Bye bye Texas! (Alternate title would just be "Cloud Post")

I didn't take any pictures of the airport. And I didn't take any pictures of the ride to or from the airports. Just of clouds...
And with just a little changing of the light I think this same picture goes from looking a little like snow to looking a little like a desert. Or just a cloud. I don't know. What do you think?

When we first took off, the light was just beautiful. Everything was misty and golden. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to turn my camera on just then. But even if I had taken a picture of what I saw, I'm sure it wouldn't do the scene justice. You would have had to be there.


You get a totally different view of clouds when you are looking down on them instead of up at them. I think I kind of prefer looking down on them, but at the same time, I prefer being on the ground too. So I guess if I take pictures then I can enjoy the view from down here. :)

God's creation is just amazing. Even something as simple as water up in the sky just makes me appreciate the artistry of our Creator. And it's an ever changing work of art.
So I'm sorry that this post is just a bunch of pictures of clouds, but somehow when I see things like this or the ocean or the mountains or just some beautiful landscape I am reminded that God created all of this and turned it over to us to subdue and explore and it is just amazing to me.
It's not a view I get to see every day. Not at this angle anyway. :)

Day 6 in Texas~ Monday

Monday...our last full day in Texas. I wasn't feeling so well so I didn't take as many pictures and I wish I had. This was a photo taken at yet another Texas shop in the Barton Springs mall. We had already been there once before to watch fireworks, but we hadn't gone inside it. We saw a tee shirt that was really funny and I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was a shirt with how to talk in Texas. There were all sorts of symbols on the shirt and under each symbol was it's translation. One symbol was of Texas and underneath it said 'Heaven.' One was of California and it said 'Hell'. One was of a cowboy hat and it said 'Toupe.' One was a rattlesnake and it said 'stew' or 'dinner' or something. There were cowboy boots and it said 'formal wear.' But the one I thought was the funniest was the one of a neck tie and it said '???' under it. It was cute. You'd probably have to see it to know what I'm talking about. For some reason I'm a little bit foggy as to what we did the rest of the afternoon. We got a late start that morning and didn't end up leaving the mall until around 2 pm. We went to some guitar shops so Adam could look around and Cheryl and I looked at some thrift shops and ended up in a new age bookstore. We didn't know it was one at first but all that was in there pretty much were books on zen and taoism and yoga stuff (I really enjoy yoga, but I don't get into all the fluffy stuff). And it smelled so strongly of incense that Cheryl claimed she could still smell it on her clothes later that day. It was kinda funny. After we figured it out we decided there wasn't anything very interesting in there and left. We got home and had lunch and chilled for a bit and then we packed up to head for the Radisson hotel. Cheryl was teaching a class there and we were going to hang out at the Highland mall for awhile while she was teaching and then maybe listen to some of her class. Before we got there though we stopped at the office Cheryl works at so she could print some papers off before class. She has a very nice office.

Here name is even on the door!

We made it to the Radisson a little bit early and helped Cheryl set up and then Adam and I left for the Highland mall. I remembered to take a picture this time, just so you guys can see what we saw. The Forever 21 was not as good as the last time I was there, Jacqueline. There was a kinda cool shop with stuff from India and I got a wrap skirt there. They had a lot of neat stuff in there, but as with any India store, it had some new age-y stuff going on that I don't care for. And Adam stopped downstairs at one of those booths to get Frozbertis embroidered on his hat. It looks very nice.
When we had shopped till we were ready to drop (I was pretty tired that day for some reason and was ready to just hang out for awhile), we walked back to the Radisson and I waited in their lobby/living room and read The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's an Agatha Christie book. I saw the movie when Andy and Becky lent it to us and I was impressed at how closely the movie follows the book. They are almost exactly the same which I thought was pretty cool.
Adam had a little more energy and watched Cheryl teach for awhile. I understand she did an excellent job! We had a late lunch that day so we stopped and picked up dinner on the way home which was close to 10 pm. We got back to Cheryl's house and we started packing for the next day. Yes, I do procrastinate. :) Then we had dinner and put Cars on for awhile. I went to bed around midnight, and Adam and Cheryl stayed up a little later than that to finish watching Cars which I heard was really good! I'll have to check it out sometime though because I was too tired to finish it. Becca tells me that this is because I have lyme disease...Jacqueline says so too. I say it might be, or it might also be that I knew we had to get up at 4:30 am to get to the airport for our flight that left at 6:45 am!

