I’m Back….But Only for a Minute
I had a nice little break and will continue my break tomorrow, but I thought that I’d check in first. Hubs and I had a wonderful, much too short, mini-vacation Sun-Tues. We went to San Antonio while my mom kept the kids. We had a great time seeing the sights and some great quality time. We’ve been meaning to take a trip for the longest time. Our last trip together alone was our honeymoon- 7 1/2 years ago- much too long. We did attend a church conference 1 1/2 years ago without the kids (and it was fun and nice), but I was a delegate so technically I was “working.” So we got an “invitation” in the mail about 3 months ago from the Hyatt Vacation Club. We could come and stay at their resort at a deeply discounted rate, and get $150 worth of gift certificates if we listened to their time share presentation. We figured why not- we’d check it out. So we headed down Sunday morning – our kids obviously devastated by the fact that they were staying with “GG” (my mom) for 2 days. Baby #1 actually asked us to leave because he couldn’t get his chocolate milk until we were gone. We headed out and headed 5 hours south to San Antonio.
We checked in and started thinking about dinner- because that’s what we do. Hubs took almost an hour (totally not exaggerating) trying to figure out where we would eat. Between his blackberry and the yellow pages he found a restaraunt called “Little Italy.”
I have to add a side note. Hubs spent about 8 years living in Naples, Italy and he loves Italian food- but since he’s had the real thing he’s very particular about his Italian food. I figured we could just go to the Carinos up the street, but Hubs refuses to go to a restaurant that we could go to where we live- it has to be somewhere different. Are you beginning to see why it took him an hour to find a place to eat?
So we get directions to Little Italy and we head out. It takes about 20 minutes to get there and what do you know- they’re closed! I guess it’s a good idea to call first. So where do we eat- Red Lobster. We were starving and I wanted to eat somewhere I knew that it would be good – we could try Little Italy tomorrow. And we did and it was great.
So we went to our “1 1/2 hour” sales presentation- which ended up being closer to 3 hours. Hubs and I prayed before we left our room that we would have discernment and that we would be wise stewards of what God has blessed us with. We had no intention of buying anything, but after hearing horror story after horror story we felt like we needed to be covered in prayer. So we meet our sales rep and he seems pretty easy going. He actually told us within 5 minutes of sitting down that if we don’t buy a timeshare he’s not going to lose his job. Hallelujah! I know that God put that rep in our path. Not that we would have bought one if we’d had another rep- it just would have been much more unpleasant. So I want to hear the thing and get out and on our way- we have things to do and sitting in a sales pitch for something we have no intention of buying isn’t one of them. Hubs on the other hand – always looking to get educated- wanted to hear the whole thing. He had no prior knowledge about time shares and wanted to see what the whole thing was about. So when the guy gives us a few minutes to talk I told him it was time to wrap it up- stop giving the guy false hope- let’s go. He in turn told me that I need to be a little less obvious with my displeasure. Apparently I was sighing a little loud. He’s probably right- I don’t hide things well. So we got our $150 gift certificates and we headed out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we could use the GC’s at a couple of restaurants around the SA area.
So we checked out the Alamo and the Riverwalk- all the SA touristy stuff. It was fun going with Hubs (I’ve been to SA a couple of times) since he’d never seen it before. We walked for miles and miles – okay maybe “a” mile would be more appropriate. It just seemed like miles because it was sooooo hot! Hubs brought all long sleeve shirts because he thought that it would be cold. We made a stop at the Gap so he could buy something more weather appropriate.
So we went back to the hotel and figured out our plans for dinner- we were going to eat at the on sight restaurant. So we got dressed and walked down to JB’s restaurant. About 100 yards out we heard someone crooning (singing doesn’t adequately describe his singing style) country music and turned around and went to the car. We decided that we didn’t want to hear that all night. So we went to one of the restaurants we could use our GC. It was a good choice- good food and no country music.
Overall it was a wonderful trip. It was great having Hubs’ undivided attention and it was fun to get back to the kids. It’s nice going away and coming back refreshed- even if the feeling of refreshment only lasts for about 3 hours. I’ll be taking the next few days off to spend with my family. I have so much to be thankful for this year and I want to just be surrounded by my family. I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving too.
