A full weekend

Hubs and I spent last weekend flitting around to visit my far-flung sisters.
Friday:

• After work, we pile in the car and drive toward Kansas City. My youngest sister, E, goes to school near KC so her apartment was our first stop. Sadly, the roads were really slushy and small college towns in rural MO apparently don't plow as diligently as regular cities. So, we spend the night holed up, watching Dolly Parton's Straight Talk, counting the nuggets of advice she gave (for the record, it's 18, none of which I remember today).

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Hoping to stuff ourselves to the point that we wouldn't need lunch at a ridiculously expensive airport restaurant, we head to a cute diner for a hearty pile of carbs. We order biscuits the size of our fists and drown ourselves in gravy and coffee. Then, we drive to KC to catch a flight for Austin, to visit middle sister L.
• Lunch: We managed to skip, in preparation for what was to follow.
• Afternoon flight: I finish a soft aubergine scarf for my mom, which was perfect because silly me thought it would be 70 degrees in Texas. It was cloudy and in the 40s mostly, but in hindsight, it might have been that cold, yucky weather that allowed hubs, L and me to survive the barrage of food we encountered. I wear the scarf the rest of the weekend.
• Happy hour: After we land, my sis takes us to our hotel and we enjoy a delightful complimentary happy hour in the lobby. And Goldfish. Yum.
• Dinner: We head down to 6th Street for margaritas and Mexican food at Iron Cactus. Here, our party of four (we added L's roommate to the group), managed two appetizers and three entrees pain-free. I discover I can eat Serrano peppers and not even realize it (like running, I'm learning to be a spice-eater).
• Drinks: We meander down the street, stopping at a few places before settling on Union Park and its frozen mojitos. Delicious! And, the frozen-blendedness got rid of my least favorite part of mojitos - the big, soggy mint leaves.
• Back to the hotel: L works at the hotel we stayed at and her coworker kindly sent a bottle of champagne and some snacks up to our room! Hubs and I might have sipped some bubs while watching the roast of Jeff Foxworthy on Comedy Central. Gangsta, right?

Sunday:

• Breakfast: L brings us kolaches from Shipley's. Kolaches are breakfast sausages, cheese and jalapenos wrapped in a savory doughnut. I eat one and a half.
• Brunch: La Taverna has amazing food and $1 mimosas. We eat a hearty brunch and I think I see a girl I went to high school with.
• Shopping break. I discover a tiny bottle of perfume and fall in love because it smells like fancy suntan lotion.


• Snack: As you well know, hubs and I adore cheese. Especially in a melty state, on a nacho chip. We went to Doc's on Congress for queso. The bar had garage doors and a patio; if it wasn't freezing, it would have been a great place to sit in the sun!
• Lunch: Right on the lake, Hula Hut has a weird mix of Mexican and Polynesian food. Hubs and I order Mexican martinis, which are really just margaritas with a splash of olive juice. I make the nearly disastrous mistake of ordering shrimp rolls - shrimp, cheese and bacon fried in a wonton wrapper. We power through.
• Yarn-buying break. Since I finished my mom's scarf, I needed more yarn to start a new one for our return trip. Knitting during flying trumps reading.
• Drinks. At a posh outdoor shopping center, we spot this: and head to Joe DiMaggio's to take advantage of their happy hour and high-end cocktails. Our stomachs are ready for the grand finale.
• Dinner. At North. Oh, goodness. A five-course Italian meal that blew me away. And the light fixtures at this restaurant were super cute.

Monday:

• Breakfast at the hotel. Just fruit and yogurt for me, thanks. I'm lucky my jeans fit this morning.
• Flying back to KC. I realize I've reached the point where we fly so frequently (to visit people, for the honeymoon, etc) that I don't get nervous during take off. Hooray!
• Lunch: We land and decide the eating doesn't need to end; we are still on vacation. We consult the Garmin, which points us toward Smokebox BBQ near the airport. With a nice waitress and dark red BBQ sauce, we were able to end our trip on a high note.
• We get home and declare that we'll both be hitting the gym ASAP.

How was your weekend? Did you do any major artery clogging like we did?