Off to the races...San Marcos, TX

We loaded up Friday afternoon and set off from Houston to San Marcos. The drive wasn't horribly exciting, but at least it was lush and green farmlands. It only took about three hours for us to arrive at our high class lodging establishment, the Econolodge of San Marcos. Niels and his dad, Siggi, had chosen the most affordable place in town since we were only staying for a night and everything else seemed overpriced. We all laughed as we pulled up to a very outdated and run down looking motel, but figured we all had flip flops for the showers and I have brought my own pillow, so it couldn't be that bad for a night.

After putting our bags in our rooms, we met up for dinner with two friends who were also staying at the same place and going to the track the next day. The most happening place in town was Texas Roadhouse, so we decided to join the crowd. Believe it or not, we waited 45 minutes to even get a table! Who knew that was even possible at Texas Roadhouse? I certainly didn't. We enjoyed beers, peanuts, and conversation about cars at the bar until we got seated for a meal that was surprising good. Since we were staying at such a nice establishment, once we got back to the motel from dinner we decided to put down the tail gate and enjoy a round of beers in true redneck fashion. It was a really fun group of people to be around, especially for someone who loves cars like I do. We called it a night after an hour or so, since we were meeting at 7am at the coffee shop across the parking lot for breakfast.

We arrived at 6:55am at the coffee shop, only to find it not open til 7am. We were able to look over the menu in the drive through while we waited and knew exactly what we wanted when the employee unlocked the door. After eating some breakfast sandwiches and getting coffee, we loaded up the trucks and headed to the track. I was so excited, I could hardly stand it. We got there around 7:30am and the parking lot was full of super cars! We had already unloaded Siggi's Porsche GT3 down at the grid when we got into town the night before, so all we had to do was get settled in and go to a driver's meeting. I obviously wasn't actually going to drive, but I figured the information that they would be discussing would be interesting and relevant if I ever get the chance to drive on the track in the future.

It wasn't much past 8:30 when the meetings were over and we were realized that spending our day sitting on the asphalt with a high of 90 plus degrees and high humidity wasn't going to be very pleasant. They had a pop up tent that we had opted not to bring with us to the track, but Siggi and I realized there was no way we were going to live without it. I took the truck into town to Walmart and found a sunshade to bring back to the track. Once we got it set up, things were substantially nicer and we were ready for the day!

Niels was instructing at the event, so his schedule was such that he was out with students for most of the day. Siggi was actually signed up as one of his students though, so at least they got to go out together on the track. Right after lunch was one of Niels' breaks, so we were able to take the GT3 out on the track. I was a little hesitant to go right after eating, but i put on some jeans and shoes, found a loner helmet and got strapped in! The adrenaline rush was unreal, I had such a great time. There was one hill on the track where I couldn't stop giggling every time we went down it. It was an incredible experience and I cannot wait to go out on a track again.

After a long day of watching the guys have a blast driving their cars, we packed up all our stuff, loaded the trailer and set off for Houston. The mix of the sun and heat was a perfect recipe for an early evening nap in the car for me, so I slept until I woke up as we pulled into the drive at Siggi's house. We got our stuff out of the truck and trailer and got cleaned up for dinner. Suzanne, Niels' stepmom, made us a wonderful dinner with help from Tim, Niels' brother, and his girlfriend Brenda. It was the perfect way to end an amazing day!

The next day we relaxed by the pool and worked on Niels' race car, a '79 Porsche 911. We took the race car and trailer back to storage and stopped at Whataburger for a late lunch. It is rare for me to crave a burger, but occasionally I get that strange urge. Everyone from the South raves about Whataburger and compares it to In-n-Out, so I decided I had to give it a shot. It was so delicious, the building was spotless, the employees were clean and polite. I definitely didn't regret my choice to try it! All of the events came together to create the perfect summer's day and a great way to end my trip! That evening we pulled all of our stuff together one more time and drove back downtown to Niels' house. I booked my flight home for the the following day and said goodbye to Houston for another time.

The trip was such an unbelievable experience! I'm such a lucky girl to have gotten the opportunity to go!

And so the story continues...the last part of Nashville and back to Houston

Not sure quite when or why I fell off the blogging horse, but I obviously did.

Where was I? Okay, so the Grand Ole Opry was an experience of a lifetime (well I actually hope it's not my last time to see it in this lifetime), but it is certainly something I will never forget!

The next morning after the Opry I was at breakfast at the B&B and got some advice from the others about what I needed to do for the day. After the discussion, I ended up deciding that the Country Music Hall of Fame was on the top of my list, along with touring downtown Nashville on foot for the remainder of the day. There was a sweet couple from Pennsylvania who had stayed there both nights and I had gotten to know them fairly well over breakfasts. Fortunately, they offered to give me a ride downtown with them after breakfast to avoid the heat and having to pay for a taxi. They parked a block away from the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was the perfect location for me to embark on my adventures for the day!

The Country Music Hall of Fame is an architectural masterpiece, not quite to the level of Gaudi I'll admit, but it is an interesting building no doubt. It is shaped like the clef symbol in written music from an arial perspective. From the ground at the entrance though, it resembles the keys of a piano. There are some pictures below of the outside, inside gallery area, some of the neat exhibits at the museum, as well as the view towards downtown Nashville from the front steps. I chose to do the platinum tour of the museum, because it included an audio tour of the 3 story museum as well as shuttle and tour of Studio B on Music Row.

