Visit to Texas - April 2009

Time seems to be passing more and more quickly for us. I think I need to commit to updating the blog once a week at the same time. Maybe Sunday night? Otherwise, things seem to be slipping away. I am going to go back and try to recreate a few things, but didn't want that to stop me from posting some photos of our trip to Texas last week.

We started out in Pearland for one night where we got to see Grandma Janet, Aunt Judy and Uncle Benny. Ripley absolutely loved the pond in the backyard. I wish we had gotten some video of her splashing, but I think you can get the gist of how much she enjoyed leaning over and splashing.

Galveston was our next stop. Chad and I decided it might have been over 5 years since we had been there, so we booked a room at the Casa Del Mar for Thursday night. We got to the city fairly early and Ripley fell asleep right as we were pulling into town, so we drove around visiting my old houses (1818 Ave. O; 2525 O 1/2 ; 3615 O 1/2) I had forgotten how close the first house was to the beach. It was very run down, but the other two (especially 3615) looked great.

Overall Galveston was on the mend, but there was still so much damage from Hurricane Ike evident. The Down on the Strand, there was a line on the buildings showing where the water had been.

We had lunch at a wonderful Mexican place called Gorditas (where Chad had a spicy beer thing called a Michelada, and then headed to the Bolivar Ferry where we saw a ton of seagulls and dolphins!

For dinner, Chad had crawfish etouffee from Benno's on the Beach and I got a falafel from a Mediterranean Chef on the Strand, both of which we took back to the room so we could put the little girl to sleep. It was a bit cold so we didn't actually get into our suits to go to the pool or the beach, but we did walk along the beach for a bit.

On Friday morning, we had an amazing breakfast at The Sunflower Cafe and took some pastries to go (including a slice of pecan pie that they somehow dipped in chocolate!) to share with Mom and Dean. We tried to go on a Galveston Duck Tour, but the PA system wasn't working, so the tour guide thought we wouldn't be able to hear and didn't want to go ahead with the tour. We'll have to try again on our next visit. On our way out of town, we stopped off at Katie's Seafood Market (1902 Wharf - right off the Strand) to pick up some shrimp for dinner. We swung by Pearland again, picked up Mom/Grandma Janet and headed up to Hilltop.

It is always so relaxing to be at Hilltop. We went into Jewett on Saturday to the Flea Market. The only purchase was some kettle corn because Chad can't ever pass this up. We went to the cantata service at the Hilltop Chapel for Easter Sunday. Ripley did well for about half of the time, but she got tired fast so she and I sat out in the lobby for the second half. And finally on Monday before we left, we got to see the cousins and Aunt Emily and Uncle Freddie before we headed back to Hobby Airport to fly home. All in all a most wonderful visit. We can't wait to get back so we can swim in the Texas pool!