With things costing more and more, if you ever need a break— go to Austin. Not because the cost of living is more affordable than in California, but because everything is free. Going to a city and not having to spend any money will elevate that city’s rating in your mind.
Someone Needs to Be Sober Enough to Drink... Grant's 37th Birthday Bash!
The end of 2022 may have just rung in, but the start of 2023 (and any year for that matters) really kicks off with Grant’s Birthday ExtravaGRANTza or ExtravaGAYza…it changes depending upon the activity we are doing. This year’s festivities were being housed in Dallas, Texas, which allowed some new faces to join us! Big thank you right off the bat to Wendy and Latisha for planning, prepping, keeping Grant grounded, and overall making this weekend a huge success!
Dousing A Heart On Fire with Water
The heart is a very fickle thing. Sometimes it wants one thing and then sometimes it wants something completely different. Put differently-- I sometimes want milk chocolate, while other times I want white chocolate. Strange. No rhyme or reason as to why my heart has these feelings, yet the heart knows what it wants in the end. Life sometimes presents difficult choices that fracture the heart. The more you struggle to try and put your heart back together the stronger the friction becomes. If the friction is not controlled, it can turn into a fire. A heart on fire burns slowly, blackens, and ruins without intervention. So, with this trip, the goal was to douse a heart on fire with an epic amount of water. An epic amount that could only be found at a waterpark.
Continuing The Tradition With A Few New Faces in San Antonio
Like clockwork, every year we find ourselves in New Braunfels, Texas to go to our favorite waterpark – Schlitterbahn. This is not like a traditional waterpark as it is a mega-park where the whole experience is divided into 3 sections that you can only connect to by bus. There seemed to have been more water in this area than in all of California!
Should I Continue to Denver Since I Want Snow?
Having traveled enough we have learned a few tricks to get steals on flights. Grant’s favorite trick is to use Skiplagged- an app that looks at layovers rather than final destinations to see if there may be a discounted rate. A trip from San Diego to Dallas direct was $200, however, a trip from San Diego to Dallas to Denver was only $100. We grabbed the cheaper one and we’re off to Dallas to celebrate Grant’s 35th birthday. This is not our usual birthday celebration for him, but since Vegas or Palm Springs is out— this works! Plus, I have been told that we are doing a mid-year birthday celebration to make up for missed time celebrating with friends. Everyone save the date in July!
Completing Christmas in Parts
Generally, this is the time of the year when we are blasting our photos of some foreign destination that we landed on when we spun a globe. With COVID-19, we have had to post-pone our normal trip for some domestic travel. So why not visit our domestic family? The first part of our Christmas vacation was our quick visit to Houston with my family. The second part of our Christmas vacation was in San Diego with our local family. The final leg of our Christmas was in San Antonio with Grant’s family.
With all that was happening in the world, it was nice to be able to focus on Christmas. My favorite part of Christmas is by far the presents, so I focused on that this year. Our Christmas tree and presents filled our entire dining room with presents for family and friends. It gave me something to do since there is not much going on right now in California being under “lock-down.”
Christmas Eve found us working. Grant was running around with a COVID outbreak at some of his properties, while I was calmly finishing up some grading for the end of the year. Finally, at 5:30 pm-- I left to go pick up Fogo De Chao for dinner. Note: Don’t buy here again. I arrived early and they were running late, but I was excited to have filet and chicken for dinner. Upon arriving home, Erica and Ashley were already there and helped us set up.
For some reason, the meat was fully cooked, but the sides were cold. So, we just started eating chunks of meat right out of the tin, while the sides were heating. As things were heating, we began part 1 of the present opening. The sides got pulled out a bit early, but warm enough to enjoy the meal. We paused the present opening to eat and then finished opening the rest of the presents. By the end of the evening the whole house was turn up, there was wrapping paper everywhere, and everyone was playing with their new toys.
Part 1 of cleaning commenced, but we didn’t make very much progress as we had to leave for the Del Mar Lights. This year the Del Mar Racetrack went all out and put on a larger-than-ever light show that you drove through. With this being the only event of its kind in San Diego—it took forever. But, to the objection of Erica and I, we listened to Grant and Ashley’s rap music to get in the mood. It was a blast looking at all of the lights and seeing everyone excited for the holidays.
After the lights, we came home, and we initiated part 2 of cleaning. As I am writing this and looking at the boxes of wrapping paper and plastic, we need to begin part 3, but we have 4 trash bins full so it will have to wait until trash comes tomorrow.
