What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Part Deux

Part Two of my summer vacation was a few days spent in Houston. I had planned for this to be a relaxing couple of days, but of course I crammed in as much as possible.

Sunday afternoon, I celebrated Kristy's birthday with her. Our entertainment was Kristy & Jess playing the Wii...very amusing! Nothing too exciting!

Monday, I had planned to meet Heather for a mani/pedi in Rice Village. However, her car broke down and I dropped my phone in the tub, so we had to scrap that plan. I did manage to make it into town for lunch with Shanna and Madelyn. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Chuy's (I love Tex Mex!) and then I got to see their new beautiful house. That was nice and relaxing. By the time I got back down to Clear Lake, it was time to get ready for cooking group. We had a great time at Cindy's...we think it was the best cooking group ever. I made cheddar garlic biscuits (kind of reminiscent of Red Lobster's). Cindy made chicken marsala, Shannon made risotto, Brittany brought veggies and dip, Maradee made a great black bean pizza for an appetizer, and Mandy brought salad. Then, to top all of that off, Kallae brought homemade ice cream sandwiches...soooooooo good!

Tuesday, Mandy and I headed downtown for a Vacation in Houston day. We started off at the Menil Collection. This is supposed to be a great museum. However, we didn't get to experience it because it was closed (you'd think I would have looked into that!). We still took some pictures of the art in the front of the museum. From there, we went to lunch in Midtown. Yummy burgers at Farago's. After that, we went to Hermann Park to go to the Japanese Garden. It was a little different than we expected...and it was really hot, so we didn't stay too long. The kids at the park were playing in the reflecting pool. We're not actually sure that you're supposed to play in the pool, but they were. From there, we did some drive-by sight-seeing, including some odd houses, giant presidents' heads, and a 50-foot saxophone. I found all this on www.roadsideamerica.com. I highly recommend this website if you're going on a roadtrip! After we got done with all of that, we headed to meet some more UBC folks for the Astros game. It was a great game. It was the first time I've ever seen a grand slam in person...really cool!

Well, that was about it for the Houston portion of my vaca. I have lots more pictures on my Picasa site, if you'd like to see them (look at the President's heads!). I'm in Louisiana now...more on part 3 of my summer vacation in a few days.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Part One

I know it's been forever since I posted and I know that you're all dying to hear what I've been up to. This summer has been really busy and I'd love to give you all the details, but there are too may. Instead, I'm just going to tell you what's going on now.

I decided to take a week off after the project at work finally finished and this is the week. This past weekend, my first phase of summer vacation was a weekend trip to Charlotte, NC. I went to visit Ann & Eddie to cheer them on while they biked in 24 Hours of Booty (that's them in the red jerseys). This is a cool event where they block off a popular 3-mile biking loop in the city for 24 hours. Cyclists can ride as much as they would like. It was to benefit cancer (I think?). Anyway, I decided to take Air Tran for the first time because it was a lot cheaper than the other options. I got to Hobby in plenty of time (a little over an hour ahead of time) and got in line to check bags (I always check bags...I'm a high maintenance packer!). There was only one person checking people in and she was NOT fast and kept answering the phone. By the time I got checked in and through security, I had to RUN through the airport to get on the plane...run! Can you believe it? Craziness, that's what it is to me! Anyway, I made the plane and the connection in Atlanta and got to Charlotte without much more fanfare.

The weekend was very relaxed. Once I got there, I met up with Ann & Eddie and cheered them on at the starting line. Matt drove up from Clemson to hang out, so we watched them go by on their loop a few times (3 miles go by quickly on a bike) and tried to take some pictures, but they were mostly very blurry! After a great dinner and staying up late to watch a movie (Good Will Hunting has lots of bad language in it!), I was tired and ended up sleeping in late, so we got a late start to the day. That afternoon we went to the Billy Graham Library. I don't know what you would personally expect there, but I was very impressed. It is such a wonderful tribute to Dr. Graham's ministry, including his wife who passed away last year. I highly recommend it if you're in Charlotte. Back at the house, among other things, we were entertained by Shadow, Ann & Eddie's dog. Shadow is a 2-year old lab/boxer mix and is very hyper. She jumps ALL the time. Matt was able to actually hold her, which even Ann & Eddie were amazed by. I was very fortunate and only had to watch her through the windows while everyone else managed her. I'm terrified of dogs, you know. There wasn't much else exciting...we ate some great pizza and ice cream and played Mexican train dominoes late into the night. Dominoes was a little loosey-goosey...we kind of made up some extra rules as the game went on. I won even though it was the first time I'd ever played. Sunday morning, we ran...in North Carolina...yay!! The weather was awesome. We had a good 3-mile run. As we were leaving, a man was getting ready to run on the trail and said, "How'd you like that sauna?" Sauna?? Really? It was like 75 degrees and <75%>

So, now I'm back in Houston for Part Two of my summer vacation...more on that later this week!