I had an hour to kill between when I arrived and when my tour of Studio B was scheduled to depart, so I decided to make my way up to the top floor of the museum. The museum is loaded with informational plaques about the roots of country in bluegrass, the transformation of its sound to include a more rock n' roll style like Elvis, as well as the steel guitars and twangy sound from its start. They had boots, clothes, hand-written lyrics and even Elvis' "Solid Gold" Cadillac which was painted with a special paint that was comprised of crushed diamonds and gold and had gold leaf mirrors and accents. I barely made it through the top floor in the hour and set off to Studio B.

Studio B is studio where Elvis recorded more than half of his tracks, where Dolly Parton recorded many of her legends like "I Will Always Love You", and many more hits were made. It is just this small building amongst many fancy recording studio that fill up Music Row. The original piano and microphone that Elvis used in many of his hits is still in Studio B. Now the studio is owned by a real estate mogul in Nashville, but run as a non-profit, so no tracks are made there unless they have a historical reference. I believe Carrie Underwood and Reba McIntyre recorded over an old Elvis song there sometime in the past year. After Studio B, I went to complete the rest of my tour through the museum. They had walls of the records for every artist that hit gold or platinum status who had been inducted into the Hall of Fame. It took me over an hour to finish the last two levels of the museum, but I thoroughly enjoyed all the artifacts I got to see and information I was exposed to at the museum.

From there I walked a few blocks to downtown Nashville and down to the river. It was huge and had a neat sculpture on the other side that you can see from most of downtown. I grabbed lunch to get out of the heat of the middle of the afternoon, then walked about 10 blocks to the State Capital Building. Not exactly sure where or why in the history of Tennessee there was an excess of money, but I have to believe that there was. They built a replica of the Parthenon from Greece that has a museum in it. Then the actual Capital Building is absolutely gorgeous, stone/marble everywhere with elaborate light fixtures and beautiful woodwork. It was really neat to see two different Capital Buildings on my trip to compare and contrast them.

After touring the Capital, I walked down to the Frist Center of Visual Arts. The actual building was the old Post Office for Nashville that had been redone for the museum. The first floor had "The Golden Age of Couture" exhibit, which was full of vintage designer gowns, dresses, and accessories from the last decade. Upstairs there was an exhibit of Chihuly, who does masterpieces of blown glass that are at least 20 feet wide, 25 feet long, and 15 feet tall. It was incredible to imagine how anyone could come up with the concept for a sculpture of that size and then even more amazing to think that it is all made of hundreds of individual pieces that are placed in an exact order to make the piece come to life. It was definitely worth stopping by the Frist to see the exhibits!

Nashville was such a beautiful city, I couldn't get enough of it. Eventually I decided that it was time to head back to the B&B from downtown. Once I got to the B&B, I grabbed my laptop and walked back to the Frothy Monkey Coffeehouse to enjoy an early evening iced tea on the patio and book my flight for my next adventure. Niels and his dad invited me to spend the weekend at the racetrack with them in San Marcos, TX outside of Austin. For any of you that don't know me that well, I am unusually obsessed with cars for a 23 year old women. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go to the racetrack, seeing as I had never even been to a racetrack, so I booked a flight back to Houston that was scheduled to depart from Nashville the following morning.

As travel always goes, our plane was late to arrive by an hour. Once we got all loaded like cattle into the plane, they determined that the air conditioning wasn't working, so they had to get a maintenance crew to fix that. Then to top it off, the maintenance crew realized something was leaking from the hydraulics, which resulted in us getting loaded off the plane like cattle and waiting another two hours for an extra plane to take. All the delays set me to arrive in Houston right at 5pm, which was just wonderful considering that would be the height of rush hour. Poor Niels offered to pick me up, which resulted in him spending a combined three hours in traffic for the whole ordeal. Finally, we arrived back at his house and got things pulled together to head to racetrack the next evening.

My first 36 hours in Nashville!

Favorite Event: Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium

Favorite Spot: Frothy Monkey Coffee House

First Time: Staying at a B&B and visiting a new city completely on my own

Monday morning I packed up all my things and headed to the airport to fly out to Nashville. I can’t totally explain what compelled me to go to Nashville on this trip, but I just knew I had to go. I guess my pull was mainly driven by the fact that country music is one of my guilty pleasures. Growing up in a small, somewhat rural town, a lot of people listened to country. That was reason enough to hate country music, I guess. During the fall of my senior year of high school, I drove over to Colorado Springs to visit my dad and Kay, which is about a five-hour drive from Durango. For some reason, I couldn’t find any station on my XM radio that I could stand to listen to for more than a few songs. Then I switched over to “The Highway”, which is their station for new country hits. I loved that the quality of the vocals were actually something that I could appreciate and I felt like these artists had talent, which is a different breed than most of the new pop artists today. The rest of the drive I was hooked on country and my appreciation for the genre has only increased since then.

The other thing that swayed me to visit Nashville is that I always knew that I wanted to go to the Grand Ole Opry at some point in my life. Another station on my XM radio plays the Grand Ole Opry live every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday night. I had grown to enjoy the sound of it on the radio, because it’s an eclectic mix of older country artists and the newer artists. From what I could tell by listening to it on the radio, the show sounded like it would be a neat experience. Everyone said it was a must see in Nashville, since that is probably one of the top venues that has given Nashville its name in the country music industry.

I arrived Monday afternoon around 4PM and headed straight to my B&B to check in and drop off my massive amounts of luggage. By this point in the trip, I had been gone for 2 weeks already. As a side note, I packed literally enough clothes, shoes, and stuff to move anywhere on this trip. My mind wasn’t quite as clear and organized as it usually is after the morning events that led up to my departure from Boulder. Never again will I let myself take such a big bag. To put it into perspective, my bag weighs just slightly less than half of my weight. Going up and down stairs with it is quite a site to see! I was unsure about what to expect from my first B&B experience, but based on it being rated the #1 B&B in all of Nashville on TripAdvisor.com, I knew it wouldn’t be bad.

