A Further Trip Update...

So, we left Marfa on Monday morning and drove (with a few stops,) to San Antonio, and wandered around the Rivercenter Mall for a while, thanks to the IMAX theater having the world's slowest ticketing process in the history of cinema. (Missed the show despite showing up 15 minutes ahead and only having a 10-person line.)

When we were hungry, Mom, Tara, and I walked down the Riverwalk to our restaurant for the evening. I was pushing James in the stroller, and realized after carrying him and the stroller up and down several sets of stairs and across a couple of sections of broken paving that the reason the stroller was so heavy was that Mom and Tara had affixed both their huge granny purses to the stroller handles. ARGH! I made them carry their own stuff.

We were accosted along the way by a skinny, twitchy panhandler who was trying to clean up on the spring break tourist crowd, otherwise hereafter known as "Magical Hoochie Season," who tried to be all smooth:

"Hey, excuse me, man, I'm hungry, and I don't mean to bother you..."

"But you're succeeding in bothering me."

I bet you can guess who didn't get any money.

So we went to dinner at the Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse, with my mother's cousin Buzz and his wife Augusta; they're both very nice, which was a good thing. I will say in the restaurant's defense that the food was worth every penny of the VERY high price, and was possibly the best steak I've ever actually eaten. But we walked in and sat down at 7 PM, and got up to the lobby to head to the car at 9:15. So, a bit slow.

My only real issue with that - being as expensive restaurants often do that - was that during Spring Break, you'd think they'd want us stuffed and rolled out of there as fast as possible, so they could bilk huge drink bills out of gullible kids with their parents' credit cards. Go figure.

In the morning, we went to the Rivercenter again, and this time managed to get to watch the "Alamo: the Price of Freedom" movie at the IMAX. Badass. Especially the part where they listed all the names of people who died in the Alamo, and I got to point and tell Tara, "Yeah, right in the third column, about 3/4 of the way down; that guy." My ancestor.

We then went to the Alamo itself, and walked around taking ridiculous numbers of pictures and videos, including the cenotaph upon which is listed the name of every man they could confirm died at the Alamo.

This is the best vacation ever.

Then we drove to Houston, and after settling in at the house, we went to eat at the Rainforest Cafe with my brother, his wife, and their two adorable kids. I will say that the Rainforest Cafe is worth every penny in every way. The kids loved it, especially the huge fishtanks with Nemo and Dory fish in them, and the food was great.

Today, with many pics again, we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and History. MORE TO FOLLOW WHEN THE FINAL BIT OF BIG NEWS IS DONE. (Probably tomorrow night.)