Between work, dating (check out True Romance?, I have an update), friends, and family drama beyond belief, mama. I needed to get away. Desperately! I thought, "Hmmm...I should take Gabby to the coast. I've never been in March." But, I was a little scared of going alone...mostly for my own mental stability. So, I dragged Andrea into going. Well, really she's having the same friend drama, so I didn't have to twist her arm too much. And, I threw in the fact that I wanted to eat ridiculous amounts of seafood...one thing we share in common.
That was Wednesday of last week. By Thursday morning Andrea had our accomodations ready and there was nothing else to do. No plans. It was a great feeling. Just packing up and going.
Friday after work, Andrea picked us up. Didn't even get out of her car. And we set off. The giggling began right away. I have NEVER laughed as hard as I did on this little mini-vaca. And I freakin' needed it!
We stopped at Burger King for dinner. Hit Corpus Christi and found our digs, The Bayfront Plaza. It was a little creepy at first. The hotel is located in this little "bayfront, city district" and there was music playing on loudspeakers right on the streets. And then came the hotel parking garage....we should have been carrying a knife. It was sooo dark and creepy. But, was totally fine. Then came The Bayfront Plaza. I swear that hotel was like the hotel from The Shining. The room was perfectly fine and normal, but the rest of the hotel just had this creepy feel to it. That was pretty much the theme of the weekend...CREEPY.
So, we hung out in the room. Got some ice. Checked the place out, and I knew right away I wasn't going to be able to sleep. Since Gabby is now eleven, there are some neat things you can do with her...like leave her in the hotel room while you go check out a band in the hotel bar, Cassidy's Irish Pub, with your best friend. So, that's what we did. There was an amazing cover band playing...The Electrotypes. We sat there all night dancing and singing...drinking. And don't worry, I checked on Gabby a few times, and she had my phone in case she needed to call. She's so involved in Twilight right now she can't take her nose out of the book.
We ended up drinking a little too much, and were hungry. I checked on Gabby one last time and she was sleeping, so we set out to walk around the corner to the Whataburger for food. But, we got sidetracked by Hurb's. A little Irish hamburger joint that's open till 330am. The place was bumpin'. We met a cute little cowboy guy who looked like Dwight Yoakum and kept throwing his room number around like we were going to go there...703. And the counter boy looked like Corey Haim, I swear. But, we just got our burgers and headed back to the hotel.
Woke up with a horrible hangover. We got out of the hotel around noon, and didn't get back until midnight.
First we hit up Doc's in Corpus Christi for our first taste of seafood. Andrea and I split a pound of crab legs and shrimp en brochette. Gabby had cheese pizza.
And then we just started to drive around. We saw all of Ocean Drive and the gorgeous houses in Corpus. We head out to Rockport and stopped in drove throught the gorgeous little town of Key Allegro. God, I want one of those houses! Drove through Fulton and and stopped at creepy Fulton Mansion. And then we decided we would drive out to Goose Island State Park where there is the biggest Live Oak Tree in the world. Literally there were tiny little signs that just pointed and said "Big Tree". It was a really beautiful drive. And then we found Big Tree. It's pretty big and over a 1000 years old. Kind of hung out there for a while.
Oh, crap, I totally forgot. After Doc's we actually did drive out the Padre Island Nationl Seashore and walked on the beach for a couple of hours and miles. We saw a fish eyeball, and Gabby thought she saw something cool and almost picked it up...a jellyfish. That was awesome, but the water was 66 degrees. Too cold. But it was kind of cool being there with a fellow geographer...reading about all the environmental stuff and digging on the endangered sea turtles.
So, after Big Tree we went to a creepy restaurant called The Big Fisherman in Rockport. Andrea had been telling me about this place. She used to go there a lot as a kid. Apparently back in the day they used to have little windows in the restaurant with cougars and tigers and stuff. But no more. It's just a giant room with blood red carpet and it's very, very dark. There's this creepy outside "jungle" that's kind of run down, and that's all that's left of the animal stuff. More seafood. Tons of seafood. Gabby and I both got all you can eat popcorn shrimp. It was an ok place, but unless you like creepy, I wouldn't go.