I pulled up in the taxi to a gorgeous Victorian house in a neat old neighborhood near downtown Nashville. All of the houses had either a Victorian or Bungalow feel about them, the trees were massive, and the gardens were beautiful. I walked up the stairs to a white partially wrap around patio equipped with white wicker furniture and striped blue and yellow cushions. Exactly what I was hoping to find from a Southern B&B! I walked in to find one of the Innkeepers chatting with another couple about what to do and how to get there. She was a sweet lady, but so scattered and talking a mile a minute. Her directions that she jotted down for the other couple and I were on note cards and consisted of drawings or names of landmarks for how to get where. They contained no street names, no addresses, and no phone numbers of the place. I knew that I would quickly need to get on the internet and do some of my own research about what to see in the neighborhood where I was staying.

It took no time at all to realize that I was in a pretty up and coming neighborhood. There were lots of little local businesses, restaurants, and bars within a few blocks walking distance. It didn’t hurt that I stayed so close to Belmont University as well, so there were plenty of cool college town shops spread around. I wanted to walk to a nearby coffee shop for a light dinner and to get a feel for the area. I pulled up the menu the one that was rated highest on yelp.com in the neighborhood only to find out that they had a great selection of breakfast food, salads, and sandwiches. Halfway down the sandwich menu I came across one called “The Ned” and in parenthesis they explained that it was named after Nederland, a town just up from Boulder, Colorado. I couldn’t believe that I came all the way to Nashville to find a sandwich named after the town 20 minutes away from where I live. I knew I had to go there to check it out after that, so I set out to walk the five blocks or so to the coffee house named Frothy Monkey.

I walked up to this awesome Bungalow style home that had been converted into a cute little coffee house. It was funky and comfortable inside, similar to most college town coffee shops. The girl at the counter was super friendly, like most of the people I met in Nashville, and recommended that I eat the “CalifornIA” for dinner, because it was light. It was sourdough toast that was topped with two eggs over easy, sliced avocado, sprouts and homemade salsa. It was amazingly delicious and their coffee was tasty. I had almost fallen completely in love with this shop as I sat outside on their front patio surrounded by bushes and flowers when I saw something flickering over the grass. Then I saw it again and again. To my delight, I realized it was fireflies buzzing around. They started to appear everywhere and I was like a kid in the candy store. Not growing up around fireflies, my heart literally jumps when I see them. I absolutely love them! The coffee house closed at 9PM and I headed back to the B&B. Fireflies lit my entire way home and I was ecstatic!

The next morning, I enjoyed my first B&B breakfast experience and was joined by a middle-aged couple from Albuquerque, NM and a younger couple from Pennsylvania. They were both friendly and had some advice about what they had seen so far and what I should take the time to see. We all had tickets for the Opry that night, so everyone was excited for that. I decided to enjoy the coolness (relatively so) of the morning and set out to walk over to a coffee shop near the Belmont campus that Niels' friend who goes to school at Belmont told him that I should grab a coffee there. It was a neat college town type coffee shop, but completely different from the Frothy Monkey that I had went to the night before. The baristas were not nearly as friendly and the place was buzzing with flies. I continued on my journey through a few more blocks of historic homes and huge trees to the Belmont campus. I wanted to see the Belmont mansion on the campus and just wander around. Now that I am done with college, I have a weird fascination with touring other campuses. It is a gorgeous campus with several old buildings, amazing gardens surrounding fountains, and a neat art gallery.

After a few hours of wandering the neighborhoods, I made my way back to the B&B since it was starting to heat up quite a bit. I couldn’t get the internet at the B&B to work consistently, so I went to get an iced tea at my favorite coffee shop. I spent a few hours out on their patio looking for places online to see in Nashville before I left. I got back at to the B&B in time to shower and get ready to catch a cab downtown to the Grand Ole Opry.

Since the flood in Nashville, the Opry was moved from Opryland to its original location at the Ryman Theatre in downtown Nashville. The Ryman was built in 1891 to be used as a tabernacle until 1943, when it became the home of the Opry. The show was broadcast live nationwide on an AM radio station from the Ryman until the mid 1970s when the Opry was relocated to Opryland. During the years that it was the home of the Opry, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and countless other big names in the industry performed there. The moment I walked into the auditorium, I felt like I was back in Catholic school going to church. The seating is all on wooden pew style benches and the windows at the back of the theatre are stained glass. I guess in a lot of ways the building is best described by its nickname as “The Mother Church of Country Music”. I sat next to a fun, mid-60s aged couple who were touring the South for a few weeks. On the other side of me were two guys from Toronto, Canada. It was such an amazing performance by country artists James Otto, Terri Clark, Bill Anderson and so many more. Each artist sang three or four songs and there were about ten artists total who performed. The acoustics in the theatre were amazing and everyone in the crowd, myself included, were completely thrilled to be there. If I lived in Nashville, I think I would have to find a rehab center from my addiction of going to the Opry for every show. It is without a question the best concert I’ve ever seen and definitely on my agenda for any future visits to Nashville!

Stayed tuned for my next post on the last part of my Nashville trip and a weekend out on the racetrack in San Marcos, TX!!

