Our Trip to Houston, Summer 2008...
This is a story about our trip to Houston, TX in June of 2008, and how a giant gorilla protected us at our hotel... Well, kinda, and not really. Megan would probably say so. :) But it was just a giant blow up gorilla in a car dealership parking lot right next to the hotel...
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Our trip started
VERY early on Friday morning. It was supposed to be at 2am, but a storm rolling through town at about 1am got the dogs all worked up and whiny, and thus had us up. :( But we tried to get some more sleep. We got Megan up shortly before 3am and got her dressed, all the bags in the van, and we were on our way... right into a thunderstorm. ugh. But at least at that time there weren't any delays for our flight.
The storm kept moving to the east, and we were got to the park-n-fly lot where we were going to park. We parked the van and cramed onto the "little bus", as Megan calls it, to head to our terminal. It's really suprising how many other people are doing the same thing as we were at 4:30 in the morning. Megan actually did very well, considering she was awake nearly 4 hours early.
We headed into the airport to check our bags. Megan wasn't too keen on letting some stranger have her bag. Who knows when she'd see it again. :0 But she let it go after we re-assured her. We were shortly behind security and then off to find our gate. Since we still had an hour before our flight was to take off, we found a Burger King and had some breakfast. Megan wanted to eat everything but what we had gotten her... At least she ate I guess.
As we were waiting to board the plane, Megan noticed 2 women approach the gate with luggage, etc. They went down to the plane, and as we were watching the plane trying to kill time, she saw one of the women outside the plane doing a pre-flight check. She was the 1st officer. Megan waved to her and the woman pilot in the cockpit (hehe cockpit), while we were waiting...
All I have to say about boarding all the planes, is it was great having Megan. If only for the fact that we got to board before everyone else. We got to get on, get situated, get our bags where we wanted and sit down. Awesome. Megan handled the takeoff and flight pretty well. She didn't seem to think it was anything too bad. She even slept through the landing in Denver. :) During the flight Tracy asked one of the flight attendants if it would be alright for Megan to meet the pilots and say HI. She said, "Sure." So we waited to be one of the last people off the plane and Megan went right up to the front of the plane. The pilot took her right up into the cockpit, put her pilot hat on her, backed out the cockpit and said "Get some pictures Dad!". That just made Megan's trip!
We killed our 2 hours in Denver by riding the escalators, and moving walkways. Got on our next flight, and then headed toward Houston. This flight was much like the first. It did get a little hairy once we were coming in for a landing in Houston. A storm had just went through, and there was quite a bit of turbulence. At one point, it seemed as if the bottom just dropped out and we "fell" for several feet. Some younger people on the plane screamed. :) Megan looked up at Tracy and sadi "That was funny!". :) That's my little girl.
We grabbed our bags, and called Sarah to let her know we were in town. She headed right out to get us. We headed outside to the arrivals door so Sarah could find us when she got there...
WOW was it HOT!!! It nearly took our breath away. Luckily Sarah had the A/C on high.
Next stop was to get some lunch... We hadn't eaten any thing of substance since about 5am that morning when we got our Burger King. We went to Whataburger... Interesting place. Good food, and the burger was huge. Although still wonder what the thing is with mustard.
Sarah then took us to our hotel so we could get checked in, settled and make sure we were set for that night... Cause we were tired, and needed a place to crash shortly. Then it was off to do some shopping, of course. We got some bottled water, a new swimsuit, swimshirt, shorts for Megan. Sarah also got some beach toys for the kids since we knew we were going to be heading to Galveston sometime during the week.
Enough shopping, we headed to Dennis and Sarah's apartment. Dennis came home shortly after that... I actually have a picture for Friday of Dennis all done up for work. Definitely a sight. :P Dennis got into something a little more casual, and we headed to Chili's for supper. We headed straight from the restaraunt to the hotel. It had been a very long day we were beat, and needed to sleep.
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Saturday started out like alot of the other days at the hotel... We grabbed breakfast at the hotel before heading out. Holiday Inn Express really does put out a good breakfast. Just about anything you could want, for free, none the less. Eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, cinamon rolls, bagels, yogurt, cereal, fruit, juice... mmmm, starting to drool just thinking about it. Anyway, the breakfast was great. :)
We headed over to Dennis and Sarah's place after breakfast. Dennis had to work this morning, and thus, we decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum. Megan had a blast. I think it was somewhat sensory overload. She couldn't decide what she wanted to do. She'd get to one spot all excited to do whatever it was and then notice something else and rush over to that. I think she would've stayed if we would've let her. There were all kinds of hands on activities to try out. She also did some face painting, and made a pair of "spy" glasses.
