Weekend Intelligence: July 4th Weekend - Now With 100% Fewer Fireworks!

The blistering heat and severe drought of South Texas this year prompted the powers that be to outlaw all fireworks and cancel all 4th of July displays this year. Bleh. Especially since my mom, dad and brother, Jordon, had been looking forward to coming down and visiting us for months. No fireworks on the 4th and a house full over: what to do? The answer is simple: take it easy and try to stay out of the heat! So, in typical weekend intelligence fashion, here are the highlights.

They didn't actually leave until late Friday, and since they were traveling from Emporia, KS, they wouldn't be in until late that evening. Even so, I took the last few hours off from work to get the house ready: ran the Roomba and the Scooba to get as much of the pet dander up as I could, cleaned the kitchen and living room, dusted and changed the filter on the AC. See, dad is allergic to cats, and we have two of them, so every little bit helps to prevent him from turning into a sniffling mess my wife affectionately coined "sneezing tomato." When they were just outside New Braunfels, I got some hamburger queso dip (the same stuff D's mom makes when we travel there) and some margarita mix ready for them. They got in about midnight, but were still up for an hour or so of kicking back and having a drink before calling it a night.

Saturday was pretty packed. We spent the better part of the morning planning out what we wanted to do that evening. My folks had never been to the Riverwalk, so we wanted to show them a good time. We booked dinner boat tickets and aimed to see the jazz club later that evening. We went to the Flying Saucer for lunch to show them our favorite pub and put 3 more beers under my belt. After a nap, we piled into the van and went downtown.

Now, the place was packed and hot as all get out. And I mean PACKED: most walkways were only single file in both directions, and some were even less than that with all the vendor booths open for the holiday weekend. Combine this with the heavier than average tourist traffic due to that same holiday weekend, and you get the perfect storm for someone ending up in the river. I thought for sure Clara was going to end up in the drink more than once. When we got to the riverboat tour ticket line, it was snaked around the tensabarriers, up the stairs and onto the street topside. An easy 2 hour wait. -.-; We just decided that, since we were going to be on a boat anyway, we'd skip the tour. After sitting in this place for 15mins getting ignored for a drink order, we decided to get some bottled water at the CVS and chill at the Hilton until our dinner boat was in.

I'm glad we didn't stress the tour boat, because after the food was served, the boat disembarked and provided us with a tour. Perfect! In all the years I've been here, I'd never been on one before. I'd seen them trolling around, but never been on one. It was a little cramped, but the food was fantastic and the tour was great. After we finished there, we found some open seats at the Landing's patio just in time to hear the jazz trio start up. While D and I have been here several times before, this was the first time we took the kids with. And it probably won't be the last, as Clara absolutely LOVED the jazz music. She put her hands in the air and just started jiving to the music with all the bead necklaces she suckered out of the folks on the dinner boat. It was adorable, and not lost on the band and patrons, some of them taking pictures of her dancing and waving her arms.

Sunday we were going to try to hit Sea World, but if the Riverwalk was any indication, the place was going to be like a stroll through an overcrowded loony bin on the floor of an active volcano. As much as I love Sea World, none of us were up for that. Instead, we took it easy, had some lunch and scheduled massages for D, mom, Jordon and I and bought theater tickets for dad and the kids. Afterward, we went to Joe's Crab Shack and had some seafood. D got this drink that came with a shot of grenadine in a plastic toy shark, and the waitress shouted out "OH NO! THERE'S A SHARK IN THE WATER!" as she poured grenadine into the blue drink and groaned painfully. Ever the networker, D chatted her up to see if she'd be interested in doing Passion Party consulting. LOL

Monday was even more of the same: very relaxing and not too much planned. We went to the mall to get a few things that Jordon needed. The parents sprung for some swag at the Disney store - beach towels and swimming gear for Colin and Clara. I needed a new pair of shoes for the gym, so I got that while I was out there, too. After the mall, the kids went with the grandparents to go swimming at the hotel pool while we took a nap. For their last night in town, we went to dad's favorite restaurant in town, the Alamo Cafe, for some of their world-class margaritas, fajitas and fresh made tortillas.

In a way, I'm sorry I didn't have more for them to do while they were in town, but then again, I think a nice, relaxing weekend might have been what the doctor ordered for all involved.