Film Festival Recap #1
Our trip to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival began around 6:00 p.m. on Thursday evening. The Film Festival's opening ceremonies actually began on Thursday evening, but we were unable to leave until early evening because Jesse had a business meeting he couldn't miss in the afternoon.
Kathrynne and Daddy getting ready to board the plane.
Kathrynne hadn't flown since she was around three months old and we'd never flown with two little girls before, so we weren't sure how it would go. All we knew is that it had to be a lot easier than a 15 hour drive! Gratefully, we were able to find a direct flight for a very reasonable rate.
Kathrynne enjoying the flight.
We needed not worry about the girls on the flight; they loved it! Kathrynne was mesmerized by it all. Her only fear was that she was going to, as she said, "fall into the lights below."
Kathrynne surrounded by our huge load of luggage while waiting to get the rental car.
We arrived in San Antonio around 10 p.m. Once we secured our rental car, we called our friends the Hayden family (who were also attending the Festival) to see what they were up to. Caleb invited us to a late night dinner with he and Tim and the Stubblefields. Seeing as we were quite famished, we quickly accepted the invitation.
A late night dinner with the Stubblefields, the Carpenters (who ended up joining us, too!), Caleb Hayden, and Tim Horn.
By far one of the best things of our entire trip was the stimulating conversations and the encouraging fellowship. This late night dinner was a tiny taste of things to come. Topics of conversation included Mark and Amy's courtship story, marriage, the work of Franklin Springs and the new film they recently released on Stonewall Jackson, and other sundry topics of interest.
We finally parted ways around 1:30 a.m. and headed to locate our hotel. We pulled in to discover ourselves at the most run-down place we've ever stayed at before. I guess the saying "You get what you pay for" proved true in this instance as we had hardly paid anything for a four-night stay here as part of a flight/hotel/car rock-bottom package from Orbitz. It said it was a two-star hotel, but I'm still not sure how it managed to achieve those two stars.
Since it was already almost 2 a.m., we had nowhere else to go, and were quite exhausted, we decided to overlook the crickets and dirt, the lack of hot water, the broken alarm clock and door chain (you know that extra security mechanism so even if the door is somehow unlocked, it can't be pushed open but a crack), and the lamps which all turned on and off multiple times per minute. Daybreak was fast approaching and we needed to catch at least a few hours of sleep.
To be continued...
Kathrynne and Daddy getting ready to board the plane.Kathrynne hadn't flown since she was around three months old and we'd never flown with two little girls before, so we weren't sure how it would go. All we knew is that it had to be a lot easier than a 15 hour drive! Gratefully, we were able to find a direct flight for a very reasonable rate.
Kathrynne enjoying the flight.We needed not worry about the girls on the flight; they loved it! Kathrynne was mesmerized by it all. Her only fear was that she was going to, as she said, "fall into the lights below."
Kathrynne surrounded by our huge load of luggage while waiting to get the rental car.We arrived in San Antonio around 10 p.m. Once we secured our rental car, we called our friends the Hayden family (who were also attending the Festival) to see what they were up to. Caleb invited us to a late night dinner with he and Tim and the Stubblefields. Seeing as we were quite famished, we quickly accepted the invitation.
A late night dinner with the Stubblefields, the Carpenters (who ended up joining us, too!), Caleb Hayden, and Tim Horn.By far one of the best things of our entire trip was the stimulating conversations and the encouraging fellowship. This late night dinner was a tiny taste of things to come. Topics of conversation included Mark and Amy's courtship story, marriage, the work of Franklin Springs and the new film they recently released on Stonewall Jackson, and other sundry topics of interest.
We finally parted ways around 1:30 a.m. and headed to locate our hotel. We pulled in to discover ourselves at the most run-down place we've ever stayed at before. I guess the saying "You get what you pay for" proved true in this instance as we had hardly paid anything for a four-night stay here as part of a flight/hotel/car rock-bottom package from Orbitz. It said it was a two-star hotel, but I'm still not sure how it managed to achieve those two stars.
