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!

Belize, but Not for Us

Hey, hi. I just looked and while we have a $20 delivery fee for our electricity, our rate is, at most, $.09 per kilowatt hour. Yikes!!

Since ship passengers have to tender in to Belize City, we didn’t make any plans for today. I wasn’t sure Mal would do a tender boat, and somehow, even though they’re bigger and carry more people, they actually do look scarier than the water taxi from yesterday (about which Mal asked, “Is this going to be safe?”). 

Instead, we planned to take it easy onboard and enjoy the practically-empty ship. That’s how it turned out, mostly, with the notable exception of about three hours of on-and-off tender ticket number announcements over the PA. If this had happened on the first day of the cruise, we could have had to charter a helicopter to come get us and take us home. Fortunately, Mal HATES it, but now gets that there are fun things to do, too, and we can hang out in our room and mostly not hear the announcements that aren’t emergencies.

We just chilled in the room until 9 or so, when Mal and I went to breakfast at the Windjammer buffet. Only half of it was open, but we had no problem finding a table (not always the case). James had lunch in the main dining room.

We’d worn our bathing suits to breakfast, planning to play in the splash pad after, but saw on our way to the meal that they’re doing some pretty extensive work on the splash pad. Fortunately, the main pool was deserted, and I talked Mal into TRYING to get in again. Just with his feet. Just to feel it.

It was probably 6 degrees warmer than it had been the first day we tried to get in. It was so comfortable! We swam for a couple of hours, when the frequency of the tender announcements sent Mal scrambling for the quiet of the stateroom.

James had joined us for the second half-ish of our pool party. By then there were a good 8 people in the pool. They’d opened the second pool, too, but for some reason no one was in that one.

I got in a shower, and attempted to go to lunch alone. James and Mal stayed in the room, then went to play and apparently decided it was time to eat, so they “found” me as I was finishing up my meal. We all hung out and I left to come back to the room to try to finish writing up about Roatan.

James and Mal came back as I was just about done, and I played with Mal a bit, then we all went back out to see if we could find the anchor. Since we’re moored off of the coast of Belize, we likely dropped anchor. We could see the Carnival Magic’s. And on Voyager of the Seas, D and I found where the anchor is stowed toward the front of the ship, an area that was closed when we were stopped.

But on this ship, we saw no such thing. We couldn’t see an anchor at all, though we realized looking at the Carnival ship that they wouldn’t have been able to see their anchor, either. We did enjoy a stroll around the promenade deck, including a much less windy visit to the helipad.

Back to the room for television and games, and lots of watching the tender boats, one set of which docked right below our room. Although the “all aboard” was 4:30, by the time we were leaving for dinner at 5:20, they were just unloading the last one. 

I’d love to have spent some time in Belize City; I think D would LOVE the animal park, and Mal would have enjoyed it. But watching people bobbing out in the ocean waiting for their turn to pull up to the ship, then having to wait while so many people unloaded… ugh. It looked stressful. I mean, if you’re the kind of person who finds waiting problematic. And I don’t, necessarily. Waiting with my little, though? No thank me.

Our server, Noel, and assistant server. Charmaine, are so sweet to Mal. After the second night, Charmaine started bringing Malcolm his own soda, which we are not paying for. And Noel cuts Mal’s chicken strips into nuggets. They are trying so hard to please him, and he’s really kind of a jerk right now. Very focused on what he wants, to the exclusion of politeness. That might be a typical 4-year-old thing, but D was quite gracious and appreciative as a youngster. It’s a trick not to be frustrated with Mal not just for being inconsiderate, but for making me look like a bad parent. I try to keep that angle out of things, but, goodness. We’re modeling all over the place and I’m ready for him to pick it up!

James had a crab cake and ahi tuna for dinner. I got the creamy mushroom soup and prime rib with au gratin potatoes. It was perfect. We both had the Grand Marnier soufflé for dessert, and it did not disappoint.

After dinner, James brought Mal’s left-overs back to the room while Mal and I visited the arcade. There is a circular bank of games in the middle of the arcade, which meanders a bit, and if Mal could run around that circle for hours a day, he would. He likes to play that he’s PacMan and I’m a ghost. 

We made sure the pool was open and came back to the room to change into our bathing suits. The water was still so warm and comfy. They were showing “Mary Poppins Returns,” and it might have been better for me if I’d seen it from the beginning. I wasn’t super impressed. But I had a great time swimming with Mal and the few kids who were out there. We got in during daylight and Mal noticed soon that it was dark. At about 8 o’clock, they closed the first of the two pools, so everyone had to get out and go to the other pool. For some reason, that pool was about 4 degrees cooler, and it was A LOT windier on the port side of the ship. We lasted all of 3 minutes in that pool before we decided it was time to return to the room.

It was so windy, Mal and I were almost dry by the time we got to the elevator banks. Now we’re all dressed for bed and getting ready to call it a night. The most relaxing day of vacation so far, definitely!

