Houston- Part 2 of my Trip to the U.S.

(You can read Part 1 here: http://a-caryling.blogspot.ca/2012/06/calgary-to-baton-rouge-to-houston-to.html))

It was a pleasant five hour drive from Baton Rouge to Houston. I don't remember what we talked about but Jamie is always good company. We pulled into the parking lot at the hotel, left the windows down a bit for Jamie's dog, Herschel, and went into the lobby. And there was Greg, coming in from the parking garage after work. Amazing timing.

Greg and Jamie only had a moment to talk since Herschel was waiting in the car, but they made the most of it. After we said our goodbyes to Jamie and dumped my luggage in the hotel room, we went back down to the lounge for a glass of wine. Ahh..I was so happy to be in a nice hotel with a proper glass of wine that I took a picture:

Simple pleasures, man.
So, let's talk about the reason I needed to be in Houston. I'm not in the business of embarrassing people, so let's just say that someone that I'm married to was having a colonoscopy and I needed to drive him home. Why Houston? It's part of a company physical that's done at Houston's Medical Center.


Did you know you have to have someone drive you home after a colonoscopy? You're not even allowed to take a taxi. I guess they're afraid you might tell the cab driver to take you to another state or something. In fact, in the release papers, they tell you not to make any important decisions for the rest of the day. I considered re-doing our will- well, HIS part of the will- but it sounded like a lot of trouble and he seemed to be coming out of the anesthesia anyway.

Please forgive me, my dear friends who live there but, well, I hate Houston. It's hot, crowded and flat. Everyone spends the summer inside.



I remember walking down our street in the middle of July back when we lived outside of Houston and feeling like I was on a movie set. No people. No animals. Even the birds were hiding someplace cool. I didn't realize how much I dislike the city until we left. My fondest memories are of the people we met there who are still some of our closest friends.

So, let's move on to the fun stuff. On Friday, we drove to our friends' house on a lake. These folks were born to entertain and they do it well! We ate dinner out on their expansive porch after taste-testing a few unusual beers. A bottle of wine was opened with dinner. And maybe another.

I mentioned in Part 1 that I'm a light-weight when it comes to alcohol, so things get a little blurry here. I know we laughed HARD at things that didn't sound funny at all over coffee in the morning. And I know that their recycling bin was full to overflowing with cans and bottles. Let this be a cautionary tale to those of you who are facing an empty nest soon. You will revert to teenagers. Pace yourselves. And drink lots of water.

We spent Saturday night at our friend, Gail's, house. Another fabulous host. We had a great meal with some great wine, whilst sitting at her beautiful dining room table. I did not feel like a teenager. I felt like a proper adult. Then we hit the hot tub.

Personally, I think the sight alone of seven middle aged people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, holding plastic wine glasses above the bubbling water of a hot tub is funny. I don't have much more to say about it except that one of those seven people (name withheld for no good reason) actually FELL in with his glass of wine and came up laughing, with a full glass of spa water.

Good times.

To be continued...(yeah, that's what I said. This trip ain't over.)