Day 5~ Sunday

Bannockburn Baptist Church. We went there for church that morning. They have a pretty campus there. The pastor taught out of Philippians chapter 4:6-14 (I am pretty sure on that). It was about how God commands us not to be anxious and to cast our cares upon him. Also to be careful about what we put into our minds. A good message for 2 people who hate flying! It was a good message for people who actually like flying too. :)And we stopped by the Capitol. I got a few shots that I liked.

If you stand inside in the center of the room and look up, this is what you see. The domed ceiling.

Apparently they ran out of space upstairs in the capitol so they built underneath it. There are a couple of levels underneath the building that are fairly new. It's nice down there. This is the courtyard that sits below ground level and opens up to the grounds above.

There is a gift shop underground there too where you could find stuff like this:
You sure don't see stuff like this in West Virginia.

I told Cheryl this magnetic sticker was for her. She told me she was not hardcore Texan. Uh huh...okay...sure. :)
Here's something else you don't see in WV. Like I said, there are lonestars and texas shapes everywhere. May sound totally unpatriotic of me, but I don't even know what the WV symbols look like. Do we have any? I'm not native to WV anyway, so hopefully it doesn't really make a difference that I don't know what they are. :) I've been to Charleston, but never up to the capitol building so I don't know how well they have it decorated, but I still bet it isn't quite like what you see in Austin.
So after we left the capitol we got lunch and then we went bowling. I haven't (or hadn't) bowled since I was what? 8? It's been a long time.

Adam won the first 2 games. I forgot to mention that the last time I played (11 or 12 years ago?) we had the ramps out on the sides of the bowling lane so you couldn't actually get a gutter ball. We didn't use that this time. And there was this ramp thing you could just put the bowling ball on and push it and if you position it right, you could get a strike. I'm pretty sure it was only meant for little kids so we didn't use it this time either. It was hard. I dropped the bowling ball behind me one time when I tried to roll it. That was kinda embarrassing. And funny. We all got a laugh out of it.
Cheryl did very well and came in 2nd all three times. She gave me some pointers on how not to roll the ball. I kept rolling it sideways and getting gutter balls.
Then a miraculous thing happened and I got a strike. It took 3 games but it finally happened. I somehow won that game. My first scores were really low so it came as a surprise that I eventually started hitting more pins.
We have plans for another game next time we all see each other again. If anyone wants to get in on the fun, let us know! The more the merrier!
And I couldn't stop without saying a word about this place. It's the best grocery store ever. I guess it's kind of like a giant health food store that isn't super expensive. You can find a lot of healthier foods here. I love this place. I don't know if other people get excited about grocery stores, but this one is definitely worth paying a visit. It makes me happy. :) We stopped and rented some TV shows and ate our Delta Blues ice cream that night. Delta Blues is a blueberry pie ice cream. It was really good. I wish I took a picture of it. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back next year and get a picture of it. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Video clip of Beauty and the Beast.

I've never tried to upload a photo on here so we'll see if this works!

Day 4 of Texas~ Saturday

We stopped at the University of Texas (Austin campus) coop to pick up some burnt orange souveniers! And there were a lot to choose from too. Take a look...

There were longhorn scrubs...

Longhorn sneakers...

And even a ballgown. Yes, the antlers just stick off the side. Or are they just called horns? I am very curious as to how many of those sell. :)

No, I didn't buy the cowboy hat. It was just for the picture. There was a lot of really nice stuff in there. I have never been a huge orange fan, but there were a few things that I really liked.

I wrote a post about the movie we saw here at the Texas History Museum.

They had a cool floor.

Sweet nothings said to Texas by Texans.

Look at this carpet...have you ever seen a carpet like this? This was the carpet in the museum. I'm telling you, Texans love to see Texas stuff!

We got our picture taken under the Lonestar statue.

We went to see the Zilker play that evening. The stage was beautiful. They did a really good job with the background and props.

We got there really early to get a good spot. We had a great view of the stage. You can bring a picnic lunch and your blankets or chairs and spend the afternoon waiting for the show to start. There is a natural spring there and there are botanical gardens across the street. And playgrounds too if you have small kids. You pay $2 or $3 dollars to park, but the play itself is free, which is really nice if you have a larger family and want to do something fun together.