4th of July weekend in Houston

As I should know by now, especially by the events that led up to my trip, nothing ever goes as planned. My plan to escape to Nashville last week on Friday or Saturday didn't quite pan out. Hurricane Alex brought tons of rain, thunderstorms, and some flooding to the Houston area that delayed my departure. Not to mention the price of a ticket out of town on 4th of July weekend was ridiculous. I wasn't feeling desperate enough to head somewhere for the weekend to pay the price tag of between $550 up to $2500, so I decided it was a lesson in patience and to wait it out. Niels had already left town for work, so I was stuck staying alone at his place near downtown Houston. It started raining on Thursday night and continued to pour until Saturday evening. It rained like 6 inches on Friday alone, absolutely unheard of for those of us that live in the arid climate of Colorado. At first I loved the rain, because it cooled everything off. After it continued for another 48 hours, I felt like I had finally gotten my fill.

Sam, my friend from Durango who now lives in Houston, was in town for the 4th of July weekend. We went to the Galleria near downtown, because everyone said it was something that I had to see. It is a retail/business district that also encompasses a hotel. I had been to a similar mall in downtown Chicago over ten years ago, so it was interesting to see that style of development again. The mall itself is massive, I could barely figure out the mall directory maps to find the stores I was looking for because there were so many levels and sections. They even have two different macy's in the same mall at the Galleria, how crazy is that?! All I really wanted was a good coffee shop after I finished getting the few things I came there for, but of course that was a hard find amongst the massive amounts of chain stores.

Niels had wanted to show me this cafe in Rice Village called Croissant Brioche where they apparently have the best pastries, but we had run out of time. Fortunately for technology, Sam was able to look up directions to get from the Galleria to the cafe and within fifteen minutes we arrived in this awesome neighborhood of shops and boutiques. Such a stark difference from the mall and way more of my style. Since I was sent there to eat pastries, I did just that. Sam and I ordered three different pastries between the two of us, as well as lattes. We ordered a brioche, since it was the name of the cafe, a fruit tart with custard filling, and a chocolate croissant. It took us a good hour of great conversation to work our way through about 2/3 of each of our pastries as well as finish off our coffees. The pastries were absolutely delicious and the fruit tart was certainly the best I have ever had! What a perfect way to deal with the rain!

On our way back to Sam and his girlfriend's condo, we stopped by Niels' house to make sure it hadn't gotten flooded with the ridiculous amount of water that had accumulated over the day. Luckily, the main flooding took place several blocks away and everything was fine. We headed on our way up to their condo to feed and walk his dog and catch up more over some tea. It was so nice to finally get a chance to just sit and talk to Sam for hours, because since we both left for college, our visits are normally limited to an hour here or there before we would have to rush back to our lives in our college towns. We called it a night fairly early and he took me back down to Niels' house. He is my oldest close friend and I treasure my friendship with him so much!

On Saturday, Niels convinced me to venture out on my own in the city. I was terrified at first, because driving in Houston seemed completely terrifying. Stella, his car, has navigation which helped ease my fear of getting lost in the city. One of the places that he and his family told me that I had to go to was Spec's, an enormous liquor and specialty store. I started my adventure at Catalina, my favorite little local coffee shop, with a nice latte and a half hour of reading. I'm getting really crazy on this trip, can't you tell?! After the coffee, I plugged in the address for Spec's into Stella's navigation and was on my way. Soon I realized she decided to take me through downtown Houston. I thought I was going to die for sure, but thankfully their downtown is pretty quiet on weekends and it wasn't scary at all. Shortly I arrived at the superstore of food and wine and couldn't believe my eyes. They had every kind of meat, cheese, and cooking ingredient that you could ever need. Even their salt selection was two huge metal shelving units wide and contained everything from mineral salt to vanilla infused salt. Who knew that even existed? I sure didn't! The food selection was incredible, but nothing compared to their wine selection. It certainly rivaled Liquor Mart, our local alcohol superstore in Boulder. It was an incredibly neat store to visit and admire all of the variety of possible ingredients you could cook with!

Saturday night Sam invited me and some of his friends from work over for drinks and games. As this type of gathering normally goes, we just all crowded into the kitchen and talked instead of ever starting a game. It was a interesting group of people to say the least. His friends Erin and Kevin having been dating for about 6 months, both very sweet people. Erin is a good old country girl from Montana and is quite proud of her heritage. Kevin on the other hand was born in India and moved to the states when he was in elementary school. The other couple, Amid and Silki, were both born and raised in Houston, but their grandparents moved here from Pakistan. They both were totally content with staying in Houston for the rest of their lives and couldn't even imagine the idea of living in a small town like where Sam, Erin, and I grew up. The idea of camping was something that neither of them had any interest in and didn't plan to ever participate in such a weird activity. Kevin had gone camping with his family when he was growing up and actually enjoyed it enough to think it would be an important activity to continue. His family had always taken ski trips to Breckenridge in the winters and he definitely had grown an appreciation for small town life. It was such a diverse crowd and the conversations that blossomed that evening were interesting to say the least.

Sunday I ventured back to downtown to check out a different food superstore called Central Market. I think of it as a Sam's Club sized Whole Foods. Every type of fruit and vegetable that you could imagine, tons of fresh meats, and everything else you could want. They had lots of bulk food and even a alcohol section that carried Ska and Avery beer all the way from Colorado! I grabbed some delicious looking organic raspberries and Icelandic yoghurt that was similar to Greek yoghurt to eat for a quick, cool lunch. Outside they have a nice patio with live music every weekend, so I was able to eat right there and listen to the sounds of a local band! It was such a fun place to kill an hour! I found myself back at the Galleria after that to go to Nordstrom, a store which I can somehow never get enough of. Strangely enough considering the heat, I ended up buying a featherweight cashmere wrap. The sales associate was a sweet girl from Houston who is going to graduate in a May with a Marketing degree. She wanted to hear all about my trip and what made me compelled to take it, because she said she would never be brave enough to do something like it. I tried to convince her that I was that same girl up until I got the itch to travel a bit and live life a little more. I love having conversations which complete strangers that aren't all that different from the ones you have with your close friends!