On Christmas day we got up slowly. We got up a bit too slow as we had to rush and finish packing, get the dogs set up, run last-minute errands, and not miss our flight. Last-minute I switched the bag that Grant was going to carry his family’s presents in for one that was bigger and fit things better. It of course broke going through security at the airport so we had to rush and figure out a Plan B. With most places closed, I was able to sweet-talk a nice bartender who gave me a trash bag. It ended up working out great because Grant looked like Santa Clause with his bag of presents.
After a quick layover in Phoenix, we made our way to San Antonio. Grant’s brother Jake was there ready to pick us up and we headed to the hotel on the Riverwalk. It was quite adorable as Grant’s mom and dad (Carol and Jack) had checked us in early and decorated the room with lights, pajamas, cookies, and presents. It was a nice warm welcome to start our visit. We exchanged presents and then went out to eat at the Republic of Texas.
Following dinner, we walked back to look at Carol and Jack’s room and then parted ways. Grant and I wanted to do the nighttime riverboat cruise, but we had just missed it. Instead, we walked around the river and even stopped at the Alamo for a quick photo. The night would not have been completed without some form of desert and even on Christmas—Grant was able to get his favorite Blue Bell Ice Cream and we turned in.
The next morning, Grant missed the memo that Christmas was yesterday because as soon as I woke up, he was bouncing on the bed ready to get the day started. We quickly got ready, packed, and were out the door wandering around downtown San Diego. We ended up wandering around a bit and went to El Mercado. A Mexican market downtown that has shops, restaurants, lots of souvenirs, and birds. To my absolute amusement, as we were walking around a bird pooped on Grant. Lucky him!
A quick clean up commenced and we hopped on some scooters to get to the allusive Riverboat cruise. The tour guide was a hoot, and we got some great photos of the area. Grant was very proud of himself as he knew most of the facts that the guide was sharing including the bridge that Selena was proposed to on and where Sandra Bullock stood for Miss. Congeniality. The tour wrapped up and we met up with Grant’s family for lunch.
We had a nice meal at La Fonda and then drove up to Austin to meet Grant’s niece Vivienne. There was quite a bit of traffic, but we made it. Clint and Jillian have been very disciplined with COVID and being able to see was a real treat. Parenting seems to come naturally for these two and I am glad to see that they are doing so well. They also gave us a handmade version of RuPaul’s Guess Who to play, which Grant was excited about. “…Yeah…Thanks…” said Luke who will have to play this with Grant.
Before I departed, we stopped for some chocolate at Central Market and some BBQ from Rudy’s. The South Terminal in Austin was a challenge to get to as it was so far away from the main airport. Eventually, we made it and I began part 1 of my return flight to Denver. The flight attendant was super nice and gave me an upgrade to Frontier’s version of first class for free. Once in Denver, I talked to the attendant who gave me a free upgrade to the exit row for part 2, Denver to San Diego.
Each part of our Christmas this year was special and collectively made a wonderful holiday. We had a great time seeing and spending time with everyone, and look forward to seeing what future Christmas’ will look like.
Fat Man's Paradise
The saying everything is bigger in Texas is absolutely true when it comes to the food portions. Every meal that you get is 2x the size you would normally get in California. Nothing wrong with that, but as someone who has lost weight recently and is trying to keep it off — Texas poses a new unique challenge that I never previously cared about. Even the radio in Houston seemed to understand my concern —“if your pants don’t fit; just don’t wear them anymore.” Grant and I officially deemed Houston as a fat man’s paradise.
We flew United and besides the annoyance of having to prove we were flying with a backpack, it was a swell flight. Upon landing, we were starving and I was all sorts of turned around. Eventually, Grant found the car rental shuttle, but we took the long way for sure. He will vehemently disagree with me on that claim. Haha. The car rental had a long line, but they were super nice and even upgraded our cheap intermediate car to a mustang so that was a nice surprise.
Our first stop was to find food. It couldn’t be just any food but rather needed to be Tex-Mex. A combination of Mexican food meets unhealthy American food add cheese. One of my favorite things to eat is chips, salsa, and queso. Watch out because if you are not careful it will be gone before you even reach for your first chip. Grant has cookies; I have chips and salsa. With a Tex-Mex restaurant on every corner, the first one that came up on my search was Ninfas.
I hadn’t been in forever, but remember it being great. Of course, we had to verify that memory as being true and ordered queso, some weird baked chorizo queso, fajitas, enchiladas...we ordered so much that at the end I looked over and saw that Grant had rice and beans that were not even touched. We feel that we over ate, but the waiter thought we were lightweights and should order dessert. That’s technically a lie. It wasn’t the waiter, but rather me who wanted desert, but Grant talked me down from the sugar high.
