Day 1

Ricky and I left Oatmeal Creek at 12:50 and headed southeast. Hondo and Honey Bee were safely delivered to The Pets Hotel earlier in the day so the house seemed empty and hollow when we left. Guess the cows are in charge for the next few days.

East on Hwy 71

We stopped in Bastrop at the Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant for lunch. The food was out quick and was good.

Margarita, Miller Light, and chalupa hit the spot.

We hit a rain shower. Hope it moves west!

Finally at The Galvez. I absolutely LOVE this hotel.  Always happy to be here.

                             Big comfy bed.

                                Front desk

The lobby was full of Marines in their dress blues. They are stationed in San Antonio and were having some sort of training in Galveston. They really looked sharp in uniform.

             
                              Hotel bar

               Winding down from the drive

                     The pipers took a break.

                      Baby girl finally arrived!

 Bonding activity. That shot was dedicated to Janey and toasting to our fun trip ahead!

                   Chatting up the Marines

Love, love, love my Mickie!

Oh, Ship!

Time for another adventure! Ricky, Mickie, and I are taking a four night Carnival Cruise out of Galveston. We leave August 30th on The Valor, sailing to Cozumel.
Mickie and I took a Carnival Cruise in 1995 or 1996 when she was about 8 years old. Some things have changed since then, ok? I am super excited to be taking this adventure with her! Ricky has never cruised and my one experience was so long ago it seems like we are both first-timers. Hopefully the wi-fi package we purchased will let me keep up with the blog in real time.
I have the dramamine packed and am ready to get the party started.
First stop, Galveston!
Ahoy there, mates! ⚓

Home

Every trip has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Our trip ended Sunday with two uneventful but painful flights back to Austin.

We said "Aloha" to our room at the Westin.

Our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 9:45 am and we sat outside the front of the hotel to wait.

Ricky called SpeediShuttle at 9:45 when they weren't there to pick us up.

Much to our surprise the shuttle parked in front of the hotel was waiting for us! We didn't realize it was SpeediShuttle.

We drove past the ocean on our left

The mountains were on our right

We drove past fields that were once planted in sugarcane.  The landscape was very dry.

We flew out of Kahului Airport

Lunch at StingerRays

This unfortunate bird was living inside the airport.

We left Maui at 12:45 pm and landed at LAX at 9:00 pm. It was a 5 hour flight, but we crossed several time zones.  We arrived at our hotel after 10 pm. The only food choices were chips and candy.  😞 We got up at 2:15 am to be back at the airport for our 5:30 am flight. It was a short and hungry night. 

We had a happy homecoming. The dogs couldn't believe it was really us at first, then they became exuberant.

Just like old times. Ricky and HoneyBee took a nap in the chair. 

The tomato vines were loaded.

We put on a pot of beans first thing and ate them for supper. It's good to be back home!

Last Maui Sunset

"A little piece of heaven fell from the sky, and they called it Maui."-- Hawaiian Airline attendant at the Honolulu Airport

We enjoyed our Subway sandwiches on the balcony as we watched our last Maui sunset.  This is a beautiful island and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to see it.  Mahalo.

Whaler's Village

Whaler's Village is a place to shop and eat with 90 or more high-end shops and restaurants.  A great place to run over to and pick up a new Rolex and Louis Vuitton bag. 😆

We also found a food court with a Subway here. It saved our lives.  We have been gone long enough to grow weary of fancy food and just needed something simple like a sandwich. What we really want though, is a pot of beans and a home cooked meal.

Spa Day

We splurged our last day here and got a couples massage. The spa facility was very nice with a heated tub and sauna and all the personal hygiene amenities available.  We got our massages side by side in the same room. Ricky had a hard relaxing though. He said the towel used to wipe the lotion off his feet was scalding hot. It took an hour in the swimming pool and some Crown Royal for him to recover. I thoroughly enjoyed my massage.