Winter Break 2024. Chapter 1. Liftoff.
Well here we go!
Thursday, January 18
This morning we were all up bright and early ready for our 7:45 pickup. We decided to forego Uber in favor of a scheduled pickup, because we always have issues with getting an Uber big enough to fit all of us. We were actually pulling away by 7:50 which is extremely impressive. We were off to LaGuardia (which in and of itself is a trip). Because Jet Blue only has one flight to Houston a day, we had to opt for Delta, apprehensively. Check in was no issue, but we had to pay for bags which was like paying for another flight. At security the pre-check line was very long, so they put us on a “family line” which I’m pretty sure took longer than the pre-check line because it was actually a family and ADA line, so they kept letting people in wheelchairs cut the families, and of course all of the families were moving at a snails’ pace. But hey, at least that meant we could take our sweet time at that conveyer belt. We made it through, walked a mile to the gate, and got coffee and a bagel. The flight had a 15 minute delay, but we boarded and got settled.
We were nervous about flying Delta, but I have to say they won us over. We had comfort plus seats, which were very comfortable and possibly even better than Jet Blue even more space. Boarding was easy, we left on time, the flight attendants were lovely (and unlike JetBlue flight attendants didn’t seem like they hated their jobs), and the pilots even invited the girls into the cockpit before the flight. The flight itself was uneventful. I sat with Hallie, Tzvi sat with Madeleine and Inbar. Many iPads were watched. I actually watched Bring It On and Miss Congeniality and I have to say, the movie selection on Delta is unparalleled. I mean, how often do you see Grease 2 available? You know they are appealing to a niche market. We landed and got our bags before Tzvi even got back from the bathroom at baggage claim. Well done Delta.
We Ubered to our next destination, the Four Seasons Houston. We saw an anti-Hamas billboard on the way. Pulling up to the hotel I was unimpressed; from the outside the building looks more like a Westin (no offense Westin) but on the inside we were met by a typical beautiful, ornate, shiny Four Seasons lobby. This building must have been something else before. We checked in and headed upstairs. They said they upgraded us to a Corner King, connected to the kids’ room. I think our room is bigger than the two rooms we are going to have on the ship combined. Hallie was starving so she and Tzvi walked across the street to Phoenicia Market, a huge specialty food store, and brought back some pizza, fruit and coffees. We unpacked, showered, and headed to dinner.
Of course Tzvi rented a Tesla, as he does when we have a 3 day weekend before a cruise, but of course it takes him 3 days to figure out how to drive it. Dinner tonight was in the Jewish area of Belaire, so we first stopped at HEB, a regular supermarket (and I mean super) with a large kosher selection (but to be clear, not a Jewish market despite the name). We got a plethora of snacks and berries, and some challah and grape juice for tomorrow. We did not buy the giant vat of potato salad, which to me just screamed “Texas!” In the store Hallie managed to spill all of the blueberries on the floor, and then we had to get the wagon off of it but it kept crushing the blueberries. It was awkward.
From there we drove to dinner. On the way we passed by many large houses that would rival back Lawrence. These were truly gorgeous, and probably go for a fraction of the price. Dinner tonight was at Casa Bar and Grill, a kosher meat restaurant. It was empty when we walked in and we were seated immediately. The place was nice, but you could tell immediately you were in an “out of town” restaurant. There was just something off – like the menu was a mix of southern and Spanish, but the music was Israeli, and the décor was just like a modern restaurant. The food was all excellent though, and of course we ordered way too much. We started with short rib tacos, pesto ravioli and cauliflower. For mains we shared a dino rib, a lamb shank and a pastrami burger. The kids had chicken nuggets and fries. For dessert we ordered the chocolate mousse, the warm chocolate cake, and the churro donuts. I think the first two were frozen. The mousse was truly awful. The chocolate cake was meh, and the donuts had that fried taste like metallic in a way (do you know what I mean?). But overall good meal.
We made our way back to the hotel and the girls were way overtired. Madeleine couldn’t stop crying that her kid robe kept opening, and it was hilarious but also so annoying. We finally convinced her to just put on a pajama instead.
After they went to sleep I went to the gym, because who knows when the next time I’ll be able to do that is. It was empty, which was great.
I’m tired. Good Day.
Friday
We woke up this morning bright and early. And by that I mean Hallie came in at 5am up for the day (and that was after at least 2 wakeups overnight). This is going to be fun. We just kind of laid there for a while but I think we were out the door by 8am, a rarity for us. Because we were up so early we decided to go out for breakfast to an authentic Texas establishment. So we drove to a boujee neighborhood and ate at a place called Dish Society. It wasn’t waiter service (we ordered at the counter and then the food was brought to us). Tzvi and I both had really good egg dishes. Madeleine had pancakes and Hallie had French toast bites. It was a cool vibe. They had a scrabble board on the wall with magnetic tiles and a chalkboard too. Good breakfast.
From there we made our way to the Space Center! We missed the entrance and tried to get in where the actual employees enter, but that didn’t work for us. At the entrance are two rockets with fake people in them, and Madeleine thought they were real. We entered and were kind of lost in space. We weren’t sure where to go or what to do, so we kind of just walked around. At 11:30 we went to the theater to hear from a real astronaut, which was very cool, but we had to leave at 11:45 to make it to the tram for our Mission Control Tour.
This was a tour where they took you to the actual Mission Control room from the Lunar landing in 1969. We were seated in the observation room behind mission control (which was the real observation room where people were sitting and watching in 1969, in the same seats). They tried to simulate the experience of watching it happen in 1969, playing audio of mission control and the astronauts, and putting the same things on the video screens and little TVs in the corner of the room as were on in 1969. It was very cool. What I found peculiar though was the amount of rules they kept repeating. No eating, drinking, gum chewing, baby food, large bags must be left downstairs, if your baby makes noise or you have to “take an important phone call” go outside, and enjoy the show as your “sit GENTLY” in your seats. And please don’t touch the ashtrays.
