For Thanksgiving week, Chris and I got to experience travel with a twist: we went as certified housesitters and cared for a cat while her owner was away. We’ve been members of the website Trusted Housesitters for a year now, and we finally found a gig that would match up with our schedule, plus a place we wanted to visit.

Although we could have flown from our home airport of Austin, there were cheaper and more direct flights from San Antonio. The two airports are only about 75 miles apart, and sometimes it really pays off to have that flexibility. We took an Interjet flight from San Antonio to Monterrey, Mexico, and stayed the first night in a hotel in the city.

Before meeting our cat and her abode, we took a walk through part of Monterrey, Mexico’s third largest city. Our La Quinta hotel (or LQ as they called it) was located just a block away from the Macroplaza, all decked out for the Christmas holidays. Also on the plaza was the Governmental Palace of Nuevo Leon, which is now a museum dedicated to the history of the state of Nuevo Leon (free; closed Mondays). It was a nice way to spend a few hours. I highly suggest going for lunch at El Rey del Cabrito, if you enjoy grilled goat.

From there we took a quick Uber ride just eight miles away to Santa Catarina, and met our new friend for the week. After Bella’s owner gave us all the details for cat care and took off for the airport, we got to know the area. We walked around the small town, found some tacos al pastor for dinner, and visited a nearby bodega to pick up some ice cold Tecates and limes to drink while sitting on the roof, watching the sun set. The next day we went to Huasteca National Park and did some hiking- a really nice day to be outside. The park also features some really good climbing routes, if that’s your thing.

In between feeding Bella and trying to get her to like us (she’s a bit of a cantankerous old biddy), we Ubered back to Monterrey to visit the Antiguo Barrio and the Paseo Santa Lucia. The “Old Neighborhood” was a fun little area of 16 old cobblestone blocks and small, brightly painted pastel buildings, dating back to 1765. Some of the buildings are still homes, but most are now cafes, bookstores, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, and coffee shops. Definitely a fun place to meet for coffee or to hang out on a Saturday night! We also walked along the Paseo Santa Lucia, a riverwalk with boat rides and a walking path that stretched a couple of miles. Later, we visited the Museo de Historia Mexicana (40 pesos; closed Mondays)- as luck would have it, celebrating their 25 year anniversary- so we got wine and cupcakes along with a first-class museum visit!

Our cat owner came back from vacation and we stayed one last night in Monterrey at the SmartHotel Cintermex, next to the convention center. We explored Parque Fundidora, an old manufacturing zone of town. Most of the factories have been dismantled, but they’ve left a couple of old ones- now turned into a museum and a zip-line, as well as huge machinery pieces dotted here and there as statuary. It’s a fun place to explore, and with no cars and plenty of greenery, a nice park to spend the day in. From mid-November to mid-January, the Paseo Santa Lucia and the Parque Fundidora also feature Luztopia, a beautiful light show that runs each night. For dinner our last night, we found a little place called El Tony’s Papa Asada- seriously delicious baked potatoes topped with two kinds of cheese, carne asada, and jalapenos, all for a whopping $4.

All too soon it was time to head to the airport and return to the United States, where unfortunately, beers are not $1 all the time and we don’t have a cat to greet us every time we come home- and we don’t have a fabulous view from our rooftop.

Have you used housesitting as a way to increase your travels? Any funny house- or pet-sitting stories? Let me know in the comments!