Afterward, it was time to go see some Christmas lights. Grant had mapped out a few places to go so we hopped in the car and drove to them. We wanted to walk off what we ate but didn’t have a chance as nothing was that close. Houston is not very pedestrian-friendly because it is extremely spread out, which is great if you do not like to walk. We ended up heading to George R. Brown Convention Center where they had a lighted display of Christmas lights. They even had a tree decorated with cement ornaments. We could barely keep our tree upright this year with plastic ornaments (only fell once) so kiddos to those guys for figuring it out with cement.
Right next to the convention center was the Marriott Marquis. Grant had been talking about wanting to stay at this hotel for a while because they had a lazy river in the shape of Texas on their rooftop. With COVID being so prevalent, security isn’t as focused on strays entering their hotel, going up to the fifth floor, opening the exit door, and checking out the lazy river. The rooftop is grande size, but we could see the shape of Texas all around us. After dipping a toe in the “heated” pool and realizing it was December and not heated enough we left to check into our hotel.
Before we made it we made two last-minute detours. The first was Fiesta near Willowbrook to get some Blue Bell ice cream. The second was to wander around Prestonwood Forest. I grew up going to this neighborhood to see all the lights, but it’s beginning to fade a bit with age. After driving around and see the lights we turned on “drag mode” in the car and revved our engine to the hotel for the night.
The next morning, I was greeted by a wide-awake Grant who was ready to roll out. Usually being the early riser it was a change of pace I was not thrilled with. He convinced me to get up and go to HEB Central Market to try their orange juice. It was okay, but I want to try it during the summer to compare it to Whole Food’s OJ. The grocery store was mapped out like IKEA with “shortcuts” being provided to find the exit. The smell of bread instantly triggered a craving for kolaches and so we left the grocery store in search of the delicious pastry. Every intersection in Houston has a dry cleaner, nail shop, and donut shop so it did not take us long to find what we needed.
While running around and eating kolaches, we were making arrangements to meet up with my parents to eat lunch. They ended up choosing Frio Grill in Cypress and eating outside. It wasn’t long before my dad started grilling us about getting them a grandkid and I forgot to prep Grant so he spilled the beans.
“Oh yes...we are on our fourth in-person and we have done this and that...” Grant of course glanced over and thought the look of horror I was giving him was an indication what he was saying needed further clarity. So he continued and clarified. I had intentionally not told my parents as I wanted to surprise them when we actually had a kid...and he knew this...but completely forgot. Not a huge deal. They know. And if your reading this and didn’t know yourself— surprise. Blame Grant on ruining that one. Haha. We ate and hung out for a bit before the “frio” started getting to me and we said our goodbyes. Reminder: I need to mail out their Christmas packages when I get back to SD.
Grant had never been to Galveston before always opting for Port Aransas and wanted to check it out. Along the way, we kept seeing signs for Space Center Houston so we veered off and made our way over. Note to anyone going: they don’t allow selfie sticks and it’s $30 for each adult. Unless your Grant and I who decided I don’t want to spend that...instead took turns asking to go to the bathroom, which is oddly at the back of the museum, and got to take a quick tour for free. The people collecting tickets did not care at all and even commented “they don’t pay me enough to care.” Pro-tip: try the bathroom excuse to potentially get free admission.
Space isn’t really our thing so just seeing a spaceship was all we needed. The next stop was Moody Gardens. Most of it was closed as they were gearing up for their Christmas light walk, but we were able to walk around and check out the grounds and see most of the lights. After snapping a few photos of the aquarium and rainforest housed in pyramids - we departed for Pleasure Pier. Having done no prior research on this trip this by far was the biggest letdown. The pier itself seemed nice and had standard amusement park rides, but the problem was that to even step onto the pier you had to pay an admission fee. Riding a single ride that probably lasted no more than 2 minutes for two people was approximately $32. Hard pass from us. In California, we have Belmont Park and the Santa Monica Pier all of which are free to enter with each attraction costing a fee.
To make up for the dud that was the pier we signed up for a ghost tour in Galveston’s Historic Strand area. Our tour guide was a bit “unique,” but I guess you kind of have to be to give these types of tours. He was highly animated as he was describing the 20 bedroom boarding house that is considered Galveston’s Vortex to Hell. This stop is allegedly frequented by many satanic cult members, multiple animal sacrifices have taken place, and has a sorted history of missing children. I am not saying he was...but if you had to imagine a guy who would do something like that and then looked at our tour guide...you probably get a match. The whole walking tour was 4 blocks and somehow filled an hour.
