Houston? Why Not!!!

 Since Jared has finished his training, he has been home waiting for his schedule to start.  One night we were laying in bed checking out different flights, just for fun. We looked into a flight to Houston, Texas leaving the next morning at 7:55.  The flight was pretty empty and since Jared's benefits are standby, we looked further into a return flight. We found one the next morning that was pretty empty. So at 9:45pm, we decided that we would be going to Texas just for fun! 

The first day started off pretty bad. We got to the airport at 7:00 am and found out our flight was delayed 3 hours!!! We finally got on just after 11am. 

 Then the bad luck continued. We went and picked our rental car up, and paid to borrow a GPS. We were wanting to hit a museum that closed its doors at 4pm. So we jumped in our car and raced out, not knowing where we were going. 2 minutes away from the car rental we realized that our GPS was set to Spanish. Not knowing Spanish, I just followed the signs for downtown Houston while Jared was on the phone with our rental place. They had no idea how to change it. By this point I am downtown, and LOST with a GPS!!!! I pull off into a random parking lot and play with a few things and FINALLY get it changed to English. By this point the museum had closed its doors. I had a few addresses of places that caught my eye. We entered one address in(not knowing which interesting place it was), and were off. So we landed at 3, got the GPS working around 4, and heading to some random place downtown in RUSH HOUR traffic! AHHHHHH!!!!!

We eventually made it to the one place I actually really did want to see. Its called the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall.  Pictures don't do it justice. This is such a cool and HUGE waterfall. 

You can see people in the archway to see how big it actually is. 

 It is 64 feet tall.  Its the  largest man made "water fountain" in America with millions of gallons of water flowing over the towering Roman style structure.

 Along the sides of the park/waterwall are 118 Texas live oak trees. 

 Then we attempted to just leave the city to our hotel which was about 40 minutes south of Houston(in good traffic). We were NOT traveling in good traffic so it took us FOREVER. Along the SLOW commute P started complaining he was hungry. So we made our way off, just as he started throwing up. Why not? Was this what we get for being spontaneous? We stripped him down and put pjs on him. Then loaded the car again, and fed both kids McDonalds. Doesn't everyone crave McDonalds after they throw up? 

We FINALLY made it to our hotel, and the amazing front desk gentleman took P's thrown-up clothes and washed, dried, and folded his clothes for us(they don't have a laundry service for guests). He also sent us to a local seafood place for the adults dinner. Its one of those type of restaurants where only the locals know about it. It was GREAT! Jared tried red snapper for the first time. 

 Then we raced back to the hotel and went swimming!

 This picture just made me laugh. 

Nudie boy in a nightstand!

 Our return flight was scheduled to leave at 9am. Really?!?!? Was the waterwall, and traffic, the only thing we were going to see in Texas? We checked on a flight that returned at 6pm, but wasn't as empty as the other. We had our rental car until 3:30 so we figured we'd chance it and changed our flight so we could try to see more of Texas. 

 I am SOOOOOOO happy that we did, because it ended up being an AMAZING day!

To start off, I was able to see how good Texas could be!

Texas was pretty tasty! 

It made me smile!

 Then we drove down about 15 minutes south of our hotel to Galveston, Texas. 

We LOVED Galveston. I am sure that in the warmer months it would be the happening place, but we loved it none the less. 

We hit the beach first

where we had fun shell hunting!

This was R and her favorite "clam"!

 Shadow picture on the beach!!!

 See, I did go!

 I may have just been relaxing on the beach!!! :)

 Then we drove around and LOVED all the houses on stilts. 

 We found this new neighborhood with AMAZING houses. 

We all agreed that we could live there!

 Jared loved how much they reminded him of the traditional Queenslander homes!

 Then we had read of the free ferry ride, that you MIGHT see dolphins. 

So we decided to try. 

The kids loved hanging out the sunroof while we waited for the ferry.

 still waiting!

 On the ferry. The kids LOVED it!

 P had to be held, or he couldn't see over the walls! :)

 On the other end of the ferry ride.

 We really just drove a bit, then turned around to get in line for the ride back, but saw these cool houses with a lighthouse!

 They are SERIOUS!!! :)

 On the return trip

 This is the only proof that we actually did see dolphins. 

Between both trips we saw 13 dolphins. 

It was actually really exciting, because we didn't expect to see any!

 Then we headed back into Houston. Poor R, she kept saying "do we have to go to Houston?" or "lets just stay in Galveston!" We had a nice/normal ride back through the city up to a north/western suburb.

 To see the Houston Temple. It was a little out of our way, but we really wanted to try to see it.

I am glad we did, it was GORGEOUS!!! 

 It was also only about 25 minutes from the airport without having to deal with downtown!  On this trip Jared kept seeing a donut store called "Shipley's Donuts". They were EVERYWHERE. So on our way to the airport, Jared told the kids, if we see one more Shipley's donuts we are stopping and getting one. Well, we made it to the car rental place without seeing one. As we went through security and into the food court Jared said "Oh crap!!!" I looked the direction he was looking and saw a Shipley's Donuts INSIDE the airport.

 Lets just say the kids didn't forget what he had said in the car!!!

 Overall we were actually IN Houston(the area) for 24 hours, and it didn't disappoint. It was such an amazing spur of the moment trip. Jared and I used to be VERY spontaneous when we were first married, and have kind-of fizzled out since having kids.  It made me SUPER happy that we could still pull something like this off with two kids in tow!!!! 

We all LOVED Galveston. I would give Houston another chance if we had the time. I just can't wait to see where our next "empty flight" takes us!