A VERY BLESSED EASTER DAY!

Sunday, March 27- We celebrated Easter at Carrie's apartment. But, we actually started our Easter weekend at the Houston Elks Lodge Easter egg hunt. We enjoyed watching the kids from our patio here at the Elks campground. Members of the Lodge hid nearly 1000 eggs in the lawn area next to our site. It only took six minutes for the kids to collect the eggs, but it sure looked like fun.

Who do you think came over to our campsite for a visit? The Easter Bunny! We both posed for a picture. Thanks Easter Bunny for taking time during your busy day to stop and say hello!

After church on Sunday, we headed to Midtown Houston to celebrate at our daughters. We arrived early so Marsha could help with the meal preparation. Paul busied himself with a couple household projects for Carrie.

We took some time out to enjoy the gorgeous day. Carrie is only about a mile from the downtown area.

Beautiful but very windy day.

The dinner was delicious. The traditional ham dinner, with mashed potatoes, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and home made bread. Perfect! We were so stuffed that we took a couple block walk around Carrie’s neighborhood. Living in Midtown means there are lots and lots of restaurants. We took special notice of some of the crazy signs outside some of the establishments.

After dinner it was time for Paul to blow out the candles on his birthday “pull-apart.” A giant pastry Marsha made. Decked out with trick candles that couldn't be blown out. We eventually had to drown them in a glass of water to put them out. Marsha.....such a joker! By the way....the next time Paul's birthday falls on Easter Sunday is March 27, 2086. Paul will be 136 that year!

We then turned to the Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny left for Carrie and Michael. They must have been pretty nice because that rabbit sure left them with several nice baskets.

We weren't done yet. We had eggs to color. We all got highly involved in this annual event. We had paints for the first time this year along with our normal dyes. We had a blast coloring eggs and writing our initials on several. We even decorated a couple with feathers.... :-)

Traditional decorating of the family eggs.
Dave, Kelly, Paul, Marsha, Michael, Carrie.

Thanks Carrie for a wonderful Easter Sunday. It was an awesome conclusion to a wonderful weekend.

The End.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

FRIENDS, ERIN AND MUI, AND A BIRTHDAY

Sunday, March 27 – We've both followed Erin and Mui's blog, Two To Travel’s Phaeton Journeys, for many years and were delighted to find they were passing through Houston, TX. We decided to meet for lunch last Wednesday. We suggested the Sugar Land Town Center. This area is full of unique restaurants and outdoor bars. After viewing the area on the Internet, Mui gave us three suggestions. One was a Turkish restaurant. We jumped at the chance to eat at Turquoise Grill and Bar, a Mediterranean restaurant.

 

Both Erin and Mui are from Turkey, so wanted to have two experts with us when we tried our first Turkish dish.

We met at the selected time, and wouldn't you know, Erin and Mui were already there and talking to the restaurant owner, like they were old friends. The owner, Turkish of course, made several suggestion of tasty dishes. After introductions, we decided to let Mui do the ordering and that ended up being a great decision.  The only stipulation we gave Mui was NO HUMMUS. Neither Erin nor Paul like hummus. We started with an appetizer called Sigara Borke, fried feta rolls. Our main dish was the Family Platter which feeds 4-5. It was a huge platter of Gyros, Chicken Kebab, Beef kebab, Inegol Kofte, grilled vegetables and rice. The lunch selections were fantastic!

It was nice to finally meet Erin and Mui face-to-face, although as many bloggers know, it seems like we were old friends already. We discussed past travel experiences and future plans. Erin and Mui and full-time RV'ers and have traveled extensively overseas and on many ocean cruises. What an interesting and fun couple to enjoy the day with talking about good times. We really enjoyed our “taste of Turkish” luncheon and especially the friends we were able to share the afternoon with.

For the past two weeks, we have had two hawks visit us daily. We are very mindful not to let Bella out without proper supervision. We don’t want her to become an appetizer for any animal.

Right outside our door.

Watching from above.

Today, yes, today is Paul’s birthday. He says that he doesn’t celebrate birthdays anymore, but Marsha insists on making him a cake and singing Happy Birthday.

We would like to wish everyone a very Blessed Easter day. We will be spending this blessed day with our daughter, Carrie and Michael. Carrie is cooking a ham, and Marsha is taking all the fixins.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

 

 

HOUSTON RODEO

Wednesday, March 16…continued – After visiting the Houston Livestock show and the many, many vendors, it was time to head over to the stadium for the rodeo.

