Over the Christmas break, The Husband and I met family in San Antonio.
We went to the zoo.
 

We played in the pool.
We went to the Riverwalk on Christmas Eve.

We made smores.
We looked at Christmas lights.
We visited Grandma.
We played Clue, Twister, and Checkers.
We took Christmasy photos.

…and of course, there was some knitting.


Ps. Is this post even delayed if my tree is still up?

Last January, I was lucky enough to visit the 9/11 Memorial when Lisa and I went to New York City.

If you are headed to NYC, I strongly recommend you make reservations to see the memorial. Until you can get there, I hope these videos give you a tiny bit of the feeling of being there.
Video of the fountain
The black stone where all the names are listed was warm from the sun and made me think about warmth and life and then the water falls and you can’t see where it lands. Like the people that were never recovered. Some of the falls were frozen and there was mist coming out of the water. This made me think of the loss and how cold and final death is. It was incredibly moving and poetic.
Video of the mist
It was sobering to stand there and think of the First Responders that went running in to help strangers as they were running out. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families and friends that lost loved ones.
…and to all those brave men and women in public service and the military that each day put their lives on the line for others. Thank you.

Monday morning, as they were getting ready to leave the hotel, Lisa calmly said, “we should leave most of our cash in the room because if we’re going to get mugged, it’s going to be today.” So, they dumped half their cash and left on an adventure.

They started the day in Chinatown where Lisa purchased a messenger bag. Katie purchased a smaller messsenger bag for her knitting and an origami seahorse. It is a miracle the seahorse got back to Texas in one piece, but survive it did.

The girls then went to the 9-11 Memorial. It was very moving. Make your reservations and go if you ever have a chance. You’ll not regret it.

After that, they were hungry, so they visited O’Hara’s Pub. It has been around since 1980ish. The food was great! Lisa had shephard’s pie and Katie had stew AND a grilled cheese sandwich. The waitress was understanding about this photo. She mentioned that the booties were really cute and people evidently bring traveling gnomes in sometimes.


They headed to Purl Soho, which was quite a bit smaller and had less selection than expected. The smallest yarn shop in Austin is about twice the size of Purl, so we suppose everything really is bigger in Texas.

Off to the NBC store where they shopped for the TH’s. Katie bought TH a Star Trek magnet that said, “Phasers…Because sometimes diplomacy fails. ”

They got dinner at Etrusca which was very good. Considering their attire, they were pleased not to be condescended to. Lisa’s pronunciation was quite a bit better than Katie’s but the waiter did not seem that worried about it.

They packed and watched the Betty White special on tv. Katie managed to get her purchases back into her bags which was no small miracle. Lisa was better prepared as usual and did not have as difficult a time.


Tuesday morning, they walked to Central Park so Katie could visit the Ghostbuster building. Sadly, it was under construction and was mostly covered in scaffolding, but she saw it in person and could tell that is what it was, so she’s checking it off her life list just the same.


They also saw the Trump tower and had some yummy French food for breakfast at Maison. Katie said a quick thank you prayer in her head that they were not taking an Italian cruise ship home and they headed to the airport.

There is no place like home.
There is no place lke home.
There is no place like home.