Two Quick Trips!

If you are a regular reader you know I recently had a couple of great weekends back-to-back. The first weekend I set off to Austin to my first ever face-to-face meeting with a fellow blogger. It was great fun and I’m so glad it happened! I had a gallery opening in Beeville, Texas, to attend and, being basically in the vicinity, I jumped on the chance to meet Allison Allen from WomenBloom. When I contacted her she readily agreed to meet me for dinner. That invitation morphed, over several e-mails, into an invitation to stay the night in her beautiful home in Austin, and I quickly agreed!

Allison advised me to either hit Austin by 3:30pm or not until after 6:00pm or I’d be stuck in huge traffic. I knocked on her door about 4:00pm and we immediately hit it off! We talked and talked, almost non-stop. We got all the world’s problems solved (you’re welcome world!) and then headed down to South Congress, one of Austin’s funky neighborhoods, to poke in vintage clothing stores, eat, drink and talk some more. We ended up eating at the Congress Street Café, which was delicious.

After dinner we headed back to Allison’s house, walked her dog, talked some more and then went to bed. I didn’t have to be in Beeville until 2:00pm, which afforded us the time to have a nice, leisurely morning. It was a fabulous visit and I hope Allison takes me up on my invitation to come to West Texas as soon as possible!

After bidding Allison a fond farewell I headed south to the Beeville Art Museum for the gallery opening of my friend and very talented artist, Barbel Helmert. The museum was beautiful and her work was wonderfully displayed. Six cases of swine flu in Beeville kept a lot of the locals at home but fifty or so people came from San Antonio and six or seven of us made the long journey from my town. It was lovely and I was so glad I made the trip.

The plan, at the end of the opening, was for me to go to San Antonio with Barbel and another friend, spend the night and then head home on Sunday. As I was heading to Beeville I passed a sign that showed Corpus Christi was 63 miles away. I had no idea the coast was so close and it really called to me! After the opening I made my excuses, got in my car and headed for the beach! I got a room in Port Aransas and spent a wonderful day Sunday walking on the beach, being reflective and getting recharged! I had a little self-discovery, which I’m going to write about later. I made the 9 ½ hour trip home on Monday where I had two days before heading to my niece’s graduation in Denton.

I got up Thursday morning and headed out for the eight hour drive to the Big D, where I spent the night before picking up my mom at the airport on Friday morning. Mom and I spent a lovely afternoon at the Dallas Arboretum, which I highly recommend to anyone who is going to be in the Dallas area. It was beautiful! We had lunch in the Arboretum café, which was nothing special but was convenient, and then spent several hours wandering around, marveling at all the beautiful garden areas. Evidently the Arboretum is a popular place to take bridal pictures and there were brides everywhere!! I’ll bet we saw a dozen at least!

After the Arboretum we headed to Denton where we met my brother, his family and the graduation girl for dinner. Saturday morning we gathered at the University of North Texas field house to watch my special niece walk across the stage and receive her diploma. She is the first one of her generation to graduate. Another one will finish in August and then, hopefully, my son next May! It was a nice ceremony followed by lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. My niece had us all over for a bratwurst cook-off at her apartment on Saturday evening. Sunday morning I headed home. Two back-to-back 1,000+ mile traveling weekends. When I got home I was TIRED!

Tuesday the chickens came and I’ve been dealing with that ever since. But that’s for another post!