After the museum, we then headed to the zoo. A very nice zoo... but it was also very hot out that day. Luckily there were enough indoor exhibits to jump from building to building to stay cool as we overheated. Plus they had mister fans setup all through the park. Megan loved those. :) Once she saw one, she had to ask, "Can I play in the fan?" We saw all kinds of animals... It was a zoo. :)
Dennis met us at the zoo a little after we got there, had lunch with us, and then wandered around a little more with us. Then, they took us to the ape exhibit... All I have to say about this, was that I got crapped on by a bird while walking through it. Sarah says that its good luck to be pooped on by a bird. This coming from someone who didn't get pooped on. :P And the smell... ugh. Anyway. Not my shining moment. Didn't have a spare shirt, so had to deal with that one until we got back to the hotel. Everyone was getting hot, tired of walking, and overheated at this point. So while the girls talked Dennis and I took Megan through the reptile house to cool off a bit. We saw the coolest albino aligator. Don't ask what Dennis had to do to get the close up. After the reptiles, it was time to head out.
We then headed back to our hotel for some swimming. Megan hadn't shut up about the swimming since she saw the pool on Friday when we checked in. :) Dennis, Sarah and Mason all got their suits from home, and we all had a nice refreshing dip in the pool. We also took this time to plan the coming week... Which we mostly had planned before we had even left. But we firmed things up a bit more.
We then headed upstairs to dry off and get dressed. We then piled into the cars and went to get some Mexican for supper. This was a very nice Mexican restaraunt. The guacamole dip was awesome. We should've asked for a gallon jug to take some home. We probably went through that much with the chips before our food came. I don't think any of us had room for our meals when they came.
We then headed back to the apartment. We were still pretty beat from all the travel and running around. We headed back to the hotel in and attempt to get Megan into bed at a somewhat reasonable time. This would be the earliest she'd be in bead all week... We wanted to try to get into bed a little early since we were heading to Galveston in the morning, and it would be a long day.
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
We grabbed our normal breakfast at the hotel, and headed over to the apartment. We then got everything packed up and headed for the beach. We got the cooler, chairs, pack-n-play, and food all set and ready to go. Dennis sat in the back of the explorer. :) Saved us from taking 2 cars, but Sarah was throwing him all over with her "style" of driving. :P I didn't think it was too bad, but then again, I had a seat with a seatbelt, so what did I know.
On our way, we decided to stop at a Wal-mart to get our fishing licenses for our deep sea fishing trip on Monday morning. We didn't want to get delayed and have to buy them early on Monday... Who knows what might happen, that would cause us to be late. More on that later... We got to the sporting goods counter and waited at least 10 mins for someone to come. Dennis went to service and asked someone to be paged 3 times. ugh. Then he went back and asked for management. Its suprising how some people get into management. This guy had no idea how to work the damn machine. The lady that normally works there was on break, finally came back and got us what we needed. Over 30 mins after we got there, we were finally on our way.
Nify little tidbit - Around here when I want a weekend newspaper, I either drive to the store, gas station, or walk down to Kwik Trip with the kids... In Houston, on Just about every interchange, there are guys sitting on a stack of papers, selling the weekend editions. Very handy since you're sitting in stopped traffic anyway. :) Saved us another potentially lengthy stop.
Finally, nearly 11 am, and we were on our way to Galveston. We got there at roughly 11:30 ish or so. We parked and headed out on the beach. It was
AWESOME! We gotta figure out how to get one of those ocean things installed here in Minnesota! We grabbed a beach umbrella and chairs on the beach and sat down. Started dousing ourselves with sunscreen and got ready to jump around in the waves.
Megan loved the sand, the surf, and I think, just about everything about being there. It didn't take much convincing to get Megan in the water. It also didn't take much to realize that the waves would literally eat her. A few nearly knocked her off her feet, so we decided that I, or someone should be carrying her. I picked her up and off we went into the water. I had her riding the waves up and down, and jumping into them. She still got wet, and had fun, just didn't have to worry about getting lost in the waves. We headed out of the water to grab a bite to eat, and rest for a little bit. The kids (Megan and Sarah) dug in the sand for a while. Dennis made sandwiches.