That night I ran to the store to pick up the ingredients to bake some chocolate chip cookies, because I was starting to really miss cooking and baking. Up until that point I had really only cooked two meals besides a few breakfasts in the week and a half that I had been traveling. Niels' roommates who had moved out the week before had all of the baking stuff, so I had to buy some tin cookie sheets and all of the ingredients. Of course, the one thing I didn't think of at the store was a mixing bowl, which he didn't have anymore either. I ended up using his wok, which worked surprisingly well. The cookies turned out great, if I don't say so myself, and just as I finished pulling them out of the oven, I heard the familiar booms from fireworks. I went out onto his porch and was able to see two firework displays that were neat. Watching fireworks alone in a city that was foreign to me was definitely an interesting experience.

Monday morning I got packed up and ready to fly out to my next destination, Nashville!!!

First Stop: Texas

After 36 hours in Durango building our "Lily Garden" and spending time with family, I was finally starting to feel stable enough to start my trip. It only took me a few minutes on mapquest to realize that getting to Houston from Durango would be two nine hour days. Then I looked into the total cost of a room at a B&B and gas for all that driving and I started to question my method of travel. So last Wednesday afternoon, the day before I was supposed to set out on my trip, I booked a flight for the same cost as the room and gas. It was such a relief to know that my travel time would be 6 hours instead of 18 hours of driving and 36 hours lost total. I got up Thursday morning and drove to the airport in Durango. There are no direct flights to Houston from Durango anymore, so I had to take a short flight to DIA and then from there another short flight to Houston. The best part of flying instead of driving is that I could sleep during my traveling instead of being bored and exhausted from driving. By Thursday at 4:30PM I was traveling down the interstate in Houston!

My friend, Niels, had mentioned that his parents were headed out of town for the weekend and offered that I could stay at their house to watch their dogs and water their plants. I spent my Spring Break at their house about 3 years ago and fell in love with their home, dogs, and the fact that I don't feel like I'm living in the city. They live in the suburbs outside of Houston and their property is covered with incredible trees that must be between 75 and 125 feet tall. You can't see anything but blue skies and lush green trees when you look up at the sky, its beautiful. They have a gorgeous pool, as well. It felt like a luxurious vacation spot! I spent my first 3 days in Houston laying out at the pool and swimming with their dogs. It was just what I needed to feel relaxed! Here are some pics of their adorable dogs and beautiful backyard:

I have been eating well since I got here as well. Niels, took me and some of his other friends to his one of his favorite spots in Houston, Benjy's on Washington Ave near downtown Houston. He told me that they had the best scallops there, so of course I had to try them. They were cooked just right and served with steamed green beans over black Japanese "forbidden rice". They tasted like butter, just thinking about them now makes my mouth water again. They were so amazing that I ordered the same thing when we went back later in the week! For someone who appreciates good food, Houston is the place to be. I have yet to have a bad meal here honestly. I am loving all the fresh seafood the most probably. I had crab cakes my first night in town, scallops the 2nd night, homemade lasagna the 3rd night, and freshly grilled sockeye salmon the 4th night. No wonder so many people say they have a hard time not gaining weight when they move to Houston, I totally understand it now. It's hard to leave anything behind on your plate when the meals are so delicious!

The heat and humidity didn't seem all that bad the first few days that I was in town. It has rained everyday since I got here. Absolute downpours in the evenings with lightning that lights up the entire sky. I love Texas rainstorms so much, so I guess in a lot of ways I would choose this type of weather. The mornings have been generally sunny and gorgeous and then it clouds up in the afternoons. The evening rain really cools things off thought, so its really refreshing! Today was supposed to be a the day that Hurricane Alex hits Mexico and part of Texas, but as of now it is just overcast. I am actually kind of nervous to be this close to a hurricane, since I've never experienced any severe weather like it in my life. From what all the locals tell me, the worst that would probably happen is some rain and a bit wind here. All the alert signs along the interstates read "STORM IS COMING FILL UP YOUR GAS TANKS", which is only slightly disconcerting for someone who hasn't been near a hurricane. Hopefully it really will just result in rain and wind!

After spending my first 3 days in Houston, Niels and I drove up to Austin on Monday morning. We planned to take his parent's porsche, but Sunday evening we realized the convertible top wasn't working. After spending 3 hours at the dealership with it Monday morning, they determined that they didn't have all the parts necessary to fix it. The only way to put the top on and take it off was manually, which isn't really all the difficult. So off to Austin we went with the top down and the dark rain clouds brewing above us. It was already like 95 degrees as we left town and any time we slowed down we started roasting in a matter of seconds. The wind and heat of riding in the convertible reminded me of riding in my parent's boat on Lake Powell when I was younger. There is something about the combination of wind on my face and heat that puts me into full on nap mode. That isn't really the best thing to have happen when you are trying to stay awake to look at all of the rollings hills and small towns between Houston and Austin. After getting a frappuccino and a big bottle of cold water at a gas station, I was able to keep my eyes open again fortunately. The drive was actually quite quick, we arrived in less than 2.5 hours, because there was no traffic in Houston as we left or Austin as we arrived. From the outskirts of Austin to Downtown took no time at all, it was the easiest city to get into that I've ever seen. Nothing like the horrors of Houston traffic or even the traffic on I25 to get from Boulder to Denver.

