Three Holtzes, One Weekend!

This past weekend, Mike's dad, Tom, came to visit us. He flew in Thursday evening and left Monday morning. Mike had Friday off for Veteran's Day, so we had a nice three-day weekend to host him!

Mike spent Thursday evening showing the house off to his dad. Tom is building a house of his own on his land in Arkansas, and when I say "building a house of his own" I mean he is actually building it - you know, with his own two hands... So he was very interested to see what Mike had done to with our home.

On Friday we left the house about 9am to go to San Marcos. We started the day with a brief stop at the outlet malls. I now know that a weekday at 10am is the best time to visit the outlet mall, not Saturday at 2pm! :) After checking out Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn, we went over to the River Pub and Grill for lunch. If you're going up to the San Marcos area, I highly recommend you stop here for a meal, especially if the weather is nice. The patio looks over the river and there are kayakers, swimmers, turtles, ducks and fish to observe while you eat! Perfect!

After lunch we went to what I would consider the main event, the Texas State Aquarena. You might recall that my mom, my aunt and I went there a few weeks ago (as well as the River Pub and Grill!).

Ready to board the glass-bottom boat!

That evening we went up to the Tower of Americas for a view of the city at night.

Tower of Americas at sunset. 

When we got to the top and went outside, it was VERY windy and a bit chilly, but still very pretty!

Enjoying the view.

After that, we went to Josephine Street  for a reasonably-priced steak dinner!

On Saturday, we took Tom to the Pearl Farmer's Market. After getting some breakfast from some of the vendors, we went on the Pearl Brewery tour! Our guide was very informative and we learned some interesting things about the Brewery we didn't know, despite having frequented the Farmer's Market there for over a year!

We ate lunch at Rosario's, a favorite of Mike's and mine. We had hoped to visit the Alamo and Riverwalk after lunch, but preparation for the Rock 'n Roll Marathon was well underway and it was just too crowded. On the way home, we decided to go to the Witte Museum and explore their new "Shipwrecked" exhibit.

Tom experiences "hurricane force" winds. 

Mike gives it a try, face first.

You know I won!!

That evening Mike grilled brats for dinner and we watched an awesome game between Texas A&M and K-State as well as the Oregon-Stanford game. After dinner, we took Mike's dad to get gelato with Ellie and Geoff.

Sunday was much more relaxed. We did some reading and watched some more TV. For lunch we went to The Cove and sat outside. We watched Snatch that afternoon and then for dinner I cooked basil pesto pizzas and bread pudding.

Tom left early Monday morning. We enjoyed his visit and hope that he can make it down again sometime or visit us wherever we go next!