We then took one more quick dip in the water before it was time to try to shower off and head home. The girls took the kids to rinse them off and dress them up, while Dennis and I packed everything up and into the Explorer. We then headed out and they took us to a little souvenir shop that was pretty nice. Megan picked out a multicolored shell bracelet that is waaay to big for her. She'll probably be able to wear it in about 5 years. She also filled up a little bag with sea shells.
We then loaded back up, went down by the port for the cruise ships to get a few pictures... Those boats are a lot bigger than you think they are. I guess for me anyway, since I've never been on one. :) We headed home. Sarah sat in the back this time... :) Also commenting on Dennis' "style" of driving.
So we got back to the apartment and dropped the girls off. Dennis and I went to get some crab legs for supper from the grocery store. The guy at the seafood counter was an idiot... Seriously I don't think he knew how to count. He got the king crab correct, but when Dennis asked for 3 bunches of snow crab legs, the guy put like 8 in the bag... Then acted like he had no idea what was going on when Dennis asked about it. Then it was off to eat the crab.
Tracy and I had never had crab before. At least not real crab anyway. Dennis showed us how to cook it, and how to eat it. Mmmmmm. And that's about all I have to say about that.
Now that we were full of crab, slightly burnt from our day at the beach, and starting to get drowsy, Dennis decided to look up directions for us, for fishing in the morning. All I hear from Dennis in the corner is, "Crap." Here, our fishing charter was to leave from Port Aransas, TX... Which just happens to be about 4.5 hours from the apartment. ugh.. And we had to be there at 7am. You do the math. That meant that we had to be up at 2am, and out the door shortly after that. And we found this out at roughly 8:30pm. I was planning on sleeping at the apartment anyway so that way I wouldn't wake up Tracy or Megan in the morning. I still had to run them back to the hotel for the night. Boy was I glad we got our fishing licenses earlier that morning.
Well, then it was a mad dash. We still needed to get Dramamine from the store, get some cash for the trip, and some aloe lotion for the sunburn... So Dennis and I ran, and sped (literally) to the CVS down the street. Got what we needed and were back within 20 mins. Then it was Pack Tracy and Megan up, head back to the hotel to drop them off... I got them back to the hotel, ready for bed, grabbed the clothes and stuff I needed for fishing the next day (except for my poncho which I forgot), and raced back to Dennis' to try to get some sleep... This at about 10pm. :) Hopefully 4 hours of sleep here I come!
Monday, June 9th, 2008 - Guys Fishing
Monday, June 9th, 2008 - Girls Shopping
From the links above, Dennis and I went fishing, the girls went shopping... There aren't too many picutures of shopping, and I'm not sure what else they really did, so the pictures are all I have to go on. This section will mostly be about the fishing... :)
The morning started out early... And I do mean early. 2am to be exact. No shower (we were going fishing anyway), no breakfast, and barely time to wake up. We grabbed our clothes, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, the directions, and bags, and ran out the door, nearly as soon as we got up. Believe it or not, it was somewhat bearable outside at 2am. Almost pleasant. :) We got in the car and sped off. Its suprising how much traffic is still on the roads at that time of night... Not enought to slow us down, but enough to say, what the heck are you still doing up? Of course, I'm sure that some were probably thinking the same of us.
The driving wasn't too, bad, but we had to stop at a gas station, and we were getting close to a point where we had to get off of the "major" roads and onto some county roads... Alot of them. And alot of turns. The directions from
Google Maps were a little confusing to say the least. Dennis has this little feature on his Verizon phone where he can use the phone as a GPS with turn by turn directions. I gotta get me one of those! It got us where we needed to be with no problems, and by the time we needed to be there.
We got into Port Aransas about an hour early, which was good. Since we still hadn't gotten anything to eat. We stopped at a Whataburger. The breakfast sandwhiches were just as good as the rest of the burgers. I thought so anyway. We then headed down the road a little more to find the place... Hmmmm. Where was it? We stopped at 2 places. One lady, we should've had words with. She wouldn't help us at all. Probably because we weren't using their service. Idiot. We stopped somewhere else, and they were much friendlier and told Dennis right where to go. As we park the car, I step out, and I notice my sandal loosen and then fall off my foot...
CRAP! My sandal just broke. I don't have my shoes, and nothing else to wear. I can't go on an 8 hour fishing trip, with absolutely nothing on my feet. I rush inside while they direct Dennis where he should've parked to see if they have more sandals/shoes, etc... They didn't have much of a selection. Lets just say that they were a VERY trendy, black foam flip-flop barely (and I do mean barely) big enough for my clod hoppers to fit into. They also had a very stylish rainbow trim around the outside of the foam. I can only imagine what people thought... And on a boat where you can barely keep your footing, is not the place to break in a new pair of shoes, let alone these.
