We got to San Antonio and checked into the hotel. They only had a Studio apartment, rather than a one bedroom suite. We were crammed into a little bitty room.... Rachel fell off the bed. She screamed so loud and got so upset, she threw up. Lovely. She settled down finally and she was fine -no broken anything and no trauma - just scared. We went to the HEB and got a bottle of wine (of which I dropped in the parking lot....that was typical for my day). We went to Chipolte's for dinner and called it a night.
Friday we woke up and went to the Zoo. It was cool and misty - but not enough to need an umbrella. Jacob had a great time, he rode the train, took a bunch of pictures, etc. Rachel developed a rash. I took her to the local doc in a box.... fortunately it wasn't chicken pox. It was just hives. She must have been allergic to something.... so we thought. While we were at the doctor, Michael and Jacob moved all our stuff out of the little room into a 2 bedroom suite that was awesome!! They gave us a $99 rate for both room nights.... so we came out ahead on the deal. Michael and Jacob went swimming in the heated outdoor pool, Rachel took a nap. We went to the river walk for dinner - fun all around. Friday night at about midnight I broke into a fever. Chills, sweat, chills, sweat..... no fun, no sleep.
Saturday morning - Rachel had a drippy nose. We went to the Alamo and spent an hour or so there. There was a re-enactment out front. We skipped that and went through the tour (on our own). Then off to shopping in San Marcos. That was insane. I thought it was an average outlet mall (75 +/- stores...).... it is nothing of the sort. It is outlet on steroids 200+ stores!! We shopped for a couple of hours and went to Lockhart for world famous bar-b-que. We drove into Austin at about 6 almost 7. Even though it was well past the rush hour –we sat on I-35. It took an hour to get through Austin to our hotel on the NW side. We stayed in another Staybridge - and we had our 1 bedroom suite as planned. It was fine. We went to Chuy's for dinner and Kerby Lane for breakfast.... the local food was great. I was sick as a dog and Rachel was not far behind me.
By Sunday morning, she was pulling on her ears and had lots of congestion in her nose and eyes.... I thought she had pink eye. We took Michael to the conference and went home to the hotel, where Jacob watched a movie and we napped. When we woke up and got lunch the weather was great – so Jacob swam and I fed Rachel by the pool. We picked up Michael (after sitting on I-35 on a Sunday afternoon traffic tie up… ‘cause everyone should be out and about in a traffic jam on a Sunday afternoon…..) and toured the capital. It was nice. I wish I had felt up to doing more – the grounds were beautiful. Again we ate at a local restaurant –Madam Mam’s – Thai. It was very good, even Jacob ventured into new dishes. We toured a little bit of campus and headed home to the hotel. Due to the traffic that is inevitable on I-35 South into Downtown, I asked Michael to try another route to the hotel. We went up Lamar.
Monday morning rush hour was a piece of cake…. 15 minutes down Lamar and we were there. That was the best decision we made all weekend. We dropped off Michael and went back to the hotel to pack and check out. It was hard to pack, load the bellman’s cart, load the car etc…. with the two kids, one of them sick and having a fever myself. I called the doctor and made an appointment for Rachel the next morning. Thank heavens Jacob is old enough to help me drive the Bellman’s cart down to the elevator!! We left Austin at noon. We drove through Fredericksburg and Doss. The two towns where Michael grew up until he was about Jacob’s age. We saw the houses, his old school, etc. It was cool. It really touched Michael. We got home at about 10. We were beat.
Jacob had school the next day, Michael caught a plane at 6 am to Myrtle Beach for an interview and I took Rachel and myself to the doctor. I was out of the office with a sick kid until Friday. She had another round of hives this time they lasted for 2 days. She had 2 ear infections and what I thought was pink eye, turned out to be part of the congestion caused by her cold virus. The same virus caused her rash of hives. Lovely. I had some sort of infection – upper respiratory, strep, something… he said I didn’t have the flu – I’ve already had that.
I was so glad to be back at work on Friday. Michael is in NY visiting his brother for a day before going to CT for an interview in Hartford. Then he'll be home for 5 days before having an interview in OH. Keep your fingers crossed that something works out for him in the job market.
