April 2024: Eclipse Weekend in Austin!

Months and months in the making and anticipation, very very early on the morning of Saturday the 6th Liz found ourselves catching a flight to Nashville and then to Austin for the Big Barnes Family Eclipse Weekend Reunion Adventure.

Very nice timing had us arriving in Austin at basically the same time as Mom, Dad, and Emily. We met up and picked up our Kia Forte. It was nice, but dirty (a theme for the weekend).

We went straight from the airport to a barbecue establishment called LeRoy and Lewis and stood in their line for maybe only an hour or a tad more which we spent worrying about our chances of getting one (or two!) of their 30 bacon ribs cooked daily on Saturdays.

Good news: We got one. I mean two. And lots of other great stuff. Like their smoked meat burger! Wow. And three arugula salads!

The Edwards met up with us while we ate, they had already been in Austin for a few days. Cory used to come to Austin a lot for work so he was our plan and reservation maker and it was great luck to have him on the job. From lunch we went to the busy popular street, or one of the busy popular streets, to get ice cream and look at cowboy boots. Among other things.

Then we drove over to where our Air BnB was, which was a place called Lago Vista, and it was a good hour away. There was a lot of Air BnB drama that I didn’t have to help figure out as this trip came together, so I’m just glad we had a big place we all fit in.

Here’s a picture of outside our Air BnB at 8:30pm Saturday night. Surely we must be calling it a day at this point, right? Having gotten up at 3:45 to catch our flight? Nope! This is actually a picture from when we were leaving to go back into Austin for dinner. Sounded a little wild to me and a few others I’m sure, but…

This place we went, Suerte, was absolutely phenomenal and spectacular and probably my meal to beat for 2024!

We ate: guacamole, a mushroom tlayuda, suadero tacos (A+++!), carnitas, duck flautas in mole, broccoli, beet tostadas, choco semifredo tacos, and a cheesecake. And probably more? It was an awesome excellent meal.

From there, one car went to pick up Greg from the airport and the other went home, seemingly to call it a night, but actually to discover that all our bedding was filthy and they got to work doing emergency laundry loads and remaking beds for all the rest of us when we got in from the airport.

Sunday morning we all went on a nice walk from our Air BnB to Lake Travis. The night before we had all seen some deer in the dark during our drives, but by day we discovered that our neighborhood was running wild with deer. Deer like many neighborhoods have squirrels.

Then we walked on back to the house and enjoyed a session of conference. See this corvette? It’s not parked. It’s zooming by too fast.

From there we went back into Austin for lunch at this place The Corner and then had a big walkaround, culminating with a visit to Portland’s famous Voodoo Donuts.

From there we drove to the University of Texas where we admired their campus, buildings, and turtle pond.

From there we headed to dinner at Terry Black’s BBQ — parking in the neighborhood was tricky, but Mom did a great job getting into the spot. And the line for Terry Black’s had a major Radiator Springs Racers feel. The complimentary pickles at TB’s knocked my socks off. They were out of their famous beef ribs by the time we ordered, which knocked our spirits off a little. But we powered through the disapointment and enjoyed their delicious brisket and sausage.

Monday the 8th! The big day! We started our Eclipse Day experience with a neighborhood walk followed by a homemade breakfast taco feast.

Around noon we started sitting in the backyard and staring up at that sun. A magnificent treat was that dear NY friend Angelique was also in Austin for the eclipse and accepted our invite to bring her niece on over to our out of the way pad to enjoy the space and eclipsing. It was a partially cloudy day and speculation was high on whether or not we’d get a good view of the totality. Boy were we nervous about it! It was cool to see the moon starting to take a bite out of the sun and every time the clouds parted it was back on with the glasses for us. We were having a fun and excited time!

As the totality approached, clouds still an issue, we moved over to the street — I don’t know why, we just did, maybe because it’s where the garagemen were that Greg lent glasses to? Because there were some neighbors over there? Anyway, something moved us to move over there. And then, miracle of miracles (or common meteorological occurrence?) the clouds parted perfectly for the totalizing of the totality. And yes. Wow. What an incredible thing to witness, absolutely otherworldly. Stand under one totality and you catch the bug to see as many as you can pretty quick, people were looking up flights to Spain and Australia. BTW, this isn’t a blog post for seeing cool pictures of the eclipse, but it is a blog post for seeing cool pictures of people seeing the eclipse.