I get my shoes, we pay for the charter, and head out to lather up with sunscreen and wait for the boat to leave... :) While we're waiting, Dennis snaps a picture of the boat and sends a pic message to his friend Brandon. Attached to the pic: "Leaving in 10mins, stop by if you want to go." I don't know if Brandon will be reading this, but you should've stopped by!
They finally got things ready, we got on the boat, sat down outside hoping to get some fresh air on the way out, and we started heading out of the harbor. Things were pretty calm in the harbor, heck why wouldn't they be? :) Once we got outside of the sea wall though, it was a totally different story. :D There were 5-7ft seas that day. Dennis actually said that it was the calmest day out, that he'd ever fished on a charter.
We drove out into the Gulf for about 1.5 hrs. During that trip, there were a handful of pukers on the boat. :) Dennis and I took our Dramamine, and I'm glad we did. I'm a sympathetic puker, so watching those guys do that would've set me off... but it didn't, and I was glad. I was having a MUCH better time than they were.
We started approching a oil rig. We tied up to it, and started fishing. Almost right away Dennis and I had a Red Snapper on. Within probably 15 mins we both had our quota for the day. We could only keep 2 Red Snapper apiece. No big deal, That just meant that everything from that point on was for "fun".
Not long after starting to fish, I looked down and my legs looked like they were sunburned already. I was just thinking to myself, I got burned yesterday, I don't need to do it again. So every 45mins to an hour I was running in to put more sunscreen on. I burned through 2 of the spray on banana boat cans that day. That's alot of sunscreen. BUT, I didn't get burnt, not in the least. At one point in the day, some spray came up over the side of the boat and hit my leg. The water beaded up and rolled right off. I knew at that point, I had plenty of sunscreen.
We tied up at a few different oil rigs. Only had alot of luck at the first one. Dennis had a pretty large shark on, but they didn't get it up in the boat. The deck hands had their hands full with the other people at the same time that Dennis had the shark on the surface. It then snapped the line and took off. :(
Later on that afternoon, we had stopped out the middle of the gulf in open water where the captain had found a school of fish. I had something huge on... It was just slightly off the bottom. Once it hit, it wanted to do nothing but go down. The deck hands said that was weird. They said it was most likely a bigger shark. I fought that thing for what felt like 20 mins. My arms ached, my legs were starting to shake... It was probably for only 5 mins, but I guess i'm a wuss. Then just as quickly as it hit the line, the line went slack. DAMMIT! The deck hand said he did catch a flash of color about 10 ft down as it broke free. He couldn't tell what it was, but said it was big... It'll be known as the "one that got away".
It wasn't long after that, that everything was reeled in and we headed home... The trip home seemed to go by much faster than the trip out. Probably because we both slept. Man was I tired. :) Dennis was too, I think he fell asleep before I did. But we both woke up not long before getting back into the harbor. We went outside to get some fresh air as we were coming in. We saw a few dolpins following the boat in as we came in. Kinda cool...
After the boat came in, the deckhands and others that worked at the charter place got all the fish off the boat, lined them up on the "display" for pictures, etc. Dennis and I got pictures with our fish for the day. We then handed them over for the guys to fillet them for us. I was exhausted. Last thing I wanted to do was have to fillet the fish now. it was just easier.
We headed home. Dennis turned on his GPS part of his phone as we took the ferry across to the mainland... It was funny. It recognized that we weren't on the road, and asked us to do a u-turn at our next convenient time so we could proceed. Somehow on the ride home we shaved an hour off the drive. Not sure if that was because it was daylight and we could go that much faster, or if the roads shortened up during the day... I'm betting on the driving faster thing.
Oh, and if you talk with Dennis. Ask him about the neat trick I taught him about 2 lane roads on Texas... :D
When we got back it was between 9 and 9:30... I grabbed my stuff headed back to the hotel, to find Tracy and Megan watching Ratatoille (sp?). So, they bought that shopping today... I got my shower and practially collapsed in bed next to Megan. Tracy woke me up and I don't think I moved until morning.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Since we had been running around constantly over the last few days, we figured that we'd start taking it easy. We had originally planned to drive to Austin, TX to sight see for the day... But, Monday was a really tiring day for Dennis and I. Especially since we left at 2am, and didn't get back until just after 9.
