Round Top Texas

When you grow up in the country, you get very accustomed to it. So when you move to the fourth biggest city in the United States, you find out how much you had and how much you missed. This weekend, though, we got to head out to Round Top, Texas, a small little town nestled somewhere between Houston and San Antonio. Round Top has a population of 90 and an old world charm you could enjoy for years to come. It was so nice to get away from the constant sounds of traffic and neighbors and just sit and soak up the sunshine.

We were, however, in Round Top for a reason. We were attending the annual retreat for newlywed and engaged couples held by our church. Y'all, if you've never been to something like this and you're engaged or married, I highly recommend it. We learned so much and came to understand one another so much more. There's always talk about how men and women are so different but you never really hear anyone expound on those differences too much or explain how to understand and practically apply your knowledge of those differences. Bob and Ann Livesay, our speakers for the weekend, did just that and more, sharing with us a wealth of knowledge that they have accumulated from 44 years of marriage.



Royer's Café

The weekend started with me driving into downtown, picking up Brendan, and then the two of us heading over to pick up the couple we were carpooling with, Justin and Madeleine. Then we began our two hour trip out to Round Top. The trip went mostly without a hitch, until we reached the town of Round Top. Not knowing that we had come in the opposite way that our directions were written for, we drove through the town and unknowingly started heading in the opposite direction of the retreat center. After driving that way without luck for around 5 or so minutes, we decided to turn around and head back into town for some dinner before trying again. We stopped at Royer's Café, famous in Texas for it's pie. We never actually tried any of their pie since the price on the menu completely deterred us (4.75 per slice, 27 for a whole pie). So we had our dinner (I recommend the shrimp BLT, but not the Mexican pasta) and headed back out, this time in the right direction, thanks to the GPS on Madeleine's phone. We arrived just before the first session was about to start but we really had nothing to worry about. It didn't actually start until maybe thirty minutes to an hour later. We got our room assignments and unpacked the car before heading up to the Big House to wait for the start of the first session.

That night we met Bob and Ann and discussed the differences between men and women as outlined in the first few chapters of Genesis. It's not ever something you really think about when you normally read those chapters, but there is so much wisdom in there if you dig deep. After the first session they served brownies and ice cream, we stayed up and talked with some other couples for a little while and then headed off to bed. I don't know about y'all, but any semblance of travel always makes me super tired. And when you're fighting allergies, it just makes it even worse.

The following morning we had breakfast followed by another session with Bob and Ann. That session was followed by a half hour break during which Brendan and I sat on the porch and just enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful weather. I was thoroughly happy to be back in a place where I couldn't hear anything but chirping birds and slamming screen doors. Before long we headed back in for another session with Bob and Ann that was followed up by lunch outside. And lunch was followed up by another break, this one lasting all afternoon. And so what naturally happens when you have a bunch of guy and an empty, grassy space? Either a game of football or Frisbee. I didn't mind though. Brendan hasn't been able to play with a group of guys since we got married 10 months ago and I was able to get some great shots like these ones.



After the game we went into town to do some shopping and site seeing. We walked around for a good bit but never actually bought anything even though the antique shops were a treasure trove of adorable finds. We ended up spending the rest of our break in town before we headed back for our next session. During this session the guys and gals were split up for separate sessions on communication. This was another thing I really liked because we were in a long distance relationship for the two years we dated, we never really honed our communication skills. After those sessions were over, we gathered for a group picture and then headed down to the barn for a barbeque and games. So as to not spoil the retreat for others who will go in years to come, I can't actually disclose what happened during those games.

After the games we were over we had root beer floats while sitting on the front porch listening to the crickets. Others came out to join us and we decided to head back to our house to all play a game together. Justin and Madeleine had brought along a game called "Bang". It's confusing at first, but once you get the gist of it and get it going, it's a lot of fun. We stayed up later than we should have playing that game and then all headed up to bed.

