This Christmas, we didn't put up our tree because puppy. Instead, I wrapped our fake bamboo plant in lights and put the star on top (fortunately, I'd neglected to pack it up last year, so it was easily accessible). Actually, I put the star on top of a telescoping pole intended to help unscrew lightbulbs that are up high. The "bamboo" isn't strong enough to hold up the star that we have.
Anyway.
Christmas morning, I just covered the kids' presents with blankets, and it was just as much fun to discover what was under there, AND there was plenty to clean up because stuff comes in packaging, so we didn't miss out on anything by not having wrapping.
After we'd done that, I got a message that the electronic key to the room we'd reserved downtown was ready! We played a little more, then packed up and drove into Austin.
On the way, we stopped by Pease Park for James to see it for the first time. It was pretty busy, but not any busier than the other weekday Mal and I went.
Mal wasn't super interested in playing a long time like we did last time, though, because he knew our hotel room was ready, and that's his jam.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites on South Congress. It is a great location, and the price was perfect. I'd wanted us to stay closer to where we used to live, but even the places that seemed pretty well-priced were inordinately expensive once they added on a pet deposit and mandatory valet. I looked into Spot Hero, but many of the lots downtown don't offer in/out privileges, and I didn't think we'd never need to leave, but wasn't sure. Then my sister reminded me that they'd stayed at Embassy Suites several times when they'd visited Austin from Dallas, and it ended up being perfect.
We had a king bed suite, planning for Mal and James to sleep in the bedroom, and me to sleep in the "living room" with the dog. When we first got to the hotel, we just chilled out for a while. And when I say "chilled out," I waited for the dog to calm down. He was sniffing around a lot, because it's a new place. Even though he's never peed inside anywhere we've ever been, I was still pretty nervous until he peed outside. And we were on the 8th floor, so between James and myself making a couple of trips out each until he finally relieved himself, it was a lot of ground covered!
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This was our view. Not too shabby!
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For dinner, I ordered
Teji's for James and me, and McDonald's for Mal. Grown-up food was being delivered, but Mal and I walked down to pick his food up. And McDonald's isn't open on Christmas, Which is cool, I'm glad their employees have the day off; but it'd be nice if the app had gotten the memo. Still, it was a nice hour-long walk for Mal and me.
Mal ended up eating some mac and cheese from the hotel store, and was more than happy with that and an apple and some Airheads as dinner.
That night, I was a little stressed when it was bedtime. The hotel is really pretty, and part of that is that it has an atrium. That also meant that pretty much every noise in the hotel is "hearable" in the rooms. Luke kept jumping up and running to the door and whining when a dog would bark two floors down, or when a kid on the bottom floor was crying. THEN someone had a screaming, out of control kid running up and down our "hall" for a good 45 minutes after 11:00 PM. The man was yelling at the kid, and the kid would holler louder. Then people were calling down to people on the bottom floor. Just before I called the front desk to ask if this was typical, I guess it quieted down.
Luke slept with me in a full-size sofa pull-out, and everything went pretty well after it finally quieted down.
Sunday morning, Luke woke up at around 6, so I threw my shoes on and we went for our walk, even though it was dark. Unlike our neighborhood at home, Austin proper has PLENTY of lights to illuminate even the darkest hour. (
Too many, frankly.)
We got back to the hotel and rested a bit, but Luke was keyed up. A bit before 9, I woke James up because Mal had gotten up and I needed to get the dog back outside. James took Mal down to eat while I walked the dog to a fenced dog park. There is an off-leash area in Auditorium Shores, but it's not fenced, and it's close both to the hike and bike trail and some pretty busy roads.
The walk was nice, and the park was basic but had some pups for Luke to play with.
By the time we got back, we'd already gotten in 10,000 steps, and it wasn't even 11 o'clock!
James had brought me breakfast, which I ate while the dog slept. He actually got into his travel crate and took a nap of his own accord, after our having put him in there a couple of times to manage him when he was acting out.
Mal loved playing in the hotel. He would go out and "buy groceries" and do all sorts of missions, walking around the floor, circling the atrium, and coming back to just outside the room.
In the early afternoon, we got out to visit Toy Joy.
Then it was back to the room for some rest and relaxation.
James ended up walking over to McDonald's to get Mal's promised meal from the day before.
In the late afternoon, we decided to walk down to see the Capitol Christmas tree.
I was so proud of Mal! He'd been flagging on the walk home from Toy Joy, which was only .6 miles from our hotel. The Capitol is 1.2 miles, and we went all the way around so Mal could see the "pit."
When we got back to the room, I drove over to
Sandy's to get burgers for James and me, and a shake for Mal.
Everyone was pretty wiped. I had walked more than I normally walk in a day, but James walked A LOT MORE than he usually does, and his knee was hurting (he also realized this morning that he hadn't taken his allopurinol so that might have contributed). Mal played on his iPad and I played Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Luke pretty much slept from the time we got back until James took him for his nightly elimination a bit after 9.
Last night was MUCH quieter than Christmas night. Once we were in bed, the hotel was reasonably quiet. But then I realized that since the fountain on the bottom floor makes the noise it makes, the hotel lobby music was pretty loud. Not loud enough that I could make out lyrics, but enough that I could hear it. I am really not fun to be around when it's time to go to sleep. I'm extremely picky and sleep lightly.
Anyway, this morning, we took it easy (including Luke's and my walk, which happily occurred at 6:45 instead of 6:00 today!) and packed up after breakfast. The dog had gone to sleep, and when we'd finally gotten totally ready to go, decided to wake him up.
We drove straight home, and have been super busy after our big 48-hour getaway. James and I put everything away, he washed some dishes D had left out because they didn't know we'd be home so early, emptied the litter boxes, and got some work done in the back yard (he's building a smallish test project before we try to start on the house), then came in a bit to finish up Mal's last overly-supervised bath, and is now at the store. I did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, did a dishwasher load, put together about 1/3 of Mal's Boba Fett's starship LEGO set, started Mal's bath, and then took D to the post office.
We're going to hang out and maybe watch a movie tonight. Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and that you can get some rest, too!