All that walking got our stomachs activated again and so we went to Grant’s favorite— Carrabba's. It was yummy. On the way back Grant had a great idea to try and get a picture of the skyline. I did some quick research and found that Buffalo Bayou Park had a spot where this could happen. The problem was that the police had blocked off the main entrance as it was so late.
So instead of calling it quits we decided to try and get photos in the middle of the street when we saw a turnout. Not a smart idea, but I am writing this so no harm befell us. We kept moving closer and closer to downtown and the pictures kept getting worse and worse. Eventually, we decided to call it. On our way out— one of the streets we needed to take was closed. This got us all turned around and eventually had us backtracking to where we started. By sheer happenstance, we stumbled on a road that ran parallel to the park that had a perfect shot of the skyline. So we found a spot, took out our selfie stick, and got the photo we had risked our lives for.
The next morning I got up and again Grant was wide awake. He had mapped the entire day out. First, was finding a candy for his co-worker and us eating more kolaches. Followed by eating at Salt Grass and then sweating everything out at a Korean spa.
Salt Grass was good. I remember loving their ranch dressing and even once eating it like a soup. Who am I kidding... I eat ranch like a soup all the time, but this was my first memory of eating ranch in this fashion. I didn’t eat it like soup this time, but that was probably because I had already eaten so many kolaches beforehand and was full before I even sat down.
We had found a Groupon for the Gangnam Spa and Grant was all excited about trying Houston’s version of a Korean spa. This one was a bit different than the ones we had been to previously, but it was very relaxing. My favorite was the furnace that cooked me at 150 degrees. I could smell the ranch and kolaches pouring out of me with each bead of sweat that fell. Fortunately, I got out before I overcooked. Grant said his favorite things were the belly jiggler (a vibrating machine that jiggles your belly fat), the footbath that looked like a coy pond, and the oxygen room that looked like we had been transported to a scene from Alice and Wonderland.
My phone was buzzing that our flight was soon so we left and headed to the airport. Of course, we made a pit stop at Great American Cookie before we headed to the airport to leave. I am realizing as I write this and have so much to say about food that I should not be generalizing Houston as a fat man’s paradise, but rather Houston is my internal fat man’s paradise. Anything I can think of food-wise I can find there...maybe next time I’ll pace myself instead of trying to eat it all in one weekend. Nah...bring me some more queso, please!
Sunshine State is Always Cloudy
Grant raised a good question on this trip. He asked, “why do they call Florida the sunshine state when every time we come here it is raining?” Evidently, there are times of the year when it is sunny in Florida, but we tend to always miss those times. When we visit it tends to be sunny on one block then we drive five minutes down the road and there is an isolated shower. We wait five minutes and the storm is down the street. Like the weather, our trip had some were some sunny bright spots and a few isolated showers that passed quickly.
Name an airliner and we flew it on this trip. Grant originally planned to gone alone to Fort Lauderdale and then I decided last minute to tag along. He flew Jetblue out and was returning on Southwest. I decided to fly Spirit out because of the layover situation and flew American back based on availability. Out of all of the airlines— the only one that did not alter our flight was Spirit…so this was already a very strange start to this adventure.
My flight with Spirit left at 6 am and arrived in Houston at noon. I choose this flight so I could visit my family. My mom and dad picked me up and we were off to go eat lunch at Gringos. They surprised me with ranger cookies (my favorite) and I only ate half of one. I say this as I regret not eating more because the remainder of the cookies were inhaled by Grant as soon as I met up with him and they were good. Note to anyone reading this— do not put cookies near Grant unless you want them immediately consumed.
Gringos is a Tex-Mex place near my parent's house that has really really good green salsa. In California, its salsa verde. In Texas, its green salsa as the contents are a bit more “gringo-ified.” Between my mother and myself, we must have consumed probably 4 or 5 bowls full of the stuff. Then our food actually came out and we still found room to consume more. Afterward, we drove around a bit to see how developed Cypress actually has become. It is crazy how in such a short period since I have left how developed the area actually has become.
When we arrived home, I was greeted by 4 monsters. 2 that I like, 1 that I dislike (it’s mutual), and 1 new puppy named Babs that I had not met before. The new one was a bit standoffish at first, but after throwing her ball a bit she opened up and we became friends. It wouldn’t be my family if after settling in I was not greeted with 4 different cupcakes to sample. It wasn’t long before my dad came out and said that we need to go ASAP. The flight started boarding at 3:45 and we were just getting in the car at 3:30. Thankfully, with TSA pre-check it doesn’t take long to get through security and as they were calling “last-call” I slipped right on the plane.