Since it was already almost 2 a.m., we had nowhere else to go, and were quite exhausted, we decided to overlook the crickets and dirt, the lack of hot water, the broken alarm clock and door chain (you know that extra security mechanism so even if the door is somehow unlocked, it can't be pushed open but a crack), and the lamps which all turned on and off multiple times per minute. Daybreak was fast approaching and we needed to catch at least a few hours of sleep.
To be continued...
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:11 PM
18 Comments:
Hi Crystal,
It was great getting to meet you and your family. We really enjoyed talking with y'all and look forward to visiting again sometime.
God bless,
Amy
Wow... sounds interesting. I am glad that you had fun though. Hopefully you got to move to another hotel (LOL)
jamala wade
http://singlegodlymom.blogspot.com/
Somehow, I sense what's coming in the to be continued section.... ;)
My hubby and booked a trip to Disneyworld through Travelocity. Long story short, after being assured multiple times that we'd have a room when we arrived at 3 am, we were informed that Travelocity made a mistake, and that there were NO rooms available, we'd have to wait until 3 PM. After a bit of banshee-like ranting on my part (I was not nice, admittedly, after being told I'd have to sleep on the street), I finally got a room. It smelled like smoke, and didn't look like the room had been cleaned too well - we griped later that morning to the manager about the poor "Disney Customer Service." Needless to say?? I just call the hotel directly now and book - I don't trust travel sites any more. :( And...many hotels now price match! Why take a gamble when you can guarantee you get what you need, is my logic...
I have never heard of the film festival and have found your tellings about it very interesting. However, what I really want to know is this. WHERE DID YOU GET KATHRYNNE'S DRESS?! Did someone make it, did it come from a website or did you buy it? I'd LOVE to find out. It is SO gorgeous! If it was made, do you know by whom(well, who the pattern-maker was)?
~Jennifer K.
Oh, my! That sounds like quite an adventure with that hotel! Can't wait for Part 2!
Jennifer: I got it at Kohl's at an after Easter sale for $10.
Hi Crystal,
Looks like it was a whole lot of fun! Too bad we don't live closer...we'd love to attend! It would be quite a trip ($ and otherwise) with our brood though unfortunately.
Off topic (because I know you love frugal things ;-) ) : We are giving away one of our knives this week! Stop by and join in the fun if you'd like.
Warmly,
Tamara
Oh, how I wish I could have gone!! :) I'm sure you had a wonderful time. I'm sorry to hear about the hotel, though!! I'm looking forward to more pics! :)
I LOVED Kathrynne's dress! Too pretty! And that picture of her and her daddy was just precious.
Thank you for sharing!
Great to see you and the whole family in SA, Crystal! I'll look forward to reading further accounts of your adventures.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time! I can't wait to hear more about your trip! :)
Pictures are great-love Kathyrnne's dress!I can't wait to hear the rest of the story.
When we flew with our oldest when she was about Kathryn's age, she asked, "If the airplane falls down out of the sky, will we bounce up to heaven?" I said with a big smile, "We sure will!"
Sounds like quite an adventure already!
Kathrynne is such a doll and the photo of her with her daddy is very sweet.
Oh, and I agree with Jennifer K. Kathrynne's dress is simply lovely.
Glad to see you are safely back home now.
Diana
Oh dear. We had a similar experience in Orlando a few years ago. We know now why it was so cheap on the internet. :-) We told our kids it was all part of the adventure. LOL
Hopefully, your hotel situation improved. My dads a pastor. I'll never forget the time when I was a kid that someone paid for us to stay at a hotel for some occasion. It was a terrible place and we got eaten up by bedbugs! Oh the joys of being a minister's daughter :)
Crystal!
I cannot believe that you did not let me know that your family was going to be in San Antonio... I had plans to put you all up in my family's guest house! Oh well... next time..
MM: You're very sweet! This was such a last minute thing (we decided we were going less than 24 hours before we left!) that we didn't have time to mention to any of our friends who lived in the area that we were coming!
When my youngest son, Nathaniel, was very little (he's 11 now) we took him (and the rest of our brood-all six of them) on a trip. When boarding the airplane I got him settled into the seat beside me. He took one look out the window and then said to me, "Mommy, I want off this spaceship!"
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