Stay Strong Houston

We are very fortunate to be safe and dry in our home, but have been watching non-stop coverage of Hurricane Harvey for....what..3 days?

At this point we just feel damn helpless.    We are checking in with family and friends with phone, text, and social media and all have been safe, some do have water in their homes.   We're actually concerned that one set of friends may lose their home.

I'm afraid its far from over, we are supposed to get several more days of rain, and then the cleanup begins....

Stay Strong Houston!

Harvey

I never feel ready for a hurricane, but here we are 'hunkering down' for Hurricane Harvey.

The storm came up quickly and we did what preparations we could --  yesterday I refilled meds for the dog, bought food and batteries (by the time I got to the store every banana, loaf of bread and bottle of water was gone), put gas in the Jeep, and got cash.   Today we put stuff away that is outside and I even filled up the bathtubs with water.

We are watching way too much coverage of it coming in.....Stay safe Texas!

back to school

 I feel like I have to come up for air at work.   Getting ready for a new school year is always busy but this year especially it seems like it never slowed down and everyone needs something...and usually they need it yesterday.

I hope to take a minute to see the solar eclipse tomorrow, its the first day of classes at my school so it will be a busy day.  I made DIY viewer boxes out of cereal boxes yesterday, here's hoping they work!

Marble Falls

We are back from our trip, and we had a great time!  Well, the humans on the trip did...Smokey not so much (more on that later).

A lesson I've finally learned is that going into a vacation you can research and plan (and you should), but some of the highlights of a trip may be things you never considered.

This may be a lengthy recap, as I want to be able to capture what we did both for myself and for if others consider a trip there in the future.  I was pleasantly surprised with all there was to do in and around the town - We initially chose the destination because it was close to an off-road park we wanted to return to.

We started enjoying the week off even while we were in town.  We celebrated our niece and oldest nephew's birthdays with a pizza and pool party at my in-laws' house.   We also went to see the movie Dunkirk, we almost never go to the movies.  I'd never heard of this incident, but my historian husband had and so off to the theatre we went.   I was surprised at how little dialogue was used in the film, and yet it really worked -- the sounds and images told the story.

We drove out on Tuesday.   We finally stopped at Chappell Hill, its usually closed when we drive by (late Friday or Sunday), but we were finally driving by during their business hours so we stopped in and bought some sausage.   For next time we need to remember they have a dining area (future lunch idea?).   I also bought some peppered pickles, they are HOT!      I cannot look at them without trying to say the tongue twister...

We got settled into our rental house -- we finally found one that is truly pet-friendly - and did some grocery shopping for  the week -- I thought HEBs in Houston were busy, but this one was the busiest I've ever seen, especially the parking lot.  Talking to a local on the trip it turns out they are building a larger one and they need it..the store serves the entire area.

That night we visited a local brew pub, Double Horn Brewing.   I think its a seasonal, but try electric watermelon if you are there....very watermelony (is that a word?), the food was good too, that beer just sticks out in my head.

Wednesday 

We spent part of the morning at the house, the smoke detector had started beeping early that morning so we had the owner come out and fix it....it was actually nice to have an extra excuse to stay in a little later, and we got to hear a little about the house and got some recommendations from the owner.

After we got ready for the day we explored the shops near us (we were right in the middle of town) and did a little shopping -- a resale shop that benefits an animal shelter, I couldn't resist!   bought some books and earrings

We drove out to see Dead Man's Hole, I have to admit reading about what happened out there was eerie, and the threatening rain may it more so.

One of the nearby wineries has a location in town, and it was a great way to combine wine tasting and pizzas -- Flat Creek Enoteca.  The weekday lunch is a great deal (small salad and personal size pizza), and goes well with their wines.  We each had a wine flight, for my glass of wine I chose a lavender bubbly cocktail.

Thursday

We spent the morning at Hidden Falls Adventure Park to do some off-roading.   We had the park almost to ourselves and the clouds kept the temperature down.   Kevin is definitely still a beginner, but getting better, and we explored all the trails we were ready for.    I still need to work on learning how to be a spotter, I did get out to scope it out a few places, but am really not sure what I'm doing so usually he'd get out of the car too.

Afterwards we got the Jeep washed and then found a beautiful view at a local winery.  This winery,
Torr Na Lochs, overlooks two nearby lakes, and we had some delicious wine (and a cheese plate) and even met a couple of winery dogs!  Again we had the place almost to ourselves and enjoyed the views.

That night for dinner we went to the River City Grill and had a great view to watch boats on the river, we had no idea this was such a river-centric town.  In town it looks to be called a lake but from the map its part of the Colorado river.  I'm glad we didn't come one week later as they host a boat race that while fun to see probably would've made getting around town and finding places to eat and stay a bit harder.

Friday

One of the highlights of the trip, and something I'd never heard of before was Longhorn Caverns State Park. We'd originally planned to visit a wildlife refuge, but realizing the time of year it would've been way too hot to be enjoyable.   While looking at a brochure for a winery it had an area map with local landmarks to help place where the winery is, and one of those landmarks was the caverns.   We looked it up online and knew we had to go!    We didn't end up seeing that winery (2 was enough; we also hit 2 breweries) but I am thankful we saw their brochure so we didn't miss the caverns.

The caverns are only accessible on a guided tour and we were able to join up on a tour that had just started.   The temperature change alone was worth the trip, but it also had a lot of history and amazing formations.   Our guide would point out tiny bats along the way, and showed us where a speakeasy had a bar and dance floor set up.  I was doing good not to slip walking in my tennis shoes, I cannot imagine getting down there in the 1920s with heels, a dress, and very minimal lighting...  I highly recommend this tour if you are in the area.

That evening we went to visit Save the World Brewing and met my brother for dinner.

Smokey had gotten sick that day so we stayed in to visit with my brother most of the evening and keep an eye on the dog.   He is doing much better now but he seems to work himself up into a little ball of nerves, and its a bad cycle of don't eat, feel sick...feel sick so don't eat.....so apparently vacation is relaxing for everyone but our dog...he was still not himself coming home Saturday, and even all day at home on Sunday...he's finally getting back to normal now