Up, up and away!!!!

The big day has arrived, up at 5.30 to get the shuttle to Terminal 3 for the flight to Atlanta. Already checked in online, so only had to do bag drop. The girl who checked us in had a great hairstyle, very 50's. It was a really big quiff at the side. She must have used a can of hair lacquer to keep it in place! Very quiet at the terminal, suppose it was because of the early hour.
Sarnie hit the duty free, perfume and new Longchamp bag. I kept telling her to get one for years, she finally succumbed about 2 years ago, now she has 4, in different colours!
We had breakfast at Rhubarb, very nice. Only issue is that since the security scares you can't get a knife that cuts anything!
Our gate was eventually shown, gate 22, the furthest away from the terminal. Lots of work going on at T3, so quite a hike. The boarding process was really efficient, they used 2 doors. Got to our seats, emergency exit seats so plenty of legroom. Not the widest seats in the world, even I felt a bit hemmed in.
We were flying Virgin Atlantic, so lots of red around. lipstick, shoes, uniform and blankets. So won't be wearing that if I get cold.
Good choice of movies and thankfully Sandra's screen, headphones etc all worked.usually she gets an upgrade to premium economy and leaves me to my own devices, popping back occasionally during the flight to check on me.
Drinks came around and we ordered 2 mini bottles of fizz, only £20 for the 2. Nice way to start the holiday.
When our glasses were empty one of the senior stewardesses went and got us a refill from premium economy, free of charge. This happened a couple of times, so really enjoyed the flight.
I watched The Revenent, The Lady in the van and Sceptre. All good movies, just couldn't get to see the end of Sceptre as we hit a bit of turbulence as we came in to land, will catch the ending on the return flight hopefully.
Nice and hot in Atlanta, 80+ degrees and sunny. Immigration was a lot easier this time, as we have biometric passports and had travelled on them to the States last year we could use the automatic "process. The guy who then checked everything couldn't believe we were visiting all the places planned in 2 weeks, he said that was a lot to do!
Collected our bags, exited the terminal but had to get a shuttle to pick up our shuttle to the hotel! Atlanta airport is huge, it covers miles! It took us about 15 mins to go from the International terminal to the domestic terminal.
We eventually got on our shuttle and it was only a short ride on the Interstate to downtown Atlanta and our hotel.
We got checked in, room is very spacious, clean and very quiet.
We had an issue with the safe, it didn't work, so we called maintenance and they sent a lady to fix it. It needed some new batteries, off she went to get them and when she tried to fit them she couldn't undo some of the screws holding the unit together. In the end I had to do it for her, she was really appreciative, as were we because we needed to use the safe for our valuables.
We got ready to go out and decided to have a drink in the rooftop bar, we found it eventually, you have to get 2 lifts, only to find that they were having a private function. That didn't start till about 8, so we had a beer and took in the views. Really good, as it was a sunny evening and we could see for miles.
We decided to eat at the Hard Rock, it was only a couple of blocks away, so easy to walk to it.
It was a massive one, they had live music on later that night. The staff were really bubbly, singing along to the songs. It was a bit different to most other Hard Rock cafes we've been in, the music played was more pop then rock. They even played YMCA! The staff have a mini stage area where they all started dancing and singing, doing all the actions.
As always the food was good and plentiful, after we finished our meal we had a look at some of the memorabilia and visited the store and bought some souvenirs of our visit.
It was a short walk back to the hotel, we had a drink in the bar and took the opportunity to charge our phones and get on the wifi. They only have free wifi in the lobby area, they charge if you want it in your room. So bad in this day and age.
There is a convention in town, a psychiatrist's convention, so lots of doctors about! Some strange people about.
We eventually went to bed about midnight, so we're up for nearly 24 hours!!!