A beach day, a bakery, and cheap gas!

As summer turned to fall, we decided to take advantage of the continued heat here in Houston and drive down to Galveston for a beach day. 

It was such a beautiful day.  We have been excited to visit the beach in Galveston for quite some time. Reading Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson definitely piqued our interest in this city.  Definitely a recommended read of ours. 

Pleasure Pier and one of the Galveston beaches.  The beaches were a littered with dried up seaweed, but that didn't bother us a bit.

 The fishing Pier in Galveston.  As you enter the store at the end, there are dozens of pictures on the wall of.....sharks.  All kinds of little hammerhead and bull sharks that people have caught right off of this very pier.  Not something I was excited to learn right before heading down to frolic on the beach. Since the water is murky, it's a little unsettling entering the warm waters of the gulf and not knowing what may be swimming around you, ready to take a little nibble..... *shudder*
We got in the water anyway.

 

What a hot merman. 

 

The water was more rough than we anticipated, and we actually saw a lot of guys out surfing.

 The 1900 Storm Memorial.  Seriously, read Isaac's Storm, it's so informative and if you're into history, you'll really enjoy it.

Clark all alone in the mysterious waters...

 

It was such a fun beach day, and I hope we can get back down there for one more before the weather officially cools off.

Then, one day when we were out picking up some more soccer tickets for a Dynamo game (we just can't get enough), we stopped at Aranda's Bakery for some Mexican pastries and tamales.  The guava empanadas were very good, but aside from that, I wasn't too impressed. 

And look, we even filled up for less than $3 a gallon! Yes!!!

We're having so much fun here in Houston, but we still have so much left to do!

Afternoon outing with Lucia

One rainy afternoon, Clark and I decided to take Lucia to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  She gets out of school much earlier in the day than Violet, and since Thursdays are free admission to the museum after 2 pm, we decided to give it a go.  

 

Janet had Lucia all prepared.  As counterfeit parents, we don't yet have a good understanding of what a 4 year old needs for a long car ride across the city. 

This little girl was prepared with a goody bag full of squeezable applesauce/fruit, raisins, fruit snacks, and a capri sun.  I kid you not, Lucia had finished off everything by the time we got to the museum.  This little girl definitely inherited the Tobler appetite.

 The shark exhibit...which we did not go through because a. you had to purchase tickets and b. it looked extremely small and underhwhelming. So we just walked through the shark cage instead.

 

The paleontology exhibit was actually very impressive. Lots of dinosaur bones and reconstructed prehistoric animals. 

 The hall of Ancient Egypt was also very cool but we had to rush through this exhibit because it was a little darker and Lucia's attention span was starting to wane.  Also, she got a little frightened of the mummified bodies on display.  Poor thing, maybe this outing was a bit traumatizing for her.

We had a lot of fun bringing Lucia along on our outing.  It's always fun to "play" being parents. On the way back we stopped at Burger King and treated her to a kid's meal.  However, she must have been so full from all the goodies her mother had packed that she neglected most of her food and focused her attention on the toy that came with her meal.

Clark and I definitely look forward to going back so we can go through exhibits in a bit more detail, perhaps sans children.  

We made it!

It was a long journey, but we finally made it to Seabrook, Texas! Our home for the next 2-3 months while we, "find ourselves" or rather until I find a job that I feel confident I will love doing for the next 2-3 years. We're living with Chad, Janet, Violet, Lucia, and Benicio.  Thank you all for welcoming us into your home with open arms!

There's no rest for the weary in this household.  Four am wake-up calls, breaking up fights over who gets to hold the Roku remote.... there's just no telling what the next moment will bring!

As we settled in, we sneaked in several fun activities. 

Within hours of our arrival, we went on a bike ride to a nearby park along some great bike/running trails. Clark and I rode tandem and neither of us threatened divorce, so that was good. The park we rode to is located right on Galveston Bay (pictured above).

We went to Palm Beach at Moody Gardens in Galveston on one of it's last open days of the season. 

 Benicio kindly carried my water bottle around for a while and made sure to add some extra dents to it's already beat up exterior.

 

Then we had delicious Tex-Mex at Jimmy Changa's.  This place was so amazing I feel like I could go back daily and never get tired of the food.  

We cheered on the Dynamo during a home game against the Columbus Crew.  The Crew tied it up in the last half and the final score was 2-2.

There's been lots of cute moments around the house, too.

Like the times when Lucia announces she needs to have a "big pooh" and then gets herself comfortable on the toilet bowl with a drink and a show to watch on the tablet. Pooping in comfort. This is the norm for this little girl.

Or when the girls climb all over Janet in that period of time before bed when they're all riled up and have to burn off that excess energy that no one knows where it came from.

Or when Benicio decides to play with the pots and pans multiple times throughout the day. 

