Days 31 -32, 13 & 14th May. Texas & on to Las Vegas

Day 31-

Woke after sleeping on the wonderful posturepedic mattresses Connie has at the beach house as well as their home house. The entire mattress is memory foam - not just a topper pad. They are the best beds ever. 

We mooched around and tidied up then went into town to the historical town again. We saw Connies nephew who lives there and he showed us his loft apartment right in town- massive windows and his awesome motorbikes downstairs, which are his business. Walked around afterwards- it almost has a Louisiana feel about the architecture and the vibe. 

Another beautiful clear hot day, so we ate at a wonderful outdoor cafe called the Stuttgarden. Under the leafy tree's, sipping on a Stuttgarden punch & a choice of soooo many beers- it was rather nice! We had a nice meal then left to look around the stores for a bit. Then travelled home as Connie is working later in the day today. 

We dropped Connie at Build-a-bear, had a look at her store then the 3 of us returned home to lax out by the pool. Graeme and I had heaps of fun with their 2 dogs Ollie and Wilson who are labradors and loooovvee to play ball even if it is in the pool!! Ollie would carefully step in and swim as hard as he could to try and fetch it 1st, but Wilson is clever - he runs around the outside of the pool to where the ball is, then launches himself in midair in a leap of faith and grabs the ball 1st!!  After the swim, we and Tony sat and chatted over a few beers and the Jaegermeister medicine of course outside!

Then Tony cooked us the best salmon dinner- he smoked marinated salmon on a cedar plank in the BBQ- omg, better than a restaurant. Then we relaxed and watched the Matt Damon. Movie ' The Great Wall ' - a sci-fi/fantasy movie which we enjoyed.

We are all packed up now to leave for Houston airport tomorrow. 

Day 32-

Up after another night of weird-o dreaming! About the power station where we used to work in NZ, mixed in with other friends and strange-but-normal-in-dreaming, dreams!!!

We left for the airport at 9:15am as we fly out to Las Vegas today. Tony & Connie have been great hosts and leave us with lovely memories of their little part of the world.  Checked in fine to United airlines and through border control. They had anti-stress dogs on the air side for people to go up and pet. Saw this in LAX as well and such a great idea, especially for us dog lovers! Like this airport, very chilled out and open. They also have ipads by the dozen everywhere at stations, for passengers to use.

Flight was fine- united charge though to watch any movies etc, they put a box across the movie inviting you to purchase entertainment on their tv screens. Non alcoholic drinks are free but everything else you pay for in-flight. Good to compare airlines since we are flying 3 of them 6 times on this trip domestically. I think the leg room is a little better than American airlines, but the seats are super narrow.   All good though and no stress at all. 3 hour flight and back 2 hours time wise.

Flying in the landscape of Vegas is pretty interesting!

Days 29 & 30, 11-12th May. Humble, Texas

Day 29-
We woke today after a sleep on the BEST mattress! The bed is so comfy and is a reflection on Connies ability to stage a house and use great colours, tones & furniture. Connie had made me an appt to get my nails redone this morning at her local, it is definitely cheaper than at home - $30 for a full set of tips and acrylic and Graeme went next door to get his hair cut - $14 instead of $30 back home! The standard of work and services provided is high as well. After we were done, we went to a restuarant and had a delicious fresh, healthy lunch, then wandered back home.

It worked in perfectly today to stay mostly around home as they were having their central air con renewed & Danni was up to her ears in political assignments on India & nuclear arms plus a debate speech she was writing and presenting. So it worked out that I could do some editing etc for her and give a little support, when everything assignment wise was all piling in, all in the same couple of weeks. Spent a few hours doing all that then we had some drinkies, then some more drinkies and cracked up over the size of things here - potato chips in bags 4 times the size we know and feta & eggplant dip in a tub that was massive! Great for when you are entertaining!

Hows that for massive dip?

Cinnamon whiskey!

We had bought some of "the medicine" (Jaggermeister) & Tony introduced us to Cinnamon Whiskey called "Fireball". This most definitely is  "The medicine Mark II !  We will be buying it at home as Graemes eyes lit up hahah! Dad will love this stuff too for sure.

Tony did  steaks on the BBQ & we had baked potatoes and sweetcorn as sweet as it used to be when we were kids. Then Connie & Graeme got into the music & introducing each other to different genres, while I worked with Danni online before her speech.

Was a really relaxing enjoyable evening and just what we needed - to be still and relax!

Day 30-
Up today after dreaming that Sam and I were doing some lovely mother/daughter stuff, then her friend Emma told me Sam was pregnant with another little girl and a lawyer had sent me a cheque for $147,000!!??!!!

Tidied up, then we all left to go to the Garrisi's beach property that they have just bought and have renovated. An enjoyable and easy 1 hr drive or so. Saw Houston city skyline which looked the same as Melbournes- tall buildings looming up out of the flat surrounding land.

