The time came and we went on our first ever kidless vacation. I left around noon to pick up my parents on Wednesday and once we were all home and situated with everything we said our goodbyes to the kids and headed on our way. I started off that morning feeling nervous and anxious but once the parents were here all that seemed to go away. It actually turned out to be a stress free time for Danny and I. I really thought that he would be dealing with a very anxious me. I thought I would have a hard time enjoying our time away because my mind and heart would be stuck back at home wondering how that was going. Danny and I had never gone away before without the kids and it was long overdue. The only time that we have both gone away was when I was giving birth to another kid. There was one night when Addie was two and I was super pregnant carrying Hudson that she had a sleepover at her Grandma Donna's house and I did not sleep a wink. It was awful for me. She didn't sleep either and we were both happy to reunite our super anxious selves. Anyway this time around proved to be a success and everyone did well. I'm thankful for my parents and their insistence that we do this. The kids were in good hands and Danny and I really enjoyed ourselves.
Wednesday: We arrived in Austin around 5pm with no real concrete plans. We were tossing around the idea of eating Brazilian food or getting my favorite texmex food. Because of cost we decided on eating at Chuy's (a texmex restaurant) which I was not upset about. I love their food and it was a first for Danny. I got my favorite food and ate every bite of it. With very full bellies we then decided to check out the famous bat bridge of Austin. I honestly hadn't heard of it before so I don't actually know how famous it is but it is the first thing you'll find online when looking up things to do in Austin. It's a bridge in downtown Austin that goes over water where thousands and thousands of bats live underneath the bridge. Every night at sunset from early March to November people gather under this bridge (or on top) and watch these bats take flight for their night. We weren't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure if they just trickled out little by little or if they swarmed out all at once. Well it turns out they swarm out. Not all at once though. It's like a continuous never ending swarm of bats coming out of little cracks underneath the bridge. When you start to think it's got to end soon even more come out. It was pretty neat. I tried to get pictures and videos of it but they don't do it justice. This is definitely something that you have to see in person. Just be prepared for the heat. The car said it was 109° when we left the restaurant for the bridge so it was really hot.
We left the bat bridge after awhile to head back to our car since we were paying by the hour and we had already been there awhile. We want to do it again with the kids but maybe watch it from a boat underneath the bridge. That would be pretty cool. We would even love to watch it from on top of the bridge but the ages of our young kids makes us feel too nervous with that option. One day we'll be back though. We got back to our hotel and I gave my anniversary gift to Danny. This was something that I have been really excited about and something that I have been working on for ten years. Maybe I'll make a separate post just on that later. It was a special moment for us to watch it. I can't believe we've almost been married for ten whole years now. It's been a good time.
Thursday: We headed to Galveston where we would spend the rest of our getaway at. On our way we took a little detour through Bastrop, TX. One of Danny's favorite authors (Ryan Holiday) owns a book store called The Painted Porch and he wanted to check it out. The only thing he requested of me was that I not embarrass him by specifically looking out for Ryan or asking about him. He frequently spends time in his bookshop. Well I of course told Danny that I would not be able to promise him that and we walked inside the store with me fully intending on getting Danny to meet his favorite author. This wasn't going to be easy because I didn't even know what he looked like. Fortunately for me I was able to look in the back of his published books where I found his picture in the back cover of the books. While Danny was looking through the shelves I did in fact speak with the employees asking about Ryan and if he was there. Both employees informed me that they weren't given his schedule and had no idea when or if he would even be in that day. Danny knew exactly what I was up to. I'll keep this long story short and say that Ryan Holiday did show up while we were there! Unfortunately Danny didn't see him! Ryan had just completed a run when he walked into the store quietly and went straight to his office. I might have made a scene saying 'that's him!' and Danny got so embarrassed. He was just finishing up paying for the books we bought and tried to book it out of the store. I wouldn't let him and tried to convince him to stay for a quick hello but he really didn't want to do that. It would have been so perfect because he was buying Ryan's favorite inspirational book while wearing a Heroic shirt who happens to be from Ryan's friend's company. They could have definitely found things to talk about so easily but I could not get Danny to go with it. Even the book store employee was on my side confirming to him that it was him. Oh well. I guess we could say that Danny was in the same building as Ryan Holiday even though he didn't see him himself. It was a hilarious and memorable time. I think even now days later Danny does secretly wish that I pushed him harder for a picture or at least a hello with Ryan. He did let me take his picture in front of Ryan's store so there's that. Also just a quick side note this book store was everything you'd imagine in a perfect book store complete with roaming cats. They had two and I mostly played with them while Danny looked through books and I was thinking of ways to get Danny and Ryan to connect.
