San Antonio

The weekend before Halloween/Hurricane Sandy, I spent a long weekend in Texas with my mother, sister, and three sisters-in-law (and new niece and nephew).  It was a lot fun and I got to know my SILs a lot better.  All three had some hilarious and illuminating stories to share about themselves (and my brothers).  Trip highlights:

I arrived first and had a couple hours to kill/read at the hotel and walk along the Riverwalk.  It was quite pleasant except for the sweltering heat.  Even late that night when we slipped out to dinner I felt the temperature was unbearable.  Below are little August and Hazel.

We planned to spend our first day at Sea World, but when we woke up it was raining (and freezing) so we headed to the outlet mall instead.  It was strip-mall style so going in between stores was unpleasant.  When we first arrived I jumped out the car and ran to an awning.  I couldn't figure out why Mom, Lisa, and Emily didn't follow.  I kept motioning to them to join me.  Later I found out that they couldn't figure out how to undo the child lock so while I was obliviously waiting under the awning, Mom had to run around in the rain and open all doors.  We never did figure how to undo it so all weekend we had to let Lisa and Emily out of the car.

 We made it to Sea World the next day.  It was really fun, but I'm glad that I was only paying for myself and not my whole family.  I'm not sure it would have been worth that much money.  I especially enjoyed the shows, at least one of which I saw during my previous visit so I enjoyed the nostalgia.  While there, I went on a roller coaster with Codi and Lisa.  I used to really like them, but I hadn't been on one since my High School graduation.  Long time.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous.  All during the ride I felt nervous and nauseous.  I guess I'm getting old.

The Alamo.  You pretty much have to see the Alamo if you go to San Antonio.  After we explored the mission/fort we headed over to a nearby mall to see the same Alamo IMax I watched when I visited with my family over twenty years ago (oh, and of course we shopped some more).

The Riverwalk. We enjoyed walking along it in the evening and Sunday morning Codi and I took a very informative boat tour (because we were the only ones willing to wake up for it).

On Sunday everyone headed home.  Everyone but me.  I was stranded thanks to Sandy so I drove home with my mom.  My wait wasn't too bad.  I was able to help my mom work on a quilt (not sew, I iron and pin), unpack boxes/organize some rooms, and scan pictures.  Poor Drew had to take some additional time off work to stay with the kids though.  Liz was out of school and our basement got some minor flooding, but otherwise we were fortunate.  We didn't even lose power.

I was supposed to get home Sunday night around midnight.  After two cancelled flights and numerous changes, I got home 3 a.m. Thursday morning.