Wednesday Adventure

Yesterday, Mal and I went to the Volente Beach Resort for the first time. As the crow flies, it's very close to where we live. Just under 4 miles, specifically.

However, since we don't have a boat (and, yes, they have a courtesy dock, so we could theoretically kayak down there, but I'd have to call an Uber home, most likely), we had to drive. It's a bit more than 4 miles to drive to that side of the lake.

Once we got there, 22 minutes before opening time, I had to figure out where to park. Either the signage isn't super clear, or I'm just not the brightest tool in the combo plate. Whichever, we finally found a parking "lot" (rocky field with some paved areas the width of sidewalks, but I think you're supposed to drive on them, which feels very weird). Of course, they didn't take credit cards, only cash. I don't carry cash. But they do participate in a parking app, so I pulled over, downloaded it, set up a payment method, found out that the parking lot doesn't take that payment method, panicked because I'd only brought one credit card, and then realized I could use Paypal. By the time we got all of that squared away, it was 5 minutes until 11.

The whole time I was messing with installing the app, Mal was telling me that he didn't want to go to the park; he just wanted to look at it from the car. I got him out of the car with the promise that I would carry him. HE IS HEAVY.

When we got down the hill to the entry, I was speaking with the entrance booth attendant as Mal tried twice to go back to the car... by walking straight into the road, since the entrance booth is only 5 feet off of the street. The second time, I did yell at him about NOT RUNNING OUT INTO THE STREET. So he started crying and begging to leave. I assured the nice high school girl who was trying to help us that he'd love it once we got in. She put a wrist band on me, but Mal wouldn't cooperate, so she put it around his ankle. His response: "GET THAT OFF OF ME!"

Finally, we were set up to go in, and Mal just wanted to stand in the grass with the picnic tables. Okay, good. Take in the view. Gradually, he calmed down enough to try to go check out the kiddie pool. It was maximum 1 foot deep and had a pirate ship.

He liked climbing aboard the ship and exploring. We were the first people to arrive for the day, and had the area to ourselves for about half an hour. I slid down the small slide a couple of times, trying to get Mal to go after me. He declined. At one point, I'd walked away because I thought Mal was going back down the stairs. Next thing I knew, he was standing at the top of the slide saying, "I don't want to do it! I'm not interested!"

I laughed SO hard, because literally no one was inviting him to slide anymore. He was fighting with himself.

More kids arrived, and we ended up playing and having a snack. After an hour, Mal said he was ready to go. I asked if we could walk down closer to the beach, and Mal was very excited to see a boring old swimming pool.

At Volente Beach, the water used in the features is lake water, used and returned to the lake. Thus the swimming pool wasn't pristine. It was clean, but it was lake water. We had a lot of fun in the pool, and got to watch a bunch of people slide. Mal is tall enough for all of the slides, but hadn't the least bit interest in going on them.

Looking at that picture, I can see: Mal is at the top end of what his life jacket can support! He needs to learn how to swim already!

Anyway, we ended up staying a couple of hours, and it was very nice. I'll be excited to have something so close by when he decides it might be fun to slide, and that getting one's face wet on occasion isn't the worst thing that can happen.

We got home and had a very late lunch, then Mal was kind enough to play Cars mostly on his own so I could doze for a few moments.

When it was time to make dinner, he went into the kitchen with me and climbed up onto the bar to chat. I was peeling an onion, and he wanted to try. After we got the peel pulled off, I started to chop it, and Mal apparently just scooted all the way back so that his rear went off the side of the bar and he lost his balance, flipping backward into the floor.

I definitely screamed. Before I got to the other side of the bar, one of the very heavy wrought-iron stools fell over, as well. I picked Mal up and he was crying, but it was almost instantly a "I should be crying because that was scary and I might be hurt" cry and not an actual "I'm severely injured!" cry. The first thing he said after we'd sat down and I was rubbing around on his head to feel for bumps was, "Mommy, I forgot to catch myself!" That's when I knew he was fine. But his little heart was beating like crazy.

We decided that if he wanted to sit on the bar while I cooked, he could sit on the lower part with his back against the high bar. Good grief, that could have gone a whole other way, and we could have spent our evening at the ER.

I was so exhausted by the end of the day that when Mal went to sleep just after 10, I did, too. I realized today that he had not used his computer at all yesterday, and he only got online about 15 minutes today while I was at the store and he was hanging out with James.

Parents who never let their kids use any tech at all must 1) have more energy than I do; 2) have an easier/less needing of input/more independent kid than I do; 3) have more than one kid around; or 4) just be better parents than I am. I cherish those fleeting moments of his distraction so I can make a phone call or do something online from start to finish!

And that brings us to another topic that's going to have to be another blog post, because it's just about bedtime for me this evening. 'Night, all!