The following morning we got up, repacked our suitcases, made our bed, and headed up to the Big House for breakfast and our final session. This was another one that helped a lot, as it went over resolving conflict without all the yelling and hurting of each other's feelings. After we finished that session, we packed up the car and headed back home. Justin, Madeleine, and Brendan all slept for most of the way while I drove. The road back had tons of bluebells and Indian paint brushes growing by the roadside. And there would be lines of cars parked on the side of the road with people out in the fields picking the flowers and enjoying the brief spots of sunshine in between the rain.

If I could sum this retreat up in a few words, I would say this: it was much needed, thoroughly enjoyed, and what feels like a brand new start for our marriage. Never underestimate the value of taking time off to devote to your marriage. It's one thing I guarantee y'all will never regret.

The Home of the Alamo

I'm from Delaware. Born and raised. So just about everybody I've ever known is there. Including my best friend, Jaimie. Her boyfriend, Luke, joined the Navy not long before Brendan and I got married. He did his basic in Illinois and then was sent to San Antonio for his first round of school. Jaimie went to his graduation and was going to come visit us a few weeks later but decided to stay home and rest up from her trip to Illinois and instead go to San Antonio about a month later to see Luke and have us meet her there. Brendan and I were to drive up separate since he didn't get off work until 5 or so and Jaimie's flight got in at noon and she needed someone to pick her up.

The day of the trip came up faster than I expected. All of a sudden it was time to pack and get ready to go and I wasn't prepared at all. I had only managed to get the laundry and the dishes done that day and that was only a few things of many that I'd hoped to accomplish. But we gathered our things, packed up, and went to bed.

The following day, Friday, Brendan went off to work like he always did while I finished cleaning up and gathering what we needed for the trip. I was finally able to get out the door around 10am, with Jesse, a suitcase, and a bag of his things in tow.

My first stop was in Pasadena to drop Jesse off at the PetsHotel at Petsmart. It was the closest one to our house but now that I think on it I should have taken him to the one that was further, but was still on my way to San Antonio. But this branch of the hotel in particular was great and they took awesome care of Jesse while we were gone. Traffic wasn't bad as it was an uncommon time of day for people to be out driving and I had buckled the dog in the passenger's seat using a safety harness so he would stay on his side of the car and not jump in my lap. So the trip was uneventful and I dropped him off with relative ease.

Next I made a gas stop, just to top off my tank and pick up a bottle of water since I had forgotten mine on the way out the door. Then I headed back out, hoping to soon hit I-10 and drive straight on to San Antonio. But Sam Houston Tollway happened.

Anyone living in Houston and not owning an EZ tag knows exactly how this next part of the story feels. I have the GPS on my phone set to avoid tolls. There was a section of Sam Houston Tollway that was toll free and so my GPS told me to get on there. Unfortunately, I didn't look to see that it was 2 miles away and took the closest ramp onto the tollway. And then a freak out ensued. Most of the time you have to have an EZ tag to drive on this road or...well you're just in trouble with the police. Luckily for me, this one had a booth for exact change. And so I panicked, rummaging around for the $1.75 I needed to keep going. I finally managed to find it and get through but not after my fight or flight response had significantly kicked in. And then I made error number two. I didn't know it at the time but I had now entered the toll free portion of the tollway and just needed to keep going straight to get the I-10 exit. Because I still had all that adrenaline rushing, I immediately exited, thus missing the exit I needed.

But thank goodness for rerouting on GPS. I finally made it onto I-10 and then settled in for the 180 or so miles I had to stay on the road. It was then that I started noticing a problem with my car. I own a 2000 Ford Taurus I call Thor (my previous vehicle, a pick up, I had called Iron Man, so I just stuck with the Avengers theme) that has been a real trooper. He stuck with me through my last semester and bit of the one before plus drove me all the way to Texas. But, as all Fords do, he likes to give me issues. I had hit a curb at maybe around 50mph the day before when I was going to the college for an information session. I was worried at the time but when I got out and checked the car and nothing was visibly wrong, I let it go. But while I was driving I-10, the car started pulling like a hard wind was hitting it and shaking some. I called my "adoptive brother" Chris and he told it was probably just out of alignment and to rotate my tires when I got a chance to make sure. So I kept on without another thought.

