Things that happened over holiday
We are back in Switzerland after spending a month in the USA, and I thought I’d make a catch-up post for those readers (all single digits of you!) who may not look at Facebook.
We arrived in Austin on 9 Dec to temperatures of 80°F, for which we were definitely overdressed. However, our son Luke picked us up from the airport with our beloved Bernie dog, so we didn’t care about much else. We had been chatting at baggage claim with Cass’s coworker and his partner (now his fiancée!) who were on the same flight from London to Austin about how much we missed our dog, and he got a picture of us fawning over Bernie at the arrivals pick-up.
Cass quickly had to satiate a brisket desire, so we got some Interstellar BBQ ASAP the next daay. We have been enjoying their brisket for a couple of years now without much hassle because they are right by our house, but they became “Texas Monthly famous” while we were gone, and there are now daily lines to contend with.
We also celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by having some steaks at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in downtown Austin then doing the drive-thru version of the Trail of Lights.
Our middle daughter graduated from Texas A&M in one of 7 graduation ceremonies they had in December, so we had to attend of course. Our oldest daughter’s graduation ceremony got canceled in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we felt like this one was required attendance. It took place at 9am, and by that afternoon we were moving her out of her apartment. It was a half-ass effort, probably because we were still jet-lagged, so we left it to be completed in early January. I got a pic of a nice sunset on the way back to Austin though.
We had planned to drive to Mississippi the day after graduation, but our daughter wanted to go see the Spiderman movie together, and Cass was still suffering from a cold (that was definitely not COVID according to 3 home tests) so he/we didn’t feel like traveling. We ended up waiting an extra day after that, but on the Tuesday of Christmas week we finally made the drive. Bernie was all packed up to ride along, because he is transferring from Texas A&M (where he lived with middle daughter) to Mississippi State (where he will live with oldest daughter and youngest son). Smartest boy ever.
Once in Starkville, there were lots of to-dos. Cass had to smoke a brisket. And there was a giant tree that had fallen on the property that required a chain saw purchase and some manual labor. Luke learned how to use the chain saw, and he only nearly cut through one of his new hiking boots that we bought for him in Switzerland. We also had dinner at Harvey’s, which is the restaurant where we got engaged way back in the dark ages.
We spent Christmas week and the next week in Starkville. We went to my sister’s house on Christmas day and saw all of my family. Then we went to south Mississippi for an overnight stay the week after Christmas to see all of Cass’s family. Somehow, I don’t have any pictures of the family gatherings. I guess I was enjoying the visit too much to think about photos, which I guess is a good thing.
After New Year’s, we headed back to Austin to spend a week before our return flights on 8 January. There were wildlife sightings that ticked the required boxes for Austin. The snake sighting was actually in early December, the tarantula was there when we returned from Starkville, but I never saw any of my deer in the neighborhood. There were also to-do items in Austin as well, which Cass dubbed a home un-improvement project. Luckily, I had ordered a replacement fixture so we had another glass globe to use in place of the one that broke. We are thinking about possibly putting the house on the market in the spring.
Turns out, I got sick during the ride back from Starkville to Austin, so our week of clearing out the house and hauling stuff to the dumpster got canceled. I also did not participate in the return trip to College Station to finish clearing out our daughter’s apartment and turning in her keys. Some of Cass’s family tested positive for COVID right after we were there, so I was about 50% certain that I would get a positive test for our return flights. I had taken 2 at-home rapid antigen tests that were negative, but I was still preparing myself to have to change our return trip plans. It was all for naught though, because the PCR test was negative for both of us! And all of the family members had mild illness and are on the road to recovery.
Somehow when we checked in for our flights (AUS to LHR, LHR to ZRH), we did not get a boarding pass for the second leg AND our bags were only checked to London. We didn’t catch it, but when we got to London and went to customer service to get our boarding passes, it became clear that something had gone wrong. Therefore we weren’t very surprised when we got to Zürich and none of our bags showed up. I did however sit at baggage claim for a good while and watch that Swiss money go round and round on the baggage belt without anyone bothering it. You read (and are told) over and over about the honesty of the Swiss people, and I run across examples of it like this all the time.
The night that we got home, it snowed. I, however, had no idea because I was asleep by 9pm that night.
Also, our bags didn’t even get to us the next day. The courier was supposed to deliver by 9pm on 10 Jan but never showed. We finally got our bags on 11 Jan, and now we are all the way home.