My brother came into town last night to go to the Trail of Lights here in Austin. We had not attended in maybe ten years and it has changed a bit. It used to be the big tree of lights on one side of the road on a big open field and then a walk on a road to see displays set up by local business, such as HEB being the main sponsor, or Samsung sponsoring a display of the Peanuts characters in Christmas gear for free. At some point, you could buy a hot cocoa if the night was especially cold and I remember a pit where they would burn these huge trunks of wood I guess all weekend to get warm as you walked through on colder nights.
Fast forward 10 years and everything is still there, but put the thought "How can we make money here?" Nowadays, there is a gate and they charge $5 to get in. We had to buy a parking permit for $15, or we would have had to park at either Burger center and buy $7 park and ride tickets, or as my brother did, he bought $20 a person zip tickets, which gave him access to a heated lounge and earlier entrance. There was even a VIP/presidential ticket for $85 where you would get parking right by the entrance to the walking part. After walking from where we did, this seemed like a good value.
I love my brother, we grew up very close, and I have always enjoyed hearing him ramble on about anything, and last night he was entertaining on how out of shape he is. Javalina has to come out and talk a little about football and then promptly tried to challenge him to arm wrestle. My brother in his gifted way of painting a picture said "no thanks, I don't want to start 2020 with an injured bicep." Then he added "all I do with these hands is eat, and swipe credit cards and sign my name. I sneezed the other day and thought I broke a rib and you want to try to rip my arm off, no thanks." This was all at the house before we left.
The self deprecation continued all the way in the park, while walking, he kept asking "why did we get ourselves into this?" I am not in much better shape than he, but I understand you have to walk in these events, so onward I kept pressing. I had told him that story where the nurse practitioner thought I would be dead by last weekend and every time we got a little separated, he came back thinking I was in pain and had given up. I was trying to walk in a way to keep the group together. He was interested in finishing the walk, Boy and Sweetie were the perfect little couple slowing down to take pictures at every display and Javalina was just hungry.
The first big decision was whether we were going to go walk under the big tree of lights or head directly to the trail? I suggested going under the tree, which my brother already thought was just additional walking, just to punish him. I tried telling him that the whole fun of the tree is you're supposed to twirl around and dance with your loved ones, but it seemed to go over his head. His concern was to find stuff to buy his son who was looking for a souvenir store STAT!
No comments:
Post a Comment