My First Airlpane Ride.... and a Friend's Wedding

A friend of our family invited us to his wedding on May 21. Al and I wanted to see him get married and meet his bride face-to- face, though Al had already met her. We decided to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina, as the wedding would take place nearby. I was excited to see our friend's wedding, but I was also excited because this would be my first plane ride. Al has flown numerous times on business, but I never had. I always thought I would enjoy flying but never had occasion to do so. Work dragged that week, as I was anticipating our little "mini-vacation." I was also looking forward to having some time away with Al, as we had been going "full blast" since after Christmas, in addition to his recovering from his heart attack. I spent the week packing and getting the house ready so that the girls would be comfortable while we were away. We left on Friday morning, May 20. Janet dropped us at the airport at 6:30. We went through security smoothly and quickly, despite the long line. I watched Al carefully as I had never done this before. We found our gate and waited to board. We ran into our friend's parents and sisters, who were on the same flight! It was a pleasure to see them, as we had not seen them for a few months. We visited while waiting to board. When we got on the plane, I thought it looked like a bus except that we would be in the air instead of on the ground. Al gave me the window seat, right over the wing. Well, when we took off, I realized that this was nothing like riding a bus. We taxied down the runway and then sped up. I saw the plane lift off the ground, and we could see Route 75 and our neighborhood. Then we had to fly through some clouds, but when we reached our altitude, we had beautiful, sunny, blue skies with an entire landscape of clouds below! We could also see the ground sometimes and the towns and trees looked like little toy villages. The clouds looked like big snowdrifts, as if you could scoop up handfuls and have a snowball fight! God's creation is amazing! I never imagined how beautiful a "cloudscape" could be when viewed from the other side. We landed in Detroit at about 9 am, with a 10:30 flight from there to Charlotte. (Go figure.... we flew from Bradley in Windsor Locks to Detroit for a connecting flight to Charlotte.) I actually didn't mind, because Detroit's airport is beautiful. Also, it meant another flight. I haven't figured out one thing though. When we're up there, I know we're moving very fast, but it seems as if we're standing still! I wonder why that is?