Quite a few events, both big and small, have come and gone in our lives since my last entry, some of which I’ve recorded in my private journal files and a few of which have been posted to my Flickr photostream, but none of which made it into blog entries here. Things like buying a new bicycle for our daughter, replacing our queen mattress in the master bedroom, planting two trees in our back yard, and starting a new season of youth soccer for our son. But this entry is about our 2020 Spring Break trip.

We made it a near-carbon copy of last year’s spring break trip, visiting Kemah Boardwalk and Space Center Houston, but with a few important differences.

Outbound Trip

We took the same route as last year, with one change: we took I-610 around Houston and hit I-45 on the south side (rather than I-45 through Houston). From our house to Kemah was 244 miles, taking four hours and 26 mintues — slightly shorter in both time and distance than 2019’s trip. Again, we made only one stop all the way down; this time it was at an Exxon in Bryan, Texas, for 12 minutes. We ate prepared lunches in the car while driving.

Kemah Boardwalk

This was our third visit to Kemah, and our second consecutive visit during Spring Break. This year was — by far — the least crowded, which we attributed to people’s fears about the strain of coronavirus known as covid-19, which was the only thing on the news stations at our hotel. So we waited zero minutes in line to get our unlimited-ride wristbands. Most rides had similar wait times (only twice did we wait longer than the duration of the ride currently in progress). Parking was similarly easy and bathrooms were nearly empty. There was no waiting at the Aquarium restaurant.

The weather was cool and pleasant, with overcast skies. We felt a few rain droplets, but it never rained enough for me to tuck my camera under my shirt or for any of us to desire shelter.

In other words, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect visit. The children were decidedly less enthusiastic this year than in the past — though they smiled for the photos and generally didn’t give us any trouble. (The boy was occasionally contrary, but never to the point of ridiculousness, as he sometimes tries at home.) I will have good memories of this one — not a single thing went wrong.

We let the children try a couple of the carnival style games so they would learn why we usually don’t do them: you give the vendor five dollars and walk away with nothing. They tried a watergun squirting game and then a ball-tossing game with no luck, which took sixteen dollars in about two minutes. Afterward, my daughter fully understood the concept. “It cost that much for one minute and you don’t get anything?” Exactly.

The Hotel

We stayed in the some hotel as last year, the Hampton Inn & Suites on Bay Area Boulevard, and just one room over from last time. (Last year, we had suite 501; this time it was 500.) Again, there were no complaints about the hotel except the general ones we have with almost all hotels — need more hooks or racks from which to hang towels (so they can dry and be reused instead of wasting precious resources to wash them every day), need an exhaust fan/vent in the bathroom, choose better toilet paper, and maybe switch away from Fox News in the lobby to some station interested in veracity. (To be fair, the second morning they were showing CNN.)

Since last year we’d liked the hotel so much we wished we’d spent another night there, that’s what we did this time — booked for two nights. The first night was full of children coughing in their sleep and trying to kick us off beds. I eventually finished the night groggily on the short sofa. The second night, we figured out the sofa folds out into yet another bed, so we put the children in that room and my wife and I each had a queen to ourselves which was something akin to nirvana.

To solve the toilet paper problem, I left the first evening to visit the nearest discount retailer — as I almost always do when we stay at hotels — which turned out to be Walmart (it usually does turn out to be Walmart, somehow). Their toilet paper aisle was M T. Empty. Gone. So was the paper towel aisle and facial tissue aisle and hand sanitizer section and cleaning supply section and Clorox wipes and medicines of all kinds and bottled water. I finally found a four-pack of Angel Soft tucked away nearby and bought it.

Note: my wife and children had breakfast in the hotel both mornings (I tend to have only caffeinated beverages for breakfast). The first night, we had dessert at Marble Slab Creamery across the street.

Space Center Houston

Groggy from our night of half-sleep, we showed up at Space Center Houston to a fairly empty site — for once. There was zero waiting for the tram to Rocket Park where we once again saw the Saturn V rocket. Instead of doing any of the “tours” like we did on previous visits, we just rode a tram back to Space Center Houston where the children were apathetic about most exhibits. A few did catch their attention, and some enjoyment was had, but overall I think our price-to-joy ratio was lower this year than it should have been. Our son confessed to only really being interested in a souvenir, which we bought for him because his behavior hadn’t been significantly embarrassing and that was our agreement. (The daughter got her souvenir the day before, at the Aquarium gift shop.)

