Another Weekend in Austin
July 16, 2007:
This past weekend I went to Austin for my Dad's birthday. We usually head out Friday night after work, but I (and now Pam!) are in the half-marathon training program, and we had to run 2 miles and attend a seminar on hydration. We were both able to run the 2 miles without having to stop. It was also on concrete, so we were pretty sore afterwards!
After our training, it started raining and we drove off to Austin. When we got to Brenham, we took TX-36 up to Somerville to get a missing county, Burleson. While there had lunch at the local Dairy Queen (or the "Texas Stop Sign" as they like to call themselves). For anyone who has never driven around small town Texas, there is one thing you can always count on.: If the city has more than a couple thousand people, they will have a Dairy Queen. It's just a fact of life down here.
It was still raining, but we pushed on. Rather than backtrack, we pushed on FM-976 to FM-60 to TX-21 and met back up with US-290 in Paige. Overall, with the lunch stop, it only took about 40 minutes longer than a normal non-stop trip.
I go to Austin all the time, but this was the first time my parents had been so yielding with my requests to play board games. After our normal sit-chat-and-catch-up session, we went in the other room and played a game we had all played before, 10 Days in the USA, a rummy-style geography game. My mom won the first game and I won the second.
After the game, we all went to dinner to celebrate. Even though my Dad's birthday wasn't until Sunday, Pam and I would not be in down for a Sunday night dinner. We went to a Brazilian food restaurant that I can't remember the name of. It was the kind of place that had a big salad bar and then the servers come out with huge slabs of meat on sticks and cut you off a slice. I had so much meat it was coming out of my ears! Also, I'm not sure the reason for this, but beer and wine were complimentary, so I had my share of that as well :)
After dinner, we went to Central Market and picked up desert. We were all too full to eat it, but we got it for later that evening. I got the raspberry éclair.
The next day was all fun and games. We went to Kerbey Lane Cafe (a local Austin favorite) for breakfast then came back and started a game of Bohnanza. The game lasted longer than we expected, so we had to leave it to go catch the movie Ratatouille. We all agreed it was a great movie, even my dad, who is not real into animated movies.
We came back, ate cheese, meat, and crackers and finished our game of Bohnanza. Then... my stomach revolted. We needed to get going back to Houston, but my stomach just wouldn't settle down. After sitting and watched the recorded Tour de France for an hour or so and no change in my stomach, we decided to have Pam drive home. Thanks to I-10 being closed, we were taking the fast boring way back anyway. Pam drove the whole way back without incident. I was still able to get up for my 20 minute run and work today, but I'm still not feeling 100%. I need to watch what I eat next time!
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