Texas

After arriving in Austin and finally finding a campsite, we met our friends Debbie and Mike and their little guy, Josh. We hadn’t seen them since our trip to Houston at the beginning of our big adventure, so it was fun to catch up with them and to meet Josh. We met for dinner at The Oasis, a well-known restaurant on Lake Travis with great views (at least by Texas standards).

The next day, we caught up with more friends from our Texas days, meeting Denny and Lee for coffee. They filled us in our where many of our Houston work friends are now at.

At the end of the day, our friends Elizabeth and Gus were married in a ceremony overlooking Lake Travis. The evening light was quite beautiful.



Here are the happy couple and the bride’s family:


The bride and groom cut the cake.



The groom’s cake looked and tasted yummy.


We got to visit with our friend, Tim, who was also at the wedding.


Later on in the evening, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Debbie pose for a photo.


The next day, Gus and Elizabeth had a Greek Orthodox ceremony. The church was colorful.


Gus and Elizabeth entered with the priest.


Gus and Elizabeth wore crowns, which they swapped back and forth, like to the garlands that were swapped at the Indian wedding we attended early in the summer.


After the ceremony, Debbie, Mike and Josh were hanging out and posing for pictures.



Sarah got to play with Josh, who liked the buttons on Sarah’s dress.


After the wedding, we went to Chuy’s, our favorite Tex-Mex place of all time. They have this amazing creamy jalapeno dip. It’s to die for. We split the Elvis Presley Memorial Dinner – an enormous plate of enchiladas with different sauces, beans, and rice. Yum!

From there, we drove to Houston where we’d spend the rest of the week visiting friends. First we stayed with Michael and Liberty. We got to meet their five-month-old, Aliki. She’s a cutie.


Then we spent the night at Gene’s house. His daughters Charlotte and Audrey have gotten a lot bigger in the year since we last saw them. Sadly, we never got the camera out to take photos.

Finally, we spent a couple days at Debbie and Mike’s place in Beaumont. Sarah had fun taking photos of Josh, who is very good-natured and quite photogenic.




Mealtimes were lots of fun. Sarah got to feed Josh, though really she just succeeded in making a big mess. It’s hard to hit a moving target.




Bath time was also lots of fun.




On Saturday, after two weeks of visiting friends and family, “renting” pets and kids, we continued east with our travels. On to the Gulf Coast!