Texas

So we’re on vacation this week. We weren’t able to make our regular Christmas visit to Melanie’s family in Austin, Texas, because of the cost of airfare at the time (about $1,500 for three tickets), but a couple of weeks ago we saw the price had dropped to half that and we jumped at the chance. A big part of the reason is that I don’t know if I’ll get an actual vacation this summer, with the baby coming in July, so we should take it while we have the chance.

The flight was uneventful in the important ways and the kids were just great. Very little noise from either of them and no crying. It was also nice that the plane was half empty and we could spread out into two rows. Of course, it doesn’t mean that trip was completely smooth.

We had to rise before dawn on Saturday, which made for a long day, but both girls woke in a good mood. We’d been prepping Isabella for days that we were going to Texas on an airplane and her first words on waking were, “Are we going to the airplane to go to Texas?” My sister-in-law, who’s staying behind at the house unfortunately for her, drove us to the airport. But no sooner had she pulled away from the curb—after we’d piled out and stacked up the luggage—than we realized Bella had left her bag with her dolly and stuffed piggy in the car. I called my sis-in-law right away but she’d already got into the tunnel back to the city and then ended up getting lost on the city streets despite the GPS and it took about 20 minutes of anxious waiting for her to come back. Disaster averted.

Yes, the summers are very hot, but at least you don’t have to shovel the heat.

The TSA checkpoint was pretty smooth too, as they had set up a special line for those with small children and those who had bags of medications. New regulations allow you to bring as much children’s food and drink as you need, as long as you show it to them, which was just fine for us. We did have a small meltdown when Bella had to put her shoes and bag on the x-ray belt, but the TSA folks were as pleasant as I’ve seen them. I think it helps that it wasn’t Christmastime.

We got on the plane and into the air, and finally I started to relax a little. I ordered some nice hot Dunkin Donuts coffee that Jet Blue serves and was taking my first big sip when it went down the wrong pipe. Rather than cough a mouthful of hot coffee all over the seatback in front of me and the person in it, I tried to keep it in my mouth. Big mistake. That liquid had to go somewhere so instead it went up into my sinuses and out my nose all over me. I’m sure it looked as unpleasant as it felt. The rest of the day my singed sinuses felt like I’d run a Neti pot-ful of chlorinated pool water through my nose or that I’d just come off a weeklong sinusitis bender. Or both. Fun!

But any discomfort was more than balanced by landing and experiencing the balmy 70 degree weather in Austin. It was awesome. The older I get the more I think how nice it wold be to live here. Yes, the summers are very hot, but you don’t have to shovel the heat. Hmm, I wonder if Bishop Aymond needs someone to work in their development office. (Just kidding, boss!)

So what’s on tap this week? Reading, sitting outside, eating barbecue. And next Saturday is a fun blogger meetup with The Darwins, Jen of Conversion Diary, Betty Beguiles, Literacy-chic of Words, Words, the Opinionated Homeschooler, Dorian Speed of Scrutinies, and Rick Lugari, who seems to be everywhere in St. Blog’s these days, but is famed for his previous blogs De Civitate Dei and Musum Pontificalis. Whew! Oh, and about three dozen kids. I hope it’s nice weather and they can all be thrust outdoors otherwise it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Photo credit: Flickr.com user Fricke K. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Since you’re reading this, obviously we made it home. Thankfully we made it without any glitches, as smooth as can be expected in these teams of Fort Knox-level security and bare-bones travel.

As usual, dealing with the people in Austin’s airport is miles apart from dealing with people at Boston’s Logan. They were warm, friendly, and helpful. Logan workers are often helpful (but not always) and usually polite, but rarely are they warm and open.

We were able to switch our seats to a completely open row near the rear of the airplane, so I could jump across the aisle and Isabella could have a seat to herself. It’s amazing the difference between flying in coach when it’s full and flying when you have room to breath. It’s nearly like flying business class. And while JetBlue doesn’t offer a meal, I do appreciate the constant flow of complimentary beverages, especially since you can’t carry anything through security. And you can carry sandwiches through (for now), which are better than any economy-class airline meal anyway.

You can see Isabella in that photo up there, sitting in her seat and watching “Finding Nemo”, which I had ripped to the hard drive to save battery power. (Don’t worry, I do own the DVD.) Consider that photo an abberation, however, as on this flight Isabella was much more apt to want to get out of the seat and go into the aisle. She had an uncanny ability to fall down or drop her sippy cup or doll just as someone was coming by to go to the lavatory.

As for me, I watched a Travel Channel marathon of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”, which it’s always entertaining to see someone consume what is to me looks disgusting (and based on his reaction probably is) and/or eat food that is so spicy as to make my eyes water, just watching him eat it.

My always helpful and ready-to-assist brother-in-law Pete picked us up at the airport, along with my nieces Kateri and Chiara, saving us $40 for a taxi. Thanks Pete!

And then home again, where I had to figure out how to turn on the new water heater the landlord had installed in our absence and turn up the heat and pull my car out of the garage and put it behind Melanie’s in the driveway and put the car seat back in her car and … the million things you do when you come home after being away for a bit more than a week. On tomorrow’s to-do list: Take down the Christmas tree and figure out whether the city disposal date has passed.