We decided to go to IHOP for breakfast. Tracy saw one, and since there isn't one in Rochester here, figured, "Hey, we gotta go to IHOP!" It was good... Megan thought so too. With her Berries and Cream smiley face pancakes. :)
We went to the Woodlands mall. We took the "water taxi", which was mainly just a glorified water tour from the mall to another side of the Woodlands. Megan liked it, and Dennis and Sarah had never done it. It was worth the ride. We then went into the Mall. Megan saw the Carousel that they have on the 2nd floor, and wanted to ride immediately. Only $1 for a couple minute ride wasn't too bad. She rode a pony that went up and down. She thought that was the greatest... Or I'm guessing so anyway. I figure that's why she asked about 100 more times to ride it again.
We wandered around the mall for quite a while. This is where we got 2 new members of the family. We went to the Build-a-Bear workshop to get a friend for Matthew. We figured this would be his treat from Texas. Matthew got a little stuffed monkey, which Tracy named "Monkey". She really got imaginative on that one. Megan then, mostly because of tiredness, started throwing a fit. Tracy then thought it would be a good idea to get her a bear too... except for the fact that she wouldn't pick one, and just got more upset when pressed to pick one out. ugh. Anyway, we finally got one. A mostly white bear with pink spots. I named it "Pinky". Pinky became Megan's friend away from bed... Since the cow (you should all know who the cow is) is only for bedtime, and thus, stays in bed so we don't lose him.
For supper we cooked up a bunch of the fish from Monday. Mmmmmm. That was some mighty tasty fish, if I do say so myself. Can't wait to dip into the rest of it! Luckily, since Dennis still had a bunch from his last trip in the freezer, he just sent all of what we got on Monday back to WI with Sarah. And now its in our freezer. ;) Not for long though.
We watched some TV, and then headed back to the hotel for the night... We didn't do nearly as much today, but a slower pace was much nicer for a vacation.
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Wednesday was the day that the girls were supposed to have their jewelry party. So, for the day it was just Dennis, the kids and I.
When we got there in the morning, Mason was sleeping, so we decided to take Megan over to the apartment pool to get a quick swim in before the girls needed to head out. We swam for a little while. Megan liked swimming with Dennis. :) He "played" a little more than dad... But Dennis probably isn't as tired as Dad. Trying to keep up with a 3 year old and a 15 mo old, wears you out fast. Dennis will find out soon enough.
We finshed swimming, and headed back to the apartment to dry off and change. We then pulled out the Xbox 360. :) Of course, Megan wanted to play. So we put in a driving game for her. Only problem was... She just wanted to turn the controller like she does with the Wii for Mario Kart. Kinda cute, but still couldn't explain to her what she needed to do. After about half an hour of whining because she'd get square with a wall and then just be stuck spinning her wheels, we figured that we'd give her a controller of her own (not doing anything) and I or Dennis would drive. Worked like a charm. She thought she was driving like a pro, and wasn't any the wiser... At least until she's a little older and reads this. :D
The girls left mid-afternoon to start the jewelry party. It was supposed to start at 4pm... I don't think the first person came until 5, and then a few others at 7pm. Not according to plans, but still worked. We snuck over and stole some supper for us and the kids. We then went back to driving the car. Megan got pretty good at driving that car, even telling Tracy to get out of the way when she walked in front of the TV while she was driving. Pretty balsy.
The girls finished up and got back to the apartment sometime between 9 and 10pm. We packed up our stuff and headed back to the hotel, to start another day.
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
We started out the morning like we usually did, with breakfast at the hotel. Today we were going to the Houston Astros game, where they played the Milwaukee Brewers. Since we weren't leaving until a little later in the morning, we figured we'd take Megan swimming at the Hotel pool before we had to leave. She was stoked! I swear she's a fish, at least in part. She probably got that from Tracy. I'm not so much a fan of the swimming... Hot tub on the other hand. We swam for an hour or so. Enough to get her fingers and toes all wrinkled up. Then it was time to get changed and head over to the apartment.
We left the apartment to head to the baseball game. The stadium is in the downtown area. We found a very reasonably priced parking spot and pulled in, and hiked the few blocks to the stadium. It was t-shirt day at the stadium... Some sort of T-shirt from the triple-A league or something like that. Nice shirt. I'll wear it (and already have).
We got in, found our seats, and watched some of the pre-game stuff. I think Megan was just amazed at the sheer size of the place. Plus there was a train on the far side of the stadium. When a homerun was hit, the train would blow its whistle and move. She definitely thought that was cool. Megan had some popcorn, a hotdog, some water, and part of Tracy's pretzel with cheese. The Brewers won that day... it was a good game.
