Sunday, May 29, 2011

Spring Break 2011: South Texas!

We headed down to South Texas for Spring Break this year. We're so lucky that we have great-grandma Pauline and great-grandpa Bob down in Harlingen! It was a lovely getaway from the city and the perfect 5-day adventure to a warm-weather destination with the kids. So, we left the 50-degree rainy NYC weather and headed for the 90+ degree South Texas weather and loved every minute of it (well, maybe excluding the 3-LEG! airplane trip down there with delays on every flight!)

Jon's grandma and her husband live in an awesome retirement community in Harlingen that's literally built on a golf course. I really didn't understand this until we looked out their back window and saw hole #8 staring us in the face. They own a golf cart that they drive around the neighborhood and do their weekly golfing with. They also have a lovely pool and 2 friendly cats that made the trip even more appealing! So, yes... that's pretty much what we did: a daily drive around the neighborhood to the pool and torturing (I mean PLAYING) with the cats. A little boy's vacation dream! No toys needed!

The boys loved our little getaway. They're always up for an adventure and this one was no different. We had a slight snafu when I forgot my cell phone at home and Jon and I were travelling separately with the boys (gotta love those frequent flyer mile cash-ins!). Our flights were both delayed (unbeknownst to both of us) and several pay-phone messages later, we finally found each other in Houston! (I even bummed a phone call off an Army soldier (the most trustworthy looking person I could find) during our layover in Charlotte). We flew to Harlingen together (18-hours later!) and finally arrived at the Harlingen airport and were greeted by our lovely great-grandparent hosts.

We had 3 good days there and filled them with some serious kid-friendly fun. Day 1: ZOO, playing with cats, golf-cart ride to pool. Day 2: BEACH trip to South Padre Island, playing with cats, golf-cart ride to pool. Day 3: CHILDREN'S MUSEUM, playing with cats, golf-cart ride to pool, and dinner with the fam at the local BBQ joint. The Mr. and I also enjoyed early morning jogs, long chats with ggma and ggpa, a Friday Night Lights Netflix marathon, and a little pinochle (the Horey family card game of which ggma is reigning champion!).

We had a hard time saying goodbye and will definitely return as soon as we can!

admiring the flamingos

looking for 'baby Jaguar'
(have I mentioned the Diego phase???)

this way to the Iguanas!

super fun water playground right at the zoo
(every zoo should have one of these!)

petting zoo

super sweet golf cart!

these poor cats survived the boys (almost!)

the beach!

the water was SO warm!

loved this little Children's Museum

weatherman Noah!

road-tripping!

playing restaurant

fixing stuff with dad

dance party outside the BBQ joint
(i.e. must get children out of restaurant before we get kicked out!)

the fam

ggma and her grandson!

1 comment:

Wilde ones said...

Love South Padre Island and I'm totally missing the Texas heat right now. I don't know how you survived the insanely long 3-leg trip to get there but I'm glad you had a great time. I'm hoping to get to NY next month. I'll definitely let you know if I can make it.