2-day Stay-Away

James had Friday off of work; D was asking, "Is there any time you're all going to be gone for a while?" because of projects that require spreading out in the common area of the house; and it was supposed to be 100 degrees all weekend, and Mal and I were ready to SWIM.

Magically, last week, I got an email from Omni Hotels that all stays were 30% off through early September. I booked us a two-night stay at the downtown Austin Omni. My thought was that we could just hang out there, swim in the rooftop pool, and walk to a few places like B. D. Riley's Irish Pub for take-out meals. Then COVID-19 cases in Austin started reaching new records daily. I canceled that reservation and moved us to the Southpartk Austin Omni, which isn't really anywhere. It's located at the southeast corner of the intersection of 35 and 71/290, which I guess makes it moderately convenient to travelers needing airport and downtown access, kind of? Anyway, seemed likely that there would be fewer people to bump up against.

Friday, James went out to a late breakfast while Mal and I got stuff ready to go. On the way through town, we stopped at QT for a caffeine-free Diet Coke for Malcolm. All of the stores and the Sodastream website are out of the caffeine-free diet soda Mal likes, and all of the grocery stores are out of name and store brands, too. Yay, pandemic! (I know, these aren't true problems. Just and inconvenience. I DO have perspective.) Happily, I was able to get a free fountain drink with the Quik Trip app!

They have a lot of sauces. I put none in Mal's drink.

I had called earlier and knew our room was already prepared for us, so we checked in around 1:40. Of course, the first thing Mal wanted to do was SWIM!

He had a straight face in the first picture, so I said, "Can you try to look just a little happy to be here?" This was that.

The pool is large and winding. It also has a smaller indoor portion, which you can access via a swim-through hole. We stayed mostly outside because the inside is well air conditioned, and the water itself is cool enough that it felt a bit too chilly in there.

As you can see, there weren't a lot of people. Everyone was being mindful of the distancing requirements.

After our first swim, we explored the hotel a bit, played hide-and-seek, and then got some late lunch/early dinner. James and I had Taste of Ethiopia II and Mal had McDonald's, natch. Our dinner was so tasty, and the portions were ridiculously ample. Needless to say, we had left-overs.

Bread, baklava, shiro wot, lentil sambusa, zimamabojat, and tomato salad. 

Full up, we were ready for another swim! James went with us this time.

Mal and James heading under the bridge.

We had some nice down time after that, and a quiet night's sleep.

Saturday, we got breakfast from Hideaway Kitchen and Bar. We got takeout as with the rest of our meals, but they had such a neat patio and it was empty, so I kind of wish we'd eaten there. Anyway, the food was absolutely delicious and Mal still has a pancake and scrambled egg he hasn't deigned to finish.

James got the queso and chips, and then their bacon jalapeño cheddar Benedict.

It was either chicken and waffles or their peach pie pancakes. I made the right decision. Perfectly-fried juicy chicken, fluffy waffles, and a pecan bourbon syrup.

Hey, want to guess what we did after breakfast?

Yup! More swimming!

After an hour or so, we dried off and took a short break from the hotel.

It was hot, and Mal was NOT interested in going, but he ended up having so much fun! We were a little early for our appointment, so we got him Chick-fil-A on the way, then we took him to see the Cathedral of Junk for the first time.

When we first arrived, Vincent came out to greet us and Mal said, "I'm sure you recognize my parents." He said, "Oh, yeah. Those guys." Then Mal kept saying, "I read about your place in a book we have at home!" It took me almost until we left to realize that he meant the photo album of our wedding.

After a few, he realized that there are themed "rooms" and kept offering us tours to see the red room, and the yellow room, and the green room.

We haven't been since our wedding 7 years ago, I believe, and a lot has changed! The ladder we used to get up to the top has been closed off, but there are two new(ish) staircases to access the third floor. He also built a tile slide.

We were super sweaty but so very happy when we left. I'm glad Austin has this gem and highly recommend visiting if you're in the area. You just have to call to make an appointment. That's always been the case, but it also sounds like he's just allowing one group at a time in order to maintain social distancing.

Here's a picture of James and me yesterday in the same spot we took a picture when we first visited almost 8 years ago (when it was a lot colder and much less sunny). Haven't changed a bit, right?

July 2020 vs. November 2012

We had planned to hit up Soursop for more take-out, as it's very near the Cathedral, but we still had so much food left over, and were still super full from a big breakfast, that we couldn't justify it. We ended up eating the stuff we had in the room for dinner.

Then guess what we did after that?

One final swim before calling it a night.

We're on the 11th floor, facing south, and we were able to see a good dozen separate fireworks displays from our room. I was surprised that there were so many, given that right now there's a statewide order banning gatherings of more than 10 people, even outside.

Hard to tell because of the lights, but James is looking at at least 4 different explosions right here.

After that, Mal and James both fell asleep pretty quickly. I had run out of Gatorade and drank some soda late in the day, so I was kind of wired for a while longer. And I woke up at 7 AM, so I'll likely go to bed early when we get home tonight.

We've had a fun little break, and I'm sure D has, too.

Next up: watering the fruit trees at home. It's been a sunny and hot couple of days!