For the past week, Daniel and I have been on vacation from work, and it's been a whirlwind! I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version of our hectic time.
First, we traded in our Suburban for a 2007 Cadillac Escalade. We're very much enjoying all the bells and whistles this treats us to that our Chevy did not feature. We have never traded a car in, choosing to sell outright in the past, but we took the easy way out this time and do not regret it one bit. With all the research Daniel did on this and time spent working out the deal, it was exhausting, but a good deal!
On Thursday, our dear friends Maggie and Kevin had some troubles flying to Austin from South Carolina. At the last minute, we jumped in the car and booked it down to San Antonio because that was the closest American Airlines could get them to Austin without waiting another day (or more!). We decided to make a mini-vacay out of it and stayed over in a hotel and...
...put our SeaWorld season passes to work the next day. It was super hot so we mostly stuck to the water rides and splash zones at the shows. Needless to say, I don't have any pics of our fun because I didn't want to get my camera wet, but I can pass on a tip. We bought the Quick Queue passes to avoid any time spent waiting in lines, and it was well worth the money! Those things are manna from theme park heaven! I don't think I'll ever visit a theme park without getting a fast pass. Fun times!
After a day of IKEA shopping, eating, napping and being lazy, we were rested up enough to go south again, this time to San Marcos. Daniel, Abigail, Maggie and Kevin took a trip floating down the river. They said it was a great time of relaxation and staying cool in the spring-fed waters (read: super cool in our super hot weather). Meanwhile, Cooper and I stayed dry at the San Marcos outlet malls snatching up some good deals and avoiding any You're-A-Mean-Mom-For-Making-Your-Frightened-Child-Get-In-The-Water-When-He's-Scared-To-Death scenes at the river.
On the way back into Austin, we enjoyed some yummy shrimp enchiladas at the Hula Hut on Lake Austin. But, that wasn't our only feasting for the week. Since it was a vacation, we went all out - great seafood at Pappadeax, yummy Mexican at Chuy's, tasty steak at Salt Grass, delicious pie at the Texan Cafe, Kevin's favorite Steak & Shake. Yeah, we were certainly well fed and will have to do some serious backing away from the table over the next month to make up for it.
On the last day of our staycation, we toured the State History Museum in an effort to get out of the house but escape the deadly heat outdoors. It was interesting but we were mostly bummed that we slept in too late to catch an IMAX flick at the museum.
The only adventure I caught on film was our last sightseeing trek in Austin, which I'll share tomorrow...
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