Not just another January weekend

Now that we live in Texas again, I am so blessed to be near so many of my family members and best friends. So close, in fact, that we can now have visitors drive in just a day or for the weekend! 

Last Monday Mary Alice came to visit us and stayed the night and most of Tuesday. We had fun just hanging out and playing with Kona. We visited some of her (our) favorite restaurants and had dinner with our cousin, Jerome! I love living close to my sister again. :)

That weekend Zac, the dogs and I drove down to Houston for a brunch with some of Zac's corps buddies and their wives and babies. We had a blast meeting two new K-2 little ones, meeting Erin Wagstaff, seeing Emily, Nathan, Cameron and Michelle and did I mention playing with all 3 little ones! They are so funny. We spent most of the day just catching up and entertaining ourselves with the babies. Later that evening we drove over to Pearland to visit Fi and Ryan! We had a great Mexican food dinner at Gringo's. I so enjoyed catching up with and spending time with Fi - and finally meeting Ryan.

This past weekend Mandy and Beth ventured down to College Station for a much-needed girls' weekend! (Zac participated in some of the activities, however.) :) We decided that we would do things that we never got around to doing while we were all in college here. Friday evening we met at Kyoto Sushi on Northgate to finally see how their sushi compares to other we have had. We were pleasantly surprised to find some decent sushi in a landlocked city! Afterwards we headed home to talk and rest up for the day ahead. The next morning we stopped at Kolache Rolf's and drove to Washington on the Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. We explored the museum there (yes, Zac read every single thing possible) and took a short tour of the grounds. It was extremely interesting to see where the Great State of Texas signed their declaration of independence from Mexico. And, I was proud to see "J.W. Bunton" as a signer - one of my relatives. We also toured the Star of Texas museum, Barrington farm and the home of the last president of the Republic of Texas, Anson Jones. I really am glad that we drove the short 40 minutes to see all of these things! This is a picture of the ladies at the meeting of the Navasota and Brazos rivers.

For lunch we ventured over to downtown Bryan, which looks great! The City of Bryan and its businesses have done a fantastic job making the area look cleaner, nicer and more approachable. We ate at Casa Rodriguez, a restaurant that was recommended to us by our realtor and one that we hear numerous advertisements for, and all had great Tex-Mex dishes. (I still do not think that I have met my Mexican food quota since being back from Hawaii. I love it so much!)
Zac went home to do homework after lunch while Mandy, Beth and I visited Messina Hof winery for a tour and tasting. I learned several things about wine that I had never heard before, and the wines that we tasted were (mostly) pretty good! Our tour guide demonstrated to us the correct ways to taste red and white wines. I think that I will now have a great appreciation for the different tastes of wines. Dad would be proud! :) After the tour we went back to downtown Bryan to try a new wine bar, Downtown Uncorked. We each tried one glass and had a couple of good appetizers. I look forward to visiting there more often! We then went home, relaxed for a little while, and headed up to Northgate for some more college reminiscing. We had trash can lid nachos at Zapatos, visited the Corner Bar for a few minutes, and we all decided to head home. We may or may not have admitted to feeling so much older. :)
Sunday Zac ditched us to play golf in Houston with Cameron, and we had breakfast at Coco Loco! One of our favorite breakfast restaurants in College Station! Beth, Mandy and I watched a little bit of television before the made the drive back to Dallas.
We had a couple of wonderful weekends, and I am so thankful that MA, Beth and Mandy were able to visit, and that we were able to visit the Houstonites. I truly am blessed to have so many wonderful friends. For more pictures from the past twos weekends, click here.
Me ke aloha,
RAWE