"All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, But Texas was absolutely overrun by such men."
-Sam Houston
I don't know what we're getting ourselves into, but it sure sounds like fun!
Southbound Travel Day 1: Thursday, April 21
This being a Thursday, it was my normal day off from work (we work 4x10 hour days). We dropped Madison off at Kindergarten, then Evan and I drove Bambi down to her office in Kenosha. Our plan was for me to spend the day packing, pick Madison up from school, then pick Bambi up on our way to Chicago.
While pricing this trip out, we found it to be much cheaper to fly out of Midway on Southwest Airlines than to fly out of Milwaukee. Milwaukee's airport is only 30 minutes from home, compared to 2 hours to Midway, but the cost difference was pretty big. I looked at the parking costs at Midway, and when I came to, realized I was curled up in the fetal position on my office floor, sobbing and clutching my 401(k) statement. The following is a direct quote from one parking lot operator's website:
"Book with Park Ride Fly USA, and you can park at Midway Park Ride & Fly for $7.25 (outdoor) or $11.25 (indoor) plus $2.00 fuel surcharge per parking stay, $1.00 tax per day, $2.00 transfer fee per day, and a $3.00 convenience fee per parking stay. Guarantee this low parking rate by paying for your entire stay when you book online"
So, um, that $7.25 per day really isn't $7.25 per day, then is it? All told, the cheapest place I could find was over $100 to park. So I started looking into a stay & fly package at the local hotels. (Our flight left at 6:00am, so it just made sense to stay down there, rather than make the drive from Racine a 2:30 in the morning). I found the Doubletree in Aslip, IL had a park & ride package for $150. A 4 star hotel for only $50 more that it would cost to park? Score!
So I spent the day packing, being careful that Evan didn't see me pack any of our Disney stuff - remember, the kids have no idea we're going to Disney World when we leave Houston. And since we'll be down there for Easter, I lent the Easter Bunny a hand an secretly pack Easter Baskets and gifts for the kids.
We picked Madison up at 2:30, then headed home to finish cleaning the house and checking off the last items on our packing list. We started heading south, picked Bambi up, and were on our way. We were getting hungry, so we stopped at an Oasis to eat. It's basically a strip mall & gas station, but suspended above the highway. The kids loved eating while watching the traffic buzz by underneath!
For those keeping track, we noshed out on healthy, nutritious meals: Sbarro, Taco Bell and Panda Express. (Which despite the name, doesn't actually serve Panda. Who knew?)
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. We pulled into the hotel around 7 and Madison and I went to get checked in. And what did we get for our troubles? Warm chocolate chip cookies. Oh, I'll be staying here again.
The kids were pretty wound up from being in the van for 2 hours (well, and the chocolate chip cookies). They played while Bambi and I got everything ready for the morning. After all, with a 20 minute ride to the airport and 6:00 am flight, we had to be on the 4:00am shuttle.
It was a very fitful night sleep for me. I must have dreamed about getting up and going to take a shower at least a dozen times. I even dreamed that I told Bambi about having all these dreams. Well, the alarm clock finally did go off - and did it ever. That thing was like an tornado siren going off! But it did the trick. We all go up, got dressed and waited in the lobby for our ride. I later told Bambi about having a dream where I told her about having all of these dreams. Sounds like some kind of circle of life or something.
Southwest Check in was fine - I had paid to do the Earlybird check in, so all we did was check our (free!) bags and go through security. Security at Midway was pretty slow. They have 3 concourses, but only one security check point right before the split. Luckily it was early in the morning - I can see how that line could get long fast.
Breakfast was at the Pegasus on the Fly - a Greek restaurant just past security. The gyro with scrambled eggs was fantastic.
While waiting, the kids fired up thier Nintendo DSs.
Boarding time! Boarding postions: A21-25! There were very few business class flyers in front of us, so we walked right on and sat in rows 2 and 3.
The flight down was fine, we met my Aunt near baggage claim, then took the Enterprise shuttle over to the lot. I tried to fit all of our luggage, three adults and two kids into the Camaro they had on the lot, but alas, we did not fit. Not even close. So into the Impala it was and we were driving around Houston in no time.
The first stop was The Williams Water Wall in Houston's Uptown district. While we were looking for a parking spot, we noticed that everything truly is bigger in Texas:
The Uptown district has those street signs at all of the major intersections.
The Water Wall is on the grounds of the 64 story Williams Tower. The wall is 64 feet tall and 11,000 gallons of water cycle through it every minute - both on the inside and outside of the concave wall.
Ever wonder what 11,000 gallons of falling water sounds like? It's loud. I SAID "IT'S LOUD!"
We spend a little while there, then my Aunt took us on a driving tour of the area. She showed us around the Medical Campus where she works - an area about 12 square blocks of nothing but hospitals, clinics, medical colleges, etc with every specialty, sub specialty, and sub sub specialty you can think of. There is even a clinic there that specializes in treating only dancer and musician injuries. Yeah, you read that right.
Well, as impressive as it was, both kids fell asleep during this time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they had been up since 3:30, but I can't be sure...
After the tour/nap, we had lunch at Chuy's - a Mexican restaurant in uptown Houston. The place was very eclectic- every random decoration you can think of all completely mismatched, but in a way that made it look really cool.
One section's ceiling was covered in hubcaps
And they had the rear end of an old car. The trunk opened to reveal a buffet table!
The food was really good, and gave us plenty of energy for our last stop - the Houston Children's Museum.
They claim they are rated the Number 1 Children's museum in the nation by (I think) Parent's Magazine. And they didn't disappoint. The place is huge!
This climbing area was 3 stories tall!
They had an entire "city" laid out with everything kid-sized, where they could do different jobs, earn money, then spend it at the other establishments in "Kidtropolis".
The police station, complete with Forensics Lab!
Our veterinarian
A supermarket, with real working computers that totaled up your order
And outside was a huge interactive water play/discovery area
Evan made a boat. Well, it was more of a submarine, but you get the idea.
Back inside, they had a mini Epcot type of area with a Japanese house and a rural Mexican village - complete with an authentic VW Bus with a cage of chickens on the roof.
Show Time!
We finished up at the museum and drove back to Aunt Jo's house where we had a delicious dinner off of Uncle Jack's grill. We spent the evening catching up on old times and turned in.
UP NEXT: Downtown Houston and Hermann Park
That'd make me want to walk there. 