Upon landing, I was to meet up with Grant who had arrived about 2 hours before me. The plan was that with the rental car in hand, he would have checked into the hotel, and I was to hop in the car for a nice dinner in Miami. Poor Grant was greeted with a long line of irate people at Alamo as they had oversold with no rental cars available. After promising him that a car would be available in the morning we readjusted and went to our hotel called Fortuna Hotel. We expected friends from Orlando to visit so we got a two-bedroom apartment with 3 beds. Since they weren’t able to make it— Grant and I decided that each of us would have our own wing and own bathroom. I would highly recommend this for anyone as it was awesome. After putting our stuff down, we dined at Casablanca Cafe in Fort Lauderdale. This piano bar right on the water has tasty food and a nice ocean breeze to cut some of the heat. We walked along the beach until exhaustion hit in and then skedaddled back to the hotel for a good night sleep.
The next morning I woke up late. Grant had gotten up early and had not only went to the beach but also went to get the rental car.
With the car in hand, we hightailed it to Little Havana in Miami to go to the Cuban restaurant we intended to go to the night before. We ate at Versailles and got anything that had the word sampler in its title on the menu. We just had an assortment of empanadas, yucca, croquettes, plantains, vacca frita, and other yummy stuff. Afterward, we attempted to find the heart of Little Havana. If you put it in Apple Maps you end up at the Dolphin stadium for some reason. We tried multiple addresses and there wasn’t anything like a street or sign that we could find. So we gave up and drove over to Wynwood Walls.
This area is incredible. A predominantly warehouse area has been transformed into a street art gallery with murals everywhere and eccentric pop-up shops and restaurants. Although the Wynwood Walls themselves were closed the surrounding area was filled with incredible street art. The whole area got in on the vibe and the local shops/ vendors all had bright graffiti-like decor to blend in. We stopped at a few shops and perused around until settling on just snacking at an awesome ice cream shop.
With the city still sleepy with COVID, we hit downtown to see what trouble we could get ourselves into. Nothing called us so we decided to check out the cruise docks. The highway you cross to the cruise ship docks was empty. So like normal tourists we hopped out of the car on the highway and took some “great photos” with downtown as the background. Pretty sure we weren’t supposed to do that, but if opportunity knocks you have to answer.
We double backed and took the road parallel that got us into Miami Beach. Parking is a nightmare there any time of the year, but Labor Day weekend was especially difficult. 20 minutes of circling ended up translating into a parking spot about 10 blocks away. The water was clear, warm, and not overly crowded. We spent a little over an hour swimming or as Grant has coined it “bobbing around” until we left to go back to Fort Lauderdale.
Our night activity was a cruise on the Jungle Queen. Developed in the 1930s, this outdoor open-air cruise ship took you from the city, through millionaires row, and stopping at their location for an all-you-can-eat bbq. The houses along the river were incredible and unbeknownst to us, it’s a tradition for homeowners to “moon” the boat so we had a very cheeky time.
The boat docked at a private area where we had our food. The meat was fine, but their bread and butter was the star. It was just Hawaiian rolls, but I love those things. Warm with melted butter. Delicious. Hahaha. As dinner concluded the stage that was playing live music turned into the show. We had a singer, a magician, a comedian, and a Hawaiian dance number. The audience was the absolute worst as none of them clapped or even pretended to be interested in the performers. We thought it was great and tried laughing harder to drown out some of the moans. It was especially hysterical when the comedian turned on the audience and started making jokes about the sour-looking people in the front row. They took us back to where we started and called it an early night.
On Labor Day, we got up and went bobbing again in the ocean. We returned the rental car to the airport to avoid late fees and then double-backed by taking an Uber to Carrabba's. Grant got his favorite chain this trip, which means I get CiCis next time.
First Holiday Christmas of 2019
Christmas came early this year because Grant and I are going to Singapore on the 25th. So it was decided that we were going to go to San Antonio early this year to celebrate with the family. Our adventure begins no different than any other with a plane ride to…Las Vegas? Our flight had changed from its original booking and its new iteration included a three-hour layover in Las Vegas.
Since we had just received our pre-check we wanted to take full advantage of the layover. The irony in the situation is that we had just left Vegas on Sunday and we’re back again on Friday. So we literally had two trips to Vegas in the same week. To make sure that we didn’t get into to much trouble we went to the Mandalay Bay’s buffet which was the closest to the airport that we could think of. It was nice because both Grant and I had some work that needed to be done so we were able to find a booth, complete our work, pig-out on everything that was there at the buffet, and then jet-setted back to the airport.
