Well. It’s that time of year.
On Sunday Gulley and I loaded up the kids and headed out for our annual summer road trip. It really has become one of the weeks of the summer we look forward to the most and I think the kids do, too.
We usually spend the whole year talking about where we might go and this year we decided to head towards Houston. But our first stop? The ZDT Amusement Park in Seguin, Texas.
For years we’ve seen the billboards for ZDT between San Antonio and Houston but we’d never actually stopped there because I think maybe I pictured like a ball pit and a jungle gym. But eventually curiosity got the best of us and we decided it was a must see destination for Road Trip 2014. And I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint.
For $22 you get an extreme wristband that gives you unlimited access to all twelve attractions and unlimited video games in the arcade.
There were go-karts.
And yes. Gulley and I rode together.
Mainly because the kids didn’t want to ride with us. And also because this is what we do. I drive and she rides.
A little later in the day Caroline got in a little bit of trouble from the go kart operator for bumping into Jackson’s car as they parked but she swears it was due to faulty brakes and not her irritation that he passed her on the track. Either way, I told her it’s the Sicilian in her and can’t be helped. She comes from a long line of aggressive drivers, specifically her Bops.
There were three different water slides that we all rode multiple times until Gulley and I finally had to go sit in some lounge chairs to recover while we watched the kids ride. I’m not kidding when I woke up with a sore back at 2:00 a.m. last night and knew it was due to the Viper’s Tail slide. Some things aren’t as resilient at 42, namely your spine.
And then we made our way into the arcade to take advantage of the free video games.
I may or may not have gotten sucked into a round of Centipede. And also Ms. Pacman.
You can take the girl out of the Atari but you can’t take the Atari out of the girl.
Meanwhile, Caroline was busy with this.
All I know is it looks a lot more high-tech than Ms. Pacman.
Eventually we decided it was time to get in the car and head to Houston. We had plans to meet Mimi and Bops and Gulley’s dad, Bob Bob, for dinner at Collina’s. But dinner began to look like just a dream as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for the next three hours. I had no idea that so many people would be trying to make their way to Houston at 5:00 on Sunday evening.
But we made it and had a great dinner and then went back to our respective family’s houses to get a good night’s sleep because we knew we were going to spend Monday in Galveston.
That’s right. Galveston. The beach of our childhood.
Gulley and I both grew up going to Galveston, but our kids have only known Port Aransas as their primary Texas beach experience. We felt like they were missing out on an important cultural experience.
And then our dads decided to join us for the trip which made it even better. Three generations enjoying not necessarily the finest beach Texas has to offer.
I should also mention that we stopped to pick up a bucket of chicken to take with us.
I believe the phrase you’re looking for is “casual elegance”.
Just some kids eating lukewarm chicken on a beach in July. Mixed with a little sand. Or as I like to call it “fiber”.
It was a really fun day and seemed a little bit like one of those full-circle moments. My dad took my sister and I to Stewart Beach so many times when we were kids and those are some of my favorite childhood memories. We’d make him drag us out on a rental raft until the water was up to his neck and then come in and eat Fritos and bean dip under an umbrella while we used baby oil to get the tar off our legs because this was the 1970’s and EPA regulations weren’t really a thing yet. And it was surreal to think that here we were all these years later with my daughter.
Of course none of us got in water up to our neck yesterday because JAWS.
But the kids thoroughly enjoyed it and caught more than their share of hermit crabs.
And got to eat snow cones and ride the big inflatable slide.
I don’t really know what else you could ask for.
Unless it’s that none of us get salmonella from the lukewarm chicken that sat in a bucket on the beach the better part of the afternoon.