We headed back to the apartment, in the late afternoon rush hour traffic. It was pretty busy. Traffic never really stopped, but it got close a few times. There was an accident several miles up ahead. Amazing that 1 accident can back up 6 lanes of traffic to a near standstill. We took another exit and toured a "bad" part of town... I didn't think it looked bad, but then again, I wouldn't want to be wandering around there at night. Unfortuantely this was where the school that Sarah used to teach at was located. We drove to the school, and then headed back out.
We headed to a Hooters for supper. Tracy wanted to try the fried pickles. Mmmm. I really like those too. :) The food and service was good. Then we headed back to the apartment. We played some cards while Megan watched "Cars". Sarah was thrilled that she had someone to play some Euchure with for once. Of course, Dennis and I let Sarah and Tracy beat us. That's our story and we're sticking to it... We played till pretty late, something like 11 or so. Megan was still going strong suprisingly. So we finished our last game and headed back to get some sleep.
Friday, June 13th, 2008
We got to start our last day in Houston a little later than normal. Dennis had a job interview so we weren't going anywhere until around 11:30 or so. So we slept as late as we could, I think even later than Megan that day. :) We got our breakfast, and headed over to the apartment.
Dennis made it back after his interview and he changed and we all got loaded up to head over to see Dennis and Sarah's new house. The previous owners, who are subletting right now we nice enough to let us come over and look around since, it might be a while before we'd be back in town to see it again. The house is nice, needs a little work, and Dennis knew that. Also, the reason why they got it for the price they did. But you can't beat the pool out back, and the quiet neighborhood they're in. It will definitely give them more room than the apartment. Downside: There's that many more things that Mason will be able to get into. :D
After we left the house, we headed to a Thai restaraunt that Dennis and Sarah like. It was really good. My first experience with sushi, and Thai food for that matter. I really liked it, and I think Tracy did too... Megan... maybe not so much. She didn't really eat much of her lunch. Maybe because of being tired, etc. Who knows.
As we left the restaraunt, we decided that we'd stop somewhere and rent a movie to watch back at the apartment. I thik we got "The Game Plan". Not a bad movie, but I'm not really a "Rock" fan. This allowed for Megan to get a little downtime, no nap, but not running, and for Mason to get a nap for the first time in a few days.
After the movie finished up, we went to a BBQ place, I can't think of the name of the place at the moment... Ah, how the mind starts to go. Been less than a month since we were there and I'm drawing blanks. I'm sure Dennis will "remind" me of what it was. The BBQ was excellent... I had the ribs, Tracy the turkey, Dennis the brisket, and I forget what Sarah had... I know that we ate it all. Tracy wouldn't let me have any peach cobbler, not that I really had any room I guess. :) Then it was time for Sarah to take Mason home, and for Dennis to drop us off at the hotel. That way Dennis could just pick us up in the morning and not have an extra vehicle "stranded" at the hotel. It was sad, knowing that this might be the last time we see Sarah or Mason for quite a while... but that's how goodbye's work. Luckily there are phones, pictures, and videos to help us keep in touch.
Dennis dropped us off, and we got to the room and started packing. Luckily we fit everything that we neededto take home into our bags... Some forcing to get the zippers closed, but everything fit and we didn't have to leave anything behind, besides the left over water from the week.
We then laid down to relax for a while to wind down. "RV" happened to be on TBS that night... and we flipped to it right at the point where he needs to dump the tanks on the RV. :D We just had to watch. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. Good movie... which reminds me, I need to pull our copy out to give to dad.
Friday, June 13th, 2008
I don't really have any pictures of Saturday coming back... The morning started early... Tracy and I were up at 3am, to get showered and get all our things in order before we got Megan up to get dressed and out the door. Dennis was to pick us up at 4am.
Megan wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about getting up early this time. :) But she was still a trooper. Not much whining. The trip to the airport was uneventful, and quick. We said our goodbye's to Dennis, thanked him for the week, and getting up so early to drop us off...
Thank you Dennis, Sarah, and Mason - For everything!
The flights went well, Megan and Tracy slept through most of both of the flights. We landed in Minneapolis at just before 1pm, got the "short bus" back to the van, and started our trek to run home, grab clothes and head to the camper to pickup Matthew... But that's another story. :)
I think that since we made it back home safe and sound, I guess the giant monkey did protect us on our trip... ;)