Over the past weekend, Amanda and Brian went to San Antonio/Temple, TX to wish her brother, Chris, a safe tour in Iraq. We had a great time and quite an adventurous return!
Friday: Chris and his wife, Melissa, drove down to San Antonio to meet Brian and Amanda. We all went to the zoo, botanical gardens, and the River Walk. The zoo had a really cool butterfly exhibit, and the River Walk was nice, though we really should have ridden on the boat. There is a picture of Chris and Melissa below, but click here for more pictures of our adventures.
Saturday: Chris, Melissa, Brian, Amanda, and Shane (the dog) went to the lake and went swimming, without sunscreen. Then, we all went back to their apartment and went swimming, again without sunscreen. Needless to say, we were crispy critters. Then, Brian and Amanda went down to Waco to meet Brian’s brother and his girlfriend for dinner at Olive Garden.
Sunday: Chris, Melissa, Brian, and Amanda hung out for awhile, then went to lunch before Amanda and Brian had to leave for the airport. Brian and Amanda were planning on arriving at the airport 1.5 hours before the plane left. We arrived in San Antonio on time, but forgot to fill up the car with gas, so that took about 20 minutes. Then, when we tried to return the rental car, their computers crashed. We couldn’t leave because we had to sign a form agreeing to the charges, etc. Then, we waited for about 5 minutes to catch the next Shuttle to the airport (a full 5 miles from the airport). We got on the shuttle without knowing that we had to drop off several people at their cars in the parking lot first. In the meantime, another shuttle came and went. When the shuttle finally got on the road to go to the airport, Amanda noticed that we passed our terminal that we boarded on before. The driver kept driving so she could drop off the other passengers at the taxi station. So, after that, she finally took us back to our gate. In San Antonio, you have to check in at least 30 minutes to guarantee that your luggage gets on your plane. We checked in 27 minutes early…The person assured us the luggage would be fine, that there was still plenty of time. We caught the plane, which landed at 5:50. Our luggage, on the other hand, landed at 12:15. The plane our luggage was on kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed, but since we had already waited so long, we figured we might as well stick it out. So, we left San Antonio at 5:25, arrived in El Paso at 5:50, and got home at 1:30. Funny because if any one of our mishaps wouldn’t have happened, we would have had our luggage at 6:00–if we would have remembered to get gas, or if the computers wouldn’t have crashed, or if we wouldn’t have gotten a full tour of the parking lot, or if we wouldn’t have missed our terminal on the first tour of the terminals. We are just glad to be home, luggage in hand!
Anyway, so we had a really great visit with Chris and Melissa. Chris deploys sometime between September 30 and October 4 (his 21st birthday is October 6). We are wishing him the best of luck and a safe return. And remember, if you don’t stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them! 🙂
