Brylan's Austin trip

What happens when my (Kim's) 12 year old cousin, Brylan, from Colorado comes to stay with us in Austin and our 100+ degree weather?

Last week Brylan came to visit us in Austin, and we had blast doing all of the touristy things around Austin. After starting with a pedicure (Patrick was not with us-for the record), we headed down to south Austin to watch the bats fly out from the Congress bridge. On the way to see the bats, we had to stop at Hey Cupcake to get a quick sugar fix.

Despite the facial expression, she was full of sugar and hyper as can be 30 minutes after consuming the gigantic cupcake. The sugar started to wear off just in time for the bats to take over the area. I'm always amazed at just how many we have living under the Congress bridge (1.5 million to be exact). If you don't believe me, here's the cloud of bats as they are flying out to feed for the evening.

For day 2 we headed down towards San Antonio and visited the snake farm, Natural Bridge Caverns, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk. While at the Riverwalk, we wandered into the mall to cool off, and Miss Brylan could not walk past the candy store without browsing. She came across this pixie-stick sugar dispenser that people can buy a straw and fill them with different flavors. Patrick and I couldn't believe this thing, so I took a picture of Brylan getting her sugar fix once again.

Needless to say after eating about 1/2 of it before we got in the car to head to Austin, she took a small nap on our way back to Austin. We did wake her up to make a stop at the outlets in San Marcos, of course.

For day 3, we decided to head down town to take the Austin Duck Tour, and everyone on the boat received duck whistles. These whistles' purpose was to "quack" at anyone and everyone, in hope of receiving a good 'ol southern wave in return. Needless to say Brylan passed this test with flying colors. After the duck tour, Brylan was starting to melt in the heat, so we headed for lunch at Hut's then to Barton Springs. We warned Brylan of the 68 degree water, but she didn't believe us until we felt it for herself. This Colorado girl went from melting to teeth chattering in 10 minutes. Told you so.... Is all that I could say. After the quick dip in Barton Springs we continued the afternoon sugar rush trend at Cookie Lounge where Bry made a massive cookie with the max number of mix-ins paired with a glass of whole milk. Again on the way home she crashed....

I have to explain one thing because it sounds like took her on the whirl wind tour of central Texas and spoiled her rotten. Well we did... This is because our grandmother ("Granny Bess"), who Brylan never got to meet, did the same thing to me every summer when I was growing up. So it is now my duty to make sure that she doesn't miss this part of life's experiences.

Clam Chowdah

Hello all,

Kim and I are back from an interesting, yet very fun trip to Boston and Cape Cod! I would first like to say that our visit was quite nice and the people are quite nice, but the roads are absolutely horrible in Boston. Our driving experience was probably the worst I have ever imagined and our next trip out there will involve only public transportation. Many brilliant people came out of the New England area; however, I do not believe any of them were city planners or road developers. In addition to the terrible roads of Boston, our GPS decided that we were still in Texas and near Madisonville, approximately the same spot that we turned it off following our last trip to Louisiana.

Our trip started with a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, where we were able to visit the cemetery where Sam Adams, Paul Reverre, and John Hancock lay. We followed that tour with a visit to the Paul Reverre house and a lunch date in Little Italy for some authentic (and very good, I might add) Italian food. Kim has a very special place in her heart for anything Italian, so this meal was a special treat for her. Following our historic/Italian tour, it was time to get on the "T" for a trip to Fenway Park. The train was so crowded, that I actually had to wedge my body on the front stairs of the first car and we could not have arrived at Fenway soon enough.

Arriving at Fenway was simply awesome! As many of you know, I love baseball, and this was one historic stadium I have always wanted to visit. Lucky for us, we were able to purchase two tickets to the game and this game was against the bitter rival Yankees (a team that I have always strongly disliked). I have never really cared for the Red Sox either, but I am much more of a fan now after this experience. Basically, we approached the stadium and they scanned our tickets out on the street. The Red Sox Nation is so into baseball, multiple blocks are shut down for the game. Countless t-shirt, beer, and food stops were on these city blocks and the fans were already cheering for the Sox. Their accents were fun as the letter "R" is removed from most words and is even more emphasized when they are cheering for the Sox. We stayed on the streets for a short while and then ventured to our right field bleacher seats because I wanted to see the field. The beers were expensive, but I did not see a person in the bleacher seats with an empty cup the entire game. The passion for the Red Sox lies worlds ahead of many other teams, including my Astros. Fenway is a getaway for many folks and they splurge when witnessing a game. We were able to see David Ortiz, who Kim coined the nickname, "The Big Papa", hit a high flying homerun over the famous Green Monster. Please google David Ortiz and you will find his real nickname. Besides the dreary and rainy sky, our Fenway experience was fantastic.

The following day, we toured Harvard, a most beautiful campus, and then made our way towards the Cape. I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of people in the Cape, but it was such a pleasant place to be. We stayed at a nice little condo in Mashpee, but visited Falmouth and Hyannis as well. We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on the water after touring some of the most ridiculousy sized houses. We attended a fun little wedding on the beach, which was quite meaningful, and flat out crazy at the same time. As much as it hurts me to say, people in the north can out-party us Texas folks.

