Spring Break 2014: a Tour of Texas Cities

Spring Break is here and in Texas that actually means it is spring! The weather was beautiful for our tour of Texas cities. Originally, we planned to spend a few days in San Antonio. But the weather there on the first day was rainy, so we spent that day in Dallas instead. And the third day we had dinner plans in Austin, so we decided to spend some time sight seeing there, too. Our itinerary was very tight, but we saw a lot and were happy with the trip overall. There were a few disappointments, though: our usually wonderful traveling kids cried most of the way from Dallas to San Antonio and almost all day while traveling in Austin. They were great when not in the car, though, and on the way home from Austin only had a half hour of revolt. 

I don't have any pictures of our time in Dallas. We spent most of it in game stores. Our first stop was Madness games and comics in Plano. This is the largest game store I have ever seen and we had so much fun! We spent three hours and $100 there. They had everything you can think of from card games to miniatures to every board game under the sun! Plush toys, comic books, posters, t-shirts (of which I bought 2). They had dozens of tables for gaming events and a huge Magic: the Gathering section and an equally large Warhammer section. They had dice and fun fan stuff. I got a Firefly tee and a Dr. Who tee as well as some mini ships for the Adventurer, Conqueror, King game we are playing. Ed got an expansion pack for our War of the Ring game and maybe something else. It was a massive store and I really wish we lived closer to it (although, that would mean we would spend more money, so maybe it is good we don't). 

We then made a fortuitous wrong turn and ended up eating at Pappadeaux! Yum, yum! Then we spent a little time at a park on Lewisville Lake and got our shoes completely covered in clay! I stepped in a red ant hill while trying to get it off, but noticed right away and did not get bit. We then hit a second game store: Reaper, where so many miniatures are made! Their factory is right across the parking lot from their store. We spent some time looking at their gallery and then spent tons of time and money on miniatures and paints! The girls were great almost the entire time (minus a short episode in the gallery when Milli began shaking glass cases). But we left late. 6:45! And had a 4 hour or more drive ahead of us. It ended up being a lot more! With only necessary stops and a quick dinner of grocery deli food, we arrived in San Antonio at 1:43am. The kids were beside themselves. The construction had been horrid and the traffic in Austin was awful due to the music festival SXSW. When we did arrive in San Antonio, we couldn't find our hotel. When we called the hotel, they informed us that we had made reservations for the wrong days and we would have to pay more for the two nights! We were spent emotionally and just took the rooms. We found the hotel after driving up and down the street twice. Then we had to deal with a Milli who seems to derive some odd energy from being in a hotel room. She wouldn't go to sleep. And Molly took some calming and feeding before she would go down. We put Milli in the pack 'n' play and made Molly a nice bed on the floor- but Molly kept rolling over until she bumped up against something and then would wake up. I ended up having her sleep in bed with me, sideways, which was not the most comfortable way to sleep. 

In the morning, we were all a little out of sorts. We slept in late and missed the free breakfast and then we needed to hurry to get downtown in time for a play at the Magik Theatre. No time to stop at Starbucks, which meant Mama went without coffee. But we got to the theatre just in time. Ed decided to enjoy the sunshine with Molly rather than enter the theatre packed with kids! And I mean packed! Milli sat on my lap and we found a spot on the end of a row of school kids. It was a great seat! We entered as the lights were going down. The play was Llama, Llama based on the children's books by Anna Dewdney, some of Milli's favorites! She was in awe as we watched Llama throw fits and people in black with head lamps on change the chalk board scenery. I thought it was extremely well done and clapped and cheered at the end. We then joined Daddy and Molly and opened out map to look for a restaurant that had gotten good reviews online. A local man walked up to us and suggested a nicer place than the one we had chosen and pointed us in the direction of it. Then someone else congratulated him on the show- he was the director! His recommendation was great, too! Some place called Rosario's.

After lunch, we walked to the Alamo. All of Texas seems to be on Spring Break right now, as well as a few foreign countries. The place was packed! We decided not to wait in line to see the chapel, but did walk around the inner wall, see the huge live oak, the fish stream, the lovely garden, and the gift shop. Ed had fun reading the history, which I had read online before we came, and seeing the miniature battle they had on display in the gift shop. We then went to the River Walk, which was super crowded and not really Ed's scene. There were lots of people to watch and shops I might have gone into had I not had children. It was a nice day, though, and we enjoyed walking. We then decided to go to La Villita. We went back to street level... and went he wrong way. We ended up blocks off the map I had printed and took a long time getting back. It was a nice walk, though, with almost no people and a few nice buildings and sculptures to look at. By the time we got back to the center of town, we decided it was time for dinner, got our car from the ramp, and headed toward our hotel. 

