bachelorette weekend: day 1

as i said in my last post, i had no idea where the girls were taking me. i figured out (and KC kind of gave it away...purposefully) that we were picking up Katie and Nikkie in Pittsburgh, so off we went at 10am Friday morning, stopping in Edinboro first to pick up Stace.

unfortunately things were thrown off Thursday night for Katie and her husband due to a family emergency. We were afraid Katie wasn't going to be able to come with us, but we just changed some plans around - picked up buffalo chicken wing pizza for the group for lunch Friday - and just left a little later than (probably) originally planned.

as we started driving out, i was paying attention to road signs, but then realized i didn't want to know where we were going until we got there. the girls kept making jokes that we were going to go to Ikea and sleep there and get a bunch of free stuff (um, that would have been AWESOME), KC (who was driving) even joking that she couldn't get off the exit to get to Ikea (of which i totally believed she was trying to). soon enough, everyone was looking at me, smiling and giggling, so i finally looked up to see we were pretty much in the Pittsburgh airport. i was in disbelief.

we parked. still disbelief.

Katie dispersed baggies to put our liquids in. again, disbelief.

they kept joking we were going to go in and come back out (how hilarious), or they bought tickets to take us back to Erie...(could you imagine?!)

Katie managed to hide my ticket from me and convince any security peeps to not tell me where we were going (we had our bride/bridesmaid tube tops on at this point, so everyone was like - "VEGAS???!" and we were like "shut it").

at this point they told me to turn around and go back to where we just came from...

then they debated on hanging out at a different terminal so i wouldn't know until we got ON the plane...but they decided against that (after making me ride the people-movers back and forth). also, note i had a DUFFLE BAG b/c you know, the secret.

anyway, soon enough we got to the terminal and i didn't dare to look...but there it was! ORLANDO, FLORIDA. yes folks, these ladies took me to Orlando.

one may not thing this is the best "bachelorette party" city, but having a friend that knows her way around (except for when she gets lost...) and can get us into the parks for FREE makes this TOTALLY the spot. and having just awesome friends like the SKANK's, i mean, that makes for a weekend ANYWHERE awesome (and when i say SKANK's, A=Alicia at this point, not me).

after our flight we took a taxi to the hotel, which took us 1/2 hour longer than it was supposed to - our guy totally had no idea where he was going, and he had GPS...and overcharged us...

we had an amazing two bedroom (two beds in each room) suite with two full baths, kitchen and living room with pull-out couch, so we all got our own beds! it was awesome.

Alicia showed up a little later with some snacks and some drinks so we hung out, signed the Bachelorette Oath of Secrecy, then ran across the street for some real food (ok, greazy fried appies) and more fun.

also, Katie made a friend with a native Floridian...

so that was our amazing first day/night - traveling, surprises, surprises revealed, junk food and raspberry champagne (and SKAANK).