Christmas Vacation

We have survived our crazy and fast road trip to San Antonio for Christmas!  We left work early on December 21 to try to get some daylight driving in.  That did not happen, we didn't get on the road till 4:30 and then we were stuck in St. Louis rush hour traffic for 40 minutes.  But once we got past St . Louis we had a lot of open road, stopping in Rolla and Joplin for food and gas.  We made great time getting into Oklahoma City around 11:30. 

After a restless night's sleep, we met up with Kelly at her hotel in OKC.  We went to the only Starbucks in Oklahoma City, in Bricktown.  It was a short but fun visit.  We dropped Kelly off at work, aka the tallest building in OKC. 

[caption id="attachment_1787" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="At Kelly's work"][/caption]

We then stopped at the Oklahome City bombing memorial. 

[caption id="attachment_1788" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="OKC Memorial EntranceInside OKC MemorialA chair for each victim"][/caption]

Even at 8:30 in the morning, it was beautiful to see and chilling to walk around and see the pictures of the victims still up, 14 years later.  We then went to the Oklahoma State Capital building.  We walked around the inside, which was fairly new and took our capital pictures with Reily. 

 

[caption id="attachment_1791" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Outside OK Capital"][/caption]

And then we were on the road to San Antonio.  We arrived Thursday evening around 6.  On Friday, Scott and I decided to take a little drive around the Hill Country.  We started in Johnson City, TX and saw Lynden Johnson's boyhood home and visitor center.  We then drove 15 miles to the Texas White House and took a tour of the LBJ Ranch and House. Cows on LBJ Ranch 

We left Johnson City and headed towards Luckenbach, Texas.  This was the coolest, smallest town I've ever been to.  The population is 3.  It has 3 buildings, a hat store, outside diner, and the Post Office/bar.  We got some hot chocolate and then wandered through the Post Office and listened to some live music.  There were about 4 guys with guitars and a woman singing.  It was the best stop of the day. 

[caption id="attachment_1795" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Everybody's Somebody"][/caption]

We started heading back to San Antonio with a quick drive through of Fredericksburg, Texas.  The town was pretty busy with shoppers in and out of all the little antique stores on Main Street.  I really want to go back there when we have more time to check things out.  After Fredricksburg, TX we went back to San Antonio for dinner at Alamo Cafe.

Saturday we woke up to rain.  We still were determined to go to the outlet mall.  I know, it was a crazy idea to go up there on the day before Christmas but we lucked out.  There was hardly anyone there because of the rain.  We managed to get a few good deals while we were up there.  We had lunch with the Holtzinger girls at Rudy's.  The BBQ and visit was a great way to spend the afternoon.  I can't believe how big the girls are getting.



Christmas day was still chilly, for San Antonio.  We opened presents and left to get our movie tickets.  Scott and I drove around a little bit to show off some of San Antonio and places I have lived while down there.  We ate our dinner/lunch and then left to go see Mission Impossible.  The movie was decent, a lot of action.

The day after Christmas we were on the road very early to beat the other drivers.  We made it through Austin by 8:30 and through the state of Texas by 12.  In the middle of Oklahoma we saw a man riding a horse down the sidewalk.  We couldn't believe what we saw.  We hit more rain East of Springfield, MO and then