This was a full travel day for us. I included recaps of our flights, and at the end, I’ll talk about my overall thoughts from the trip.

Flight 1

We quickly grabbed breakfast at the Wendy’s down the street from the Airbnb before driving to return the rental car. Like last time, we took the shuttle from the rental car place to the airport. Josh and I ended up sitting near the driver, who was nice and talked to us about the stuff people have left on the shuttles, like they just walk off without their luggage. She said she also makes up stories in her mind about the stuff she sees to pass the time. I said I’m sure she sees a lot of stuff.

On the way to Cleveland, we flew on United, but when Josh checked in Thursday afternoon, our return flights were switched to American Airlines. We dropped off our checked bags at the American desk and then went through TSA. The agent scanning our licenses asked if we wre heading on vacation or heading home; we said we were heading home after spending the week in Cleveland on vacation. We successfully got through security without any issues.

Our flight was leaving around 12:30 p.m., so we got lunch after 11:00 a.m at the Chick-fil-A in the Cleveland airport. We didn’t want to make the same mistake we made Friday traveling to Cleveland and not having an actual lunch. While we were eating, a random guy commented on Josh’s Patriots t-shirt; I guess the guy used to live in Massachusetts and moved out to Cleveland and appreciated seeing a Pats shirt. I’m just glad Josh didn’t tell the guy I’m a Giants/Red Sox fan like he insists on telling anyone who will listen.

We went to our gate and ended up talking with a couple who was sitting across from us. The guy asked what we were doing in Cleveland, and we said how we were on vacation, and he was like, “What? Vacation in Cleveland?” He said he was born and raised in the city. I told Josh later we would say the same thing if someone told us they were going on vacation in the Springfield/Hartford area.

Although we were on a “bigger” plane going home, Josh and I opted to check our carry-on bags. Honestly, it makes it easier especially when you’re trying to get off the plane after it lands; you don’t have to fight to get your bag from the overhead bin. So our carry-on bags went off to find our checked bags and would all be at baggage claim when we finally landed at home.

I popped my quarter of a Xanax and then boarded the plane. By “bigger” plane I mean a plane with three seats on each side of the aisle. I was in the aisle seat, Josh was in the middle, and a random guy was by the window. He was fine—he just watched a movie on his tablet the whole time.

Take-off was a bit rough because of the wind and going through the clouds; Josh said that was one of the bumpier take-offs he had experienced. I listened to podcasts instead of reading this time, and I got a seltzer and cookies when the flight attendants came around.

Landing was fine, and we were actually early, which was good because we had less than an hour for our layover. 

Flight 2

Thankfully our second flight gate was just down the terminal where we landed, but Charlotte was super busy. I think it’s mostly a connecting airport; it seemed a ton busier than Cleveland. Another benefit of checking our carry-ons was that we didn’t have to wait for them to get off the plane. One of the agents at the gate was announcing they were offering vouchers for people to take the later flight because it was overbooked, and I was like, uh no, I just want to go home. It seemed to take a bit longer for everyone to get in line to board.

It was another three seat per row plane, and I was in the aisle seat, Josh in the middle, and another random guy by the window who was on his phone for the entire flight. The flight was supposed to leave around 2:50 p.m., and we were all boarded and seated on the plane, but then it didn’t take off until a half hour later? We were just sitting on the tarmac and then taxied around a bit, so we ended up leaving later than planned. My mom had our flight number so she could track it for picking us up.

I listened to podcasts and got seltzer and cookies again. And we didn’t even feel the landing—it was so weird and Josh didn’t believe me when I said we were on the ground. We got off the plane and headed to baggage claim to get all four of our bags. I texted my mom we were ready for pick-up. She and my dad were parked across the street from the airport and were heading over once we were outside.

Then we were picked up and headed back home after picking up take-out dinner since it was already after 5:00 p.m.

Other notes

Flying still isn’t my fave mode of transportation. I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy or love flying, but I think I can tolerate it enough. After flying for the first time last year, I’m glad we opted for slightly longer flights and layovers this year as part of expanding my horizons. The flights will be a gradual process, but we’re making some sort of progress. Josh was helpful with answering all of my questions and reviewing the flight from start to finish for me before we left.  

I saved all of the mementos from our trip. I’ve always saved mementos and little things from trips, events, activities, etc. over the years, and everything pictured below ended up filling an entire zippered pocket in my carry-on. I have memory boxes where I save everything, so all of these are safely packed away, but I wanted to take a picture beforehand. (And those are just two of our luggage tags; I think we had eight between us but they would take up the entire picture, so I just featured a few.)

We made Cleveland fun! The caption for my Instagram/Facebook Cleveland recap post was “We went to Cleveland to try and figure out why LeBron wanted to leave but instead found:…” and listed all of the places we went. Mostly everyone we told that we were going to Cleveland for vacation asked why, and I mean, I get it, but also like we had a lot of fun. I worked really hard to find cool places to go, and we lucked out with our Airbnb being super close to restaurants and shops.

Josh and I worked together to initially plan out each day, like Monday would be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Wednesday would be our Canton day, etc., and then I worked to find other places to go as well as restaurants. I searched for blog posts from Cleveland locals sharing their favorite spots, and honestly, a lot of what I found was on Google Maps: looking in an area, zooming in and out, searching for “restaurant” or “breakfast” or “brewery” and then looking at websites, reviews, and social media.

I got some weird post-travel cold. It showed up over the weekend after we returned and then continued into all last week. At first, I thought it was just because of traveling and not sleeping well and being run down, but then it sort of turned into a cold? I mean, I wanted to rest the week after getting back but not doing so while drinking a bottle of Dayquil and going through an entire box of tissues. Thankfully, Josh didn’t end up sick, I’m finally feeling better today and I finally stopped snoring at night.