Category: reflections

Well they always say “Keep Austin Weird” – I don’t know if we did that but we did keep our weekend weird.
If I could summarize in a line or two, I’d say, “All Because of You.”
We had a number of disappointments this weekend but each of them were things that weren’t detrimental and I had a lot of fun because it was all with Laurie.
We planned to head to Austin nearly a month ago but with our busy schedules we avoided committing to the trip.
Finally, Thursday afternoon I think we both just wanted to get away and committed to the trip.

The weekend started off off-schedule as I had hoped to get off work a little early but ended up working all the way till 3:15.
We didn’t hit the road till 4 but it wasn’t detrimental to our trip. We hoped to arrive in Austin between 7 and 8 p.m. and made it to the hotel by 7:30.

After checking in we were a bit disappointed with the room because of a musty/moldy smell in the room and the fact that it was advertised as a “corner room.” They meant corner room. It was in the corner of the hallway, not the corner of the building. We had a “fabulous view of Interstate 35” and all the traffic we had just sat in.

We laughed about it and then our friends Wayne and Kara came and picked us up for dinner.
We had a great time with them at Matt’s El Rancho Restaurant on the south side of Austin.

After dinner Laurie and I went out and snapped some late night photos of the capital. She got some great shots of the capital.

We got back to the hotel and got ready to head down to the hot tub and pool – one of the main reasons we picked the hotel.
Just our luck – the pool and hot tub were drained so they could “renovate” the pool area.
Great. Excellent. Wonderful. So much for paying extra money for a nice hotel that’s “situated in the heart of Austin.”
We weren’t impressed and probably won’t spend the night at one of their hotels again. But oh well. Another thing to laugh about.
We did enjoy a fairly quiet night and sleeping in a bit in the morning.
We got up around 9:30 and checked out and started our day in Austin.

Right off the bat we went and grabbed some photos at a cool guitar outside Austin’s Whole Foods Market.

Then we were on the road to our first Geocache hunt of the day.

We searched for 20-30 minutes once we got to the location and had no luck. Bummer but we had a good time hunting and laughing about it.

It’s hidden somewhere around this cool gate at the Austin Botanical Gardens.

Luckily we avoided these guys while we were hunting…

After our unsuccessful hunt we headed over to Frank and Angie’s for some “great freakin’ pizza.”

Laurie had a basic 10″ cheese pie and I had a great 10″ pie with sliced tomatoes instead of sauce, provolone cheese, portables mushrooms and fresh spinach leaves on top. It was a great meal to top of our visit to Austin.

We headed back out on the trail for one more Geocache before we headed back.
This time we were a whole lot luckier as the rain held off until we were back in the car and we actually found this one – even though it was full of water and the log book was soaked through and through.
It was in a great location in the Austin Nature & Science Center near 6th Street and Mopac. It’s a very cool place and I think our nephew Jake would love it. Brooklyn would probably love digging for dinosaur bones in the sand as well.

After our dig we decided it was time to head out before the rains started and we began our trek back north along I-35.

Of course along the way we made a number of stops including Ikea – which could be a post all in it’s own – the Round Rock Outlet Mall and a tour of my old stomping grounds in Belton, Texas and UMHB.

After all our side trips it was nearly 4 hours later and time for dinner around 7 p.m.
We made a stop in Waco to eat at a local burger place and refreshed our tastebuds before we hit the road again.
The trip home was uneventful but fun as we talked about the weekend and various other topics.
We pulled back into the parking lot at Casa de Blundell around 9:30 p.m. or so and were glad to be home.
But then it wasn’t long until Laurie realized her purse was missing. The last place she had seen it and used it was in Waco at the burger place – now 65 miles south of us.

We immediately called the restaurant, unloaded, grabbed some caffeine and headed back south.
Laurie took the wheel this time and I think we made it in record time, arriving just after the restaurant closed.
We got her purse back but quickly realized that while someone had turned it in, they had helped themselves to whatever they wanted inside the purse. A LARGE amount of cash that had been given to us as wedding gifts was missing as well as Laurie’s cell phone. It was indeed a sickening feeling.
We checked with the employees to see if they had any further information but as things go, we had our suspicions about who probably took things.
Luckily they took the cash and not any debit cards or credit cards. We did however quickly begin canceling the cards in her wallet in case they were “smart enough” to write the numbers down.

But through it all – it could have been worse. If I’m going to be “robbed” I’d rather have it done while I’m not looking than at gunpoint or knife point. Also, they could have gotten a hold of our debit card or credit card and cause a lot more damage and luckily the cash was simply extra money we had set aside for weekend trips and random fun purchases so it won’t hurt our monthly budget any with the loss.

We decided that apparently they needed the money a lot worse than we did and God just wanted us to hold on to it for awhile so they could get it when they really needed it. I guess that’s the best way to look at these types of situations. Cause getting angry and punching someone or something just doesn’t seem to bring the phone or money back – unfortunately.

I was so proud of Laurie and the way she calmly handled herself as well. I know she’s just as upset as I am and she remained cool and calm through the ordeal. We finally made it back home around 11:30 and quickly crashed into our own beds.

Today’s been a somewhat normal day — compared to the past two days. Nothing eventful other than the power going out several times, buying a new router so Laurie’s Mac can access our Wi-Fi network again, trying to set the router up while the power keeps turning off and well… just another weekend at Casa de Blundell.

I’ve definitely gone on long enough for one post. Laurie just came downstairs and kissed me good night. I guess it’s time to put this weird weekend to a rest.

In the meantime be sure and check out photos from the weekend on Laurie’s Flickr page.

Love you Laurie – glad I got to spend the weekend with you. It was fabulous – all because of you.

Update: Laurie now has her thoughts on this weekend as well. Check her blog for more.