Lots of horse-drawn carriages and pretty horses to pet.

This is a Live Oak. Didn't realize there was a difference between it and a regular Oak.

Milli wanted all the rocks that were used in landscaping. I think there area  few in the car now.

Molly slept for a while but was mostly looking around all day.

Milli could have skipped the Alamo and as long as she could have seen the fish.

We finally found a Starbucks! Milli just looked at this picture and said, "That's Starbucks!" and "That's my coffee!"

 We planned to have dinner at Mina and Dimi's, a Greek place with good reviews online. It was supposed to be about a mile north of our hotel. It transpired that it was almost 3 miles from our hotel and in a shopping center that you couldn't see from the road. But, boy, was it good! Dimi actually hung out with us a little and gave Milli a Leap Frog game to play with while we waited for our food. It was getting busy, so our waiter seemed a little stressed, but the food and atmosphere were wonderful! We split appetizer sampler and a shrimp and spinach casserole. Then we each had a dessert- and they were huge! I had a chocolate mouse cake with cheesecake chunks in it. Ed had something that was similar to baklava but instead of philo pastry had some stringy, noodly thing and some peaches in it with the nuts. They were both very sweet and rich- and that cake was amazing! Happy Birthday to me! 

That night in the hotel was a little better. Molly still ended up in bed with me. We had no firm plans for Wednesday except dinner with friends in Austin, so we decided to see some of the other missions. We did get up in time for breakfast this time and I got my Starbucks. We then drove to Mission San Juan and then to Mission Espada. San Juan was completely empty. It was a beautiful day but a bit windy (30 mph). We spent time roaming and taking pictures. Espada had quite a few more people, but was still not busy. Milli took a nose dive off a pew in the chapel but was OK. We also got to listen to some history from the park ranger there.

Milli knows just how to get her sister to stop crying.

"Look! Molly bit my finger!" Luckily, she doesn't have teeth yet.

The four missions that are not the Alamo still have working chapels.

Note the choir stands.

Milli had fun but complained about the wind a lot.

Note the wind chimes in the tree! This is the priest's garden.

Blurry because Milli decided to fall off the kneeling bench at that moment.

Pat, is this where you lived?

 After the two missions, we headed north to look for the house Ed's mom lived in while she for a couple years before she got married. We think we found it but she will have to verify that. Then we drove up to Austin. Traffic, traffic. We arrived too late to get the lunch buffet at the Ethiopian restaurant we wanted, so we ate some crackers and fruit in the car in front of the capitol. We then took a free tour during which we got separated. After looking for one another for about half an hour, we met in the rotunda and headed out. We then tried to get to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower park, but traffic and screaming babies slowed us down. We arrived after it had closed. This was a good time for Molly to eat dinner and Ed and Milli to stretch their legs a bit. Then we went to meet some of Ed's WoW friends IRL. 

Larger than the U.S. Capitol. Everything is bigger in Texas.

Milli looking up at the dome.

Dome. The star is over 200 feet from point to point!

Senate chambers.

What does your chandelier say?

A lot of things had the word "Texas" on them.

A lot of things!

House chambers.

This capitol comes with it's own princess!

 This was probably my favorite part of the trip and it was so very short. Milli made a new friend named Gracie, who is three and loves princesses. I made a new friend named Brynn who was so easy to talk to and has so many similar interests to me. And Ed had a great time talking to Matt about where their lives are now, having been close online for some time. Ed has not been on the forums lately, though, because of work and family responsibilities. We ate pizza and talked for a couple hours but had to cut our visit short to get back to Longview. We hugged good-bye and hope to see them again for a cookout in May. Then we hit the road. This time, our kids slept almost the entire way, we took a county road that was super smooth with little traffic and no construction, and we had a very low stress trip home. We arrived very tired at 2am... then Molly woke up. Ed actually escaped to the empty guest room (our house mate is in Colorado for Spring Break) and Molly joined me in our bed. She had a fever and was obviously not feeling well. After a feeding, she slept fitfully and we all woke up around 9 am. Yesterday was a recovery day- and my 40th birthday! We unpacked, bought groceries, and tried to rest a bit (very hard with two kids with runny noses). In the evening, we ate taco salad! I got a present! And we watched an episode of Downton Abbey. Good day. Pretty good week. We are pretty happy getting things back to normal, though. Because of the difficulty with the kids, I am rethinking whether to head up to MI alone with them next week. But I'll decide that later.