hushed gray: the Kevin chronicles

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend Trip
Yeah, now that we're halfway to the next major holiday I'm finally writing about the last one. Work has been crazy busy lately and my evenings have been full, too. I'm going to have to talk to somebody about my schedule. Just whom that would be I do not know, but this is ridiculous. But I digress, let's continue.

On the Friday before Memorial Day I got up shortly after 3 a.m., got a shower and headed to the airport to catch my 6 a.m. flight. Turns out I live only half an hour from the airport, not 45 minutes, but I didn't know that since I'd never made the drive at 4 a.m. before. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, found a spot in the economy lot ($6/day, not a great deal more than the off-site private lots and I was a lot closer to the terminal), and had plenty of time to wait before my flight.

Apparently at 4:30 or 5 on a Friday morning, CNN runs CNN International. But not news programming, oh no. All that seemed to be on there when I was sitting in the airport was sports hosted by some guy with a British accent. I say sports; other than a brief mention of an NBA playoff game or two and a feature piece on Indian cricket, there was nothing other than soccer (or football, as it's called overseas). I don't understand much more about that game now than I did before my exposure to the TV, but oh well.

Flight from Jacksonville to Dallas (where I changed planes) was uneventful. Flight from Dallas to San Antonio was also uneventful, but somehow we arrived 10 minutes early (who would have guessed, huh?). Sarah greeted me and we waited for my suitcase. I avoided baggage fees because I a) had purchased my ticket before the airline implemented baggage fees and b) packed my second piece of luggage (suit bag) inside of my suitcase. Now that's using the old noggin' right there. At any rate, once my suitcase finally emerged on the conveyor belt, it was off to downtown San Antonio for a bit of sightseeing with Sarah and her parents.

Sarah and I rode one of the tourist-y river barge things. We saw ducklings.

Photo of Ducklings

San Antonio's river is home to other avian life-forms and their associated lifeways. Our barge driver actually stopped the boat to rescue this waterlogged pigeon.

Photo of Pigeon

The pigeon rode on the boat with us for the rest of the tour, making no effort to fly away. I presumed it was still drying out, but there were some rumblings that perhaps the pigeon was planted to give our boat driver a chance to "save the day" (and earn bigger tips).

After the boat ride we went to Schilo's, a German delicatessen which makes its own root beer. It had a nice flavor to it, just a touch on the sugary side (kind of like an A&W). To my mind it could use some more carbonation, but overall it was very acceptable.

After lunch we toured around San Antonio, seeing a couple of the missions and other landmarks Mr. T knew about. Then it was back to their house for a couple of hours before dinner with Sarah's great aunt and other relations (her great aunt's husband, one of their sons and his wife and two daughters, and another aunt). The son made barbequed beef brisket...yum. That was some good stuff. It was late when we got back to the T's place and I bedded down on the couch.

And speaking of late, it's getting kind of late right now. To be continued.

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