Little Texas trip

Back in January my friend  told me about this wedding for her Nephew that she was going to and she mentioned her husband might not go.  She asked me to go with her and her son  also came along as well.  While planning for the trip I mentioned that I thought it would be great to do a running race that has a finishing medal while down in Texas so that we could have a finishing medal from a new state.  We both googled lots of races and at first all I could find was half marathons and marathons with finishing medals.  I wanted a smaller race since we are doing a half marathon in just 3 weeks.  Then I found a 10 mile race called Austin 10/20.  The finishing medal looked amazing so we decided to do that race.

On April 12th my friend, her son and I boarded a plane in DesMoines, Iowa with our final destination Austin, Texas.  First we flew into Dallas, Texas and then connected to Austin.  All flights were on time.

Our first stop was Luke's Locker to pick up our packets for the race. Then we headed to San Marcos to stay a couple nights so we'd be closer to the wedding.  We were all hungry so after checking in we all went to this Mexican restaurant. The motel had a pool and a hot tub which I couldn't wait to try, only when I put my feet in the hot tub it wasn't hot.  I asked the manager why the hot tub wasn't working.  He said, "Oh that's not a hot tub, it's a mini pool."  Yeah whatever, it was small round and had Spa signs next to it, but whatever.  I knew then that he didn't want to fix it or ever intended to.  Other than that the bed was comfortable and the breakfast was good.  That night we went to a local Outlet Mall to do some shopping.  I ended up buying running shorts of all things.  Too funny.  The outdoor outlet mall was so huge we walked over a mile (according to my GPS watch).

The next morning my friend and I went for a run from our motel to downtown San Marcos by the University and then back.  Our run was 5.24 miles according to my watch.  While we were running we found this.  We were so impressed that when we got back to the hotel we told her son that we all had to go swimming in that.  Here's another link that describes what we were swimming in:  http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/sanmarcos.html

The river was cold and the current was a little stronger than I felt comfortable swimming in for too long so I only rode the river a couple times and then because I was tired decided I should get out and just lay in the sun.  My friend and her son continued to swim a lot.  That night was the reheasal dinner for the wedding.  It was at a super sweet Pizza restaurant.  There were around 90 people there and over 30 pizzas.  YUM and double YUM.  I had a great time eating and eating and eating.  There were also these amazing coconut chocolate kisses on the tables.  I LOVE coconut and haven't met chocolate that I don't like so this was an amazing combination.

The next day we got up and had breakfast and then packed our bags for our hotel we were switching to.  Drury Inn let us check in early so we were able to be there just before noon and they gave us our room.  I just have to say that Drury Inn is the best hotel around.  They give you sooooooo many extras for no extra price.  I will try and stay at a Drury Inn every single time I go anywhere because they are that great.  While My friend and her son swam in the pool there I worked out in the workout facility the hotel provides.  Then we all got ready for the wedding.

The next day we did our race and you can read about that here if you want: RACE

The next day we traveled home.  Here are some pictures to enjoy.  By the way, if you want to see any of the pictures bigger you just click on them and they will enlarge and then you can see them all large.

While flying over Dallas.

When we landed I looked out my plane window and there was  gate #13.
The #13 comes up all the time for me.  Too funny.

There were a bunch of awesome large guitars in the airport.  I liked them all so I took many pictures.

favorite guitar

The freeway system was quite odd in Austin.  Roads all over the place and you have split freeways, some in the middle, some on top, some on the sides.  And you have to go out of your way over 2 miles when you want to get to something on the other side of the road.  I'm not sure who designed Texas freeways, but they should rethink it.

There was this amazing GREEN stuff to eat with our chips.  Wish I knew what it was.  The waitress said it was just cilantro, sour cream and crushed tomatoes and some spices.  I hope to reproduce it for my own eating pleasure back in Iowa.

The restaurant had super cool stained glass windows all over.  This was my favorite one.

Our waffles at the hotel were shaped like Texas.

After swimming in the San Marcos River we all walked back to the car and  I was wondering what time it was.  I pulled out my watch to see this:  13th minute of the 13th hour on the 13th day.  Too cool since 13 is my lucky number.  Thank goodness the camera was nearby and I took a picture just in time.

While running on Friday morning with Tracy we saw this.  I thought it was awesome and I'm sure will be my facebook picture real soon.

The bride Lynn with her Father.

The back of her gorgeous dress.  I should have taken a picture of her with Chris her groom.  

A cool truck I saw outside Wal-Mart.

My favorite juice place in the entire world.  I got a pineapple, strawberry, banana, coconut smoothie with protein powder added!

Some weird plant I saw and can't identify.