Worst Vacation Start Ever

As you may or may not remember, we were heading out to San Antonio for my optometry conference/vacation on Wednesday.  Things were going well at first in that I got the kids to school and that left me plenty of time to get my workout done (2000 yds in the pool), head to the dump, finish packing, clean up the house etc.  We were able to leave on time, get to my MIL's and then get to the airport all with time to spare.  This is highly unusual for my family.

The problems began when we arrived at the airport and tried to check in curbside.  No go.  Our flight was delayed so we had to check in at the desk.

Which happened to be 30 people long.  15 of which was a group of student apparently going to China. Gah.

We finally get to the agent and not only is our flight delayed minor problem but because our flight is delayed we will miss our connector flight from Dallas to San Antonio.  major problem  Major problem because there would be no other flights available to get us to San Antonio until the next day at 7:30 p.m.!

After 40 minutes at the desk with the ticket agent, the best we can come up with is this:   instead of leaving at 6:35 p.m. from Boston arrive in Dallas, connect to SA and arrive there at midnight, we leave Boston at 9 p.m. (which turned into 9:45 p.m.), arrive in Dallas at 2 a.m., rent a car and drive 4 hours to SA.

Fast forward to finally arriving in Dallas--at 2 a.m. mind you.  Time to find a rental car to get us to SA. Dallas is a large airport, right?  Should be pretty easy to find a car to rent, right?  Or maybe a hotel room to sleep in and then drive the next day?  Not so much.

Turns out there is a race there this weekend so every single room at both airport hotels are full, so no chance of getting some sleep and then driving the next day.  Likewise, the first THREE rental car desks  I check do no have any cars available to rent.  WTF.

Finally,  Avis,  Thank you sweet baby Jesus, has a mini van to rent us so we can get to SA.  For the low price of $260.  Bargain.  Truthfully, I would have paid $600 at that point just to get the fuck out of that airport.

3 am (4 am Maine time) we are finally on our way to SA.

I love and hate the fucking GPS.  So thankful that we had it so we could get navigate our way out of DFW but hate that mother because at 3 fucking am it had us driving through residential neighborhoods and all around the fucking mulberry bush to finally get to a major route.  Kinda scary when you don't know where the hell you are, it's dark as shit, you are 6 hours past your bedtime and you can't see a hotel anywhere.  Not even street lights and very few gas stations.

Fun times.  This is what memories are made of right?

Somehow, we manage to arrive on a major highway in the direction of where we want to go.  At this point, it's 4 a.m. Texas time and I can no longer stay awake for the 3 more hours I need to drive to get to SA.  A Hampton Inn shows up right off this highway and allows us to get some sleep.

What a difference 5 hours of sleep makes!  Once I had some rest, mouthwash and a shower I felt like a new woman.

After picking up one rental car and dropping off the other, we finally arrived at the Westin Riverwalk at 2 p.m.

Longest freakin' travel ever.

I definitely deserved this for dinner

With this view

And this cute kiddo in a poncho

So far San Antonio is fabulous.  I cannot believe how many restaurants there are and how many places there are to see and eat at on the Riverwalk.

We visited Sea World yesterday and pretty much had the park to ourselves.  "Off Season" ha.  That cracks me up.  Why the hell would you want to walk around that park in August in 100* heat when you can come in April in 75* and have the place to yourself?

Note that there is NOONE behind them.  This was for Shamu's show.

I'm so thankful that this is the weather I get to enjoy for the week

instead of this

Have you ever had a bad start to your vacation?

Are you wishing for nicer weather where you live?