Visit to Austin

Last night we returned from a trip to Austin. We went for the weekend to see Tía Melimé perform. She was great and the play/musical was very funny. Gabriel stayed at home with Tío Can. We all had a lot of fun in Austin, but we didn't take any pictures... :(
The trip was a little crazy. Gabriel was very unhappy in the car on the way there, and that made us very unhappy too. He had a very hard time trying to fall asleep, which is funny considering the car used to be a good place to get him to sleep. Well, not anymore. On the way back we decided it would be a good idea to make a long stop along the way. So we stopped at Katy Mills Mall (just before Houston) and spent 2 and a half hours there. Gabriel was very, very happy. He ran, he rode on a little electric car, he saw a bunny, he got new pajamas and t-shirts, and he ate. After that we returned to the car (he was again very unhappy about this), but after a while he fell asleep (as did mommy), and woke up when we were entering Lafayette. He was very happy to be home. He seemed very excited and ran around the living room moving his arms up and down.
I guess we cannot make such long car rides for such a short trip. Now we are trying to figure out the best strategy for our car trip to Chicago. Any suggestions?