Epic Road Trip 2013

This past January, or something like that, we decided that our next road trip would be to Texas. At the time, the Grand Plan was to head straight to Dallas, gather up Tim and Marci and their littles, and hit the road caravan-style. This is the narrative I got excited about. 

But then, it turned out that Tim's work was going to mess with our plans and they had to head out to Louisville (their own yearly vacay) earlier than expected and they wouldn't be able to caravan with us. Then Seth's work schedule messed with us. I'll spare you the exceedingly boring and annoying details and just say that at one point, we were thinking about just touring around Michigan. 

But I just couldn't let go of my Texas dreams. I wanted to drive around Texas, nevermind that Tim and Marci wouldn't be in Texas at any point and nevermind that our vacation would be in August. August in Texas. Only slightly cooler and less humid than Hell itself. But I prevailed. Texas it would be. 

Our first stop was in St. Louis. We stayed with Andy and Shelly for two nights. They did the unthinkable this past December and moved away from me. Whatever. We took Kylie and visited the St. Louis, imho the best zoo in the country. And it's free. And it's so cool. Brice got to see a Komodo Dragon finally. 

The kids ride the train around the zoo and I got to pretend that I have three children. It was totally easy. 

The sea lion exhibit. You've got to go to this zoo. It's free--like the Lincoln Park Zoo, but way better. 

After St. Louis, we went to Tulsa to spend the night. But frankly, Tulsa was uninspiring. It was a stop-off just to save us the trek straight from St. Louis to Houston. It was hot, humid, and the fajitas were terrible. So I didn't post a picture. Boo to Tulsa. The above picture is on the Bolivar Ferry in Galveston. We drove onto it and then got out to feed the birds. SO fun. It was little Hitchcock-y, but mostly safe. The kids liked it. 

We drove off the ferry and hit the beach. There were maybe 7 people on the beach at most. And you can drive on it. So we let the kids try their hand at driving. 

From Houston we hit San Antonio. This is a city I was not thinking I would like. I loved it. It was gorgeous. It was at least a million degrees, but still. We had a rooftop pool that served margaritas. We never went to the Alamo. We went to Sea World one day during a heat advisory. A Texas Heat Advisory. We are midwesterners. We complain when it's 85 degrees. That day it was 104 degrees with 100 percent (I might exaggerate) humidity. It was so hot the Texans stayed away. But we loved it. The shows were beautiful, the rides were cold and wet with no wait time, and kids were in good spirits. 

Seth's brother Tim gave us suggestions along the way for bbq places to try. This is Kreuz Barbecue. It was AMAZING. World Famous. Have I mentioned how much we ate on this trip? And drank? Prime Rib? Yes please!! Shiner? Yes!! Margaritas? Two!! We were like Chilly Willy on a tour of the Lone Star State. 

After San Antonio we headed over to Dallas and stayed at Tim and Marci's house. This is B&H checking out the frogs and geckos in their front yard. There's a whole different set of wildlife in Texas. 

This is Harry having a pony ride at the Mesquite Rodeo. 

At the rodeo. The boys were mildly interested, but pretty psyched about the free hotdogs and root beer. In the middle of the rodeo, they had all the littles go into the ring and chase the calves. The first to grab the ribbon off the calf won $20. It was a train wreck. There were at least 150 kids, all bigger than our kids. Harry got hit in the head, Brice couldn't even see the calf. Both were inconsolable by the end. So we left the rodeo early. Good-bye Mesquite Rodeo, we hardly knew ye.

Ok, so finally. We met up with Tim and Marci and Luke and Georgia at the Peabody in Memphis. We had adjoining rooms. Yea! As soon as we got there, we headed to some famous bbq place across the street. We waited, along with four children, 6 and under, in a hot, humid, crowded alley for almost an hour. The kids were patient for the first half and slowly morphed into wild animals for the second half. We did manage to get in, placate them with food and drink, and get out before we got kicked out. The above picture is just us at breakfast the next morning. Someone has pictures of our epic wait, but not me. 

Marci and Georgia at breakfast. She's the only girl cousin and SO STINKIN' CUTE. Love her.

So, the big to-do at the Peabody is the duck march. At 11am they march them from their rooftip digs into the elevator and to the fountain in the lobby. It's a big deal. We got there 45 minutes early and by the time the elevator opened, I was hot and claustrophic and trying to find a place to stand. Apparently the ducks booked it to the fountain, because I never even saw one. Literally, 4 seconds to the fountain. Still cute. The kids like it.