After coming down from the eclipse excitement we had dinner at Burger Bar, a nearby burger establishment, and then ate some cake to celebrate Mom’s 70th (there’s going to be a lot of these celebrations) and played some games.

Tuesday the ninth! A day for saying goodbye. The Edwardses left at like 3:30 that morning and then Mom, Dad and Emily left around 7:30. Liz, Greg and I Lyfted into the city and got lunch at Juan In A Million with Greg’s friend Ashley and then it was off to the airport and back to Columbus with us. What a trip! Wow!

March 2024: Easter in Oak Park

It was Liz’s spring break, we should do something fun. We did one of the funnest things there is—we drove to Chicago for the Easter weekend in our new Tiguan! AND we brought Cornelius with us! Riding in the car is just about the only time Cornelius will sit on my lap and let me pet him. And by “just about” I mean “absolutely”. We made good time to Chicago and found a welcome sign for Cornelius hanging in the garage!

The next day, a Thursday, I worked all day. But we snuck down to the downtown Oak Park for Sweetgreen. Liz played some piano. And in the evening, we got tacos at a place highly recommended by Mom’s painter. And it deserved that high recommendation! Wow. Really I ought to look up the name. Also, during our taco meal we revealed that on Tuesday I had bought a Volvo wagon. That little situation really came together quickly!

Friday Liz went on a sentimental journey to her childhood home in Kenosha while I worked. We were reunited that night at Johnnie’s, which I walked to — something I had never done before and was pleasantly surprised to find is actually quite easy and nice. We should do it all the time!

Saturday morning Liz and I returned to the scene of our marriage, just barely a more than a year earlier, the Chicago temple. Last time it was gray and rainy. This time it was sunny and too bright. After the temple we went with Mom and Dad to try the cheddar char burgers at Paradise Pup and, guess what? Yup. They were awesome. Wowzers. Chicago, you’ve just got treasures all over the place.

I should write about Cornelius…he spent his first 24hrs in Oak Park pretty spooked and skittish, but by Friday had calmed down and gotten brave and really seemed to enjoy poking around all over the house and getting on top of its doors. And, as hoped, he was particularly taken with the sun porch. What cat wouldn’t be?!

Then that afternoon Liz and I went down to peak from behind the palm fronds at the Garfield Conservatory and to have a Wicker Park walkaround. No Wicker Park pictures, but plenty of Conservatory pictures. I was not very conservative when it came to taking conservatory pictures!

Sunday we went to nice Easter church, had an awesome Easter dinner, and then took a nice Easter walk. It was nice! And awesome.

And then we drove on back to Columbus with a lovely stop at a lovely Indiana rest stop.

Now, barely a week later, we’re packing up to go take another trip so we’ll have something else to blog about!

February 2024: An Amazing Arizona Trip

I can’t even remember how long ago it was that Liz and I decided to take a trip to Arizona in February to surprise her best friend Jesi at her best friend Jesi’s surprise party. And then, suddenly, it was February! And we flew on over to Phoenix, Arizona!

I thought I had a picture of our rental car…but I guess I don’t…but anyway, we rented a 2023 Honda Accord as sort of an extended test drive. Pretty much we liked it, but if you fast forward to March 2024 and you know that we didn’t get an Accord. Yet. (But probably ever)

Anyway from the airport we went on over to Mesa and had a pretty nice lunch at Backyard Tacos. They really taste like if someone grilled you these tacos in the backyard! (I mean that in the nice way).

And from there we went over to patronize the temple, which I thought was bigger than this?

Nevermind, it is!

With a few more hours to fill before the Surprise Party we went over to Scottsdale, seeking out a chocolatier that did not exist, but had a nice walkaround in this part of Scottsdale where you can walk around. And also we went into the mall and got very turned around trying to find their Rocky Mountain Chocolate Co. Malls - Make Better Maps!!

During our Scottsdale walk I saw my first “in the wild” Audi A6 Allroad since I started keeping my eye out for wagons! My impression from the curb: I think, for full-sized wagon looks, it’s the V90 for me. (That night we’d see another A6 Allroad with an absolutely bonkers paint job on the freeway). (And I’ll add now that on Sunday morning we saw a V90 on the road and oooh it looked nice).