We made our way back without any issue, hopped on the plane and in two 1/2 hours we were in San Antonio. Carole, Grant’s mom, picked us up from the airport and took us to one of Grant’s favorite places, La Fonda. Their queso was really on point as they included guacamole and fajita beef. Something that we would definitely get it again next time we go. Grant was hooting and hollering about their enchiladas but I didn’t see it. Truth be told I was hooting and hollering about La Hacienda the restaurant I grew up on and he didn’t think the enchiladas were that great-- so I guess it’s what you grow up on.
After we ate, Grant and I parted ways with Grant’s parents and rendezvoused to The Pearl. This was a weird area that use to be a former brewery operating from 1883 to 2001 that had been converted to mixed use space of high end and trendy restaurants with residential. Most everything was closed but there was an ice cream place called Lick that was open. Grant and I both got weird ice cream, which definitely ruined our diet but we didn’t care as our previous meal was a buffet. Cheat day.
The next morning the rest of the family including Jake, Jillian, and Clint came over so that way we could exchange presents. Last year, Grant got everybody gag gifts in Port Aransas and so he wanted to continue that tradition but spend way more money doing it this year. One of the gifts I was most excited about receiving from the Beckwith clan was a pass to Six Flags Fiesta Texas as I was the only one who had never been.
Following presents, we cleaned up a bit and then headed to an arts and craft festival where we ate barbecue. There was a lengthy conversation about cars and who was going where and when. Eventually, Grant and I just snuck out to head to the theme park to avoid the kerfuffle.
We made it to the park relatively quickly and then began riding rides. Unfortunately, age is a bitch and the rides that we grew up with were clearly more chaotic than our bodies were used to. After riding the first rollercoaster, our next stop was to the theme parks convenience store to purchase Advil. Not a shock but they had a wide selection there to choose from so it was comforting to know that we were not alone in our wallowing.
The rest of the gang showed up and we continued to ride these crazy roller coasters. Some of the roller coasters that were there were not there when Grant was a kid so he got to experience some of the new roller coasters for the first time like me. Our favorite roller coaster by far was The Joker, a new pendulum ride that was advertised as the world’s tallest pendulum ride. Afterward, for surviving I treated myself to a smore which as everyone knows or should know is my favorite food on earth. The marshmallow was incredibly good as it wasn’t a standard generic basic marshmallow but had way more substance and density. The firepits throughout the park were a nice touch as it was getting cold for sure.
When we left we all decided to go to a restaurant. My only request was that it was not a chain so of course, we ended up at Cheesecake Factory. The service was abysmal, but the food when it eventually came out was pretty good.
The next morning Carol wanted to have a family luncheon and so Grant’s Aunt Ann and her significant other Dan came over to celebrate. We had ham, turkey and all the fixins for a scrumptious meal. Due to the timing of our flights, we had to pack up and jet-set out of the luncheon pretty quickly to make our flight.
Due to Southwest weird flight frequency and destinations, our flight ended up going to Houston and then to San Diego. There was a 45-minute layover in Houston and we were hoping to get dinner there. Southwest was late in San Antonio and it caused us to literally get off the flight in Houston and run to our next flight. We made it. I scored brownie points because I ran to Rocky Mountain Chocolate that was right by our gate and picked up Grant’s favorite candy bar. I lost half the points though because I ate half the candy bar to Grant’s dismay.
One holiday celebration down and one to go in Asia.
Down the Tube....Schlitterbahn 2019
This trip to Schlitterbahn will go down as probably the “most interesting.” Instead of flying into San Antonio or Dallas, we flew into Austin, which was about 45 minutes from the waterpark. We flew into the South Terminal in Austin, which looked like a private airport. They ended up opening the front and rear exits of the plane and we walked outside on the tarmac before heading inside. Due to traffic, Grant’s parents were a bit late so we Ubered to our hotel. His parents were there when we arrived and we quickly unloaded our belongings and speed off to dinner.
Grant had organized a dinner with family at his favorite Italian chain—Carrabba’s Italian Grill. Dinner was nice as it was great seeing everyone since I was unable to attend the wedding. Afterward, we parted ways with the parents and headed back to Clint and Jillian’s casa to hang out. We watched a few TV shows and conversed over Clint’s handmade old fashions.
The time difference is always a bit of a headache as it requires us to go to bed early and wake up early, which is a bit of a challenge for Grant. I take an Ambien and am out no matter what time of the day. Wendy and Dylan were running a bit late so we proceeded to walk around our hotel. Needless to say, there was nothing around our hotel within walking distance. It was fun watching the plastic bags catch the wind, but if that is the most exciting activity in the area you know you are in a dull space.
