On the way to Costa Rica via Austin, Texs

March 16, 2017, Thursday.  We were up early to travel to the airport to catch our flight to Austin, TX.  We arrived at the airport after walking to the bus stop, riding the bus to Parkrose, and riding MAX to the terminal.  We had checked in at home and for the first time ever, pre-printed our own checked luggage tags.    The tag gets inserted in a plastic holder and the luggage gets checked by an attendant before disappearing into the system.  

We had a leisurely breakfast at The Country Cat after passing security.  TSA Pre-check is well worth it. The flight was uneventful - we had "premium" seats which got us early boarding, four inches extra legroom and a free snack.  I watch a free movie on the inflight wifi network using the Gogo app - The Accountant.  Ben Affleck is a math wiz who can defend himself against his shady clients, drug lords, and unscrupulous business owners who have huge cash-based accounts.  There was lots of bloodshed and head shots.

We arrived to Austin and met up with John Rowan, who we are visiting for 3 days before traveling to Costa Rica.  He was delivering Teri, his ex-wife who had been visiting for the previous week, to the airport for her return to Portland.  We had enough time for a short get-together with Teri at an airport bar.

John drove us to the rental house where he has been staying for the past 2 months.  It is northeast of the downtown area about 6 miles.  We settled in and then walked to a HEB store for dinner at their outside cafe, followed by grocery shopping for breakfast supplies, etc.  The weather was warm and a gentle breeze blew up at dusk.  We walked home and finished up the evening watching NCAA games.