Texas

***once again Blogger won't allow me to download pictures. Damn free services! I'll try again later***

Well, we are back from our trip to Texas. It was great to get away from home for a few days, visit with friends and family we haven't seen in a while, and learn to appreciate what is at home.

We arrived in Austin and were picked up by Jeff's sister Sara's angelic roommate. My first observation of Texas...HOT. How you people survive pregnancy there is beyond me. I am only 6 months pregnant, and a 3 day weekend in Texas was enough to sap all energy and life out of me. Yea, I don't know how you make babies in that heat or birth them. It must be one of the wonders of the world ;) Anyway, we hung out in Sara's apartment with Avery, the most hyper dog I've ever met, until Sara came home from work. Once Sara came home, they all dragged me out of the air conditioning to go to dinner. The best quesedilla I've ever had...although I really wanted to have a margarita to compliment it :)

We stayed in Jeff's brother's rented house (Chad is doing an "internship" in Trinidad...although it sounds pretty cushy to me). The next day, we went out for a yummy breakfast, and Sara took Jeff and I to "The Story of Texas" at the historical museam. I learned lots of stuff about Texas...I'm a nerd, I enjoy things like that. I was worried Sara was going to roll over and die of boredom until we read a morsel of info that has for all time armed her against cocky Texans. We've all met Texans who brag on and on about how they were their own nation, they don't need the US, blah blah blah. But we learned that Texas desperately wanted to be annexed into the US once they had won their independence from Mexico...and the US didn't want them!!! That's right, we rejected them several times. (and we learned this at their very own museam no less!) The US basically just took them in so that Great Britain wouldn't take them (Sam Houston was no fool...he made it look like he was in discussions with the crown to do that just to manipulate the US). Anyway, this was very satisfying to Sara, since she has to deal with cocky Texans all the time.

After learning all about Texas, we went out to eat again (are you noticing a pattern). We went and got delicious barbeque brisket...yummo! Then we took Avery the wonder dog to a dog park by the "lake" (a wide spot in the river near Sara's place). Yea, it was hot. Then we recovered from being in the heat for a while. Then went to dinner. We did a lot of eating. All good.

The next day was the wedding. It was a nice affair...and I was pleased because it rained all night so the temperatures dropped nicely. Well, for a few hours at least. By the time the reception started at noon, it was HOT again. And the heat might not seem so bad, except that they air condition all the insides of the building to about 55 degrees. The shock of going from inside to outside is crazy. (can you tell I was a bit obsessed about the heat?)

We drove to our friend's house near San Antonio and hung out there before driving into San Antonio that night. A nice city, but again, HOT. The Alamo was a bit small...no wonder Mexico took it. We did the river walk, which was a unique thing, and quite enjoyable.

The next day we hung out some more and then we headed back to Austin. We had dinner with Sara (more eating), and went to bed early to prepare for our pre-dawn flight Monday morning.

So all in all...

Texas=HOT
Texas=Good food
Texas=HOT

I had a doctor's appointment just days before leaving for this trip. I'm still a bit below my pre-pregnancy weight. After this trip of heat and eating, I'm torn as to what has changed. I certainly ate enough to gain a ton of weight, but I probably sweated the same amount right out my pores. We'll have to wait until next month's appointment to find out!