Austin, TX Day One

I had every intention of blogging via my phone while we were on our trip.  I even started this one on the very first day.  But alas, I never even finished the first post.  So now I will need to be a blogging machine in order to catch up the next few days.  I know that most of you have already seen all my pics on FB, but I still like to write more details here because it's easier to look back and find what I'm looking for here on the blog than on FB.  So here's what I wrote last Wednesday, April 5:

We're on our way, currently flying over the hills of Kentucky as I begin to write. Dick enjoys watching on his handheld GPS as we fly. Anthony and Lori and the boys are somewhere further back in the plane.

We left the little airport in State College around 3:30 this afternoon and flew to Philly first. Once again I enjoyed watching out the window and seeing places I recognized from the air. 

 

In Philly we had just a little over an hour before we took off for Austin. They were saying the flight was overbooked and were offering a $500 voucher and an overnight hotel to 3 people. Hmmm. It was tempting. But I just wasn't in the mood for another "story." I could just imagine something like weather messing up the flight they were promising in the morning. But I admit I keep thinking about those $500 vouchers we could have used the next time we go to Florida.

Everyone looks happy but Grandma as we hurried through that airport, haha!

The flight to Austin was long and there were lots of other children. Lori said she was sure a lot of people on our flight were going to the same conference she was. Many were working on their laptops. I could easily see the screen of the woman across the aisle as she worked on research about how memory is developed in children's brains. It was interesting.

About halfway through the flight Anthony brought Hunter up to say hi to us.  Of course, we wanted to keep him.  He played with Grandpa for quite a while. 

Then I sang him to sleep.  He took a long nap until after we landed.  

The sun was setting as we approached the airport. 

The couple behind us had the most adorably talkative four-year-old. When we landed in Austin she looked out the window and exclaimed, "We landed! Right where we left from!" I guess all airports look the same to a child.

Baggage pickup took quite a while and car rental even longer. We rented a minivan that would carry all of us, but Anthony also rented a Jeep to use for the business-related driving he would be doing.

Luckily the time change meant we were an hour earlier than at home. Even so, till we got everything carried into the airbnb house we would be staying in and Anthony and I made a grocery run and we made yummy sandwiches for our hungry bellies after we returned, it was really, really, really late to bed.

But such a nice bed. They gave the master suite to the old people.

Here are a few more pics I took of the house before I went to bed.