Houston Trip

When I first started looking at the Houston Marathon, I was super excited to see Dallas was right at the half-way point. Ever since reading books about the Kennedys, I've really wanted to visit Dealy Plaza and see the 6th Floor Museum. I didn't look into it much before we left, but when we made it to Dallas, I wondered if it would be closed for MLK Day on Monday when we came back through. I wasn't sure we'd have time to do anything in Dallas on Saturday before heading to Houston, but figured we'd have time to do something on the way back. The 6th Floor Museum was closed on Mondays and didn't open until 10am on Saturdays. We talked about it and decided to go ahead and go on Saturday morning. I had signed up for a 4:00 packet pick up just in case we were late getting around. The hotel had a pool so I figured the kids would want to swim. It turned out the pool was closed so after getting around, we headed to Dealy Plaza. We got there a little before 9:30. We walked around and saw the monuments and the grassy knoll. The spots where the car was when JFK was shot were marked with an x on the road. Carter has a friend who is really interested in presidential trivia so he Facetimed him to show him everything, which was cute. We went into the museum right at 10:00 and got tickets. It was fairy busy so it took a while to walk through. At 11:30 I started to get a little bit nervous because we would need to stop to eat lunch and we still had a 4ish hour drive to Houston. We skipped through the last portion of the museum a little bit faster than everything else and then checked out the gift shop before heading on our way. We stopped for lunch and a couple restroom stops on the way so we didn't make it to the race expo until 4:15. Dad dropped me off and went to park. They ended up paying $30 to park for that short expo visit which was ridiculous! Had we arrived at 3:00 and checked in, we could have walked from our hotel to the expo, but it was definitely worth it to see the museum. Since I had a later expo spot and the expo closed at 5:00, we didn't have time to see much. They had a place to make signs so mom and the kids made signs. They also had a place where they were pressing shirt designs, but by the time we got there they only had XL and XXL shirts left. I went ahead and got an XL to wear as a nightgown. 

Sunday was the race and after we checked out of the hotel we visited one of Thomas' friends on our way out of town. Monday morning I read some activity options to everyone and the Dallas World Aquarium was the unanimous choice. It was interesting, more of a combination of a zoo and aquarium together. We saw axolotls which the kids were thrilled about. There was also a manatee which I was excited to see, but it was just hanging out with it's face hidden and never moved. There were penguins which the kids also loved and, of course, flamingoes for Opa! Both the kids wanted stuffed axolotls as their souvenir in the gift shop. Elise looked for a patch for her Girl Scout vest and even asked the cashier, but they were out. She did get one from the 6th Floor Museum.  

Posing with the sloth.

Carter said, "This is my friend Bald Benjamin."

Super excited about the axolotls!

Elise with her axolotl from the gift shop.

On the way home we talked about what a fun trip it was and how having mom and dad go with me made it so much fun. I told them I'd like to slowly work on completing all 6 of the Marathon Majors. They said they would come along to all of them! It was an amazing trip and as my friend, Sara, has always said, making a race into a racecation is the best way to go! This one worked out so nicely because it was only 8 hours away and I already had Monday off, so I didn't take any time off work for the trip. We still got a lot in even with all the driving and visiting friends. The hotels not having a swimming pool helped with that, otherwise the kids would have wanted to swim instead of sightsee! This trip was everything I hoped for, visiting Dealy Plaza and getting my BQ.