Eventually, we met up with Wendy and Dylan on the side of the road and we were off. A quick pit stop to Taco Cabana and then the ice-cold water was to commence. Upon entering, we found that purchasing tickets online were cheaper than in person. So we attempted to get the tickets online, but for whatever reason, none of our cards would work with their system. We went to a turn stall and purchased them in person without issue.
Upon entering the park, you walk through a gift shop. Having forgotten to bring a wetsuit shirt to avoid sunburn—we went crazy and bought shirts, towels, and also a waterproof phone case. I ended up buying a large instead of a medium for the shirt because these types of shirts run small. I should have bought an XXXL because I had to have Grant help me into the shirt.
Unlike prior years were the masterbaster watches required you to synchronize your watches with your group at a stand—this year's new and improved watches were an all-in-one where you could simply select the ride on your watch. I loved this feature because as soon as we were scanned in for our selected ride we simply choose our next ride at our convenience. The problem though is that Grant’s died along the way and we did have to “reactivate it.”
With the “fast pass,” all the rides waits were cut in half and we were jumping from one ride to the next. The oldest part of the park, which utilizes the river water-- we finished in record time. We then made our way to the newer side of the park and rode the main attractions over there. I will say it was nice cutting the line that people had been waiting hours for as it made us seem like VIPs.
However, our joy of cutting the line came back to hit us 3x fold. The lazy river, which is usually busy was beyond chaotic. Collecting the required tubes were near impossible and we had to catch people leaving to get them. We rode the river once and then Wendy and Dylan disappeared. We stopped multiple times to find them but to no avail. Grant and I finally got out to call them only to find that Grant’s iPhone X was not working. The screen had completely died and we were unable to make calls. The phone has an emergency or 911 call feature so we thought we had accidentally triggered this. So how we were able to answer the call without seeing who was on the line and it turned out it was Wendy dealing with her issues.
Wendy exited the lazy river because Dylan was not feeling well. He had a migraine that was causing him to emesis. Wendy brought him to the health station and just like a school nurse—they had bandaids and not much else. Grant and I quickly retreated to the health station where we caught Wendy wrangling the car. Wendy got Dylan into a hotel room, we grabbed dinner at Los Cucos and then we headed back to your hotel for an early morning flight back to SD.
Let’s Visit My New Home…And How About You Come to My New Home….
When you start a new job it is important to make a good first impression. The unknowns such as is the employee reliable, are they flaky, are they serious about this position… are usually sorted out by their behavior during this period of time. So of course, Grant schedules a trip to Dallas to visit friends during the first week of my new job. This was not his fault as the trip was planned well in advance and I agreed to it, but walking that tightrope of personal and professional can be challenging for avid travelers such as us because of the unknowns. The good news was that the flight was scheduled for a Friday at 6pm well after work hours so it would not impair or jeopardize my first week completely.
Reliability of an airliner getting you from Point A to Point B is nevermore critical when there is the added pressure of showing up for your second week of work. So of course, Grant schedules us on Spirit Airlines. The ultra-low cost carrier with the stellar reputation of being late more often than on time. Its reputation was accurate as throughout the day we received notification that the airliners was delayed an hour, then another, then another, then another half an hour. The flight that was supposed to leave at 6pm and arrive at 11pm (2 hour time difference) was now leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 2:30am. The silver lining was that due to the delays Spirit gave both Grant and I a $100 credit each, which is pretty great considering the entire round trip flight cost $150. They also upgraded us to the big seats for free, which made the trip go by super fast!
The hotel we stayed at used to be the Night Hotel. It was a privately owned hotel that had a nightclub like feel to it. The hotel was bought out by Wyndam, but we wanted to try it and see if it retained the unique vibe that it had. Well…it still had remnants of the Night Inn, but the vibe was completely different. The hotel was home to a Bango Music Camp this weekend, which brought out some of the more interesting folk of Texas. It definitely made walking through the hotel feel really country-like.
After sleeping in we made our way to Carabbas. There are a lot of chains in Texas that we cannot get in California and this was one that Grant loves. It was a bit of a tumultuous meal as both Grant and I were a bit “hangry” and the poor waiter had to deal with us bickering back and forth trying to order. Like eating a Snickers commercial, we were back to our normal perky selves after a solid meal.
Our first real stop on the trip was to our good friend Wendy’s new casa-de-amazing. She had just moved in a month ago and the house was gorgeous. The floor plan was really unique as the main living room and kitchen was located on the 2nd floor, which was a bit of a departure from the norm. We hung out for a bit and met her new boyfriend, Dylan whom both Grant and I liked very much. The two were annoyingly cute together and genuinely seemed to make each other happy.