I reached San Antonio around 2:30 and then went into the airport to find Jaimie. She tackled me with a long hug and then we headed back out to the car and off to McDonalds to pick up some lunch. We sat and talked for a bit about various things-her job as a CNA at a hospice care facility, her job in a pharmacy, Syria, my CNA class that I'm trying to get into, and why people use babies on commercials that have nothing to do with babies. Then we headed to the Riverfront Mall for some shopping while we waited for Luke to get off of work. The mall, however, didn't hold much appeal, so we instead headed to the base where we decided we would just wait for Luke. It was about this time that I noticed a scraping sound in the back of my car, but blew it off as something just rubbing against my tire.

We picked up Luke, after getting lost on base, and then headed to the hotel. It was small and in a shady looking area of town, but it turned out to be just fine and the "neighbors" weren't even a problem. The worst that came of it was a couple of barking dogs. We settled into the hotel, ordered pizza, and waited for Brendan.

Brendan got there around 9 or so and then we all decided to go take a walk down on the Riverwalk. We walked by the Alamo first, which is smaller than you would think, and explored the outside for a few minutes. Then we headed down to the Riverwalk. It was overly crowded, which I should have expected for a Friday night, but for some reason, I didn't. It was lined with restaurants and shops, all of which were teeming with people celebrating the beginning of the weekend. The weather was humid and hot, though not as hot as it would've been if the sun were still up. The stars were out and the sounds of the city teemed around us as we walked alongside the river. We got tired and decided to head back to the hotel. Jaimie and Luke stayed in Luke's room for a while and Brendan and I stayed in the other, watched a little TV before falling into the exhausted sleep that always comes from a long day of traveling.

Corpus Christi

The next day we drove to the beach at Corpus Christi. We were all terribly ill prepared for this. We all had bathing suits but no towels or sunscreen. Brendan and I had brought towels for showers out of habit and Jaimie and Luke took some from one of the hotel rooms. The beach at Corpus Christi wasn't all that great. I still like the beaches in Delaware better. The sand is soft and the water is cool whereas in Corpus Christi the beach is narrow, the sand is rough from shells and rocks and the water is bath water warm. But nevertheless we still enjoyed ourselves while I got thoroughly crisped from the sun along with Luke. We took a walk down to a Navy WWII carrier that was docked as a museum but didn't go inside. We then walked through some shops before deciding to head out and get some lunch. We googled the closest Chick-fil-A and stopped there for lunch. We changed and then sat and talked. Luke and I talked about working at Chick-fil-A, both being former employees. Then we just talked about whatever came to mind until we finished up and got back out on the road. That night we went out to Wal-Mart to grab some aloe vera and went to sleep nursing our burnt skin.

The following day we went to church on base with Luke and then headed out to another mall to join some Navy buddies of his for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Since we got there first, we hit an American Eagle, Jaimie just to look and me to find something that wouldn't hurt the burn on my shoulders quite as bad as the dress I was currently wearing. The pager called for our table so the boys left and Jaimie and I finished up and then joined them. I left them all at the table after introductions and changed before sitting down to lunch. After lunch we shopped around some more and then headed back to the hotel. It was then that we decided to take my car into a Firestone to have the scraping sound checked. At first they said it would have to wait till morning but when I told them I had to drive back to Houston in the morning, the manager came out and checked the car himself. When he came back he said my brakes had something wrong with them and he would have them inspected. So we dropped off Thor and went back to the hotel.

Jaimie helped Luke study while Brendan and I watched football and waited for news on my car. Then the call came. I had busted a drum and my car was completely out of commission. To make matters worse, all the parts stores had closed and they wouldn't be able to fix it until the following day. So Brendan made the decision to take the following day off from work and we both stayed the night. The original plan was for Brendan to go back to Houston so he could make it to work the next day and I would drive home after dropping Jaimie off at the airport in the morning. But the car troubles changed that.

We dropped Luke off at the base about half an hour after he was due back and then all just collapsed back at the hotel. We watched a couple of TV shows together before all going off to bed.