Or when a little scrape needs to be attended to after a fall in the pouring rain.

Or the times when Benicio is just being Benicio.

Home improvements have also been started.  An enclosure for the outdoor shower has begun, as well as some indoor painting.

Times seems to be moving by so quickly.  We have so much left to do and see! 

Road tripping to Houston: driving through the South

From North Carolina we drove through South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia where we stayed with one of my friends and his wife for a night.  I met Patrick during my first year at Ole Miss--actually before school even started-- as we were both on the cross country team.  When I was preparing to transfer schools at the end of my sophomore year, I told Pat (and the rest of the team) that I would be at present at the wedding of whoever would get married first. Well, Pat was the first of my previous teammates to get married, and so back in January 2008 I flew back to Mississippi to see Pat and Emily get married.  Now they live in a super cute house in Atlanta.  I didn't take any pictures, and I'm super bummed about it.  I don't know when we'll see Patrick and Emily again.  Hopefully it won't be another 6.5 years though!

From Atlanta we drove to Mobile, Alabama, and from there we drove through Southern Mississppi to New Orleans.  After a night in NOLA, we finally made it to Texas.  Here's photo documentation of our journey for all to enjoy:

I took this at a random convenience store somewhere in South Carolina.  Wish I would have taken it with the DSLR.  I just love the contrast of colors and the cotton ball clouds.  Also, the sign displays one of our favorite things to do in life.

Great bbq in Mobile, Alabama, near the University of Southern Alabama. Don't be fooled, the main parking was in the back.  Clark should have applied to school there. That campus was absolutely beautiful. Clark got confused and thought we had driven onto Temple grounds.  The grounds were just that well manicured.

We were both very excited to indulge in some Southern bbq ribs.

  Before we left for New Orleans the next morning, we wandered around the small downtown area of Mobile for a bit.

Cathedral Plaza with an over-sized chess set.

Reading about the history, it makes sense that there's a huge Catholic influence along the gulf shores.  So we took the opportunity to check out the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

Some sphinx statues in front of what we understood to be the Masonic Temple. We're still not sure if that's what it was, though.

 Crossing into Mississippi, my old stomping grounds! It felt great to return to this lovely state!

Instead of continuing on I-10, we took the scenic highway 90 that runs along the gulf coast of Mississippi.  Although I spent 2 years in Mississippi, I had never visited the Mississippi coast (one year we went to the Florida gulf coast for spring break rather than the Mississippi or Alabama coasts). I fell instantly in love.  Yellow sand, miles of beach, warm water, waterfront properties on stilts right across from the beaches.  Aside from the water being murky, I couldn't find much else to dislike about the area. Yep, I think I want to move to the Mississippi coast in the future. According to zillow, we could easily afford waterfront property there.

I couldn't leave without getting my feet wet.  Like I mentioned, the water was warm.  I so wish we had worn our bathing suits.  

We should have stayed overnight in Mississippi, but since I had already booked a hotel in New Orleans for the night we drove onward to Louisiana.  After checking into our hotel in New Orleans, we set out for the French Quarter.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Tons of palm readers lined up at tables in front of the cathedral.  

 

Bourbon Street. 

 

So I guess we didn't know exactly what to expect from wandering around the French Quarter.   We knew there would be a party atmosphere, but I guess we didn't expect to see so many people stumbling around completely plastered, and we definitely didn't expect to see so many unattractive strippers emerge from the darkness of the strip clubs to stand in the doorways and chat with the bouncers.  We also didn't expect to see so many homeless people almost get into fights with other homeless people.  It was strangely entertaining, and I guess I can say that because no one actually got hurt (that I know of).  I mean, one homeless guy inadequately spray painted bronze was trying to obtain tips posing as a living statue.  He was obviously inebriated because he couldn't stay still and kept changing positions even when no one tipped him, and all of a sudden another homeless guy's dog almost attacked him! I mean, the homeless guy with the dog was going to let the dog attack the living statue !  I think some tourists had to talk the attacking homeless man/dog duo down to keep peace in the streets.  It was just crazy.

We loved listening to all the musicians, both on the streets and in various venues.  There was a constant bombardment of music from nearly every direction.  This ensemble was pretty talented.

 Tons of people drinking on balconies.  Some even threw beer on passersby below, which was totally not cool.

The next day we took off for Houston!  We really enjoyed the drive out of New Orleans over miles of marsh.  So gorgeous. 

I just love road tripping with Clark.  He's the best company to have and we always find new things to talk and argue about.  I think we'll change up the route on the way back to Philly in a couple months, as I really want to show Clark Oxford, MS (where Ole Miss is located), Memphis, and we have a lot of people to visit in Nashville.  Luckily, we have plenty of time to plan.