Lauren's trip to Corpus Christi
- Sept. 29, Oct. 1 & 2, 2016
I've
been wanting to go to Corpus Christi for a while now. So when I
heard my girl, Selena, was having her MAC makeup launch in her
hometown I knew I had to be there for that.
My girlfriend, Maya, agreed to be my road buddy and joined me for a
three day adventure to Corpus Christi, Texas. We left Baton
Rouge, LA at
9:30 am and took the seven and half hour drive to get there. The
ride was long but exciting, when we finally arrived I was so
surprised to see how big and beautiful of a town it really was.
Our first stop before we looked for a hotel or anything was the
Mirador de la Flor. We walked the long bay front walk to get
to it, and when I she was in my sight the butterflies started Its
nothing like in the pictures. It's big and beautiful and so
touching to know that's for her. You can't touch the statue
because of the railing but it sure felt good to see it in person.
We walked down the steps to see the mural the children painted of
the roses down below her memorial, again it's better then the
pictures. Just to know little children in Texas painted that
for her is so touching and wonderful.
We took that time to hang out by the statue and look for a hotel.
I called a couple that Google had provided for me in my price range,
I called around and finally settled on the Knights Inn on
navigation. It took about 15 minute from the Mirador de la
Flor to the hotel. When I went to go pay for the room, I
noticed a picture of Selena hanging up to the left of the check out
area. I asked why that was there, and when the guy told me
that I was staying at the hotel where the Reyna was taken from us, I
almost took my money back and left, but it was late and I didn't
have many more options.
I was curious to stay there though. Would I feel Selena's
presence?
The room was actually nice, I heard bad reviews of this hotel from
other fans on YouTube, but I was surprised it was clean and had a
big flat screen and nice bedding. Our room faced the pool and
pretty much faced directly across to room 501. Someone was
already staying in that room, so the door was open I had to go walk
by, I was already there and my curiosity got the best of me. I
automatically regretted even getting close to that door. I
felt shaky and dizzy standing right by it You can feel the negative
energy right away. We took the same path back to our room that
Selena did to her last breaths in the lobby.
I
tried sleeping as best I could that night. The next morning we
got all dressed up and headed out to the American bank center which
was where the MAC Selena event was held. So we end up waiting
three hours in line just to get in. It was worth it because
they had decked out basically the entire convention center into a
Selena makeup paradise. It was awesome.
When we got done buying our makeup we had about three hours before
all the performances happened so we decided to kill some time and
squeeze some Selena stops in. We decided to go visit the store
in her old neighborhood where they have a painted tribute to her on
the side of the stores wall. The painting needs some touch
ups. He said the guy used to come all the time but hasn't in
the last couple of years. I took some pictures by it and
admired it for a couple minutes.
It was off to the next stop, the museum I wanted to go to the museum
so bad, it was one of the reasons I came down. It was
unfortunately closed because of the MAC Selena event. But I
still rode by it and just stared at it for as long as I could, I
took a picture by the bus stop in the front with a picture of Selena
on it. Just to be close to somewhere that those pretty dancing
Selena feet walked many times was priceless for me. It was
time to head back at that point. The makeup event lasted all
day and went into the night, with live performances from prince
royal and touching stories and words from Chris Perez and her
beautiful sissy Suzette
We partied until about 11 pm just in awe that we were in her
hometown surrounded by her fans and family and a beautifully very
Selena approved decorated convention center. We left and
headed towards her boutique, I didn't care how late it was i had to
just see it We rode by and stopped in the front to take pictures.
I had a little moment to myself at that
building, just to know that store was her dream and to see how it is
now just made me really upset.
We were so tired at this point so we decided to head to the north
beach to go relax and think about how awesome this trip has been and
try and look for another hotel one that's on the beach, I refused to
stay at the navigation hotel again. I have a huge explorer so
fortunately I was able to put my seats back and set up a little bed
with pillows and blankets. I lifted up the back door and went and
backed us in right on the beach and let the cool and windy Texas
gulf air blow right over us as we got comfy on our truck palette. We
ended up falling asleep in the truck on the beach and I wouldn't
have had it any other way
I highly recommend going down there and just trying it. It
will heal your soul and give you the sweetest dreams. Lucky
for us it was cool enough to be comfortable back there and we didn't
get messed with by the police or any scary night person We woke up
in shock that we'd passed out and both had a good nights sleep, with
my truck open all night and everything.
I think Selena helped us from above that night.
It was time to head back to Baton Rouge, so I gassed up and headed
towards our last stop. Her grave. It was easy to find seaside
memorial but finding Selena is another thing
We
drive around until we saw a worker and he pointed us out to her
grave. When we pulled up I was nervous, I didn't know how I
would feel being next to my idols grave. It was actually very
peaceful, you can feel the ocean air and hear distant sea gulls
chirping. Her grave is beautiful Her signature is on it and on
a little bench behind her face statue.
I touched her grave and said my prayers for her.
The drive out of corpus Christi was sad but beautiful. Selena
is my idol, this trip was full of adventure and I felt so close to
her. She loved her city and I was so happy to be able to have
sent there and been apart of the Mac Selena reveal.
I will definitely be going back very soon. I didn't get to go
to the museum because it was closed for the event, but next time
that's going to be my first stop.
Seimpre Selena Corpus Christi 2016
XOXOXO Lauren A. Fisher and my road buddy, Maya A. Lang.
