Spring Break

Over spring break this year, Ryan and I had a chance to get away for the weekend. My parents came up to watch Elizabeth (thank you!) and we headed to San Antonio. I always thought it would be easy to leave Elizabeth for a few days - I mean, who wouldn't want to reclaim some semblance of their life before having a baby? - but it ended up being pretty tough for me to leave her. I was watching her in my mom's arms, smiling and waving bye to me, and I felt like such a jerk, knowing she wouldn't see me again for two days. But those feelings evaporated quickly. We stopped for breakfast (coffee and pastries) at the Black Rooster Bakery, then got on the road.

It was seriously one of the best weekends away I've ever had. Probably because it had been over a year since we'd gotten away together, and over a year and a half since we'd had a vacation without a baby and without me being pregnant - but we had an amazing time. We started with lunch on the River Walk, live music at an Irish pub, drinks every couple hours all afternoon and evening, visiting the Alamo (the Mexicans were besieging it when we arrived), and dinner at "The Original" Mexican restaurant on the River Walk.

On Sunday, we had a really nice brunch at the Carriage House restaurant at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens (crepes filled with ham, brie, and asparagus and topped with hollondaise sauce), then went to the San Antonio Museum of Art. From there, we saw the Pearl brewery in the distance and decided to see if we could take a tour. When we arrived, they were having a paella cook-off on the grounds, and the woman guarding the entrance let us know that the tickets were $65 - and they were sold out - so we decided to walk around a little instead. As we wandered down an alley between two buildings, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of the festival - so we pulled our sleeves down a little to hide the fact that we didn't have wristbands, and had a good time sitting on a restaurant patio having a beer and watching all the people sampling food. It looked amazing, but we were content with just hanging out and not trying to sneak food on top of sneaking in in the first place.

Later that afternoon, we wandered down to the Mexican Market and bought Elizabeth an adorable white dress, then headed to Zinc Bistro and Wine Bar for a pre-dinner drink. We had a great time sitting at the bar, trying a couple new wines - and the bartender offered us a taste of a silver tequila infused with serrano chilis and pineapple, that was really interesting. From there, we did dinner at Esquire Tavern, and had a couple craft beers, and I had an amazing burger - organic beef topped with white cheddar, ancho chili refried beans, jalapeno aioli, and roasted jalapenos.

Even though it was fun, I was definitely ready to get home on Monday morning. While I was waiting for my flight at the airport, I sat at a restaurant bar to eat some breakfast and passed 30 minutes showing pictures of Elizabeth to the man sitting next to me. He showed me pictures of his 6 year old who'd recently broken her arm during a gymnastics class. It's amazing how just the shared experience of having kids gives you an instant connection to people.

So I headed home, and Ryan stayed in San Antonio for a conference for a few more days. Elizabeth had enjoyed the weekend with her grandparents, but was very happy to see me. She dove into my arms as soon as she saw me and let me hold her for about 10 minutes instead of her customary 30 seconds then demanding to get down and play. It's good to be appreciated.And it went so well, we're already planning our next vacation  :)