New Braunfels, Texas

Ali and I arrived in San Antonio after a smooth flight. We were picked up at the airport for a quick drive to New Braunfels. We were dropped off at Shelley's (Ali's sister) office and went back to her place.

Ali had been intrigued by the ever-present Sonic's on our drive. Sonic advertises during ever single commercial break in San Diego, yet somehow the closest one is about 90 miles away. It never seemed worth driving 90 miles for some random combination of fruit juice and soda. But now there were some within easy driving distance. So before we got down to business we made a Sonic run. I had been jonesing for the Frito Chili Cheese Wrap (seen below) for years, but I froze up when we actually got there and didn't order one. Instead, we ordered a Cranberry LimeAde. It was happy hour...for fruit juice. Grand total $1.02.


Next we headed to Shelley's place. The Comal River runs right behind it. When it's been over 100 degrees for about a month straight, you gotta do what you can to beat the heat. Shelley gets to come toss a tube in the river right behind her house and lounge all afternoon. This was a more secluded part of the river so we were the only ones lounging around, but other parts of the river were packed with tubers enjoying beverages.


We cooked blue cheese burgers and Shelley's neighbor brought over spicy venison sausage. It was delicious.

On Thursday we went to Schlitterbahn, America's favorite waterpark. We got in early to ride the Master Blaster (uphill tube ride) among others. We also manned (and womanned) up to ride the SkyCoaster. Basically you wear vests, get strapped onto a wire, and elevated to 180 feet at which point you pull a rip cord and get dropped into a free fall. Being held in only by a vest directly above concrete does not sit well with my fear of falling from high places, but it was a rush. Sadly no pictures of either the water park (water) or SkyCoaster (did not want to drop camera). Here's the general idea though:


On Thursday night Ali's friend Tara and her parents were nice enough to let us join them for a birthday dinner. It was very generous of them and they made us feel very welcome.

We have another day-plus in Texas. We are heading into Austin today for Tara's birthday and will probably explore the finer points of the New Braunfels nightlife tonight. Then off to Boston.

(Side Note: I'm trying to embed specific parts of our larger map, but can't figure out how it works. I try to zoom in and get a link to embed that part of the map, but can't seem to figure out how to swing it. If anybody is technically skilled enough to either 1) let me know how to do it, or 2) let me know that it can't be done and I will need to start a specific map for each city, any help is appreciated.)