We stayed right next to the Capitol in downtown Austin, just a few blocks from 6th Street in Austin. We got there around lunch time and I was on a mission to get some good Texas BBQ. We figured out that Stubbs (like the BBQ sauce you get at the store) was located just 2 blocks away from our hotel. It is in this really cool old historic building. I had a delicious shredded BBQ chicken taco with fried okra. I had never tried fried okra, but figured since I was in the South I had to try it. It was really interesting. Kind of like a tater tot mixed with vegetable tempura. I even got a local texas beer to go with it to complete the whole meal, which was fun. I am not a beer drinker at all, but with a meal like BBQ, its hard to choose anything but beer. There is an outdoor auditorium in the back of Stubbs that is pretty neat, below are some images.

After Stubbs, we made our way down to see 6th Street, which was surprisingly uneventful in the middle of the afternoon. It took me by surprise, because I was expecting something like Pearl Street in Boulder that has retail shops for daytime entertainment and bars and restaurants for the nighttime visitors. Niels had a friend who went to school in Austin and knew of some places to go to, so we got the names of where we should go from her and continued on our way. It was blue skies and so hot and sunny though, which made it nearly impossible to be walking between places for more than 30 minutes. We made a stop at a nice little coffee shop/bar called Halcyon and had some delicious iced coffee drinks and refilled our water bottles for our next adventure in the heat. Niels wanted to go to Mellow Johnny's, Lance Armstrong's bike shop in downtown Austin, so that was our next destination. It was an easy place to spend an hour for us, as we found some nice t-shirts, admired all the amazing bikes, and browsed through some interesting books on cycling. Downstairs they have a training center with stationary bikes and TV screens that are for virtual training, it was pretty crazy. There is another coffee shop at the bike shop, so we got some hibiscus iced tea and relaxed in the air conditioning for another half hour before heading out.

By that time, it was already almost 6PM and we decided to head back to the hotel to look at the menus at the concierge stand and make a choice and reservations for dinner. We decided on another seafood place called Truluck's in downtown. We got there around 8, and it was pretty quiet. There was a piano player in the bar, so we decided to sit in there instead of in the dining area. Unfortunately, this piano player was not so dedicated to playing and took several 20 to 30 minute breaks. At least while he was playing it was enjoyable though. I had a wonderful greens salad with apples, incredible goat cheese, and a deliciously peppery vinaigrette. The salad was to even out the unhealthiness of my entree, the fried king prawns and fries. You only live once though, so I had to try the shrimp and fries. It was as good as I expected, if not better. After dinner I had a great french pressed coffee and we ended up closing down this exciting restaurant at like 10PM. We were walking down 6th Street and the bars were all filled with live music. We ended up going to a bar called Friends that had a great blues/jam band playing. They were fabulous and we ended up spending a few hours there watching them play. The crowd was all obviously just enjoying the music as much as we were. They ranged for mid-twenty year olds all the way up to a couple who was celebrating a 60th birthday. It was really neat to hear such good music in the "live music capitol of the world".

We got up the next morning and headed out to get breakfast at this coffee shop/cafe that Niels had been to before. It was quite a hike from our hotel, but well worth the walk. I just had the traditional scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and rye toast. The bacon had a smokey flavor about it that was wonderful, the rye actually had caraway seeds in it to give it that rye flavor, and the potatoes had sauteed onions and bell peppers in the mix. I also got a latte there, which was also good. Jo's is near Ladybird lake in downtown Austin, so we went down after breakfast and had a look. It has a nice trail for running and walking along the water that is covered by lush trees. Our last stop in Austin before heading back to Houston was to tour the Capitol building. Again, the walk in the heat across all of downtown was a bit much, but like everything else is Texas, the Capitol building was overly air conditioned once we arrived. The actual building is beautiful with very elaborate wood and marble work everywhere you look. There are walnut chairs and desks that have been restored from the 1850s and artwork that dates back to around the same time as well. It was a tour that I am glad I went on for sure. We decided to keep the roof up on the porsche for the drive home, which was much more enjoyable in the heat and rain of Tuesday. We made it back in no time at all and our little mini vacation was over.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Niels' house near Washington Ave in Houston, just working on the blog and trying to decide where to plan my next adventure to and when to leave. It was raining all day, which spoiled my plans for walking anywhere. I met up with my friend, Sam, who is from Durango, for dinner and grabbed some incredibly cheap and delicious fish tacos from El Ray's taco stand on Washington. Apparently they are famous for their fish tacos and at $2.50 a piece I just had to try them while I was here. They were as good as I had hoped, just simple and good. Grilled white fish fillets, shredded cabbage, and cheese wrapped in corn tortillas. Afterwards, we went to see his girlfriend and his new condo just outside of downtown Houston. It was a really nice little place and their two dogs are adorable. Sam has a cairn terrier who is 6 and his girlfriend, Alina, has a fluffy 2 year old havanese. We enjoyed catching up over some delicious cardamon tea, while we were entertained by their dogs playing for a few hours. It is always so nice to enjoy great conversation with great friends while you are on vacation!

Today, I have spent my morning at a cute little coffee shop called Catalina in a historic building on Washington Ave. Niels is leaving town for work tonight, so we are going to grab lunch and wander around the Galleria and Museum Districts this afternoon. Tomorrow will be my last day in Houston, but I haven't quite decided where to go next. Unfortunately it is 4th of July weekend, so flights out of Houston are extremely expensive. I am looking into stopping by New Orleans for a day or two, then Nashville for another few days, then maybe leaving the South. The heat and humidity makes it hard to explore the cities on foot, but I feel like renting a car and driving everywhere won't allow me to take in the full experience of each place either.