Aside from checking out the book store we only had two main bucket list items that we wanted to do on our trip. Danny wanted to do a couples massage and I wanted to do a dolphin boat tour. We made sure to do those two things. We arrived in Galveston around 3pm which was great because we were able to get settled before our 4pm couples massage. The last time we did a couples massage was back when we just had two kids. Maybe three actually. We couldn't remember if Grant was around during that time. It might have just been two kids. Anyway, it's been a long time for sure. The massages were great. We had a funny moment at the end when the masseuses left the room and it was just Danny and I. He noticed that I didn't have any socks on my feet and told me that he got free socks from the massage lady. He pulls up the sheet a little to show me his feet and we both just start laughing so hard because it was my socks that were on his feet. I'd love to know what was going on in the masseuses' head as she grabbed those to put on his feet. They weren't even his size. The rest of the day I walked around with socks that were a little stretched out because of it. After our massages we went back to our hotel area. We reserved a beach front hotel and the location couldn't have been better. It was right along the beach and next to Paradise Pier. It was a beautiful location. We decided to take advantage of not having the kids and being near the ocean by getting us some seafood. It was delicious. We had walked to the pier where they had a Bubba Gump and full heartedly enjoyed ourselves. Our view of the beach was gorgeous. We then needed to walk off all the food we had consumed and walked along the beach for the next hour. The only thing about Galveston or I guess Texas in general is that it's so dang hot. We've been here a year and still aren't used to it. At least we felt a nice breeze but we were definitely sweaty by the time we got back to the hotel.
Friday: We woke up at 7am and walked to the beach. Danny did some exercises and meditations while I listened to a book as I did my morning walk on the sand. It was extremely beautiful. We didn't have to be anywhere until 9:30am for our scheduled dolphin tour and we spent an hour and a half taking in the ocean's beauty.
The thing I was most looking forward to was the dolphin tour. We scheduled one with Baywatch Dolphin Tours and we both loved it. Everyone on the tour was really excited when we all saw our first dolphin there. It was alone and not feeling very social so our tour guide said he was going to keep going because what he wanted was to show us full pods of them. There was a shrimp boat out there that the dolphins really like to chase and follow and that's right where our tour guide took us. We saw so many at that spot. It was awesome. My only wish is that the tour could have lasted longer than it did. I could literally sit there and watch them for hours. There was even a little baby dolphin with the cutest little tail. I wish I could be back on that boat now.
After the dolphins we went and had lunch at Chik-Fil-A. I didn't get any pictures there but we were able to have a full beach view and I couldn't help but feel lucky to be spending some time there with just Danny and I. We were able to be distracted from some hard financial news that we are currently going through (we received the news while on this trip). The distraction was great and the rest of our day was spent carefree at the beach. We reserved our own umbrella and chairs and spent hours in the water or on the sand. At one point Danny did say that it would have been fun to have the kids there and maybe he's right. There's something about the kids' excitement about the ocean. But then again we were able to spend hours with us both deep in the water without a worry about our kids staying safe so that was also nice. One day we will be back with the kids though. They also need to experience Galveston.
Below was a bench with pictures and details of different wildlife that can be found in these waters.
After we showered up we headed into downtown Galveston and walked up and down The Strand. We got dinner at the Hubcap and desserts at La King. Both were delicious. We definitely overate though. All we wanted to do once back at the hotel was settle down for the night with a movie. We watched the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie and then fell asleep the earliest we had for a long time now.
Saturday: We woke up early and Danny went to exercise on the beach while I got my hair done for the day. All we really had was the drive back home. We needed to be back by at least 3pm to get my parents back to the airport. One thing that really stood out to me from this trip was that on the drive to Austin and from Austin to Galveston not once did we turn on the radio or put on any music. We simply talked the whole time. We never ran out of things to talk about. It was so nice. This might not seem like a big deal but usually in the past we have sung songs or if we talk it was mostly about how we thought the kids were doing even though we had just left for a short quick date and would be back soon to pick them up again. Instead it really felt like two people in a relationship as we talked about ourselves and where we are in our life and things we want for our life. It was cool. That said though, we did choose to listen to a book on the drive home. It was a book that Danny recommended to me and I was almost done with it. It had been awhile since Danny finished the book himself and he was also interested in re-listening to the audio version of the book, so that's what we did on the way home. It was also nice. We felt like an old couple listening to a book on tape haha. We were trying to decide on where to stop for lunch and found a real authentic Mexican restaurant. Usually when we have Mexican food it's actually americanized like Tex-Mex but we knew we were going to be happy with our choice and that it was going to be really good when we walked in and found this place packed with people. It had a small town vibe where all these customers were frequent diners and they all knew each other, you could tell we were two of the only locals there. We were right, the food was delicious. Danny and I figured that this would be the last time in quite awhile where we would be able to eat out like this again, so I'm glad it was a great time.
We got home yesterday at the start of nap time but the girls weren't asleep yet. We walked into their room where they were so surprised to see us standing there again. Quinn could barely contain herself. Rylee wouldn't let go of my neck. She hugged me so tight. It was good to be back home with them. With all the kids really. I heard that they all did great and that Addie was super helpful with everything. It was nice to know that they all behaved so well for Oma and Opa and I'm really grateful that Addie was able to help in the way that she did. I'm really grateful for this entire experience that we were able to have. Grateful for my kids and how well they did. Grateful for my parents and their generosity, and grateful for Danny and these ten years we've built together.
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