45 minute extended tour of the runways of Atlanta, before we finally took off (late) for Philadelphia. Apparently I followed the massive, flood-inducing storm up the entire east coast, because the weather was miserable and the turbulence was still worse. In Philadelphia we got delayed to State College, and when our pack-of-gum plane finally took off, we were flying through the storm ... Worst turbulence I think I've ever experienced ... And then the airport had no cabs. UGH. Made it home though, and was very happy to sleep :)