Texas Tourism

Each weekend we try to see a little more of Houston. It's such a large city!

Here we went hiking and enjoyed the day at the park.
We went to a professional basketball game. Go Rockets! It was exciting.

We were impressed with the Houston zoo. It was a very large and clean.

Houston Rodeo

Love the new look?! Yeehaw!

The Houston Rodeo is one of the largest in the country.
It lasts for 2 weeks and is filled with Texan food, live concerts, a large carnival, livestock shows, and of course the rodeo shows. A whole another world for the us... but we looked the part so no one knew we were tourists. ;)

As we walked around there were cows everywhere!

It made me giggle that there were all these "prized" cows in a line with their derrières aimed at the pedestrian path... I quickly found the exit after this picture and decided I like the "cowgirl look" better than the actual cows.

Tia says, "Hunny, go stand next to that cow so I can get your picture and give me a cool cowboy look." Just as I clicked the picture the cow moved towards Robert and sneezed on him. Yuck!

I asked him to pose again since he was looking sideways. He's such a good sport! Even though I did get a good second picture, I thought this one portrayed our animal interactions and reactions a little better. Try as we may, as you can see, we so not real Texans!

Houston... We have the Friedmans

We went to the Space Center in Houston. We had a great time! There really was a lot to do there, and I think we took advantage of just about everything. This is just a control center so no rockets or space shuttles take off or land here, but they do have a training center here. And they also do other things, like make the food. Which is actually kind of silly since after they make the food they have to send it to Florida. What? They don't have kitchens in Florida? Here is a picture of the training center. The shuttle is a to scale model and this is where the astronauts spent a lot of hours going over the current mission.

Here we are in front of a poster showing footprints on the moon and some other stuff.

Here is Tia posing with Neil and Buzz (I'm totally guessing), and some other guy who didn't smile for the pictures, (someone was nervous).

Take a look at those thrusters! They actually don't look as big on the picture, but these things were like one or two stories each. There are five of these things on the rocket and it burns like 1000 gallons of gas a second (don't fact check these figures).

Here we are on the tram going to see the control center and the training center.

This is what I would've looked like if I had fullfilled my childhood dream of being an Astronaut. But persistent, I was not, as I learned that pilots have to have good vision, and since I wore glasses I gave up that dream faster than the White House killing Bush's challenge to go to Mars... that's right, I got political on you.

Texas

So, we finally make it to Texas, and, of course, what does Tia find?
You guessed it! The most flamboyant bull in the entirety of this huge state. So, here she is truly taking the "bull by the horns". There are actually three "horns" in this picture, can you find the third?

This is in the middle of the Medical Plaza. It's a beautiful area and if you're gonna be sick, this is the place to do it. From a distance it looks like downtown with all the buildings, but really it's a bunch of hospitals in the same place. If you don't like how you're treated, you can literally walk to across the street to a different hospital.

We decided to go for a walk in Memorial Park, (or Hermann Park, I can never remember which is which). It was a beautiful park to accentuate this great looking park. Here is a mini Washington Monument with a reflection pond to go with it.

In the park, here is the Japanese garden (actually just a bit of it). May I remind you, this is in the middle of the city? Incredibly serene and peaceful. There's a crane somewhere in the background there that wouldn't cooperate, despite my best efforts. We would've loved one of those crane pictures with its wings all spread ready for flight, instead it decided to step out of the shot.

That's the Medical Center in the background. Quite grandiose, don't you think? The Houston Zoo is on the left side of the picture, and out of the shot to the right is the Museum of Natural Science. We have to hit ALL that before venturing out of our immediate area... hopefully we can get it all done. Stay tuned.

New Orleans

Hooray! Out of the car and touring the famous Bourbon Street!

We thoroughly enjoyed the famous beignets. They really are as amazing as everyone said!

Robert's ready for Mardi Gras!

Drinking the infamous Hand Grenade! Wow! It's powerful!

Ha ha! Did you really think I could handle TWO Hurricanes at Pat O' Brians?! I don't think so!

What a trip! We left Virginia on a Sunday and drove in two separate cars 11 hours to our first stop, Jennine and Ryan's in Tennessee. Poor Robert was sick but Jennine and Ryan welcomed me with open arms and were armed with cold medicine and tissues for Robert. It was great seeing them!

Tuesday we were on the road again and took the 10 hour drive to New Orleans. We stayed there for two nights. The first night we had yummy New Orleans food, but were asleep by 10:30 because we were so exhausted from the drive. The next morning we toured the French Quarter, went to the Cocktail Museum, and enjoyed drinks on Bourbon Street. We had a blast in New Orleans and will definitely go back to visit.

Thursday morning we were awake early for our drive to Texas. After 7 hours of driving, we arrived at our apartment and unloaded our cars. Even though we were absolutely exhausted, our driving wasn't over. The next morning we drove 3 hours (together this time) to Austin, TX to see Joe, Lindsay, and Grayson because they were in TX for a 1/2 marathon. We HAD to see them. They were too close not to. While in Austin, we enjoyed our time together and went to our first true Tex Mex resteraunt here in Texas. Sooo good! Saturday we drove back and of course on Sunday we prepared for work on Monday morning.

Whew!

Merry Christmas

Scott and Nicole hosted Christmas 2009. As you can see our family keeps growing.

We had a blast! My parents flew up and Corey drove 4 hours so we could all be together. The food and fun lasted for days and days!

One of the days, my mom, dad, and I went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was a cold, winter day but we bundled up, toured the area, and of course found the chocolate shop and then proceeded to find the Starbucks to warm up with a hot cup of goodness.

The historic homes were decorated for Christmas.

Then, it was time for another celebration:

HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD

We're so thankful to have parents who love and respect each other.

Other activities included but not pictured:

Specular Holiday Lights at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk

Touring of the Norfolk Museum

Cooking and Baking

and Lots and Lots of Eating :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holidays are here! Yippee! Thanksgiving to New Years is my favorite time of year. Hope you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! We sure did! We stayed here in VA and Scott and Nicole went "all out" cooking fabulous foods and making delectable desserts. As of now, we do not know where our next assignment will take us or if we will leaving VA right away. Things are very up in the air right now. As soon as we know, we'll pass along the info. :) In the meantime, with the chill in the air, the carols playing on the radio, and all sorts of pies and goodies in my belly, I'm just bubbling over with holiday spirit and counting down the days until my entire family is together celebrating!

We finally broke down and bought a new camera. We thought it was an easy "click once and poof you've got a picture" but apparently you have to actually read the instructions, which by the way is totally a Robert job ;) . Now once we learn to work it (hint hint hubby), we'll be updating our blog a bit more. :)

Until we chat again, have fun shopping and singing Christmas carols!