Miss you all lots and lots! Hope everyone is doing well!

Where it all started...

I graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in December of 2009 with a Bachelor's degree in Communication. Prior to graduating, I decided to continue to reside in the vibrant town of Boulder until the end of my lease in June of 2010. While waiting out my lease, I continued working at Art+Soul, a contemporary art gallery on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, since I absolutely loved my job. This not a huge surprise, because who doesn't enjoy working with contemporary art, amazing jewelry, and incredible people? I knew that time would fly by in the blink of an eye from December to June. I was constantly sorting through where I wanted to call home next.

The small town girl inside of me had hopes of relocating to a smaller town after leaving Boulder in June 2010. Growing up in Durango, Colorado, I always have had the desire to move back the mountains. For anyone from a small mountain town, you understand I'm sure. For all of you who think Boulder is the mountains, you might have grown up somewhere with rolling hills or plains and the foothills that surround Boulder feel mountainous enough for you. I won't try to deny for one second that I don't adore the town of Boulder, it has literally everything you could every want within a 20 min drive. Unfortunately, there is a price tag with comes with the luxuries that Boulder provides, but there are few careers right out of college that can compensate for that high cost. So between my love for the mountains and needing to escape the cost of living in Boulder, I ended up decided I wanted to live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I started searching for careers and rentals in Steamboat immediately and was excited about what might come. Finally, in the middle of May I took a weekend off work and went up to visit the town, only to realize that it doesn't have nearly the vital economy that I had hoped. The reality set in that making a decent living in a town of that nature would be a stretch, so back to the drawing board. In the mean time, my boss had found a wonderful women to fill my place at the gallery since my plan had been to move by the end of May. I found myself with little direction for where to go next...and then it hit me!

I desperately wanted to go on a little trip, my last summer vacation if you will. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate in so many aspects of my life. I am lucky to be surrounded by the most loving and supportive family and friends. I discussed the idea of a road trip with my coworkers and receiving only "yes, you have to do it!" from all of them. I found myself nervous to ask my parents about my crazy new plan for the obvious reasons, they just supported me through college and would most likely want to see me starting a career ASAP. I went home for a few days and helped my parents prepare for our annual "camping" trip at Dallas Creek in the National Forest outside of Telluride. While I was home, my step-dad actually brought up the idea that he thought I should go on a trip while I had some time off work. I was completely shocked to hear the recommendation coming from one of my parents. A day or two later, I brought the idea up to my mom and she fully supported it as well. Who knew my parents could be so incredible to encourage me to take time off work and discover the country right after they funded my childhood and college education. All I knew is that I was one lucky girl! After the camping trip ended, I headed back home to Boulder to ties up some loose ends and pull my stuff together to embark on my trip!

It is important to note that I am an independent girl and always have been, but I have never set out on a vacation on my own. Inertia seems to have quite the effect on my life, seeing as I adore alone time at home in my little apartment in Boulder more than what is probably healthy. It is so easy to get set in your ways and I am the first to admit that I certainly had done just that. I loved running my dogs every morning in the same gorgeous tree-lined neighborhood filled with houses ranging from half a million dollars and upwards to well over two million dollars that was just an underpass away from my apartment complex. I found myself baking and cooking as often as possible for reasons that I cannot understand in any way other than it is one of my absolute passions. Surprising, because growing up I have little interest in learning to cook and spent only enough time in the kitchen to back chocolate chip cookies about once a month. Both my mother and father are fabulous cooks, so I guess I just never felt the need to cook. I began cooking in college, but really found my love for it once I moved into my own apartment and had a clean, fully stocked kitchen to play in at all times. Between living in one of the most beautiful cities in the nation, spending time outside with my dogs, and baking/cooking, I always had a hard time leaving Boulder for more than a few days.

I made a list of everywhere that I had wanted to visit in the US, which included places like Austin, TX and Savannah, GA. It being the middle of June, I realized that I needed to get on the road quickly or else the heat and humidity of the South might kill me. I got home on a Thursday and planned my departure for this trip on the following Tuesday. I spent hours on mapquest.com trying to map out how to make a logical order for visiting the places on my list. Finally, I decided I would go from Boulder to Houston and base there for a week or so because I had a few close friends in the area. From Houston I would make short trips to Austin and San Antonio and then be on my way to Savannah, then Charleston, SC. After a few days there I wanted to hit Nashville and then Santa Fe, NM and then back to Durango to visit my family who would be taking care of my dogs and regroup for round two of the trip, the West Coast. I plan to set out by plane to Bellingham, WA, Bend, OR, down through Northern California, across Utah and back to Durango again. Now for someone who was a rookie at trip planning and traveling by car around that nation, this trip seemed a little overwhelming but exciting at the same time.

Tuesday morning, I planned to meet my step-dad who was in town for a meeting at 10AM to have him pick up my girls (Lily, my 6 year old and Layla my 2 year old, both golden retrievers) and take them back to Durango to stay with my parents while I was out traveling. As life often goes, just when I thought I had everything planned out and ready for my trip, things changed dramatically. I woke up early to get my bags packed, dogs packed up to go to my parents, and my apartment ready to leave it for a few weeks. The morning was going smoothly, nothing out of the normal. I went on a short walk around 6AM with my girls, packed and cleaned, fed my girls around 7:30, and set out on another short walk with the pups around 8. I was just walking them around my apartment complex to go "hurry up", Layla (the younger one) found one of her dog friends and so I let her free to play with him in this grassy open space area. She ran out into the parking lot and around one of the apartment buildings. I chased after her and found her chewing a stick under a tree in the shade.

