Days when the kids were away

Almost accidentally, Jeff and I ended up childless for several days last week while the kids played with grandparents in the far reaches of Texas and Oklahoma. We made the most of our time and put together a brilliant staycation. On Tuesday, we headed to downtown Dallas, where we checked into the W hotel and then headed over to Happiest Hour for lunch. It was such a cool place, and we definitely want to go back sometime. From there, we braved the intense Texas heat and walked over to the Nasher Sculpture Center for some culture. After that, we went back to the hotel and spent several lazy hours lounging on the awesome pool deck, which has spectacular views of the city. Tuesday evening, we had dinner at The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, a place we have always wanted to visit. We tried the tasting menu with wine pairings. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere was elegant, and it was an overall excellent experience!

W Dallas Victory

Happiest Hour

Nasher Sculpture Center 

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

On Wednesday, we came back to Flower Mound in time for me to do my deliveries for Meals on Wheels. It was fun to have Jeff ride along, and I think he enjoyed getting to participate in an activity that is important to me. When the deliveries were done, we made a beeline for McKinney, where we had lunch and visited wineries and shopped around the historic square. Later, we had dinner at Sol and then visited Trader Joe's and Half-Price Books.

McKinney

On Thursday morning, we hopped up before the sun so we could meet our hot air balloon flight crew and check an item off our bucket list. Just as the sun was coming up, we became airborne and flew around for about an hour, enjoying the peace and beauty all around us. It was spectacular! And, with the whole day still before us, we then headed to Jeff's parents' house to pick up our younger boys, stopping for lunch at George's in Waco.

Hot air balloon flight

George's

We love hanging out with our kiddos, but we were definitely glad for a chance to spend some quality one-on-one time together enjoying some of the wonderful things DFW has to offer!

Back in Texas

We flew all night and were terribly spoiled in the First Class cabin. We finally made it back to DFW around 5:30 this morning. Even at that early hour, Summer took us into her sweltering embrace, and it was quite a shock since yesterday Winter had us firmly in his grasp. Since some of our people stayed up all night watching movies on the plane instead of sleeping, they were completely wiped out when we got back to the house and crashed immediately. Those who remained awake were in a flurry of activity, checking the mail, cooking, buying groceries, unpacking, and taking care of the neglected business of the last two months.

So spoiled in First Class

Five minutes prior: "I'm not sleepy. I just want to play."

Our first order of business was to shower and store up some water to use throughout the day because we had a notice attached to our front door stating that the city would have our water off from 9:00 until 4:00 today. Ironically, our list of things we were especially looking forward to contained both "hot water" and "flushing toilets" since our last place in Santiago was a little inconsistent on both of those points.

Later in the morning, Jeff took Ruth to the DMV to try to set up an appointment to do her driving test so she can officially become a licensed driver. The first available appointment was a month from now, which was obviously disappointing. But, when they got home, Ruth searched around for other appointments at other offices throughout the state of Texas and finally found one for Monday...in Wichita Falls.

In the afternoon, when everyone was rested up, we celebrated Max's half-birthday by seeing Incredibles 2 in the theater, picking up donuts and ice cream, and watching a couple of other movies at home. 

Getting where we're going

Travel life is always full of surprises--some of them exciting and amazing, some them simply curious, and some of them not all that pleasant. On our way to El Colorado ski resort in Chile, I think we experienced all of them.

Since Uber doesn't exist in Argentina, and since all taxis in Mendoza are the exact same small size, we knew we needed to get two cabs to take us to the airport. What we didn't know was if we would find one available taxi, much less two. But to our delight, there were exactly two taxis waiting at the taxi stand near our house.

When we got to the airport and it was finally our turn in the check-in line, we found out there was some sort of computer glitch or problem that was preventing the airline from printing boarding passes and luggage tags. So, instead, the agent had to hand write each of our boarding passes and luggage tags, which was no fast process. It did serve as a good reminder to our kids of why we always plan to arrive at the airport so early, which they sometimes feel annoyed by.

Our long delay at check-in meant we didn't have to wait very long before they called for passengers of our flight to line up for boarding. But then we stood there for a good 30 minutes, long after our stated departure time, without any updates. Finally, we started boarding, though no other announcements were ever made. Whatever problem they were having also prevented them from scanning boarding passes (most of which had actually been printed), so they had to account for all of us on a manual roster. But eventually, we were all loaded up and made the one-hour flight, arriving at the exact time we left because of a time change.

Our first order of business was to load up on groceries to take out to the ski resort since we had heard there was only one little store on the mountain offering few choices at high prices. We called the largest Uber available, which stated it could comfortably seat six. But that apparently meant six smallish people without so much as a handbag. By the time we got our bags loaded, we were down to just five seats. We went ahead and crammed in for the short trip to the store, but then we had to figure out our next move for taking the hour-and-half drive up the mountain with our our newly purchased groceries added to our regular bags. Ultimately, we decided to just ride in two vehicles up the mountain.

When the first car arrived, the driver refused to take us up the mountain because he wasn't familiar with the road and didn't want to drive on it at night. So, we called a third car. But when the second vehicle arrived, it was a large minivan that could easily hold all of us, our groceries, and our bags. We cancelled the third car and headed up the mountain together.

Thirty minutes into our trip, the road was closed to ascending traffic and wouldn't reopen for a couple of hours. We had to head back to Santiago, and I was so thankful we had all ended up in the same vehicle because it would have been very difficult to coordinate so many moving parts in Spanish.

We weren't sure if we would be able to find another driver to take us up the mountain so late at night, and we thought we might have to stay in Santiago for the night and try again in the morning. But our sweet driver, who was himself a father of four (which is why he had the extra-large van), agreed to drop us off at a coffee shop and wait for us until time to go back up the mountain. He would only allow us to buy him a snack in compensation. He was such a lifesaver--just the right person at just the right time!

It was a wacky day with some crazy twists and turns, but we did finally make it to El Colorado, where Jeff and the kids will ski all week and I will entertain myself in whatever ways I can, which will likely include reading, writing, and warm beverages, since I was not cleared by my knee surgeon to ski on this trip. It is a beautiful place, and we are so glad to be here!

Flying in to Santiago

Leaving Santiago on our first trip up the mountain