San Antonio Week 1

Well,
Our trip to San Antonio was uneventful. The seats weren't exactly comfortable and the movies on the flight weren't exactly engaging, but we made it in one piece without losing anything. It was my first time in Texas and we were excited to see just how the Roberts lived.

Liam swears he's having fun.

After a day to get acclimatized, we took a trip downtown to see the Alamo and do the river walk. It was quite the walk and Sarah's three oldest were troopers in the heat.

Liam's got a fan in San Antonio!

Best Tacos in San Antonio.

Yup, this is the actual site of the famous musical water glass scene from Miss Congeniality.

"Could someone show me the way to the basement?"

On Friday, on the recommendation of Doug, Liam and I drove about an hour outside of San Antonio and rented some tubes for a lazy stroll down the Guadelupe. It was definitely an experience only Texas could give us. Even though it was a Friday, there were a number of groups out on the river. Most were a little more prepared than Liam and I. It was fairly common for us to pass a flotilla of guys and girls centered around a tube just for the cooler full of beer. At times, it felt like Liam and I were the only ones heading anywhere, everyone else seemed more than content to just let the river move them on down or not. It really didn't matter.

On Saturday, I got on the road at around 6:00 AM to Gainesville.

When I told people about my drive from San Antonio to Gainesville and back (about 1700 km each way for those who keep track of those types of things), I would get lots of "Why would you do something like that?" looks. I have to say, it was kind of nice. I like to drive and it was kind of neat to see this part of the country in all its greenness. I pretty much timed the drive perfectly with the audio book I had picked for the trip (a little over thirty hours on the road). There was the little matter of hurricane Debbie which didn't disrupt things too much apart from cutting out the campus tour portion of orientation. I really enjoyed getting to know the members of my Ed.E. cohort. It's a diverse group with a lot of talent. I think I'm going to learn a lot working with them. While in Gainesville, they did a pretty good job laying out the program and it looks like I've basically given up even the idea of free time for the next three plus years, but it'll be worth it.

This is my group for the next three years. Pretty good looking, huh?

Before leaving town, I had to pick up some Gators paraphernalia. There was a shirt that read, "In Gainesville we root for two teams: Florida and Whoever's Playing LSU." Out of respect for my brother in law, I resisted picking it up (it took some considerable willpower).