Of course, there always work tomorrow and dealing with the piles of paper and meeting requests and notes and emails that have inevitably gathered in my absence, no one obliging me by refusing to work while I’m gone. Such inconsideration. Still, it will be good to jump back in, especially since we’re going to be so busy the next few weeks.

I feel especially bad for my in-laws who will miss Isabella so much. And Isabella as she begins to realize they’re not here. She had grown so close to them in the past week that it was tough to take her away from them. The consolation is that we should see them again soon when Melanie has Sophia at the end of February. I have to say that they are so generous in bringing us down and treating us and showering Isabella with love and attention. As the first grandchild on Melanie’s side of the family, she’s spoiled, spoiled, but in the good way with love. And it gives us a little bit of break to have several sets of helping hands at the ready to feed her, distract her, take her outside to play, read her books, etc.

And so on to the next challenges: The birth of our new baby and then moving again later in the spring. There’s never a dull moment.

Last night my mother-in-law took us out to dinner at an awesome authentically Mexican restaurant here in Austin called Fonda San Miguel. I wrote up my review of the experience at Yelp.com. (Not to be forgotten is my father-in-law who stayed home to babysit.)

The food was amazing, even if my entree was not the most exciting of them. Thankfully everyone likes to share. Melanie’s dish was the best, Chiles en Nogada, (a similar recipe is here), a Poblano chile stuffed with spiced pork shoulder and various fruits covered with a walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. While it sounds a bit strange at first, the completed dish was sublime. My entree was a little more pedestrian but not any less delicious, a few lamp chops, grilled simply, with a side of chipotle-cheese potato casserole. My sister-in-law had duck enchiladas.

My recommendation is when you go to a nice restaurant, give preference to the specials, because the chef is (a) showing off his skills and (b) using what’s fresh and good from suppliers. Not at every place, mind you, since in some places the chef is merely clearing out his fridge, but in the good places.

After dinner we had great desserts and I had a very nice glass of Port, a Warre Otima 10-year-old, with which we raised a toast to J.R.R. Tolkien.

If you’re ever in Austin and want a wonderful Mexican meal, this is the place to go.

As is our usual custom, we’ve removed ourselves to Austin after Christmas for a visit with Melanie’s family. They’re fun folks and they just adore Isabella, plus the weather is always so much nicer than Boston at the turn of the year. Oh, and let’s not forget the barbecue and Tex-Mex.

We took an early morning flight on JetBlue, although thankfully they’ve moved it back about an hour later than it was last year. We still didn’t get off the ground until about 45 minutes because they had to (a) fix a door latch and (b) pump in some more gas to compensate for a headwind across the country.

Unfortunately that headwind increased our flight time from 4 hours to 4 hours and 45 minutes. Four hours on a full plane with a toddler was daunting; 4-1/4 seemed potentially disastrous. However, aside from a few moments of panic when Momma had to get up and use the lavatory (poor pregnant women and their “urgent need”), she did pretty well. I should have pulled out my laptop a lot earlier, because when I started playing “Finding Nemo” for her about an hour from the end of the flight, she was out like a light.

Meanwhile, I was watching the Discovery Channel marathon of “Man v. Wild”, which I’ve never seen before. What a great show! (I told Melanie that I have a “man crush” on the host, Bear Gryll. It’s nothing untoward, just means he’s so cool, I want to be his best friend.) If you’ve never seen it either, he’s a former British SAS who has also climbed Everest. At the beginning of each episode, he’s dropped into some wilderness with only a knife, a canteen, and a flint and steel, and he must survive until he walks back into civilization. It’s not completely reality, as he has a camera crew with him and they create certain scenarios to illustrate survival concepts, but he still has to get his own water and food and make his own shelter.

Anyway, once we landed, Granddad was waiting for us in the terminal. As soon as we got home, she rushed out into the backyard where he showed her how to gather up pecans from the ground. That’s them in the photo up there.

With all the attention she’s going to get over the next week from her aunt and uncles and grandparents, how will we ever take her back home?

Next week some time, Melanie has arranged a meet-up with other Catholic bloggers in the Austin area, so that should be lots of fun. Other than that, we have no agenda but to relax and have fun.

What fun! Fr. Roderick Vonhogen, the Dutch priest behind the Catholic podcast network SQPN was in Austin this weekend for a young adult conference. And today he was to con-celebrate Mass and be the homilist at Melanie’s home parish, St. Louis King of France Parish.

Since we couldn’t be there, I told Melanie’s mom, Pat, about it (and that Fr. Roderick called the choir—which she’s in—excellent) so she met him at Mass and went out with him and a group for breakfast afterward (or lunch, since it was a BBQ place). Pretty cool. I look forward to hearing his impressions in his next Daily Breakfast podcast. Especially what he thought of the Mass at St. Louis, with the dozen altar servers and all the beauty and pageantry possible in a Mass of the Ordinary Use.

My mother-in-law sounded like she had a good time too and was favorably impressed with Father’s homily. Darn, missed opportunities. Living vicariously through my mom-in-law.