We stopped at the infamous Buc-kee's auto stop on the way - m.a.s.s.i.v.e.!  Graeme had to buy the t-shirt haha! There were so many ice- freezers out the front I had to take a photo and some of the goods they sell ranging from chewing tobacco to house ornaments, preserves, clothes etc. The toilets are something else and are spotlessly clean like most public restrooms in the States.

Buc-ee's

Entrance to the toilets

Pickled quail eggs 

Massive store, couldnt fit it all in the frame! 

On to the beach house which is very quaint and like all the others in this area are set high up because of big storms that come along every now and again.

The Tiki Lounge

It was pretty hot and the new air cond was blowing hot air, so after they spent a couple of hours trying to sort it without success, we resorted to drinking beer haha! Then went up the road to the beach on their fun golf buggy, which a lot of people here have to get around the local area. Had fun zooming up and down,  stopped at the shop on the way home, then enjoyed the day while the handyman came and sorted the air cond out with  technicians on the phone. Robert the handyman is so good at what he does, we offered for him to come and do our reno's if he wants to travel! 

We went into Harbourside which is the old Galviston for dinner and had an amazing seafood meal at Willy G's - food was incredible - prawns, crab, calamari etc and I had a mint julip which is our mohito but with bourban. It was $8 - half the price it was in Washington! Would definitely go there again if we lived here! 

We wandered around outside by the dock as there was heaps on and there were guys setting up for a  massive BBQ cook off tomorrow. Have never seen BBQs that big! Wandered back to the bach via the historical district and had some medicine & cinnamon whiskey shots before bed. 

Days 27 & 28. 9th & 10th May. Arlington cemetery, Capitol Hill, etc. Then on to texas

Day 27 -
Today we decided to get the loan bicycles from the hotel and cycle into town and over to the Arlington Cemetery. It was a beautiful, balmy perfect clear sky day - no wind and just perfect for cycling. We went down towards the Captitol, stopped at the Needle and wondered at its massive height! Then we rode past the Lincoln Memorial and the impressive parks, over the Potomac river bridge and along to Arlington - it is H.U.G.E. You have no idea how many military men and women have been bureid there since the first american wars.....400,000 in total! It is very humbling.

We purchased the train tour they offer there for $13.50 each which was well worth it as they take you areound  on open train carriages, telling you what and who is where and you get off at the stops. We went to the Kennedy graves, the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guard that happens every half an hour. So much pride, it is great to see.

We also went over to the giant statue from the battle of Iwo Jima, now that is impressive! And I think the blue sky added to how grand it looked. There is a giant statue with a bell in it nearby that rings and plays a tune - this is from the Dutch to thank the americans for their support.

Photos in the hall in the entrance to Arlington Cemetery

Then we rode  back into town and visited the Lincoln memorial, just to see that there wasnt an apes head on his shoulders like they portrayed in Planet of the Apes!!!! Then we cycled down Pennslyvannia Ave. It was a little surreal cos we arent used to cycling without a helmet, so biked on the footpaths as they are so wide here (and thats what all the other cyclists do) but in Pennsylvnia Ave they have a really wide double lanes that you can bike down that is not accessible to cars, so we meandered up this magnificent road with grand old buildings, cycling towards the domed Capitol - it was awesome!

 
Stopped for an upmarket lunch, sitting outside under the trees on our way back!

We got back and decided we were feeling those 20+ kms we had just cycled!, packed our suitcases up and went and got a pret-a-manger  salad and sandwich for dinner.  The into bed, write the blog, upload the photos and sleep!

Day 28-
Up and out to the supershuttle at 7.45am, they guy was very nice but he didnt seem to have calculated what time he had to get us to the airport, so consequently we were 25 mins late for chck in but it was quiet as, so we were able to work straight up to the counter. We then were told we were 11lbs overweight on Graemes suitcase which was weird as we have been through quite a few airports since arriving and we have not been overweight and havent bought anything extra??! But taking out Graemes camera bag and shuffling some more into mine we were ok and managed to avoid the extra $1000 US D charge !! Through Dulles airport no issues and flew out to Charlotte on a smaller plane which was really comfortable. We had seating in different rows on this leg and I ended up talking to a older lady beside  me, Lee who was very interesting and we talked the 1 1/2 hour  trip. Then  off the plane and power walked through a verrrry long terminal to catch our next leg to Houston. We got there just as they started boarding - man it was a tight turn around and if you couldnt walk very fast, you would have missed the connection!! Fine for us though.

We flew the 2 1/2 hour flight fine but didnt appreciate the middle aged couple in front of us who instantly reclined their seats back all the way which was considerable,  while reading bible verses....obviously their faith and respect didnt extend to the people jammed in like sardines behind them.  But after  about an hour the wife put hers up - guess my knees being jammed into her seat was annoying! But we didnt put ours back on the people behind as this plane was so  tight a space.  Anyhow, we got there fine and through to the luggage no problems, where Tony and Connie  picked us up an took us to their very lovely home. We had all met in 2015 on a coach tour, so is great to see them again.

We went out to the Tin Roof BBQ restaurant for some authentic chicken fried seak and ribs - was lovely, then into bed after a long day!