BRECKENRIDGE SUMMER VACATION

Who said that practicing law isn’t fun?  Take this laughable auto-response email that came across my desk recently from opposing counsel in one of my appeals:

“I am assigned to trial Monday, August 10 at 9:00 a.m.  As soon as that trial concludes I will be leaving for a long planned two week summer vacation.  Upon my return I will delete every email received over the three week period.  It is therefore essential that you forward your email to my secretary . . . .  If the matter needs any attention before August 31 please call her, or my law partner . . . .  Please keep in mind when I am in trial and when I am on vacation I never check email.

Hilarious, no?  I don’t hold it against him for drafting a stupid email — we all make bonehead mistakes once in a while.  But the arrogance?  Seriously — is he traveling off the grid?  What other communications will he destroy upon his return?  Tear up all his mail?  Erase all his voicemail messages?  Throw out any packages that arrived in his absence?  I don’t know about you, but in a million years I would not hire this lawyer to represent me.  Or fix my toilet.  I briefly toyed with the idea of starting a Facebook campaign to flood him with 1 million emails while he was on vacation, but thought better of it.

My family went on vacation this summer, and yes, we checked our emails occasionally. Okay, constantly.  Might have even done an hour or two of work while on vacation.  It just goes with the territory.  We weren’t off the grid, we were in Breckenridge.  And I would rather have it that way than what it was like when I first started practicing in New York. During a three-week trip to France (a delayed bar exam trip), I received exactly one message in my absence — it was left by mother, and warned me to watch out for terrorists.  Don’t really need to tell you how that job turned out, do I?  So yeah, I’d rather hear from my boss with something that needs my attention because I’m important and irreplaceable (girl can dream, right?).

Our first stop in Colorado was the Hertz service center in Denver.  What a bizarre scene that was.  After waiting in line for 45 minutes or so, you are directed to an area with rows of kiosks, where you then Skype with an agent located anywhere but Denver.  I found this all quite amusing.

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Patience is a virtue

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Kids never run out of ways to entertain themselves

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Your kiosk awaits

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Say hello to Agent Melva!

There is an inherent tension in our family vacations.  This is because my kids’ idea of a great vacation is to sit in a condo with unlimited free wi-fi, whereas my husband’s idea of a great vacation is to spend it doing things that involve at least a slight risk of death. We managed to find a number of activities that struck a compromise, such as hiking. It’s impossible to ignore the beauty of Breckenridge, and the cool weather was a welcome break from the triple-digit weather we left behind in Houston.

I was jealous of the overflowing flower baskets that lined the streets of Breckenridge, as all I can manage to grow this time of year in Houston is dried herbs (one day someone will laugh at this joke — is today the day?).

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One of my favorite things was seeing the abundant wildflowers on our hikes:

We had fun geocaching along the trails:

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A teeny tiny microcache

The kids were excited to find a patch of snow and throw a few snowballs:

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My daughter just had to take the obligatory feet-in-the-landscape photo:

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Personally, I hate photos like this.  I’m going to buy her a pair of rubber gorilla feet to use for our next vacation — that would at least be good for a laugh, don’t you think?

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Another thing we enjoyed was the Vail Farmers’ Market and Art Show, about 40 minutes from Breckenridge. untitled                                                vailfarmersmarket.com

The Vail Farmers’ Market is held on Sundays during the summer months, and has more than 135 tents, with food, produce, art, clothing, jewelry, and accessories.  I thought the paella-in-a-cup stand was a great idea:

I picked up a colorful woven basket to use at the farmers’ market at home:

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All in all, Breckenridge was a nice getaway.  I have to admit, though, that by the end of the week we were missing our dogs, the kids were anxious about the start of the school year, and we were ready to come home.

SAN MARCOS AND THE ROOT CELLAR CAFE

This weekend was Family Weekend at colleges around the nation, and I couldn’t wait to spend the weekend with my daughter.  We’d both been looking forward to this weekend ever since we dropped her off in August.

The highlights of the weekend were dining and shopping.  Shocking, I know.  Saturday morning we headed to the outlet malls in San Marcos.  It’s been decades since I’ve been to an outlet mall, and I was skeptical, but we were hopeful that we’d find some great buys.

San Marcos, population approximately 54,000, was founded in 1851 along the San Marcos River, and is among the oldest continuously inhabited areas in the U.S.  It’s home to Texas State University, which I was surprised to learn is the fifth-largest university in Texas, and has an enrollment of more than 34,000 students.  And here’s an interesting fact if you run out of things to talk about at your next cocktail party — President Lyndon B. Johnson graduated from Texas State University in 1930, making it the only university in Texas to have a President of the United States as an alumnus.  San Marcos is presently one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

But hey, don’t they say to avoid shopping on an empty stomach? Oh wait, that’s grocery shopping.  Still, I don’t see why that advice shouldn’t apply to clothes shopping as well.  And who are “they” anyway?  We passed every chain restaurant you can think of along the highway, but we were in the mood for something more interesting.  And that is exactly what we found at The Root Cellar Cafe.

The Root Cellar Cafe is located in San Marcos’s Downtown Square, at 215 N. LBJ Dr.

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The restaurant is decorated in thrift store chic, with mismatched tables and chairs that added to the college-town charm of the cafe:

IMG_5197Since it was just me and my daughter, we only got to sample two dishes, but they were both delicious and satisfying.  My daughter had the ciabatta cheesesteak — grilled roast beef,  bell peppers, onions, and provolone cheese on toasted ciabatta bread — accompanied by a pile of garlic scallion mashed potatoes:

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This was a two-fisted sandwich, and the seasoned roast beef and melted provolone made for a delicious meal.  The mashed potatoes were loaded with garlic and green onions, and were entirely worth risking garlic breath for.

I had the Hearty Frittata, which on this day was loaded with chunks of turkey, provolone cheese, and zucchini.  The generous slice was fluffy and cheesy and really tasty.  It was accompanied by sautéed grape tomatoes, a toasted English muffin, and spiced wild blueberry jam.  We splurged for a side of bacon, which was thick-cut and salty and perfectly crisp.  This was an outstanding brunch dish.

IMG_5194Not only was the food great, but the service was quick and attentive.  We loved this restaurant.

Before we left San Marcos we strolled around the Hays County Courthouse, a beautiful historic Texas courthouse built in 1908.  Depending on who you ask, the style is described as “eclectic,” “classic Revival,” and “Beaux-Arts.”  I have no idea what style the building is, but the courthouse, restored in 1972, is quite impressive:

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There was a small farmers market next to the courthouse that was just about wrapping up, where we ran across this content little fella (you gotta figure this guy is pretty secure in his manhood to be carrying around a Chihuahua in a baby sling):

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No longer hungry, we figured it was safe to venture off to the outlet mall.  We were happily surprised at the selection of stores, and came home with lots of great stuff.  It was a fun day together, and we can’t wait to go back to San Marcos for lunch and shopping!

 

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