We were walking back to the apartment when all of a sudden Lily (the older one) wouldn't walk anymore and collapsed onto the pavement. She had what appeared to be a seizure or something of that nature and then went out. She came back to it briefly, but I could tell she wasn't really coherent. She then went out again. She came back to it again, but wouldn't get up and couldn't walk or do anything. I was freaking out and didn't know what to do. She had never had any signs of epilepsy or any other health concerns and was up-to-date on her vet visits. She had acted completely normal that morning, eating breakfast just fine, playing and even trying to grab her leash and walk herself literally seconds before she went down. I called my mom in Durango in panic and she said to find someone to help me carry her to the car and rush her to a vet's office. I asked a construction worker who was passing by to help and he tried to carry her, but seemed uncomfortable holding a sick dog. I asked him to hold Layla's leash and I tried to carry Lily. One of the things I had always feared the most became an issue though, all 105 lbs of me couldn't carry my 60 lb dog for more than a few minutes. Finally I decided to just lay Lily down on the ground and have the construction worker watch her while I ran to put Layla in my apartment and grab my purse and car to go pick Lily up. I loaded her into the car and just as I was leaving the parking lot my friend Owen who I called after my mom to help me arrived. We rushed her to the vet's office next door to my apartment complex, but they said it would be another 10 minutes before a vet would arrive and recommended that we go to the Urgent Care Vet Clinic which was about a 5 minute drive. We did that and along the way Lily was still breathing, but obviously not herself.

We pulled into the Urgent Care and parked and Owen rushed inside to get a vet tech to come help. By the time I opened up the back of my car, my sweet Lily girl had already passed away. I just couldn't believe that she went from happy and healthy to dead in less than 20 minutes. The vet techs at the Urgent Care center were so sweet and carried her into the clinic and checked all of her body for anything abnormal. They found nothing and said that from the blueish tint in her gums, her death was most likely cardiovascular related, like heart disease or a heart attack. They said that those type of illness aren't something that show outward symptoms in any way and that since vets don't often run EKGs on dogs, the owner's never know there is any problem until something like this happens. I was in shock and absolutely devastated.

My Lily girl was only 6 years and 6 months old, always happy, healthy, and active. I got her for Christmas my Junior year of high school when I was only 16 and she was the best companion in the world. Just simply an angel from up above. She had quite possibly the best week of her entire life the week before her death while I was camping near Telluride with my family. We had four golden retrievers in all; Lily, Layla, Bella (my brother's golden and Layla's littermate), and Rose (my aunt's 6 year old golden). The girls hiked 7 miles a day with us through nothing but gorgeous mountain trails and ran free in the meadow near where we camp for at least a half an hour a day, swimming in creeks and ponds to cool off occasionally. Lily even had her first camping a tent experience on the trip as well, since I had done gardening/house cleaning/grocery shopping for my mom in exchange for a nice 3 person 3 season backpacking tent right before the trip. She was absolutely in dog heaven being part of the pack of goldens. She lived life to the fullest and died as most of us would want to go, happy, healthy, and then have a quick and relatively pain-free death.

The only way I can make sense of it is that she lived twice as much life in her 6 years and most dogs. She was constantly playing with her red ball, chewing on bones and rarely did she rest for more than a few hours during the daytime. She lived in fast-forward everyday of her life. She was the happiest dog in the world and could bring a smile to nearly everyone's face. I guess this was the universe saying that the next chapter in my life was meant to be without her though. Her high activity level was stressful in some ways and she always lived life on her own terms, which can be difficult for a dog/owner relationship. I'm pretty sure she came when I called her less than a dozen times in her life, because she simply didn't want to. She was a sweetheart in so many ways that it was easy to overlook her independent nature for me. Layla, her little sister (not genetically thankfully) fed off of her naughtiness in some ways, which made have two dogs for one girl difficult at times. They were the best of friends and being an older sister was a wonderful thing for Lily, since it did mellow her out substantially and helped relieve some of her anxiety. They had just over two years together and loved each other so much.

It will be a big change for both Layla and I to not have Lily in our lives. I think that Layla will prove to be an amazing and loyal companion without Lily in her life thought. When we got Lily, a friend said "Getting a golden retriever is like getting a another rug on the floor". When Lily was a wild and crazy puppy, everyone told us that by two they mellow out completely. That certainly never happened with Lily, she had more energy at six years old than most dogs do at two. Since Lily's passing, Layla has become a complete rug on the floor and an absolute angel. She hangs out outside with me without a leash (which never happened when her and Lily were together). She already decided to come whenever I call her (again, never happened when Lily was present). She has always followed me around the house and slept at my feet, so I believe that with some training, Layla will be an obedient companion in no time at all.

I decided to shift the plan for my trip slightly after all of this change in my life. Last Tuesday when this all happened, I decided to pack up my things for the trip and start by heading home to Durango for a few days. I just couldn't make myself separate from Layla the day that Lily died and I certainly couldn't imagine driving two nine hour days alone to get to Houston either. Since I got Lily while I was in high school, she was a huge part of my parents life as well. I knew that I wanted to be with them while we all grieved our loss. It was so comforting to be home and with family during a difficult time like this. My aunts decided that I needed a "Lily Garden" at my parents house to commemorate my beautiful companion. The day after I got home, they brought gorgeous plants and we built a huge garden in her honor. It felt so therapeutic to be out gardening, another one of my passions, and be surrounded by those who love me, my family, and Lily. Here are some images of our "Lily Garden", which we will continue to add to over the years. We are hoping to add a bench and a few more flowers by the end of this summer. It will be a nice way to always remember our sweet girl and all the the joy she brought to our lives.