Walking on a sine wave

My aunt and cousin are visiting us from India after 20 years. It’s a treat to have them here during my sabbatical as I can see them without juggling meetings and work travel. During one of our chats last week, we decided to take a road trip to Austin and San Antonio. Lo and behold, 3 days later, I loaded my car with my kids, picked them up and we were on our way to a Texas sized adventure. Of course we missed a little detail of checking the weather which was forecast to be 105F due to an unexpected heatwave. Needless to say, this made for a very unique experience as we would get out of the car, quickly see the site/ monument and rush back to drink a gallon of water every time. I loved that I got in an average of 15K steps / day thanks to this See ‘n’ Dash approach :D.

We started the trip with Starbucks Chai which is a must for all desi road trips. Our first stop was the State Capitol in Austin and our guests were impressed with it. They were also surprised to see a special ” Permitless Carry ” entrance to which my response was – It’s Texas y’all!!! We then noshed on Gordough’s donuts and tried to find one open food truck. Turns out almost all of them are closed on Monday/Tuesday. It was almost 3 pm and everyone was starving. This led to the second must do of all desi road trips – A stop at the Taco Bell. They loved the new items since their last visit and we spent the next hour discussing our favorites from back in the day.

Next stop was the Natural Bridge Caverns and the Hidden World tour. We went down a cave which was 760 ft deep and apart from enjoying the natural wonders, loved the cool 65F temps in the cavern. The ride back up on the conveyor belt was another adventure as we had stand while leaning forward at a 75 degree angle.

Finally made it to San Antonio and it was burning hot with 105F which felt like 115F ( according to the weather app). Took a break and took them to the pride of Texas – The Alamo. Their reaction was the same as everyone who visits it for the first time and I will leave it at that. We then headed for dinner to our favorite restaurant which turned out be a bad idea. Horrible service and worse food ensured that we will not be returning there ever. I felt terrible that food wise the day had been a washout except for Gordough’s.

Day 2 started on a great note with fantastic breakfast at a local bakery next to our hotel. We loved the Conchas, croissants and kolaches and I was relieved. We then did the Riverwalk boat tour and this time our guide was exceptional. This was THE best boat tour I have taken in San Antonio in the last 2 decades.

The temps starting rising again and we then rushed to see the remaining 4 missions starting with Mission San Jose. San Antonio Missions are the best attraction in San Antonio IMO. These missions demonstrate the history of San Antonio (and Spain, Mexico, and US) over the last 400 years. We saw all the missions and everyone’s favorite was Mission Espada (for reasons only Hindi speaking folks will understand :D). The stay was wrapped up with an excellent lunch at Cascabel Mexican Patio and Mangonada + Raspas at Amigos.

On our way back we stopped at Radha Madhav Dham in Buda. The beautiful ashram spread on 200 acres in the Hill Country is peaceful and spiritual. We did darshan at the temple, walked around the property and took tones of pictures with the peacocks.

The final stop on way was at the Czech Bakery in West to pick up kolaches for dinner. This is an absolute must stop for our family every time we take I35 south from Dallas.

I loved the two days spent reminiscing about old times, catching up and laughing the entire time. Thankful that I got to spend quality time with them and I hope we can recreate this adventure again … very soon.