Memorial Day weekend

Kevin and I decided to go on a short vacation this Memorial Day weekend. We chose New Braunfels, Tx as our destination. It is probably my favorite Texas city. There is so much to do, it is pretty, and there is a lot of history. We decided to stay in a Bed and Breakfast in downtown. You can read about the Prince Solms Inn B&B here. It is a very old building with a lot of character, one being a leaky ceiling! Anyway, it was nice, but to give you a better idea of how it went they provided ear plugs...and we had to use them. It was nice, but I bet we don't stay there again. One of the things Kevin wanted to do was see Robert Earl Keen in concert at Gruene Hall. We have been to Gruene Hall a few times, it is always fun. We went to the concert Friday night (after fighting holiday traffic and terrible rain). Saturday we had planned on tubing the Guadelupe River. With rain in the forcast we decided to put it off a day and just went to Gruene to do some shopping. Well, a local gave us some advice "If you want to go tubing you better go, it's not raining right now." So we took her advice and went back to our room to get our suits on. We got to the river at about noon and headed out for our 4 hour float.

It has been raining like crazy in Texas for a week and half. The metroplex has gotten quite a bit of rain and the hill country (just north of New Braunfels) has been getting even more. The rivers were high, but they were still letting people tube. We got our instructions about going over the four rapids on the float and off we went. Now, both of us had been tubing before, but not on the Guadelupe, so we weren't ready for what was to come. At the beginning of the float was the first rapid. We knew we needed to go over it separately, but Kevin had to hold the tube we used to store the cooler. We were side by side, and I was little behind Kevin, he went down the rapid too close to the rock and WOOSH, he went under and the tube went the other way. He still had a hold of the tube with the cooler, but the cooler was no longer in it, it was floating down the river. I was down the river out of my tube as well, but only because I jumped out to save my hat that fell off. Also, I knew I needed to head to the shore to try to help Kevin gather all of our things. The cooler stayed closed (unlike the people behind us, there were about 24 beers floating by us while we were getting our things together). You see the glasses and hat Kevin had on in that picture?...they are no longer with us. He lost them in the dunk, and those were perscription sun glasses that he bought just two months ago. Anyway, we were upset about the glasses but on we went, Kevin was a little beat up with bloody fingers and a banged up elbow and knees. Kevin think that the Guadelupe River was mad at him because he conquered her Peak. (See previous post)

We decided at that point to walk around all the rest of the rapids. So the next one we came to we got our tubes and walked around it. Call us chickens, but that water was just going too fast. We saw things on the river that people shouldn't have to see. I'll just say that it is similar to what you think of at Mardi Gras, and we'll leave it at that. We just did our best to stay away from most people and to mind our own business. We did enjoy the float, but we would have climbed out early if we could have. The third set of rapids came up and we started to walk around it. It was VERY difficult to walk over these rapids. I had two tubes, one in each arm and I slipped. I got pinned against a rock. I got a great ab workout for a few minutes as I sat there trying to figure out how I was going to get up. The water was rushing so fast I literally could not move. Kevin was behind me and I just sat there and laughed because one arm was being pulled down the rapid by the tube, I was being smashed against a rock and the other tube was being smashed against me. I finally used all my strength to get up and finish walking down.

When the float was over we were glad to be on the ground, and we were very cold, as the sun only came out for about 5 minutes the entire time and the water was about 65 degrees.

We were getting ready to head out to dinner and I spotted a card on the bed for me. I opened it and it was a graduation card. I had no idea that May 26th was my "Graduation Day" from SFSU. Kevin knew and he gave me a card to congratulate me...he is SO sweet! Then we got into the car and there was a gift, he bought me a GPS device for my car. I was so excited. I guess he is tired of my calling him for directions. I call him Mr. Mapquest because he is so good with directions. People who have known me for a while know that I am terrible at directions, so this will be a huge help to me. Thanks for being so thoughtful Kevin! We ate at The Gristmill which is a very popular restaurant in Gruene. Sunday, after we ate breakfast, we headed back to Gruene to finish the shopping taht we didn't finish the day before. I started not to feel good and eventually we had to go back to the room so I could lay down. To make a long story short I had to call my doctor and get a perscription called in. While going back and forth to and from the car looking for a pharmacy number and my insurance card I thought I locked the keys in the trunk. We called a key service and it was going to be $50 to get the car unlocked...ugh! Well, after replaying all the events in my mind I knew they couldn't be in the car, and sure enough, they were in Kevin's bag. Luckily we cancelled the key service and didn't have to pay $50 for nothing. Ok, I swear I am almost done. Then we ate at a place call Gruene River Grill which was very cool. We had never been there before, and we were pleasantly surprised. Sunday night we headed to the Piano Bar that is in the basement of the B&B. We hung out there for a couple hours, it was a really cool place. Monday morning we headed to the San Marcos outlet mall. It is similar in size to the Gilroy outlets (for all you Californians). We only spent a couple hours there as we knew we needed to get on the road to head home.

All in all it was a fun trip. Mostly because it was just the two of us and we were together the entire time. We don't get to hang together very often because of my work schedule, so this was a great weekend for us. We will go back to New Braunfels, but we may do things a little differently next time!