Then, we headed back to the hotel. Andrea said we drove something like close to 200 miles just looking around and checking things out. We almost went down to Cassidy's again, but all of us were beat.
We tried to stay up and watch TV, but nothing good was on...the worst Saturday Night Live I've ever seen...and finally we fell asleep watching Steel Magnolias.
Then, I woke up on Sunday looking like Vincent from Beauty and the Beast. My face was sooooo swollen. My eyes were almost shut. Very, very scary. Dehydration? Too much seafood? I'll tell more in a minute.
We got it together and checked out. We stopped at Blackbeard's in Corpus Christi for lunch, but were pretty sick of seafood, so we had some of the yummiest chicken fried steak.
Then we headed home taking 181 instead of 37. We stopped in the little town Andrea's family lived in, Bayside. There's another creepy mansion there and we stopped at Krofutt's to get Ranger cookies, which Andrea hadn't had since she was a kid.
Then we stopped in Goliad, TX where the Battle of Goliad took place and is also the birthplace of Zaragoza. There's a monument for the troops that Santa Ana had executed, and a really old creepy cementary. We kind of walked around and looked at all the graves and the little poems on them.
Then we hit up a Dairy Queen in Kenedy...because you can't do a road trip in Texas with not doing that...and that was pretty much it. We arrived back in San Antonio still laughing. I swear, I can't even tell you how much we laughed. Everything was funny, and everything became an inside joke, and Andrea's funny anyways, but with Gabby egging her on, and everything we had a blast.
Definitely in my top 3 vacations of all time.
My aunt and uncle were in town that weekend, so Gabby and I showered up and went to my mom's for dinner. Steak, not seafood. We started talking about my face swelling up and it turns out my cousin's eyelids swell every time she eats shrimp and my grandmother can't eat seafood anymore because SHE swells up. Damn it!!! I can't go the rest of my life without eating seafood! I'm hoping I just swelled up because I had such vast quantities, but I'm a little nervous to try it again.
That was Wednesday of last week. By Thursday morning Andrea had our accomodations ready and there was nothing else to do. No plans. It was a great feeling. Just packing up and going.
Friday after work, Andrea picked us up. Didn't even get out of her car. And we set off. The giggling began right away. I have NEVER laughed as hard as I did on this little mini-vaca. And I freakin' needed it!
We stopped at Burger King for dinner. Hit Corpus Christi and found our digs, The Bayfront Plaza. It was a little creepy at first. The hotel is located in this little "bayfront, city district" and there was music playing on loudspeakers right on the streets. And then came the hotel parking garage....we should have been carrying a knife. It was sooo dark and creepy. But, was totally fine. Then came The Bayfront Plaza. I swear that hotel was like the hotel from The Shining. The room was perfectly fine and normal, but the rest of the hotel just had this creepy feel to it. That was pretty much the theme of the weekend...CREEPY.
So, we hung out in the room. Got some ice. Checked the place out, and I knew right away I wasn't going to be able to sleep. Since Gabby is now eleven, there are some neat things you can do with her...like leave her in the hotel room while you go check out a band in the hotel bar, Cassidy's Irish Pub, with your best friend. So, that's what we did. There was an amazing cover band playing...The Electrotypes. We sat there all night dancing and singing...drinking. And don't worry, I checked on Gabby a few times, and she had my phone in case she needed to call. She's so involved in Twilight right now she can't take her nose out of the book.
We ended up drinking a little too much, and were hungry. I checked on Gabby one last time and she was sleeping, so we set out to walk around the corner to the Whataburger for food. But, we got sidetracked by Hurb's. A little Irish hamburger joint that's open till 330am. The place was bumpin'. We met a cute little cowboy guy who looked like Dwight Yoakum and kept throwing his room number around like we were going to go there...703. And the counter boy looked like Corey Haim, I swear. But, we just got our burgers and headed back to the hotel.
