The girls were up around 4:15 and after a quick shower and makeup we were out the door just before 4:45 am. I parked the extra car in the garage, returned the car key to the hook, set the alarm, and we were off.
We might have had to ask Kristen to tone down her enthusiasm as we headed to the airport. “Let’s just have a little quiet for now.” She was a bit miffed but complied.
We checked in at the Southwest counter and were happy to see that the security line was pretty much non-existent. That didn’t stop the TSA lady from being a grumpy bug. Chris handed her our boarding passes with Kristen’s on top. She didn’t have TSA Pre-check but since she is under 13 she can still come through with us. The TSA lady’s only comment was a snarky, “You’re in the wrong line.” Chris explained about Kristen and she didn’t make any further comments. Even if we were in the wrong line, she could have been a lot more pleasant.
Though our flight was out of a C gate, we stopped at the B terminal for some breakfast at Chick-fil-A.
I found some yummy steel cut oats at Modern Market. When we arrived at our gate, Chris was happy to see the our plane was one of the newest 737 Max planes purchased by Southwest Airlines that incorporated the Dreamliner features without actually being a Dreamliner.
Since we were trying to maximize our SWA points by leaving so early in the morning, we also had a stop over in Albuquerque. Not thrilling, but hey, we got to Houston eventually.
We waited for luggage to arrive. And waited for my toiletry bag. And waited. Sadly we realized it was not with the other luggage from our flight. Chris went to file a claim. There was another flight coming in from Denver shortly and we said we would check back to see if it arrived on that flight.
We took the shuttle to Hertz to pick up a car. While there, the airlines called to say that they had my bag. I’m not sure that it came in on another flight or if it had just been misplaced. Regardless, I was happy to have it in my possession and they gave us a $100 travel voucher because we saved them the hassle of delivering the bag to my brother-in-law’s house.
Perhaps it was the name “Whataburger” that captured Misha’s attention when looking for somewhere to eat lunch, but that is where we ended up. I had a grilled chicken salad. Just FYI, if you go, they charge over a $1 if you want a simple cup of water.
From there, my girls were happy to be on their way to the beach in Galveston. We drove around for awhile until we ended up at Apfell Park at East Beach. Perhaps because it was a bit windy, the beach was not crowded at all, and we enjoyed time walking in the sand, playing in the surf, and taking pictures.
We spent a couple of hours meandering through shops on Strand Street. I think we were missing Amy, because we kept finding things that reminded us of her. We had a couple of hours drive back to Kevin’s, especially with traffic, so we started on our way to Spring, Texas listening to Mike Rowe’s “The Way I Heard It”.
Every so often, right at a pivotal moment in a story, the Google traffic voice would interrupt Mike Rowe, and Misha would exclaim from the back seat, “Who? Who was it?” Misha and Kristen didn’t think they would enjoy listening to Mike’s podcasts, but they began asking for Chris to press play every time we got in the car.
We stopped for dinner at Crust Pizza Co. Us temperate Coloradans were not used to the blasting of a/c in all restaurants and stores, especially in March. We froze and were grateful to walk back outside. That humidity though...
Arriving at Kevin’s house after 8 pm, we knocked on the front door and were greeted by Kevin and Chris’ mom Linda (who recently moved to Spring, TX). Grandpa Ball had the flu and kindly stayed home so as not to infect anyone. Candace and Ashley were at a Young Women Campout for the evening, so we wouldn’t see them until the Saturday afternoon.
Having been awake since the wee hours of the morning, we were happy to fall in to bed for the night.