H-town adventures

A few weekends ago we flipped our normal schedule - and by "normal" I mean a wackadoodle schedule that isn't really "normal" at all since we don't really live in the same city these days - and I went to Houston for the weekend instead of Craig coming home.  I'm sure he missed the puppy, and maybe even the crazy kitty, but it was so great to just have a couple of days of FUN instead of laundry and grocery store and flower beds and, you know, life stuff.  We had mini-vacation!

Craig picked me up from the airport and asked if I wanted to go drop off stuff at the hotel or head straight to dinner, and I think I grunted some primal version of "food, now, MEXICAN" and we headed straight for El Tiempo and proceeded to...wait. And wait.  And spill an entire margarita while waiting (yup, that was me).  But we finally sat down and went straight for the parrillada section of the menu.  Holy freaking grilled meat deliciousness.  I proceeded to take a truly horrendous and underlit phone picture, then we dug in and failed to make much of a dent in the giant pile of food.  I promise we tried.

Dinner was quite a production, so we went back to the hotel, dodged the armies of dance girls (some epic convention/competition/enormous shrieking slumber party was going on - I've never seen so much makeup on such tiny faces), and just crashed.  Saturday we actually woke up and met some of my dearest, dearest friends for a really delicious breakfast at Lankford Grocery...

Lankford Grocery is super cute, extremely down to earth, and also possibly a little on the dive-ish side - an excellent combination

mmmmm, BACON!  Along with quite possibly the most amazing french toast ever - my migas were good, but this french toast was GOOD

 ...and a trip to the zoo!  I was so glad the weather held out - we were threatened by clouds and teased by raindrops, but it never full out rained on us.  The most threatening part of the entire trip was really the parking lot adventure - that thing was FULL.  So we parked a mile away and got in an extra workout.

Feed the birdie!

Sneaking in a peek at the chimps

Craig and I fed the giraffes!!  It was so cool - their tongues are these crazy-long twisty blackish-purple things, and they would just amble up and take the lettuce.  Nature is so cool

An all-around awesome little man, and maybe just a little bit of a ham for the camera

Carousel time!  Mr. Alan insisted on the bench seating

Saturday night we drove out to Katy where Katie lives (Katie in Katy!  I just giggle at that) with her husband and two sweet boys (well, one sweet and one of the verge of that whole "I'm approaching my teen years and think adults are not with it" kind of...sweet...) to join them for burgers and catch-up time.  Well, catch-up time for Craig because he's known Katie his entire life* and "hi, nice to meet you!" time for me.

* it really is a small world, isn't it?

The aforementioned possibility of rain?  Yeah, it kicked in on Sunday, so we just slept in and nixed any outdoor plans.  Oh, what's that you say?  Maybe indoor activities like brunch?  And shopping?  Sign me up!  I think the only way I got Craig to brave the Galleria was a promise to go in the Microsoft store, and things almost took a turn for the truly expensive when I sent him in the Sony store (what was I thinking?!?) while I went to Sephora.  We embraced the moment, though, and even had fancy brunch in Saks at 51fifteen.  Bottomless mimosas making shopping better for anyone.

Technology. It can be a little perplexing.

We ventured out and about into Houston proper and did some exploring, but when we drove past Wabash Antiques and Feed Store, the cuteness got to me and we just had to go in.  I said it smelled like home (animal feed, hay, and leather), and they also had chickens, and crazy yard art, and a store cat.  Also a giant charcoal grill in the shape of a pig, which fortunately Craig didn't actually want to buy.  Phew.

Hi piggie!

Random shopping and driving and thinking about how much the ridiculous houses cost and making some laps of Memorial Park (laps in our car, not actual jogging - don't be ridiculous) = one Sunday afternoon and one too-quick weekend.  It's good to just get out and play every once in a while.

Are the extra large pictures too much?  I feel like they're exploding a little bit, but I also kinda like them.