End of Summer 2020

It feels like the end of more than just summer, but the end of a significant period in our lives. But the truth is, the beginning of the school year, while it may bring a little more structure to our schedules, does not signify the end of the coronavirus. Here is what happened in San Antonio in July.

And now that we're mid way through August we've added another 5,000 cases and about 150 more deaths. The daily cases are declining some, but the infection rate is higher, so a lot of area experts expect further increases leading up to December.

The big debate across the country is how to handle the return of school. The reality is that there is no perfect solution. Our mayor mandated that all schools that reside in our county start the first three weeks of school with distance learning. Then an Attorney General countered that with some ruling that allows schools to go back in-person if they choose. So even in our own city with such astronomical case numbers, some school districts have started school like 'normal'. Our particular school district is sticking with the initial 3 weeks online and then is planning to wait until the city is in the Green Zone before phasing in the in-person learning. Of course, if you don't feel comfortable sending your kids to school you always have the option to do the the school year 100% online. Personally I am glad that some schools are returning before us so we can see what happens locally. Our superintendent feels strongly that he doesn't want to reopen schools until they can remain open. He doesn't want this back and forth of opening and closing.

So to finish out our summer, we did finally get to have a weekend getaway! We scrapped the idea of Corpus Christi because after two failed attempts, the AirBnB that we were going to stay at jacked up their prices and it became unreasonable for us to stay there. Instead we used a combination of some of Dan's hotel points and cash, and stayed at a Hampton Inn near NASA space center and Clear Lake in Houston. Being at that location we could take advantage of water sports at Clear Lake, be 45 minutes away from Galveston beaches, and enjoy the hotel swimming pool and other activities in a big city.

I just have to say, it's no wonder Houston is struggling with case numbers more than San Antonio. There was a severe lack of adherance to CDC guidelines which made us uncomfortable in a few of our desired activities, but for the most part we were still able to do the things we were really looking forward to.  

We drove out Friday and mostly just hung out in the hotel room, ate some pizza, swam in the hotel pool and played some games. Also, something about having cable in hotel rooms just intrigues my boys. We don't have cable at home and they love flipping through 1000s of channels and finding maybe one or two unique things to watch, lol.

On the road!

Glorious Glorious TV!

Playing Pounce, one of our favorite games

Saturday we reserved a single Jet Ski for 3 hours and took turns. Cade was even old enough to be a driver as long as one of us was on there with him. It was a great way to spend the morning. I even drove our car away from the boat ramp and to a nearby park with a pier so we could easily switch and have kind of a hang out spot if it wasn't your turn.

Glad we didn't come across any Gators!

This was the first time on a Jet Ski for the boys! I think I was about Cade's age when I did my first jet ski in Door County Wisconsin.

That's me with Cade driving. He did such a good job!

Alex and me

We went back to the hotel for showers, lunch and naps!

That evening we decided to visit Kemah Boardwalk, which is a fun area along the Lake we had just spent the day playing in. We stayed for a while to check the place out, but with the heat, the lack of social distancing, lack of mask-wearers, and cost, we ended up cutting our evening short. 

So instead of having dinner at the Boardwalk, Dan and I got the kids what they wanted [Whataburger] and we got what we wanted [Ramen]! 

Sunday was our designated beach day. It was the day I was most looking forward to, seeing as how I had already tried to plan two trips to the beach. We slept in and lazily made our way to Galveston and spent our day at Stewart Beach. We spent about 5 hours in the sun and sand. The kids did everything from swimming, digging, getting buried to kite flying. I spent most of my time either in the water past the break or relaxing in my chair. Dan decided he's glad we're not stationed in Hawaii. It was awfully hot, even in the water so it was exhausting and relaxing at the same time. 

How does he look so grown up all of a sudden?

On Monday we checked out of the hotel and headed to downtown Houston for their Science Museum. We tried to get there nice and early so there wouldn't be any crowds, and that worked. None of the interactive features of exhibits were on or allowed, but it still was a great museum. I think my boys loved the gem and mineral section the most because I have a bajillion pictures of different rocks. My favorite part was the Faberge exhibit. I had heard of the Faberge eggs, but hadn't really seen any of his other style of jewelry. Good thing I'm too poor to even think about owning any of it because it really caught my attention! Also the Egypt exhibit at this museum is by far the biggest I've come across. I wish it wouldn't have been the last exhibit we came across because it was just a little too overwhelming to look at every little glass curio and each item inside. There were some great mummies and even a Rosetta Stone replica.

This is a video of an area called the Cabinet of Curiosities. It was roped off so you could explore and open each little drawer and cabinet, but it was still pretty cool. 

It's not every day you can hold Mars in your hands. This globe was huge!! Sometimes it displays the moon, sometimes Earth, but for right now it's Mars.

Sloths sure have changed

I'll share this singular rock picture with you because everyone in our family was pretty fascinated by this natural cube of pyrite emerging from a stone. Crazy!

A few Faberge pics. Such ornate detail, and the inlay used on so many of their pieces is just fascinating.

A Faberge metronome!

We paid a few extra dollars to visit their special exhibit- Death by Natural Causes. It was an eerie display of all the ways you can die naturally; arsenic, diseases, poisons, deadly animals, etc.

I'm not sure if it's because of Hollywood, but often times Ancient Egyptian things just seem so fictional and unreal to me. But there's obviously an overwhelming amount of evidence that a people really lived this way. It's just so much different than a lot of other ancient civilizations. Cade took a lot more pictures so be sure to check out his blog post as well.

Right outside the museum was a gorgeous little park with an awesome fountain set inside a hill. Selfie time! 

We had a great trip, and Covid only ruined it a little bit here and there. It was great to see the kids smiling and having a good time instead of wanting to claw their eyes out at home. This week we're just enjoying the lack of schedule because online school will be totally different this time around. Wish us luck, and send prayers and help out to all those who work in education this year!

**Disclaimer- anytime you see us without masks in pictures, it was just for the sake of the picture and they were put right back on. In fact plenty of times the masks end up in pictures because we forget we're wearing them**

***Health update for those following that story- after several appointments being cancelled due to the uptick in cases in San Antonio, I fought for another phone appointment with my doctor. Of course my PCM has changed (the original doctor has moved, ya military life), so even though this doctor could see all my notes leading up to this point, it was like starting over while talking with him. He's the one that ordered the more extensive lab work looking for inflammatory markers and auto-immune disorders. That all came back negative so his kind of last resort thing was to do a CT scan of my lungs since shortness of breath and tightness in my chest is STILL and issue. I was finally able to do that scan on August 6th and the doctor called me Monday on our way home from Houston. He wasn't able to clearly identify what he found on the scan, but said it was either an atypical infection or inflammation. (duh!) So I will get my second referral to pulmonology and not be ignored this time. Hopefully the experts will be able to get a better reading of my CT scan and know what's going on. Maybe I'll get some answers and help. I'd love to be back at 100%. I've been taking Aleve which helps me more than I realized. For about 4-5 days leading up to my CT scan I stopped taking the Aleve so it wouldn't mask anything that was going on, and holy cow- my fever came back, my fatigue went from like 40%-80%, my body hurt in so many ways, had trouble sleeping and more. We need to get this figured out!***