It was more than a month ago that I hopped on a plane and had my first actual “girls’ trip,” and now that the afterglow is fading, it’s time to relive what could have possibly been the best time of my life-after-kids life. Starting with the airplane ride. I love airplane riding without my kids. I literally brought my purse on the plane and one magazine. No snacks, no wardrobe changes, no distractions. Heck yeah! I could have ridden on that airplane for five days straight and been perfectly satisfied. But, instead, I met my best friend in Austin, Texas with no plans other than to not be moms for a few days. It was glorious. We rented a house and (against Caleb’s gut feeling) we did not get murdered. But what we did do was sit at the breakfast table and casually eat muffins and fruits for the longest time each morning. I had forgotten what “relaxing meals” meant! We shopped, we ate sushi, we went kayaking, we roamed the downtown streets, we talked until we fell asleep. We did nothing of consequence, but to be able to do this all without having to manage kids through antique shops and eat hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for every meal was heaven. Seriously.
[First stop: Lunch at this sidewalk stand. The sign above the cash register said: We are out of tacos. The person in line ahead of us said: Are you out of tacos? For real, girl?!]
[We watched the Cubs game at a Chicago bar downtown. They lost. We each drank a beer. And then looked for a hot chocolate stand before heading back to our home for the evening. So glad that neither of us crave that nightlife scene!]
[This was the super cute bungalow that we rented. Each day we came home in the middle of the afternoon to relax and read magazines on the back patio. Life cannot get better than that!]
[Everyone in Austin says that you have to see the bats fly out of this bridge at night fall. I guess there are 1.5 million bats that live inside this bridge. So we waited and waited and waited for them to start flying out thinking that we would be standing under a cloud of black so thick that it would obstruct the view across the river. And after about 20 minutes of waiting for whatever amazing thing we had built up in our minds, Jenni said, “Um, this kind of just looks like a swarm of gnats.” I couldn’t agree more (and am still laughing about that statement) and we carried on with our night. Still not sure what all the hype is about!]
[We went kayaking. It was my first time ever, so I made Jenni share a kayak with me because ain’t no way am I going to tip this thing over by myself! What a fun ride--except for that time we went under the bat bridge which stunk like bat pee and was filled with a lot of bats that realistically could pee on us at any moment. I think that will probably be the fastest I have ever paddled anything.]
[We must have been looking alike because we were asked by several people—including a homeless dude—if we were sisters. We have always been asked that, and of course that is fine by me!]
[We cooked s’mores inside a coffee house that also served alcohol. Maybe the best combination of things ever.]
[There is this area of Austin that promotes graffiti art. It is ever-changing because you are allowed to paint over different things at different times. Grungy, but a nifty little sight to see!]
So I went to Austin knowing that it is a very thrifty and vintage-type area, and since that is everything I love, I had fantasies of all the treasures I would find while there. And I did find some pretty cool things:
Among some of my scores was this flamingo costume for Camryn (she is pretending to be asleep—quite an actress), the tea kettle, and meat scale. Not pictured: A shell casing (actually, I’m not sure what it was but it said something about bullets. I intend to use it as a bud vase.) And because I have a knack at packing a lot in to a little space, I was able to get it all in to my carry-on. But with the randomness of my bag, I wasn’t surprised when airport security pulled me aside to dig through my dirty underwear. It all went something like this:
Person: Ma’am do you have anything sharp in your bag?
Me: (Ma’am? Really?) Um, well, there is a needle on my meat scale that might be a little sharp. Rusty more than sharp, though.
Person: (Looks at me like WTF?) Well, we need to search your bags, please.(Then proceeds to pull out the bullet thing, a flamingo costume, a tea kettle, and a meat scale.)
Me: (Thinking: And the award for the most random shit shoved in a carry-on goes to…)
Person: Ma’am you can’t pack this in your carry-on. (Pulls out a half-used bottle of body lotion.)
So I checked my bag because lotion is not cheap, and besides, it was holding my bullet thing snuggly in place. Long story short: Lotion can’t be more than a few ounces if you expect it to pass through airport security. Though it made it through Midway airport a few days earlier no problem…
As always, getting away from reality is a good thing. And coming home to those kids I try desperately to escape from was just as great—for a solid 20 minutes before all of the whining and crying and tattling pushed me back to the edge. But without those rug rats, I wouldn’t have needed to get away. So, thank you, my darling pains in the ass for helping introduce me to Austin, Texas!