Woke up with a horrible hangover. We got out of the hotel around noon, and didn't get back until midnight.
First we hit up Doc's in Corpus Christi for our first taste of seafood. Andrea and I split a pound of crab legs and shrimp en brochette. Gabby had cheese pizza.
And then we just started to drive around. We saw all of Ocean Drive and the gorgeous houses in Corpus. We head out to Rockport and stopped in drove throught the gorgeous little town of Key Allegro. God, I want one of those houses! Drove through Fulton and and stopped at creepy Fulton Mansion. And then we decided we would drive out to Goose Island State Park where there is the biggest Live Oak Tree in the world. Literally there were tiny little signs that just pointed and said "Big Tree". It was a really beautiful drive. And then we found Big Tree. It's pretty big and over a 1000 years old. Kind of hung out there for a while.
Oh, crap, I totally forgot. After Doc's we actually did drive out the Padre Island Nationl Seashore and walked on the beach for a couple of hours and miles. We saw a fish eyeball, and Gabby thought she saw something cool and almost picked it up...a jellyfish. That was awesome, but the water was 66 degrees. Too cold. But it was kind of cool being there with a fellow geographer...reading about all the environmental stuff and digging on the endangered sea turtles.
So, after Big Tree we went to a creepy restaurant called The Big Fisherman in Rockport. Andrea had been telling me about this place. She used to go there a lot as a kid. Apparently back in the day they used to have little windows in the restaurant with cougars and tigers and stuff. But no more. It's just a giant room with blood red carpet and it's very, very dark. There's this creepy outside "jungle" that's kind of run down, and that's all that's left of the animal stuff. More seafood. Tons of seafood. Gabby and I both got all you can eat popcorn shrimp. It was an ok place, but unless you like creepy, I wouldn't go.
Then, we headed back to the hotel. Andrea said we drove something like close to 200 miles just looking around and checking things out. We almost went down to Cassidy's again, but all of us were beat.
We tried to stay up and watch TV, but nothing good was on...the worst Saturday Night Live I've ever seen...and finally we fell asleep watching Steel Magnolias.
Then, I woke up on Sunday looking like Vincent from Beauty and the Beast. My face was sooooo swollen. My eyes were almost shut. Very, very scary. Dehydration? Too much seafood? I'll tell more in a minute.
We got it together and checked out. We stopped at Blackbeard's in Corpus Christi for lunch, but were pretty sick of seafood, so we had some of the yummiest chicken fried steak.
Then we headed home taking 181 instead of 37. We stopped in the little town Andrea's family lived in, Bayside. There's another creepy mansion there and we stopped at Krofutt's to get Ranger cookies, which Andrea hadn't had since she was a kid.
Then we stopped in Goliad, TX where the Battle of Goliad took place and is also the birthplace of Zaragoza. There's a monument for the troops that Santa Ana had executed, and a really old creepy cementary. We kind of walked around and looked at all the graves and the little poems on them.
Then we hit up a Dairy Queen in Kenedy...because you can't do a road trip in Texas with not doing that...and that was pretty much it. We arrived back in San Antonio still laughing. I swear, I can't even tell you how much we laughed. Everything was funny, and everything became an inside joke, and Andrea's funny anyways, but with Gabby egging her on, and everything we had a blast.
Definitely in my top 3 vacations of all time.
My aunt and uncle were in town that weekend, so Gabby and I showered up and went to my mom's for dinner. Steak, not seafood. We started talking about my face swelling up and it turns out my cousin's eyelids swell every time she eats shrimp and my grandmother can't eat seafood anymore because SHE swells up. Damn it!!! I can't go the rest of my life without eating seafood! I'm hoping I just swelled up because I had such vast quantities, but I'm a little nervous to try it again.
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