Grant was dying to go to the spa so he stole Wendy’s car and ran away to the spa. Wendy, Dylan and I decided to go to Regeneration, which is a classic arcade palace that lets you play all the games I use to play as a kid. My favorite part was that I was able to try out some different strategies with these games that I never wanted to do because I was having to pay for each attempt. I died more often than I like to admit in the games, but since it was unlimited play it did not matter at all.
Keeping with the theme of dying, our next stop was watching medieval jousters lunge big lances at one an another in an attempt to kill the other—ie. Medieval Times. Dylan was super awesome and surprised us with upgrading our seats to the front row, which made our experience even better. The only problem was our knight sucked. He was the first one to joust and the first one to die. He came back later for the loser round and lost again. It was hard to cheer for him, but he really did make it easy to cheer against him.
Barely able to keep my eyes open, Grant somehow convinced me to visit S4. This venue is home to his favorite drag queen Cassie Nova. Now, I am not the biggest fan of drag, but I do know good drag when I see it. While the performers at the Rose Room were not up to my caliber of drag this evening the highlight was clearly Cassie Nova’s opening monologue where she tore into anyone and everyone breathing. Heckling is an art form and can turn the audience against you if not done right. But she was able to masterfully read the room and spit out just the right amount of venom for the audience.
The next morning we slowly got up and met up with Wendy, Dylan, Blake and Austin at “Stock and Barrel” in Bishop Arts. Everyone liked the restaurant and the carafe of mimosas shared between Grant and I made the whole brunch even better.
Afterwards, we stopped by Blake and Austin’s new place (that technically they have had for a little while, but we have not seen). Their house was immaculate as if it was staged by a professional. The small details in coloring really made everything stand out and pop. We weren’t able to stay long, but got the full tour of the house and got to say hello to their adorable puppies.
The final stop on our whirlwind trip was to a Voodoo room escape in Addison. The one thing I will complain about Texas is nothing is close. People say 15 minutes is close. I think 15 minutes is far. This is probably because I am spoiled in San Diego, but I just loathe long commutes. It was about 25 minutes from Blake/Austin’s to the Room Escape and then 25/30 minutes from the room escape to the airport.
We arrived at the room escape late— not a shocker for those that know us. Our time was from 1:30 to 2:30. With a 30 minute commute, that would put us to the airport at 3:00pm. Our flight boards at 3:20 and leaves at 4:00. Cutting it close is normally our modus operandi, but as I am getting older I am getting more paranoid about missing flights. Again…new job…
Dylan and Wendy were the true MVP’s of this room as I just ran around mostly confused. We ended up completing the room and getting out with about 10 minutes to spare. We hopped in Dylan’s Prius and floored it to the airport. For those curious, priuses can go above 50mph. So its more the driver’s fault than the car when you're angry at the car for crawling on the highway.
We boarded the flight and had the last row all to ourselves. Smooth trip and back in one piece for Monday at work.
Schlitterbahn Year 4 or 5
The trip started out with a three hour delay, which kind of changed the itenerary, but we definitely made it work out. We got to the airport and there was only one flight attendant. Due to the delay, the plane after ours was being flashed on the monitors as ready to board when we were still getting on. This confused everyone and made the delay even worse. The positive news is that we ended up with a $50 credit so we are fine with the delay!
Once in Austin, we could tell right away. 95 and humid is way different than 74 and dry. Wendy picked us up and hand-delivered some amazing kolaches from the Czech Bakery. We then drove from Austin to New Brunfeals to get ready for the water park the next day.
For dinner, we ate at our normal joint-- Los Cucos and had some good green salsa until they ran out! The resturant closes at 10pm and we got there at 9:30pm so it’s not completely unreasonable. I ended up “borrowing” some from other tables and even had other tables donating it to me by the end. I am obsessed with their green salsa.
The next day we woke up early (10am) and made our way to Schlitterbahn. We met our friends Mike and Catey and the five of us (including Wendy) started riding. We got front of the line passes, which let us cut in front of everyone so we were pretty pleased with ourselves and our VIP status. Since it was an odd number I voluntered to go by myself and got some great video as seen above.
The highlight of the trip was the Congo ride. We went through like normal, but the ride’s extension was finally open and we got to float along the Comal River. So neat floating next to the lily pads and frogs!
Great trip as always looking forward to next year!
Reminders for next year:
1. Go on Sunday (it’s Texas and people are at church)
2. The normal fast pass and not the super fast pass is sufficient as we could spend the extra wait time in the wave or lazy river.