[s1900ahon]

Wow.. weird.. I was in Burlington just Wed. Not weird that anyone would be in Burlington of course, but because I mentor 2468 in Austin TX for Coach Norm.

All of the above advice is great.

When we travelled by air in the past from Austin to Orlando, our travel coordinator selected Southwest and did a group booking with them. For some reason, we were issued paper tickets rather than etickets (something to do with the group purchase aspect). Anyhow, we found that a small group of our students just didn't get the message that they weren't etickets and therefore must be retained. Our lesson learned was always get etickets, or, only provide the students one ticket at a time. Fixing lost tickets for 2-3 students in a group of 35 still takes a long time.

I'd also spend as much time at the destination that you can reasonably afford, both in terms of cost (hotel) and time off school. Arriving Wed night and leaving early Sunday morning makes for a very tired group. To that end, I'd try to fly out Tuesday so that you can use Wednesday as a cultural day. San Antonio has many attractions very much worth seeing (the Alamo comes to mind and is a short 5-10 minute walk from the competition venue). If you want to wander further afield, traveling across TX is not different than driving across ON; major cities are spread far apart. San Antonio to Austin is like driving from London to the west-end of Toronto. San Antonio to Houston (e.g. Johnson Space Center) is like driving from west-end Toronto to Kingston.

Food wise.. while in TX I recommend you get at least one sample each of Tex-Mex and BBQ.

If I can be of help to you, drop me a PM. I grew up in the GTA (Brampton) but moved to Austin shortly after graduating from University.. and have been here since. And as Coach Norm said we plan to attend the Alamo too when the second regional selection period begins. We love that place and the great teams who will be there. Patrick, Jess, and the regional planning committee do a fabulous job.. we're very fortunate.

-Scott