The following morning Jaimie and I got up early and I used Brendan's vehicle to drive to the airport while letting him sleep. We said our goodbyes and then went separate ways. Back at the hotel, Brendan and I got breakfast, watched a bit of NCIS, then packed up and checked out. My car was supposed to be ready by noon so we went out to eat at Paloma Blanca while we waited (they have very good enchiladas). Finally the call came and we picked up my car, got back on I-10 and finally headed home to Houston. I made my detour into Pasadena, picked up the dog, and then got stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. Anyone whose ever driven on I-45 or I-610 knows exactly how this one goes. But when I finally made it back to the apartment, I had never been so happy to see the place that I called home in my life. There truly is no place like home.

Travel, Travel, Travel

After our wedding we traveled...a lot. I think we traveled more than the hobbits in Lord of the Rings (yes, I just made that reference...Brendan's nerdiness must be rubbing off).

We started off by hiking straight up to Philadelphia after the reception. We spent the night there and then, sick as dogs, got on our first flight. We landed in Toronto about two hours later, waited two hours and then boarded a plane to Halifax. After two hours of waiting (and some dinner) in Halifix, we finally boarded a tiny plane to our final destination, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
PEI is beautiful. I recommend going at least once in your life. Just bring a good GPS and a general sense of what you want to do. We stayed at Avonlea Cottages in Cavendish and I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. It was quiet, the cabin was clean and well furnished and the free wifi was handy since neither of us had phone service in Canada.

Lemonade from Prince Edward
Island Preserve Company

Prince Edward is made up mostly of farm land which makes attractions few and far between. We only managed to get out twice because of how sick we were. We went first to Prince Edward Island Preserve Company's restaurant. They had some of the best lemonade and quesadillas I had ever tasted. The wait staff was very friendly and it had a gorgeous view of a lake and farmland from where we sat. Plus they had plenty of adorable tea cups as well in their shop.

Cavendish Cliffs

The second place we went were the Cavendish cliffs. They felt like something out of a Greene Gables book. The wind was cool, the water a clear blue, soft green grass on bare feet, and the red dirt so characteristic to Prince Edward. We spent probably a good hour there before heading back to Charlottetown to go home.

When we finally made it back to the states, we drove down from Philadelphia back to my parent's house. We opened the wedding gifts and talked with my family before falling into an exhausted sleep. The next day we planned to start for Texas early in the morning. We ended up not leaving until after noon because of waking up late and having to pack some extra things. It is at this point that I will give you a very valuable piece of advice that we learned the hard way from our road trip. When making a cross country trip, never, ever, ever, ever book your hotel ahead of time. We booked a hotel for that night in Chattanooga beforehand, planning to leave early and make Chattanooga by 10 or 11 at night. We didn't make it there until around 2 in the morning. We hadn't taken into account having to stop for gas and meals, making our travel time for that day around 14 hours.

The following day we made our start around 10 in the morning. We were to meet up with Brendan's family and one of his friends in Birmingham, Alabama, about 2 hours from where we had stopped the night before. We met at a Cheesecake Factory, still both sick, and had lunch with them before striking out on the road again, determined to make Louisiana before stopping. We made our goal and stopped about 6 hours from our destination of Houston, Texas. We stayed the night in a La Quinta hotel and managed to have a few hours to spend on dinner and a movie before going to sleep.

The next day, after 3 days of travelling, we finally made it to Houston and Brendan's apartment. So, with our adventures traveling all over the North America, let me give you some tips from things we learned the hard way:

• Don't take a long trip to Canada when you don't feel good. Stay home and rest up
• If you're travelling out of the country, make sure to contact your wireless provider and get service for the country you're travelling to
• Plan ahead for a road trip as far as road snacks and food stops go. Makes life a little easier
• Don't book a hotel ahead of time-when you're ready to stop, simply exit the freeway and check with hotels in the area to see if they have vacancies-most of the time, they do
• When taking a road trip, agree on driving shifts ahead of time. For example, switch off at every rest stop

So now we've settled in Texas and started everyday life as newlyweds (mostly, anyway; we're about to move to another apartment). And this Yankee is trying to get used to a new life in Texas.