After the show we tried to get the kids some food, “tried” being the operative word. Madeleine wanted the Mac and Cheese but said it was spicey (it smelled gross) and Hallie did not love the pizza. Madeleine ended up making her own salad – basically a bunch of veggies, cheese, tofu, corn and tortilla strips, but no lettuce or dressing.
We went to a replica of Space Shuttle Independence and then the actual plane that carried the space shuttles, which was cool. We saw a bunch of original lunar modules, and then obviously finished at the gift shop where Hallie broke a gem. They didn’t charge us, thankfully. There was a lot of cool stuff, and even a t shirt that said “Uranus – the original gas giant” but Tzvi opted for a boring NASA shirt instead and the girls wanted squishy balls.
We started our drive back, but not without stopping at a Starbucks to get a Texas and a Houston mug. THEN we had to stop for coffee. Tzvi missed the exit and it added another 15 minutes to the already 45 minute drive, so he almost went into Tzvi mental breakdown mode, but he managed to pull himself together. The coffee was great and we also had a delicious brownie. We went back to the hotel, hung out for a little and got ready for shabbat.
We did kiddush and motzi in the room, and then went for dinner downstairs in the “gastropub” restaurant. We had a cool table in an enclave surrounded by bourbon bottles. I had a great salmon salad and maybe one of the top three Onion rings I’ve ever eaten. Hallie was falling asleep at the table, which made sense considering she’d been up since 5am, so we skipped dessert and took them upstairs to bed.
When I say skipped dessert, I mean they skipped dessert. After the kids fell asleep, I went back downstairs and ordered a coffee ice cream sundae, salted caramel ice cream, and a chocolate cake and brought them back to the room. Tzvi, Inbar and I sat eating it while she regaled us with tales of her Israeli college experiences. It was fun.
Saturday, January 20.
Today’s wakeup was at 5:53am. We’re making progress! We moved very slowly and eventually went to breakfast around 9 at the main restaurant, Toro Toro. I got a delicious avocado toast. The girls were a bit wild and kept using their squishy balls from NASA to make fart noises, except I don’t think other people in the restaurant saw the squishies and just thought it was us. Keep it classy. Our server asked if we were from New York and told us that there were a lot of people there from New York that morning. Just exchanging one frigid temperature for another. One thing I should mention is that it’s cold here. Like 30s and 40s cold. Not only did it make packing difficult (we had to bring winter coats!) but it also messed up our plans. When we booked this trip we had been expecting to spend Saturday at the pool. Shabbat wasn’t over until 6:30, so we had to figure out how to fill the hours. After breakfast we played lego in the room for a while, and then around 11:30 we decided to take a walk. We walked to a place called The Post, a gutted old post office that now has food stands and some shopping stands. It was a long walk (probably about ¾ of a mile each way). Madeleine fell asleep in the stroller but Hallie did great. We walked around for a bit and saw all of the food and the shops. Then we sat for a bit. Tzvi fell asleep on a couch, and then just as we were ready to leave Madeleine woke up, so she and Hallie ran around for a while before we finally got the strength to walk back.
Back at the hotel it was snack time. We went back to the lobby gastropub where we got some hummus and pita, chips and guac, and Hallie got fish and chips (interestingly she ate only the fish inside and not the fried coating). The place was filling up as people were coming in to watch the Houston Texans game. Spoiler: they lost, badly.
We went back to the room and spent some time packing. We panicked for a moment when we realized that an entire bag of the girls’ laundry was missing. We feared that it had been thrown away, but that just seemed absurd. I went down to the front desk and found out that housekeeping had actually taken the bag, assuming that we were using the Four Seasons laundry bag because we wanted it done, and sent it all to be washed. I informed the front desk that I would not be paying $100 to have my children’s clothes washed and they assured me it would be removed from the bill.
We showered, and eventually it was 6:30. Before we left, Inbar and I took advantage of the luxury bag rental program. The Four seasons has a partnership with one of those bag rental companies, so you can rent bags for the length of your stay free of charge. We both opted for Chanel for the evening. It was fun. I have now tasted luxury and I can never return.
Dinner tonight was at Coltivare, an Italian place in the same area we had breakfast yesterday. We shared two pizzas, cauliflower and a delicious cabbage dish. We also got an order of focaccia, which turned out to be a huge plate of bread. It was very good. The pizza had this weird, huge, puffy crust, but it was actually delicious. And Madeleine ate all of the noodles.
After dinner we went for ice cream at Sweet Bribery. I actually didn’t love the ice cream, but it was fun. Tzvi had a cinnamon toast crunch flavor, which he enjoyed.
From there we went back to the hotel and put the girls to bed. Someone from housekeeping arrived with the girls’ laundry, which was beautifully done and came in a basket nicer than any of our laundry baskets. It also came with a bill for $87 (which we weren’t actually charged for).
I got in a quick workout at the gym, then we packed up a bit and went to sleep. Tomorrow we get on the ship!
Sunday January 21, 2024
We woke up this morning at 7:15. So much improvement! We ordered room service for breakfast which everybody enjoyed, and called an Uber to take us to the Port of Galveston. A woman who didn’t speak much English arrived in a Chevy Suburban, which usually would be fine, but she had a giant cooler (I didn’t ask what was in it) in her front seat, so we actually were really packed in there. It was like a puzzle arranging everything. The ride was about an hour as we finally got a glimpse of our ship, Harmony of the Seas.
We said goodbye to our bags and headed up to the check in.
We were all very nervous, and Hallie just kept saying, loudly, “Is Inbar going to make it on the ship?”
We need to teach that kid about discretion.