San Antonio, days 4 and 5

Day four (Tuesday) was interview day. Not much to say about that -- Rachel was sick, so I took the kids in the morning, went to my interview, came back. We did try the Mi Tierra cafe that Abby recommended in the evening. The food was pretty good, the service was quick, and they have live guitar players going around taking requests. They also had their own parking lot which is unusual for downtown San Antonio. (But in general we had an easier time finding decent parking than we've had in SLC.)

One fun story from Tuesday morning: I took the kids for a drive to scout out my interview location, mostly to figure out where to park so I didn't have to spend an unknown amount of time looking for a spot later. Turns out the office building Rackspace was in had its own parking garage. Problem solved. I turned the corner and pulled over to get out of the way while I asked our GPS to take us to a burger king to feed the kids.

While I was fiddling with the GPS, two bicycle policemen came up. One knocked on the window. "Would you care to explain why you're going the wrong way down the street?" I sheepishly explained what I was doing and that I hadn't noticed the street was one way. Fortunately the cop was in a good mood, and supressing a laugh, he and his partner stopped traffic briefly for me to make a U in the right direction.

Somehow I have to say that cops in spandex wearing dork helmets are less intimidating than usual. But I'm still glad these were in a good mood.

As for the interviews, I think they went well. They called this morning [Thursday] and said that if I want to stay in Utah and commute in for one week out of four until after the baby is born in August, they will go for that. I get the impression that is an unusual concession for them. No formal offer still, though.

Wednesday we took the kids to the big park downtown to stretch their legs. Unfortunately it was more of an adult park -- fountains, art, landscaping, but only a smallish play area which was saturated with at least three classes of schoolkids when we got there. The kids played for a while but when two more classes arrived the kids could literally not stretch their arms without hitting another kid on each side. Matthew was overwhelmed and just stood there sulking. We left.

We saw the Alamo before leaving. Everyone who says it's a bit underwhelming is right. They don't really have anything left from the actual "remember the Alamo" period except the church and one of the barracks, neither of which is in much the same condition it was in 1836. And it turns out nobody really knows much about the final battle, except Santa Anna won and killed the survivors. Pretty slim history to build a legend on.

Still, how could you go to San Antonio and not see the Alamo?

We were not looking forward to the flight back since it was going to be about an hour longer thanks to a stop in Dallas. It got off to a bad start when the Dollar car rental shuttle dropped us off on the wrong end of the airport, so we couldn't do curbside checkin. Grr! Fortunately someone had left a luggage cart right there, so we didn't have to lug everything down to the other end of the terminal where baggage check was. (Rachel's suitcase is only wheeled in the technical sense; the wheels are little useless vestigal things and in practice you just have to carry it.) Then the American Airlines agent told me I was in the wrong line and to go stand over there instead. This made me grumpy.

San Antonio is not a busy airport though, and at 2 PM on a weekday security did not take long. Our boarding passes were marked FIRST in the boarding section. We figured that meant that they thought Melissa was younger than she was, and we should board early. Shrug. Turns out that no, Rackspace really did book us first class on the return leg, maybe as an appology for not getting us a direct flight. Cheapskate that I am, this was my first time flying first class. Rachel, too. The food was actually edible -- Rachel liked her salad better than Ibizio's the other night, although I would have to give the edge to Ibizio for their excellent and plentiful blue cheese dressing.

The first class seats actually have one drawback: you can't raise the much larger and plusher armrests. When you are traveling with a two and five year old, raising the armrest gives you that much more space. But to be honest, you don't really need the extra lateral space in first class, and the extra legroom and leaning-back space makes a big difference.

The kids were good on the flight, and I think Melissa brightened a whole lot of peoples' day just a little by deciding to grace everyone disembarking at Dallas with an impish, dimpled grin and a chirpy "Bye!" There were few passengers grumpy enough to resist cracking a smile at the curly-haired two year old.

Agreeable kids combined with actually being physically comfortable made air travel actually pleasant rather than something to be merely endured. Amazing.

Then we got home. It was in the 80s in San Antonio. It is still cold in Utah.