Lupe's 2018 Birthday

So my Birthday is always over Labor day weekend for the most part because I was born on September 1st. This year we had to work on my birthday so we did not do anything to celebrate it on the 1st.  I'm quite used to this as my Brothers Bday is on the 28th of August and my Fathers bday is on the 29th of August. Growing up my birthday was not usually celebrated on my official birthday.

Thanks to Forever Resorts, the company we are currently working for, for my 2 free (birthday) nights at Lajitas Golf Resort in Lajitas, Texas.  Here's what happened.

Leaving the park we decided to stop at the tunnel that leads to our end of the park and get a few pictures. I love this little tunnel. It not only lets me know that we are almost home after a long ride across the park, but it also has a pretty cool view of the Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Mexico behind it.

Check-in at the hotel was not till 3pm so we decided to stop at the Chili Pepper Cafe in Terlingua to get some food. We always enjoy this place because of the hot salsa and spicy food. 

Lajitas Hotel is broken into 3 different areas, luckily we were able to stay in the Main hotel.  

After check in we walked down to the Longhorn museum that is connected to the Golf Resort check-in. I don't have a long arm span but this Longhorn's horn span was still huge.  

After walking around a bit we decided to check out the pool, but due to the weather, we were not able to enjoy the pool so we decided to do some more walking and check out the bar. 

This was the main photo on the back end of the bar. We started out with a shot of Bourbon to start the night off, I jumped to a French 75, went to Vodka for a Lemon drop Martini and ended the night with a Mexican Martini! We had a great dinner with some fun conversation about our travels with a few of the other guests at the bar. 

Instead of paying $250 to rent a Jeep for the day we decided to rent a Golf cart from Black Jack's Crossing for the morning and drive around the course. We were told it was a beautiful drive and even if we did not play golf we would still enjoy it. The entire trip took us just over 2.5 hours after all our stops to take pictures and just enjoy the views. It was well worth it!

Just pass hole 9 is a pump house that supplies water to the water features for the front 9. If you look closely in the picture below you can barely see it. 

We actually had to turn around on hole 11 because we passed these ruins, it was not until we were on the green looking back that we could see them. 

After our fun golf cart exploration, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for my Gentleman's Facial and Agave massage. Bert wanted me to have a massage to help relax for my birthday. The couple who work at the Lajitas Agave Spa also have a massage studio in Terlingua, Tx. 

After my massage, we had a few hours to simply relax, so we watched some US Open tennis and just kind of kicked back in the room. That evening a friend of Bert's offered to make us dinner in Terlingua. On our way out of Lajitas, we decide to make a quick stop and take a picture of Mayor Clay Henry. He is the one on top of the house lol.  

Sadly we do not have any pictures of dinner. Melissa made an amazing dinner for us, I'm not a big fan of grits but if you toss shrimp on top of it its a go. While the food was cooking she gave us a tour of her property on Ben's Hole creek. Could not see myself living in Terlingua unless it was a property kind of like hers. 

After dinner, we made our way back to Lajitas. Bert hung out in the room to watch a bit of the US Open while I went down to the pool. Within a few minutes of being at the pool, it was totally dark. Thanks to the cover of darkness I was able to swim au naturel in the pool and the fountain, drinks might have been involved lol.  Great Birthday!! 

Here are our related posts

How we accidentally met our new friend Melissa at Starlight Theater in the Terlingua Ghost Town. 

For more pictures and video feel free to check out our Google Album Lupe's 2018 Birthday Weekend

Christmas 2016 in Denver and a wonderful 2017 Birthday

Christmas in 2016 started early for us.  We had to take the Airstream in to be fixed before our planned 2017 trips, and we knew it would be at least two weeks for the work to be completed.  We had a soft floor in front of the sink that needed to be investigated, and we believed the hot water heater was leaking under the dinette.  So, we left the Airstream in Buda, Texas at Camper Clinic II and drove to Denver for Christmas on December 17th.

2016 Christmas in Austin

But first, to wrap Christmas up in Austin, we did hit the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, the Zilker trail of lights with Lupe's little sister and many good friends, and had early Christmas with Lupe's family.

December 2016 is also when the Green Monster got its side scratched at the Decker Lane Self Storage (which they refused to pay for).  Sad face.

'last' haircut with Farah

And, I got a beard trim, with Farah, my favorite hairdresser, and stepdaughter!!  

Thanks, Farah for taking care of me for our last year in Austin.

Randy always has lots planned for Christmas in Denver.  One thing we always do is visit the Denver christkindl market, where there are lots of magical, German gifts and surprises as well as LoDo and the 16th Street mall where there is ice skating.

Pre-Christmas festivities in Denver

So, on to Christmas in Denver after all the shopping.  As we approached the 25th, the rest of our close family from Texas arrived in Parker and we had another wonderful Christmas there.

Here's the fireplace the night before Christmas.

Sometimes it feels like we go overboard for Christmas.  As you can see in the photos there are lots of gifts.  I'd have to blame our mom, Ingrid since she was the one that always provided so many gifts around the tree.  It was never about the $$ you spent but about the thought behind the gifts.  We still do that, always getting gifts that, we hope, match what that person needs.  Here's the link to the Christmas 2016 Album showing the many gifts and good times we had on the 25th.




Since we had family in town, we decided to visit the Denver Zoo to spend time outside and give the kids some fun.  The nice cool weather was a change for those of us that live in Texas and usually have Christmas there.

Eventually, all the 'Texans' left and Lupe and I were left there in Denver waiting on the Airstream to get fixed.  I called Camper Clinic II regularly, but we knew it was the holidays and they would be slow to get the leaks fixed.  As it turned out, it wouldn't be two weeks to get it all done.  After many calls, Camper Clinic got Airstream Company involved after finding how significant the water damage was.

They found that the kitchen faucet had been leaking behind the counter onto the floor since we got the trailer.  That small drip finally started to damage all floors in the front of the RV and had soaked so much of the subfloor that they had to replace all the flooring from the dinette forward.  They had to remove the galley, the dinette, and the L-shaped couch and then replace all that subfloor.  That work wound up taking 2 months.  We finally got a call in early February 2017 that the trailer was ready!

However, the good in all this was that we got to spend a lot of time with Randy and Kenny, and we had an opportunity to explore Colorado for great outdoor adventures.  Here are some of the places we visited during that time. 

Cherry creek state park album, the Kathy Griffin show, Rocky mountain arsenal National Wildlife Refuge album, Chatfield state park, Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs album, and the International Snow Sculpting Competition in Breckenridge Colorado

Entrance to the International Snow Sculpting Competition  

Rocky Mountain National park + the famous Stanley hotel next to the park.

And of course, during that time I had my 2017 birthday at Linger in downtown Denver.  Who knows how old I became that year LOL but Randy and friends put on a fantastic birthday for me.