In order to prepare myself for my very first visit to Texas, I brushed up my lingo. Yep, it’s my first visit to the South. I’ve been to Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Mexico but never to Texas. Honestly I never had a reason. The reason: My cousin Melina! She was getting married. I didn’t want to miss the wedding. After all, I used to babysit Melina when she was a baby. 🙂 Michael and I booked our flights to Austin.
We got to the airport in style: town car baby! No, we are not normally that fancy but I saw a deal come through Living Social for a town car a few months ago. I bought it for our trip. It was cheaper than cab rides and more convenient than begging friends to drive us.
The wedding was going to be a huge family affair. Besides that my family is pretty big to begin with, but my mom decided we should all fly out a day early to spend time together as a family. My brother Andy and his wife flew into Austin from Philly. My parents flew there from Seattle and Michael and I joined them.
We got to Dallas and had 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Austin–which was OF COURSE on the complete opposite side of the monstrous Dallas airport. We were running through the airport Home-Alone-Style and barely made our connection.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but Michael was born in Louisiana and grew up in Texas. He doesn’t have the accent (or the tight jeans and boots, unfortunately 🙂 ). We arrived in Austin late and my parents stopped at a random Mexican restaurant for us to pick up some food to-go.
It was tasty Mexican food. I got an enchilada and it came with beans, rice and delicious salsa. The tomatillo sauce on my enchilada was SPICY. I loved it! Michael got some fajitas. We ate our dinner in our hotel room before crashing into bed.
I did not sleep well that first night. A new place, stress from traveling, excitement for the weekend…so when my alarm went off early Friday morning for me to go down and workout in the hotel gym I groaned.
It was 5:15 Oregon time and 7:15 Texas time. Either way it was freakin’ early. I dressed in the dark and headed down to the tiny gym. When I got there the machines were taken (which surprised me). There was one treadmill, bike and elliptical. I warmed up with some weight lifting.
The treadmill came free so I hopped on that. I ran for about 15 minutes to warm up. It was hot and stuffy in that little gym.
The elliptical freed up and I moved to that. I did the bulk of my workout on the elliptical and it was a good one. I was dripping in sweat and I was really glad I was able to get in a workout before the weekend festivities.
I finished up my workout and did some stretching. I had about forty minutes to shower and eat the hotel breakfast before we had to check out.
Gym Stats:
Time: 1:11
Calories Burned: 565
I didn’t have a ton of time to workout but some was better than none! Especially considering the food I knew I would be indulging in all weekend long. For breakfast I grabbed a small bowl of cereal, coffee, fruit, and one of the omelets.
Michael returned with our rental car and we all carpooled down to Austin to see the sights! And some CELEBRITIES! 🙂
QUESTION: When you travel how do you fit in fitness?
Tina @ Faith Fitness Fun
I usually focus on being active with our day to day activity but then fit in runs or bodyweight exercises in the mornings where I can. Plus, I may bring some DVDs if I’m really feeling motivated. I always feel so much better when I stay active!
Lisa Eirene
I feel much better when I do something active too. When it’s just Michael and I on vacation it’s easy to fit in fitness. We hike or bike, or I can run. But since we were with my whole family it was a little more difficult to negotiate “me” time.
Sara
I really struggle with finding ways to exercise while on trips/out of town. When I went to FL with my other equally active friend we ran a few days on the beach and walked A LOT! but otherwise I really have no idea how to do it and I’m actually nervous about my week long trip to GA with my boyfriend’s family. We are staying at their house for a week and I have no idea how to work out while we are there – any ideas to 1. get me to work out without impeding on family time and 2. keep me accountable? I know I won’t regret it – I just need a plan of attack.
Sara
Lisa Eirene
It’s hard for sure! My suggestion is to just fit it in when you can. If it means getting up an hour before everyone else, do it. This past weekend I got up about an hour and a half before everyone else two days out of the three. Did I want to sleep in? Yep! Was I jet-lagged and tired? Hell ya! And it was HARD getting my tired butt out of bed to go workout. But I am SO glad I did. I felt less guilty about stuffing my face all weekend long. 😀
Sara
Good idea. I’m going to have to really push myself that week in December. But like you – I know I won’t regret it if I just do it!
Lisa Eirene
In my opinion it’s worth losing 1 hour of sleeping in if it means I will feel happier and healthier for getting in a workout!
Lori
We tend to walk everywhere. When we went to New Orleans about 2 years ago, both John and I were still running and we ran around the French Quarter in the mornings. It was fun and the streets were empty because everyone sleeps late LOL!
Lisa Eirene
I bet it was really fun running in New Orleans! I love running in new places. Best way to see the sights!