Time in Texas - Vacation Post #8

After my time with the Siestas and Beth Moore, my friend Ann picked me up from Houston's First Baptist Church. It was so good to catch up with Ann. I have not seen her for 28 years. Just a bit of history here....Ann and her family moved from Beaumont, Tx to my hometown of Butte, Mt. when I was a sophomore in high school. Ann and her husband Bob had four children. Twin boys named Bobby and Johnny who were 3 years older than me, David who was my age, and Carin who was about 13.  I met them at the church I was attending. It wasn't long before my friend Holly and I became close friends with the fam. Of course, the fact that they had three good looking boys that wore cowboy boots probably helped some. The Roubion family only lived in Butte for one year but we had a blast getting to know them. The next summer, I flew to Houston to visit them in their new home. I have so many fun memories of that trip. It was where I first learned to get on and off an escalator, thanks to Bobby and Johnny and the Galleria Mall. They laughed so hard at me. I also got the worse sunburn of my entire life on a fishing pier at the Galveston Bay. My virgin Montana skin had never known the likes of humid Houston nor had it ever been as close to the sun. It didn't help that I was somewhat carnal and tube tops were the going rage. I was enamored by the looks of a flounder, flat as a pancake with both eyes on one side. We ate seafood and nachos and laughed a lot. So even though coming to see Beth Moore was the primary reason I came to Houston, catching up with all the Roubions was just icing on the cake.

We drove to Kemah, a small town/tourist attraction where we ate at Landry's Seafood and looked at the water and all the sailboats and yachts and people. I took several pictures of our afternoon.

This is Landry's...

This was my lunch. Grilled jumbo shrimp on rice pilaf. Yum!

This was my free birthday brownie. Yum again!

Part of Galveston Bay.

After visiting Kemah for a while, we drove around the area and looked at all the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. Sad. So many homes just had to be torn down. Restaurants completely gone. But they are rebuilding. Life goes on and people just keep perservering.

Today, Sunday, we left Houston around 8:15 am and drove for about two hours to College Station. This is where Bobby and his family and David and his family live.It's also the home of Texas A&M. We went to church with David and his family at Christ United Methodist Church and then all of us met Bobby and his family at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I cannot even put into words how much fun it was to catch up with them. They are such nice, nice people. Bobby and his wife now have twin boys of their own. David and his wife have three children. Here are a few pics of the boys and their families.

Bobby and David

Bobby, his wife Courtney and their twin boys.

David and his son, Wilson. David's wife and two daughters left before I was able to take photos.

After we arrived back in Houston, I had the privelage and complete honor to meet Ann's parents. "Daddy", as Ann calls him is 93 and "mother" is 91. They were such lovely people. I toured their home and drooled over their beautiful antique dishes and furniture. "Mother" crochets and had extra scarves to share so I was blessed to receive one. "Daddy" cooks a lot and so I also received a family recipe book with some of his recipes in it. I also learned a new saying from "Daddy." As he showed me some of his older pieces of furniture and would explain where they came from, he would say, "Her daddy started 'keeping house' with this piece." Isn't that the sweetest thing? Started keeping house. Now I know what to tell my children about the bent wood rocker sitting in my basement. "That piece there...I started keeping house with it." Love it! Here is a picture of this sweet couple, married 72 years!

After visiting with Ann's parents, we zipped over to her house directly across the street because Johnny had decided to bless us with his presence. And I mean that sincerely. He had said he wasn't going to be able to come over but he did and I was so glad. What changes on the physical in 28 years doesn't really change the person. I should know since I don't look anything like I did 28 years ago. We just had fun talking memories and catching up. I had seen several pictures of his family while at Ann's house so I caught Johnny up with some pictures of my family. He is still the same Johnny. Chews tobacco. Cusses some. Laughs heartily. It was great. Here are some pictures of him and his mom, Ann.

Johnny and Ann

Johnny and myself

(If you have endured reading this long post, I must commend you. Rule number one about blogs...don't make them too long. But, I really need to wrap up this vacation posting because I leave in the morning. So bear with me, I have one more photo).

On our lengthy drive to College Station, I started to notice that almost everywhere there was an American flag flying, there was a Texas state flag as well. I have never seen this in any other state. And I learned this bit of trivia: Texas is the only state in the union that can fly their state flag at the same staff as the American flag. And so they do. Everywhere. And so I end my vacation posting saluting this great state by sharing in their pride. It has been so fun.