4:20 comes early :(
We caught the 5:30 shuttle to the airport and after United Airlines corrected mistakes made by the Air Canada agent last Wednesday we were on our way to Houston. We literally walked off our plane, moved 2 gates over and found the Calgary plane already loading. Nice :)
Calgary. A nice flight on United
Everything looks good for the final flight home.
After a good night of sleep we were up at the crack of 8 on our way to downtown Austin to visit the state capitol building and WOW it was interesting. Our guide was a charming retired lady who was amazing with great stories and funny atitude ( she was the highlight of the tour).
Next we drove up to Mount Brunnel which a high point in Austin (and like everything else it has some great stories).
After an hour walking the downtown area (including the famous Driscoll Hotel) and a visit to a park we were back on the interstate with many thousands of people at 70 mph.
An hour long stop at an outlet mall ( not nearly as nice as the one near Portland) we proceeded back to San Antonio for a terrible meal of ribs (gawd- the things I have to agree to, just to keep my marriage strong)
We returned our rental car to Alamo car rentals.We had driven 800 km since yesterday morning (go hard or go home!!)
We are safely in our hotel anticipating a 4:30 wakeup call, but first a visit to another Whataburger just down the road.
A busy busy day.
We picked up our car rental at the airport and drove through the rain/mist with a temp of -2 C. about 2 hours south down to Corpus Christi on the coast.
As we drove across a huge harbour bridge we could see the USS Lexington aircraft carrier. What a huge ship!
Before going to it we stopped at Whataburger for great hamburger.Mmmmmm
We spent about three hours doing all 5 self directed tours. It was AWESOME, but very cold on the flight deck at 1 degree in very strong winds.We both really enjoyed the history of the ship and I am very happy to have spent so much time going all over it.
Cold cold cold. Too bad,as we stopped only for a quick photo on the beach before hitting the highway. My plans for this trip have certainly changed with this weather!
So....here we are in Austin, the state capital over an hour northeast of San Antonio and over 3 hours north of Corpus Christi (go hard or go home!)
Caro is watching the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics as we both relax and decide what to do for a couple hours tomorrow.
Last night we went back to the Riverwalk and went to an Irish pub recommended to us wherewe were entertained by a piano player singing whatever the audience wanted (mind you there were not huge crowds anywhere due to the c-c-cold
After years of wanting to see it today was the day I saw the Alamo and museum .
We started our day enjoying a nice breakfast at our hotel and then stepped outside into a COLD morning. The temp was near zero which wasn't bad however the wind was harsh. We walked about 1/2 the Riverwalk, then stopped for a couple of hours to visit the Alamo .We were freezing (I am ashamed to say that knowing that it is about -20 at home but it's the truth).
After the Alamo we completed the Riverwalk which is just as beautiful as everyone has told us. The restaurants were all empty however we plan to go back tonight for a bit of nightlife so we'll see then.
We picked up a couple of day passes to the city centre bus system and enjoyed looking at all the centre part of the city.Some nice Victorian styles houses mixed in with derelict buildings.
We stopped off at Marketsquare and had a late lunch at the famous restaurant called Mi Tierra. Great Mexican food at a reasonable price.See photos below.
Presently sitting on the tarmac of our last plane of the day going to San Antonio.
As suspected in Edmonton we missed our connector to Houston. As there were many people connecting in Calgary Air Canada had reserved other seats on other flights for all of us. Their original plan was for us to catch the 6 P.M. flight to Houston but I think they forgot to check that we were connecting onwards as we would have had to spend the night there No way Jose!
The Air Canada ticket agent found us flights on American through Dallas/Fort Worth and so we caught the 3 P.M. flight. It went smooth except virtual no service on the flight..
Coming into Dallas we had an amazing view of Cowboy Stadium .A very impressive looking building.
Everything was looking good for the connector to San Antonio but as I write this the flight attendant has just announced that we are still waiting for a crew to fly our MD80. Time will tell if we get there or not !
Update. Our pilots were late as they had flight delays in Philadelphia so we are finally in the air 1 hour and 10 minutes late. We are scheduled to arrive about 11 p.m.
Update
In our hotel at last Time for sleep!
Oh oh;our first plane of the day now scheduled to be very late leaving Edmonton giving us very limited time to clear U.S. immigration in Calgary. Good thing we have running shoes; we may need them!
The temperature is -27 this morning.
Later:
Air Canada continues to delay our flight: there are at least 5 people on our flight looking to get on the same Houston flight (which is also Air Canada). Hmmm we'll see what happens!
Getting excited about our trip to see the Alamo. The weather looks like it will be terrible,,,,,, but better than -30 degrees here