This guy in the chair played Gaston. He did a really good job of being an arrogant brute. No, really though, he was funny. After all, "no one shoots like Gaston, wears big boots like Gaston...da da da da da da da da da like Gaston..." (I forgot the words. :P)
I got a really short video too of the very end when they were dancing. I haven't figured out how to load it on here, so here is a picture of it.
I saw 7 Brides for 7 Brothers 2 years ago at Zilker Hillside Theater when I came with Jacqueline. That one was probably a little bit smoother, but both of the plays were great. I loved both of the performances I got to see there.

Day 3 of Texas~ Friday (Happy 4th of July!)

We tried to be out the door early on Friday morning to beat the heat. Actually, the weather wasn't too awful. It does get humid there, but I'm convinced that it gets more humid here. We reached the River Center around 9:30 am and the mall didn't open till 10 am so we walked over to the Alamo first. The Alamo is right in the middle of downtown San Antonio and is surrounded by sky scrapers. It makes it look like a small place. It's beautiful though. They make sure it stays green and pretty during the summer. I wish I had a picture of the actual walkway. This is a view looking out of the walkway at one of the buildings.Here is the front of the Alamo. They had some re-enactors there in booths and tents and they would talk to the visitors. In one of the courtyards a speaker was giving the history of the battle of the Alamo.
Here is a view of the back of the Alamo. We saw several trees that grew out of the ground sideways. I don't think I've seen that here on the east coast. The parts of San Antonio that I got to see (aka the Alamo and Riverwalk/River Center Mall) have a very definite Spanish/Mexican flavor the the architecture, etc. It is so different from what I'm used to. I loved it. And most of the houses are shaped differently because they are built to withstand the heat more than our houses are. Most of the trees are shorter too. It's very pretty though. I think if they had more rain it would be really beautiful.

Look Mom, we're getting along. :) Cheryl kindly took a picture of us at the Alamo for me. :)
On the stairway to the River Walk. You have to go down stairs from the street to get to the River. All of the plants along the river are very green too. Some of the plants looked kind of tropical almost.

This was our tour guide. I forget his name. You can take a little boat ride along the river and the guide talks about the different sights you will see. I'm pretty sure one of the requirements for this job is to have a talent for stand-up comedy, because he was really funny! He had someone else who worked there meet him when we passed under a bridge to hand him his breakfast in a paper bag. Then he tried to pass him the money for his breakfast but he dropped it in the river. Oops! I guess he'd have to pay him back later. :)

This is what I meant about the plants looking almost tropical here and how the architecture looks like it is Spanish-inspired. When you are on the river tour you see lots of bridges and stairways and things like that. A lot of them curve around and aren't just straight up and down, and some of them are made of stone while others (like this one) are not entirely made of stone.

Here is one of the sights he pointed out to us. When you pass it a certain way it looks kind of like a free-standing wall with windows. It's really kind of triangular shaped.
Some of the boats that passed us. I didn't get a picture of our boat. There were all kinds of restaurants and buildings along the river. Even an old hospital that Carol Burnett and Kenneth Star (and some other people I don't remember) were born in or sick in. I don't remember if it still functions as a hospital or not. There are also hotels and apartments and offices along the river. You can live in the apartments if you are wealthy. :)
Here is one of the bridges I was talking about earlier.
Cheryl got her picture taken on one of them. I think there were 2 of them. Or maybe I just saw the same one more than once.
There was even a craft fair going on. Cheryl and Adam would not let me stop to look around. :(

The meanie moes! Just joking. :)

There were lots of Texas stores in the malls in Texas. You go into most stores and you can find all kinds of stuff with Texas logos on them. In fact, just travel around Austin and you'll see more Lonestars, Longhorns, and Texas state shapes than you ever wanted to see. :) We got our picture taken in front of one of the Texas stores.I snapped this picture on our way out of the River Center before we got back in the car. The red statue is called the Friendship Statue (Cheryl, correct me if I am getting this wrong) and it was a gift from Mexico. I can't remember the name of the building behind it. You can see the tops of these from the Riverwalk, but you can get a better view from the street.

Adam and Cheryl getting their picture together in the River Walk Mall.

San Antonio is a beautiful city. It is also a very large city. I am sure I would get lost a million times before I became comfortable there and then I'd still probably get lost afterwards. It is a fun place to visit. It is one of the most popular places in Texas to visit, I believe. If you ever get a chance to go see the Alamo and River Center, I would recommend that you go. It is a really pretty place.

We went back to Austin that evening and watched some fireworks from the Barton Creek Mall. It was a nice show. :) We were so tired! But it was a busy, fun day. :)