In conclusion, our northeasterly excursion was quite memorable and I sure hope that we can go back again in the future.

More to come.....

Patrick

Coast to Coast

Well, we knew that June was going to be a busy travel month, and it has definitely begun.

We kicked off the first weekend in June with a trip to see my relatives in Louisiana, and it was refreshing to see kids entertain themselves for hours (yes, hours) with an Igloo cooler. The game was between three brothers, and they would crouch down into the cooler while the other filled it with water. Yes, it sounds dangerous, and it probably was. We couldn't resist watching all the fun....

The second weekend was a girls trip to Los Angeles to see our friend Charis. My dear friend, Lyra, and we got on a plane Friday afternoon for our trip. We were really looking forward to great people watching, and what Charis refers to as the "tragically hip" crowd along with the newly coined fashion trend of the homeless pirate. On Saturday morning, Lyra and I needed coffee, so the girls packed up with baby Micajah in tow to get some caffeine. To our liking we saw our first homeless pirate in the front display of Chanel:

We continued our trek around the Hollywood area, and I was able to get my yearly H&M fix. After filling only on bag at H&M, putting our hands in the stars hands in front of Mann's Chinese theatre, and watching all the tourists get pictures with locals dressed as popular movie characters, we decided it was time to take a walk into Beverly Hills, and we spotted the Govenator a street over from Rodeo (where Charis told us the stars 'actually' shop). Here's a shot I got from across the street, as I try to be a paparazzi....

Finally in one of our final stops down Rodeo, we decided to pop into Tiffany's. They were a little slow, and our new friend let us try on rings that cost 3xs Patrick and I's house. Here's the biggest of them all:

After walking around for about 4 hours, it was time to head back to the apartment to rest and figure out what we were doing for dinner. For dinner that evening, we headed to a little pizza shop right off of UCLA's campus, and we followed it with a fabulous cookie sandwich from Diddy Riese. Diddy Riese has the most incredible concept: pick your cookie of choice (you can even pick two different kinds) and pick your ice cream, and viola you have a personalized ice cream cookie sandwich. For my masterpiece, I went with chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies with butter pecan. It was so heavenly, I had to snap a picture.

Next weekend is Boston, so I'm sure we'll have plenty to blog about. Stay tuned...

All Kinds Of Changes And Stuff Going On!

Hello blog followers, it's Patrick. My wonderful wife has done a much better job at posting on this blog, but I promise I have all intentions of improving! Basically, 2009 has been an interesting year with many ups and downs, but regardless of anything that has happened, life is great! Kim and I are enjoying our first full year of marriage together and that could not be any better. She is an incredible wife and has been unbelievable supportive in my down time this year. We have been blessed by a crazy little dog, Ranger, who is extremely active, and has become best buddies with Brinkley (our older and more sophisticated dog). We got back from a great trip to Louisiana this weekend, where we visited with Kim's grandfather among other family members. He has lived 94 awesome years and still has the mind of a young adult. I can only pray that I have that quality of life. We leave for Boston next week, where we will witness the wedding of good friends, Dan and Jamie. Before the wedding, we will take the time to boo "A-Rod" at the Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway Park!

As always if my life, there is so much more good than bad, but 2009 has brought challenges and stress to both Kim and me. I have experienced more doctor's visits, procedures, and scans that I have ever cared to, only to find out very little about what has been going on in my body. We did find out a few details and the are under control now, so hopefully, that is all we will have to do. Since all of the time I have spent at medical facilities and a few pills, I have been feeling pretty good. I sure hope that it stays that way. If you want more detail on what has been going on in my crazy body, just ask, and I will provide. Not too long after my medical adventure proceeded to a slowing point, big changes occurred at my place of employment. In this tough economic time, many companies are being forced to handle tough decisions and my company was sailing in that same boat. Due to a long history of financial success, my company has never really had a reason to make significant changes, including pay cuts and employment status changes, and that was quite apparent in how the situation was handled. Right now, I will not going into any detail on that, but I am currently a temporary employee at my company and I am only authorized to work when projects become available to work on. Since the unexpected change in status, I have been busy on a fairly large project. I am not sure if more projects or different employment will come my way, but I am excited to see what God has in store for my career. Regardless of what happens at my current company, a few individuals (current employees) have worked so hard and fought for me to stay, and that is something I will always remember and associate with this company. Finally, to put a little more icing on the cake, I was involved in a non-injury car accident this week. A man in a gas station parking lot was not paying attention as he backed out of his spot. With his lack of attention, he backed right into my car and caused approximately $1900 in damage. Lucky for us, he has good insurance, and my car will be repaired within 3 weeks. I hope that my rental car will be slightly fancier than my car!

With the mix of positive and negative events so far this year, I have felt more blessed than ever with great friends and support. My relationship with God, Kim, family, and friends has grown so much stronger. I cannot wait to experience whatever God has planned for the upcoming chapters in my life.

More posts will come in the near future, I promise!!

Patrick