We ain't got dem fancy thangs here

You've probably picked up on the fact that I have been bitten by the travel bug hardcore. And my husband, well, he has not. I guess when we were dating and he said he wanted to "travel," what he really meant was "I want to go to the same beach, Port A, every year with my buddies to fish." Seriously y'all, I might have considered high-tailing it outta there right then if only he'd been so articulate.

Since his idea of a vacation is massively boring (hey it's my blog, my opinion), he also doesn't get excited about planning or daydreaming about vacations. Sigh. Fail. So earlier this week when he was at the fire department for the 800th time this month, I started daydreaming online about vacations to Europe. Hotels in Athens, hotels in Rome, beaches in Greece, beaches in Italy, visiting the Vatican. I nearly peed my pants when I realized we can stay in Italy or Greece for $100ish per night. Are you kidding me!? Why am I not there right now!? And of course, these are beautiful hotels overlooking 1000 year old landmarks, the milestones of civilization. (Enter huge history dork...now.) But I had to reign myself in with the reminder that Europe=2012; not 2010 and not even 2011. To really save up to have a good, no-skimping 10-day European vacation without eliminating our savings account, we should probably wait two years. That's the smart responsible blah blah blah thing to do.

Until 2012, it's Port Aransas, Texas, here I come. In the spirit of reality, I decided to pick out a fun hotel for us to stay in Corpus Christi one night. (The compromise is we go on Ross' Port A trip for 2-3 nights with all the friends but we also stay in Corpus Christi 1 night, just us and do touristy things.) Excited that I could potentially book this hotel in the next couple days, I logged on to hotels.com, searched Corpus Christi. In anticipation I waited to see...

5 Star Hotels: 0

What!? The whole city of Corpus Christi, a beach town, has not even one 5-Star Hotel?! Wind out of my overly-inflated European-daydreaming sails. I can't even say for sure we were going to stay in a fancy 5-star hotel. But it might have been nice to check one out. I was envisioning a pretty hotel on Corpus Christi Bay. Sure, it's no beach resort in Crete, but for 2010, it's what I can do.

There's an Omni, a Sheraton and a Marriot in Corpus. We're likely to stay in one of those...or heck maybe even a Holiday Inn. What I'm more concerned with actually is a trip to the Texas State Aquarium (check) and a nice dinner out someplace (still not check). Suggestions for a delicious Corpus Christi dinner are welcome. Fun things to do in addtion to the Aquarium, also welcome.

Despite the lack of fancy, interesting hotels and ancient ruins, I am really looking forward to our trip to Port A. I am in desperate need of a vacation and as a beach bunny, some fun in the sun sounds pretty awesome. We'll be gone for a long weekend but I'm taking the full week off of work. I intend to come back relaxed and very very tan. I might even go get a new bikini for the affair.

And really, it's OK if we just ain't got dem fancy schmancy hotels in (Corpus Christi) Tejas.

In other news...

• The patio set from Nancy and Jack for our birthdays is all set up. We even enjoyed an impromptu BBQ party on it Friday night.
• Today is family birthday dinner with the Turners. We're going down to Salt Lick, THE Austin BBQ spot. I've not been so it's quite the exciting adventure this afternoon.
• I made three social arrangements for this month. Super exciting! Lunch with Haila at Chuy's, birthday happy hour at Trulucks and farewell party for Stephanie at Trudy's. All Austin institutions. It is a very Austin month.
• Ross is off at the fire department again this morning, but only for a few hours. He's working on the Fill the Boot campaign to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. As the guy who planned this year's campaign, we figured he ought to have a shift in it.
• Finally a couple years ago, I decided Ross and I should pick a charity to give to each year. For 2008, it was the American Cancer Society as I was on the planning committee for the local Relay for Life. In 2009 we took separate paths, me to YNPN Austin and him as a very active volunteer at Sam Bass FD. I'm still looking for our 2010 charity or charities. He's most passionate about animal welfare and I'm most passionate about cancer research. Since we've had a cancer year, I think it's time for an animal welfare year. And even though I work for an NPO and know that special events aren't the most effective way to raise money, I gotta admit, as a donor, I still like them. I like to engage with the organization but have a hard time committing to an ongoing volunteer role. So if you are or you know of an animal welfare organization in Austin that has a one-time engagement/donation opportunity, give us a shout out. We'll likely give you money and hang out for the day.