Weekend Getaway

Friday, James worked from home as we planned to drive to San Antonio as soon as he got finished with his day full of meetings.

Mal was restless and ready to go, so we went to Urban Air for their weekly Homeschool Jump. Unfortunately, when we walked up to the building, there was a sign that said, "Sorry; we are closed until noon. Sorry for the inconvenience." They usually open at 10 on Fridays, and it was 11:30. Mal was very upset and didn't feel like waiting half an hour. He didn't want to go to Jump Street, and he didn't want to go to Little Land. I asked if he wanted to go to Altitude in Round Rock, as we've never been there before and it was fewer than 15 minutes away. 

We've just bought an "unlimited play" membership to Urban Air, and as long as we go once a month, it pays for itself. But I was still annoyed that I was going to have to pay money to jump on a trampoline because they were closed when they should have been open!

Anyway, we got to Altitude, and fortunately they also have "Toddler Time" on weekdays from 10-1, wherein 6 and under jump for $8.

Mal jumped for about ten minutes... then said his stomach hurt and he was ready to go home. So we left, and he spilled a soda in his car seat and the actual car's seat. Fortunately, we got home in plenty of time to clean that up, and it was a sunny day so both seats dried quickly.

James finished up at 2:30, and we drove west through Marble Falls and down, because we drive east so much, I needed a change of venue.

We got to dinner at Blanco BBQ at about 4:30. I picked the restaurant because it had an outdoor playground, but the food was also top-notch.

Mal had mac and cheese; I had chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and white gravy; and James had their ribs and brisket plate with beans and macaroni. We were right under the flight path to the airport, too, so we got to watch a lot of planes coming in.

Because it was Valentine's Day weekend, all of the hotels we could afford were booked up. I usually prefer not to use AirBnB because of the hit-or-miss nature of staying with private owners, but this one ended up being a winner. We had plenty of room and there was a low cleaning fee.

Saturday morning, we'd planned to have breakfast at L&L Hawaiian Grill, but even though they serve breakfast, they don't open until 11. So we did Taco Cabana drive-through and got to the San Antonio Zoo right as they were opening.

It was hairy parking and getting in, but once we were inside, it wasn't crowded at all... which probably can't be said for the people who got there when we were leaving three hours later. Then, the line to get tickets backed up into the street, and they had six or so windows open. We noticed as we were making our way out that navigating became a lot more dicey. So, yay for getting up and out and being some of the first people there!

A roseate spoonbill was glaring at me from its perch in a tree.

This jaguar had already had enough of the admiration.

These are basically African grackles... If ours were this iridescent, maybe I wouldn't mind them so much.

An Australian bird whose name I forget. 

Running on the Great Lawn.

There was an actual turtle this size nearby.

We tried to ride the train to the Japanese Tea Gardens, but after we'd bought our tickets and waited 10 minutes, they announced that there was an issue with the tracks. We waited another 5 or 10 minutes for maintenance to come out and they said it would take half an hour or so to fix. The whole circle ride is only 20 minutes, so we took a refund and went to lunch.

We went to Tycoon Flats, which has a bunch of signature burgers. They all looks so fabulous, James nor I could decide... until we saw on another page of the menu that you can get three "sliders" for just a little more than most whole burgers. We went whole hog.

Monte Cristo, Benedict, and feta with cranberry sauce and spinach.

Fried apple with bleu cheese, fried avocado, and signature garlic burger.

They were all so good. James's favorite was the Benedict, and mine was the feta and cranberry. The apple bleu cheese was pretty amazing, though. We also upgraded from fries to fried mushrooms and red onion rings. 

Mal enjoyed the play area and ate his chicken nuggets back at "home" later.

Oh! Four years ago, I tried going without shampoo. It lasted six weeks but my scalp got so oily and my hair was just gross. For James, however, it really "took" (I guess he just decided to do it because why not?), and he hasn't used shampoo in almost four years. Until we got home home tonight. Why? Because as we were enjoying this cool outdoor cafe, this happened...

Doonk!

Ahh, birds. Our friends and also the ruiners of a good carwash as well as scalp hygiene. 

We laid low the rest of the evening, and Mal really liked watching multiple episodes of Puppy Pals on Disney Jr. This morning, we took our time getting up and around, got packed up, and drove by something I'd seen in our neighborhood on a map: The Robber Baron Cave!

It's a cave, the entrance to which is in a sinkhole on a small lot in the middle of a neighborhood. Apparently someone who owned it near the turn of the 20th Century made up stories of a robber baron to drum up interest in it, and then it was a speakeasy during prohibition. Now it's a nature preserve, and it was kind of cool... a little like our own back yard, but with a longer history and slightly more fun backstory.

Ready for breakfast, we ended up at La Panaderia at apparently the worst possible time. James waited in line for more than half an hour, while Mal and I played outside.

However, the wait was so worth it.

James had one of their breakfast sandwiches with a side of a smokey, satisfying black bean soup. Mal and I shared a pan dulce and chocolate croissant. We brought the rest home, including that limited-time Amor Cruffin you see up there. It was easily not the worse thing I've ever eaten.

Before saying "au revoir" to SA, we gave the Japanese Gardens another try. Again, parking was bonkers, and there were a lot of people there, but it was beautiful. This used to be a quarry, and I can easily see the quarry where I went to check out the cemetery down the road turning into something like this. It's already quite lovely.

Anyway, when the quarry in San Antonio was finished, the city decided to turn it into a sunken garden. Prison labor was used to build the stone bridges and walkways. After a few years, a local Japanese-American artist, Jingu, was invited to live on-site and open a restaurant. When he died, his family continued to run the tea garden. Unfortunately, after Pearl Harbor, that family was forced out (though not, I believe, interred)  and the city brought in a Chinese family and changed the sign at the entrance... such a sad chapter in our country's history.

See? The entrance says "Chinese Tea Gardens." They just left it up.

Fortunately, the city moved in the 1980s to right this wrong, and changed the name back to Japanese Tea Garden (also seen as "Sunken Gardens" on the drive in). The rededication ceremony was attended by Jingu's family. In 2008 when the park reopened after infrastructure renovations, one of Jingu's children who was born in the house on-site attended the reopening ceremony.

It's still beautiful, and it's free to explore.

On our way home, we stopped at the Disney Outlet in San Marcos, but didn't get anything. We got home around 4 and I've caught up with laundry. I think James is switching over to "work mode," as he does most Sunday nights.

We had a great, leisurely time and D enjoyed a couple of days in a quiet house. Okay, week, we're ready...