And at last it was Surprise Party time! I was a guest, I enjoyed myself, I took just these two photos.

And from there we drove over to Sarah and Nate’s, who happened to live very close by. I don’t have any pictures from the lovely time we had sitting on their couches chatting and catching up and such, but I do have a picture of their pool!

From there it was time to head to our “hotel”. Oh boy. Here is something I learned. Hotels in the Mesa/Phoenix area are EXPENSIVE. The La Quinta was >$300, I settled on this Motel 6 by the freeway and behind a waterpark that was $200 and it was the most barebones place I’d ever stayed. We are so lucky we didn’t see the roach until the morning. It had a very spooky vibe, most guests seemed like they lived there. Nice to get there late and wake up early and get the heck out of there.

For breakfast that Saturday morning we had tacos at Sahuaro’s, a nearby taco place inside of a defunct car wash and Holy Smokes it was GOOD. Extremely best imaginable carnitas.

And from there we went with Jesi to see (and I cannot believe my luck to be able to say this) a matinee of Madame Web which, well, I always have a good time at movies with Liz. And Madame Web might not have been as absolutely horrible as some would say. And after: Rubio’s for lunch! (No Picture)

Then we took Jesi home and set out on Arizona Vacation 2024 Phase II: Tucson!

Turns out it’s a pretty quick trip down to Tucson (once you get to the freeway that takes you to Tucson, and that step takes a while from Mesa). We stayed at a nice little “resort” (I think that just meant it had a lawn in the back and a pool and included breakfast) that was actually cheaper than our Mesa Motel 6. Ha! Needless to say arriving there at these accommodating accommodations, we were well on our way to loving Tucson.

Another reason to love Tucson? They’ve got Freddy’s there!

Sunday morning, up bright and early to for the buffet and attend a local ward’s sacrament meeting.

Sitting in that sacrament meeting, looking around the room, I noticed a woman who looked familiar. I ran some due diligence and confirmed that, yep! It was my friend Victoria’s mom. Chance of all chances, the ward meeting earliest at the chapel closest to our hotel was Victoria’s home ward. Funny how these things happen sometimes.

Now, the reason we went down to Tucson was to visit nearby Saguaro National Park but people kept telling us we should visit the Sonora Desert Museum just outside the National Park so we were like “Ok, if you say so” and drove on down to that Desert Museum and Guess What? We loved it! Maybe it was more of a zoo than a museum? And it had all your favorite desert creatures and animals there, from tarantulas and rattlesnakes to javelinas, ocelots, mountain lions and mountain goats! We loved it. We absolutely loved it to death. We just kept walking around going “What a great museum this is! This is the best museum!” Also there was a “cave” to explore. Great museum!

If you give a coyote a cookie…

And from the museum we went to the National Park proper. What we know about this park: It isn’t super big, there are TONS of catcuses there, you drive around going “look at that one! look at that one! look at that one!” and there are petroglyphs you can take a little walk to. Also, at the gift shop welcome center there is one great cashier who will talk and talk with you about the White Sox and Chicago if you happen to be wearing your White Sox cap. Loved it all!

From there we went to the part of Tuscon that is a city. We put our name in at El Charro and went and did some light exploring while we waited to have our name texted. At El Charro I had the machaca, which they call “carne seca” and WOW I LOVED it—so dry and tasty! Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it. Guess I was just enjoying myself too much and living in the moment, as one sometimes does. And then it was back to our Resort for a swim in the hot pool but not a dip in the hot tub because it was very cold.

Up early Monday morning to enjoy one more breakfast before driving back up to Mesa/Phoenix with a rest stop stop on the way.

Back in Mesa Phoenix we had breakfast/lunch at Sahuaro’s once more (the picture doesn’t look like much but let me tell you, these tacos were extremely extremely top notch), a visit with NYC Heather, her mom, and Heather’s two babies, and a wonderful rib lunch at Jesi’s before heading back to the airport and flying home to Columbus just abuzz over what an awesome time we had in Arizona. We did not know we were going to love it there so much, but it was practically the funnest trip we’ve ever been on! Really!