Raleigh/Durham: 4.7 out of 5

Blucifer:
For those of you who are not natives to Colorado,
or even the Denver area, this statues stands proudly
off the road in and out of the Denver Airport.
This statue not only looks like a demon, but actually
KILLED HIS MAKER BY FALLING ON HIM.
If that doesn't make you feel safe flying out of
Denver, I don't know what will. 

Hello again fellow travelers, bloggers, and avid blog readers!

Today I am writing to you from a rather comfortable Air B&B just south east of Durham, North Carolina. Let me tell you, today could have been one of those disaster trips where everything goes wrong. It really could have been! However, the travel god (all hail the mighty Bluecifer, may he hate you less than everyone else) must have averted his laser beam red gaze while we drove past him on the bus this morning.

John, the fiancé, and I woke up at roughly 3:25 this morning to make sure we had ample time to go through the process of preparing our home for our departure. The alarm went off without a hitch and we were in the car ready to go a few minutes before we planned.
We stopped at McDonalds, joked around the with only two people working in the building, and headed on our merry way. There was construction all the way down a major highway between us and the airport, but at 4:00 AM, there was not nearly enough traffic to be slowed down by this.

At the airport, we went to shuttle parking and were the last ones on the shuttle bus before they declared it full to capacity and drove past many others waiting for the same thing we were, to get to the airport. We walked in, got our boarding passes and were through security with enough time to grab a coffee before we started boarding.

I don't know if you're familiar with how South West boards, but it's general seating and all you, the customer, has is a zone in which you board. The farther back your zone is, the worse chance you have at getting seats you want. We were farther back than we normally were, but I was still able to procure a window seat and the neighboring middle for a comfortable ride.

Hey Nashville, thanks for your Jolteon!

The only thing that could have made this better was that when we landed in Nashville for a layover, we didn't even get off the plane and there was a PokéStop within reach. I caught a few awesome Pokémon and was stoked.

Now, at this point, the trip has just gone well. No one is running behind or way too early. We are having a smooth ride. Everyone seems to be happy (except when we were both cranky because it was rather early and neither of us had anything vaguely resembling caffeine until we got to the airport). We get to North Carolina and everything is still running as smooth as Irish butter. We hop off the plane. There is a startlingly short walk to baggage claim, my bag came out right away, and it was all very clearly marked. We hopped on the shuttle to pick up our rental car, and the lady driving the bus was the nicest, chattiest lady ever. She was helpful with any question we had and was prompt in getting us the information we needed and where we needed to be.

So within just a few hours, we were waking up before dawn in Denver, Colorado and then we were getting lost on I-40 heading up to see my (future) sister-in-law. It was honestly great. We hung out with Sara (the aforementioned soon-to-be sister-in-law) as well as the other sibling, Jacob. We went swimming, had lunch, and listened to Mumford and Sons like it was going out of style.
After this relaxing jaunt, we went to see the (future) parents-in-law at the VERY nice Air B&B Lisa found. (I'm not sure how my mother-in-law does it, but you set her free on Air B&B for a few hours with a vague idea of what you want and she will bring you back a gold nugget the size of your fist. It's thanks to her that John and I have the PERFECT honeymoon planned out, but more on that later). We had pizza from a place called Lily's. Why is a pizza place named after a flower? I don't know, but if you're in the area, I highly recommend their pizza.

I know what you're probably thinking, or will be thinking soon. "But Alexandra, after all this good, why is it only rated a 4.7 out of 5?"
Why, that's a very good question! Because, my dear readers, it is humid as fuck. Like not just a little to curl your hair. NO. It's like walking into a bath tub every time you open the damn door. Now excuse me, I have to swim to the bedroom and get that sleep I missed out so sorely on last night.