"Weekend" Getaway

Last week I got a wild hair and booked us a couple of nights in Houston. We have been through Houston a few times but never actually TO Houston.

One of the benefits of living in Central Texas is that we are very conveniently located to some great cities North, South, East and West of us.

Houston just happens to be one of the cities that we have not made a visit to yet. Ironically, Houston is also the city we had planned to move to before Austin caught our eye.

I also have some cousins that live just outside of Houston that I wanted to visit so in a sense I was killing two birds with one stone.

We packed up the kid and the dog and set off Tuesday morning. I was pleasantly surprised the route was an easy one with very little traffic landing us there in just a couple of short hours.

Once we got there we got checked in, unloaded our luggage and headed to the Galleria to grab a bite to eat at the Rainforest Cafe located inside. Rainforest Cafe is overpriced and the food isn't all that great for the price but it has atmosphere. Neither Toby nor I or mall kind of people but I knew Summer would enjoy seeing the 3 story mall complete with a huge indoor ice skating rink.

With so little time and so many things to do in Houston we were having a tough time deciding what to do with our one full day in the big city.

We finally decided on the Aquarium..actually Toby and I were so indecisive we just let Summer make the choice. It was a good choice. We had a blast. I even rode some rides, something I NEVER do.








After the Aquarium we decided to walk a couple of blocks down to the WELCOME CENTER. So many things to do and so little time....we finally decided to take an elevator ride to the top of the 60 story J.PMorgan Chase Tower building and take in a scenic view of the city. It was a challenge for Toby and Sum to be up that high without getting a little nervous but I had no issues.

The view was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! It was the first time I had ever been up that high except for in a plane.




I wondered why for such a huge city I didn't see many people walking downtown. I figured it out when we toured the "tunnel".

I envisioned the "tunnel" to be like an underground roadway system for vehicles. This was an underground travel system but for pedestrian travel. We were pretty impressed with the underground system. So impressed, matter of fact, that I didn't get any video or pictures of below. If you are curious about what the underground world looks like you can view it here.

Next we headed back to the hotel to check on Bo and rest a bit before we headed to visit my cousins.

We had delicious steak dinner and a nice evening catching up on old times and family gossiping. I also got to meet my littlest, newest cousin. A cutie pie indeed.

Another instance in which I was having so much fun I didn't get as many family pics as I would have liked. No worries though, as easy as the trip to Houston is I'm sure I will be making it there more often in the future.

Shannon and Emma...



The next morning it was time to go back home. I decided since Bo had been such a good dog by being left alone for long periods of time in a strange hotel room without soiling or destroying it that on the way home we would stop off and reward him for his good behavior.

I researched and found Lake Fayetteville at the halfway mark to home and figured it would be a nice place to stop for a swim and some exploring.

Summer endured it, but she wasn't as near as enthused as Bo was about the place...of course Summer had not been pent up in a hotel room for 2 days straight either...






It was a worthwhile getaway. I look forward to going back and exploring the Houston area in the near future.