Texas wedding/vacay/anniversary

First of all- life around here has been pretty busy these last couple of weeks. So sorry that I've been a little MIA. But, to be honest more "real life" things have been pulling at me. And isn't being engaged into your real life more important?

I'm way behind on even keeping up with the reading in my blogroll. So much that I'm considering stopping some of the subscriptions that I don't absolutely "love".

Anyway, all that aside...

Part of the reason I've been so busy is that we took a trip to Texas!!!

It was so I could be a bridesmaid for my friend H. But since she got married 3 days before our 2nd anniversary we made a little vacay out of it.

Thankfully the 12 hour drive was fairly easy, especially since John chauffeurs me everywhere :) Except the dive through Houston and San Antonio where I wished either he or I had a Xanax. Lol.

Friday was spent getting the wedding reception setup and the rehearsal done. Then we enjoyed a great rehearsal dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk.

Saturday was the big day! H got married right along the Riverwalk at the Arneson River Theatre in the historic La Villita area. I did get a bit misty watching her walk the aisle. It was also so sweet because she looked a little like "Thumbelina" next to her dad. She's very petite and he's fairly tall.

Saying their vows

They can't stop boat traffic along the river, and during their ceremony another wedding party came through on a barge tour. So cute! (That's the bridal party's feet (the one I was in) on the stage above.)

The big kiss!

Yummy pretty cake!

Only in Texas does a gift bag to a wedding look like this! Lol

The lovely champagne gown. I made the hair accessories from the extra fabric hemmed off the dress.

The bride and I. Or Thumbelina and the Ogre. Lol. She's so tiny I look like a linebacker!

It's so nice to have a "date" at a wedding!

Had to get a shot of the wedding hair!

 The day after the wedding we headed back to the Riverwalk to browse more casually, and of course see The Alamo!
It's funny, because everyone at the wedding had told us "It's not nearly as big or grand as you'd think". But of course, if you've driven 12 hours, you can't leave without seeing it!

It was still cool to browse the grounds. And it's kinda surreal because it's very much in the downtown area now, and there are high rises and industry all around it. I guess it must be something akin to Central Park. A piece of lush green in the midst of a concrete jungle.

There it is! When you rely on a stranger for the photo- things get cut out! Like the top of the building.

Then we walked the entire Riverwalk loop. So many pretty sights.

A street crossing over the Riverwalk.

A cannon re-enactment! You can hear it from blocks and blocks away.

 Sunday was also a great food day. For lunch we ate at a restaurant in La Villita called the Guadalajara Grill. It had Mexican and John had a burger and they were both so amazing! In fact, his burger was one of the most flavorful and moist burgers I've ever tasted. I was also glad to get some really good Mexican because up to that point everything I had seemed kinda ho hum. Not any better than what I can get locally. And the owner himself was there cooking and serving. A sure sign it was home grown!

In the afternoon we drove up to Houston. We have friends there we wanted to see.
But Sunday night when we got in- we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We were so tired of being in the car we debated driving another 30 min for dinner, but I am SO glad we did. First of all, the closest Cheesecake Factory to us is 6 hours away. Second, this means I have not eaten there in 4 years. Third, I love cheesecake.

The menu is like a novel, but somehow we managed to pick two winners. And our server was just excellent. Anyway, John had Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Fettucine. I could drink the sauce in a cup. I'm sure it had 356,347,277.9 calories. I had a wonderful BBQ ranch chicken salad. We really wanted to try red velvet cheesecake for dessert, but they were out. So we had a banana one instead. It was good, but I'm still thinking about how the red velvet might have tasted...

Monday we took it slow then headed off to Houston Space Center.

The tram tour took us to the Saturn V rocket park

A huge engine!

The Saturn V rocket. It was ENORMOUS!

The opening to each of these is like 20ft diameter

John and I touched a moon rock. Only 8 in the world you can touch. But, it now kinda looks like a piece of graphite.

This day we tried out a chain we don't have here- Chipolte. To be honest, we were not impressed. Not a lot of choices for toppings.

Monday night we finally were able to catch up with our friends "The L's".
We have not seen them in over a year since the moved away, and it was really nice to catch up.
BTW- If you ever visit Alvin TX don't drink the tap water. It's horrible.

Tuesday we made the long trek home. This was our actual anniversary. We made really good time and had a coupon for The Melting Pot so we squeezed that in as a farewell to our vacay. ?This time we had Swiss cheese, canola oil (to fry) for the main course and white chocolate marshmallow Oreo for dessert. It was really good! Now we've gone there for "all" our anniversaries.

Never has raw meat looked so pretty

Flambeed chocolate!

Super sweet strawberries

Oh, another reason I've been lacking in my blog- I began this series on the drive to Texas.

The Hunger Games

Oh my goodness, it's such an easy and engaging read. I've spent a lot of my "down" time devouring the pages. I just started book three this week. I'm kinda sad now that it will end eventually. Who needs TV when you've got great books to engage your mind?
I also really enjoyed using John's Kindle. Since he got a Kindle Fire the regular old Kindle does not get used much. I'd really want to keep it if the books were all free!

Well, now that I finally feel less guilty since I caught ya'll up some- I'm off to read some more!

Stay tuned though, more changes to come!