We’d planned to lunch in the site’s overly priced food court, but before lunch time we were finished. Neither child could think of another single thing inside that they wanted to do, and we parents were tired of trying to interest them. So we left just before lunch and ate at Wendy’s across the street (which has been entirely remodeled since the last time we ate there).

Shopping

With an entire afternoon to kill (last year, we would have been driving home about that time), we decided on shopping. There is a multitude of shopping centers within 15 minutes drive of our hotel but we’d always been in too much of a rush in the past to visit any of them.

First, I stopped at Fry’s Electronics to get a photo of myself in front of it — because I’ve promised myself I would do it “next year” for the past several years, every time we drive by it. We didn’t actually go inside, because I was the only one who wanted to, but at least now I have a photo of me there.

Then we tried the “mall” which turned out to be a few stores and a parking lot. The only store there we tried was The Container Store, which we don’t have in our home town. We bought a few items there, including a riser for my computer monitor — something for which I’ve been on the lookout for several years.

Then we headed south to the Tanger Premium Outlets (it turns out there are dozens of them, not just the one in Texas City, Texas). Next door to that was a Buc-ee’s, where we filled up with gas for $1.829 per gallon, the lowest gas price we’ve seen in more than a year. In the outlet mall, my wife bought some work clothes, we got a denim jacket for our son sized large enough to wear this autumn (but it shrunk when we washed it, so it’ll probably be too small this fall — I thought clothes didn’t shrink anymore? Mine certainly don’t), some shoes for my wife, jeans for our son, and T-shirts for our daughter.

There was enough time for a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts mid-afternoon, where my wife and I enjoyed the shaded outdoor seating while the children complained about something or other. We had supper that evening at Stomp’s Burger Joint, which was amazing in my opinion (but not that great in my wife’s opinion), and then stopped by the 5.11 Tactical store on the way back to the hotel. I’d been seeing that 5.11 store every year on our trips to Galveston and wanted to stop in. I was glad I did. If everything wasn’t priced triple a reasonable price, I would have stocked up on shirts, pants, belts, and maybe a backpack and knife or two. But everything was priced triple a reasonable price. (Interestingly, when we arrived back in our own metro the next day, we saw a 5.11 Tactical store being installed in the Market Heights shopping center.)

Inbound Trip

Finding nothing left to do by Wednesday, we headed home, taking the same route we’d used coming down (except from our hotel instead of to Kemah). It was 234 miles back home — which was the same as last year, though last year we left from Space Center — taking four hours and 42 minutes, including stops at another Buc-ee’s (near Hempstead) and lunch at McDonald’s (in Bryan).

With only an hour left to go, I pulled over east of Cameron, Texas, to photograph the children next to some Texas Bluebonnets, which for many people in this area is an annual tradition. (Though I’m convinced the bluebonnets were out early this year. Here are some dates I’ve photographed bluebonnets in the past:

• 2018: April 3
• 2017: March 14/28
• 2016: March 27
• 2015: April 8/17/18
• 2014: April 3/9/17/20
• 2013: April 19
• 2012: March 21/27
• 2010: April 10

Certainly this (March 11) is the earliest I’ve ever photographed bluebonnets in Texas; whether their season has begun earlier is up to scientists to measure.

Conclusion

After this trip, I joked to my wife that next year’s Big Spring Break Trip should involve us simply driving to a nearby town and staying a night in a hotel before coming back home. Both children insisted that the hotel was their favorite part, and that the only other thing they really enjoyed was buying souvenirs and eating ice cream. We toyed with the idea of choosing San Marcos next year, which (1) has hotels, (2) has giant outlet malls, (3) probably has an ice cream shop, and (4) is about two hours away.

However, I think we’ll have fond memories of this trip; I already do. The only real downer for me was missing that first night’s sleep — which wasn’t caused by the vacation itself as much as it was caused by sharing a room with two children. But I don’t think we’ll do this exact vacation again for a few years — the children are bored with Space Center Houston and Kemah for the most part.

Note: On our first tank of gas, we got 22.88 miles per gallon, which isn’t bad for our minivan. It included our entire trip from the house to Kemah, then to the hotel, an ice cream shop, NASA the next morning, Wendy's, and down to the Tanger Outlets. (Update, 2020.03.27: I finally filled up again in the minivan; that second tank got 20.68 mpg, but nearly half of it was used here in town.)