Anticipation and Texas

I love the anticipation of going on a trip, an adventure, an outing...there is something so sweet about the "thinking" about the event. I love searching online for things to do, gardens to stroll through, Vietnamese food to eat, coffee shops to check out...the whole kit and caboodle. So whats got me on this topic is the fact that we are leaving on Saturday to go to TEXAS.

Can you believe I typed that? Yes sir, indeed, we are heading to the lone star state. I have a conference to attend in Houston (which by the way happens to be the 4th largest city in the country) so we decided to make a trip of it. We are flying into Dallas to meet up with an old friend, then we are driving to Austin and finally to Houston. My MB is meeting us in Houston so she can hang out with Orion for the week. This will be our first plane ride as a threesome and I am sure it will be an adventure.

So, I wrote the above last week and now its one week later and we are back in Fort after a week filled with all things Texas. It was a very relaxing kinda trip - we started in Dallas and met up with Jo, Adrian and Mira - it was great to see them and reconnect. Then we drove to Austin to check out the city that many folks have told us we will love and guess what? Those folks were right. Its a great city - very walkable with great food and interesting buildings. We missed SXSW by one week but the city was hopping with activity and I only wish we had a few more days to dig a little deeper into things.

Jo and Mira

The drive from Austin to Houston was much prettier then I thought it would be. The Texas Bluebells were blooming and the sides of the roads were covered with these low growing dark purple-blue flowers.

The Capitol of Texas - Austin

Spring has sprung in Dallas!


Houston was BIG as only a city in Texas could be - really spread out and sprawling, but honestly I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. That doesn't sound very nice but the truth is I wasn't looking forward to the idea of Texas. We met up with MB and Bill and explored what Houston had to offer - mainly the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show which was a cultural event, some great food (think tasty margaritas, some boiled crawdads, HOOTERS, sushi) and a trip out to Galveston to put our toes in the water and see some of the devastation that Hurricane Ike left behind. The best thing about Houston was spending time with family and the weather! It was beautiful with blue skies and temps in the 70's. We came home to snow and gail force winds...gotta love it.

Houston was also full of firsts for little Toots - first rice cereal, first time on a Texas Long Horn, first time dipping his toes in a pool and of course the first plane ride.