We were fairly high in the upper seats, but the view was great.

We had to walk all the way to the top.

The Rodeo has a total payout of $2.7 million with more than 300 contestants. Here are some facts about this year’s Rodeo:

---There were 32,000 dedicated volunteers.
---Total attendance for all activities on the grounds was 2,462,030.
---Paid Rodeo/concert attendance reached 1,345,983 fans.

Right before the rodeo started, they had try-outs for anyone that wanted to be a clown. Marsha thought she would give it a try. She didn’t make it.

All the typical rodeo events are held, but we especially enjoyed the chuck wagon races, calf scramble, and Mutton Bustin’ event.

Opening ceremonies.
 

They have no idea what is in store for them.

Tie Down Roping.

Team Roping

Barrel Racing.

Bull riding.

Chuck wagon Race.

In the Mutton Bustin’ event:

• Contestants must be between the ages of five (5) and six (6) as of Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
• Participants weight must not exceed 55 pounds.

These kids just crack us up. Several of them rode to the finish line.

Jake Owen was the performer at tonight's concert. The concert begins soon after the rodeo is cleaned up. The stage is erected in the middle of the arena.

We decided to beat the crowd and head home after the rodeo. Paul's not a big concert fan anyway, and we were exhausted. We had walked over 15,000 steps, covered over 7-miles, and had been at the Rodeo for 12 hours. Time to go home!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO

Wednesday, March 16 – The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is in full-swing. We wanted to go on Wednesday the 9^th, but rain forced us to wait until today. Every Wednesday is “Senior Day” with a reduced entry fee of only $10 which covers everything including the big name concerts. Unfortunately, it is Spring Break in Houston, and we knew there would  be 10,000's of kids in attendance. Oh well, kids will make it fun!!

We parked at the Texas Medical Center (TMC) Transit Station and rode the train to Reliant Stadium, site of the Livestock Show and Rodeo. Parking was a little cheaper, and we figured the walk from the train to the Rodeo would be shorter and thus easier on Paul's repaired knee. We'll be doing enough walking during the Rodeo.

We started in Kid's Country designed to teach kids about the animals. Yep...thousands upon thousands of kids enjoying the animals, watching cow milking, piglets being born, eggs hatching, and enjoying the petting areas. Marsha's a little height challenged, so she had to fight the kiddos in order to see some of the displays. They really do a great job in Kid's Country and the kids love it!

Born just four days before our visit.

The Rodeo still had five more days to go.

From there, we headed over to the livestock area. Man-O-Man, there were hundreds of hogs on display and tons and tons of cattle. There must have been 500 pens for hogs and a similar number of cattle stalls. There were even move cattle outside in pens. Today was market day for the hogs. Marsha’s dad would love this place

We have seen goats butt heads but never two cows.

Now that is a Lonnnnnghorn!

We always learn something new when we visit the Livestock Show. Today we noticed the Livestock logo on some of the cows. We asked a rancher what it meant. He said only the cattle that were selected to be auctioned off were branded with the logo. He said he was really honored to have several cows in the auction.

This has got to be one of the cleanest livestock shows or fairs with sawdust on all the floors and people constantly cleaning things. They even died the woodchips green in the sale arena. A nice touch!

We then walked through the entire merchandise area where all types of western items can be purchased. Cowboy boots, hats, clothing, furniture, food, horse trailers, ropes, and all type of cowpoke related items. We did buy a souvenir t-shirt for Marsha and a cap for Paul. Both for less than $15 dollars total.

Boots by the hundreds.

Need those boots shined? Plenty of places to do that.

What about a hat?

We then enjoyed the Youth Art Show. The art displays covered high school, middle school, and elementary art work. Amazing what some of these kids can do! We really enjoyed the 3-D category where clay sculptures were displayed.

Can you believe this guy was in the first grade?!

Adults were also represented in the Quilt Show. Another unbelievable display of some fantastic works of art. Thank goodness Marsha hasn't taken up quilts as another hobby. We don't have room in the RV for any more hobby materials.

This was Marsha’s favorite. Very different from the others.

We were pretty tired and had a couple hours until the rodeo began in the stadium, so we headed to the Wine Garden where we could sit comfortably at a nice table and enjoy a bottle of wine. The wine was wonderful, and the Garden was packed. We enjoyed talking to a couple of the waiters. One from Canada and another gal from France. They had unique stories to share.

It was then time to head over to the stadium for the rodeo. We will save that for the next post.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!