This year’s anniversary trip was a little different. Our friends talked us into racing the Austin Rattler on our actual anniversary (that story is here). We had plenty of time before and after the race, and we always take some sort of trip for our anniversary, so we decided to make a whole road trip out of it.

We left Denver on a beautiful fall day, nice and warm, and made our way to our first stop, Palo Duro Canyon, and arrived on a beautiful, warm afternoon. After setting up camp, we made some dinner and managed to eat and clean up before it got too dark… Then, an early night curled up in our sleeping bags.

We woke up to a cold, cloudy morning in north Texas… Arg! Visions of last year’s frozen camping in Utah (link) danced in my head. Thankfully, it wasn’t THAT cold. Well, not much we could do about the weather, so we made some coffee, had some breakfast, and set off on a hike.

We did a pretty solid hike that day, and again the next, both days cloudy and cold… We were ready to take off by our last morning and get a shower, a bed, and a warm night’s sleep at our hotel that night. It was 23 degrees while we were packing up the tent, which made for some frozen hands for sure. We made some coffee and hit the road.

We arrived at our hotel just in time to check in, take showers, and get some decent dinner. We’ve really come to love the Hyatt hotels. They’re always clean and the beds are super comfortable.

After our race, we got a chance to hang out with my cousin Caitlin for a day. She took us to Georgetown, which is a cute little town with funky shops and bars, and then we went to a park with a bunch of food trucks for dinner.

Monday morning we continued on our trek around Texas. We knew we were headed to Port Aransas, but truly had no idea where we were going to sleep that night. Supposedly there was a park with tent sites, and there was camping on the beach, but we had zero details. Not usually my favorite way to travel, but I also figured we’d figure it out.

We stopped in San Antonio for lunch on our way, which was cool. I’d only been once, and Matt hadn’t been there at all. We wandered the Riverwalk, grabbed some food, and saw the Alamo, which was interesting.

When we got to Port Aransas (or Port A, as it’s referred to down there), it took us a couple tries, but finally figured out we could just buy a $12 beach parking pass and camp right on the beach.

Camping on the beach was cool. The sunrises the fire couple mornings were spectacular. There’s something to be said for making your morning coffee barefoot on a beach, watching the sun come up over the ocean… Be still my heart.

We spent a lovely four nights hanging out there, going out to dinner most nights, cooking at camp once at least. We went to North Padre National Seashore and to the USS Lexington aircraft carrier museum, and I had one of the best grilled shrimp dinners I’ve ever had at Virginia’s on the Bay.

Finally, it was time to pack up and heat to my other cousin’s house outside of Houston. We packed up and hit the road after an awesome breakfast at a little place called Coach’s. And by little, I mean little. They only had five tables. The food was awesome, though.

Hanging out with all the Houston crew was fun. We don’t see them much since there are enough of them they just stay in Texas for Christmas these days, so it was really nice to see everyone and meet all the new littles in the family.

One weekend there, and it was time to head home. We spent a night in Amarillo, and got back to Denver pretty early, which was nice. And we still had a couple days to do laundry (and figure out how to get ALL the sand out of everything!) before having to go back to work. Good times.