Houston

We made the return trip to Houston on the 5th July. This time we managed to keep the trip to 10 hours instead of 12.5! Dave drove the whole return trip (crazy boy, but we were on to a good thing and we didn't want to change anything!) and we managed to only have one stop for lunch along the way! Yay for us!!

Day one back in Houston Dave set off in the morning to find us a car. I went off to do a little shopping around The Woodlands.

I met up with Dave later in the afternoon when he arrived back at Danon and Chantelle’s – with our new car!!

He had managed to find a 1994 Honda Accord within our price range, and so had made the most important purchase of the trip! Very exciting.

We went to the Wednesday night prayer and worship service at Woodsedge Church – Danon and Chantelle’s church, and following I went with Chantelle to choir practice (just to see how they do things :)) while the guys had a little man-date!

Day two started with Dave going off to organise registration and insurance for the car so that we can start driving it, while I had a little sleep in! when he got back we went for our first big wander around Walmart. Danon was good to us and put up with me saying over and over how much cheaper everything was compared to Australia!

We dropped Danon at home and then Dave and I went and did a little more shopping. For dinner we went out to Cheesecake Factory, and were joined by some friends of Danon and Chantelle’s. We were very pleasantly surprised by the food there. Our only knowledge of Cheesecake Factory is what we have seen on the Big Bang Theory!! The food was fantastic, and so many choices. Oh, and massive servings!

We spent the next few days shopping (we bought very little clothing with us), eating and swimming in the pool. The night swims were bliss!

Saturday night we were able to join Chantelle for a work party. The boys were a little disappointed with the food (canapés!) so we went across the street to grab a pizza at Grimaldi’s. Dave and I rarely buy pizza anymore (we make pretty amazing homemade pizza – if I do say so myself!) but this pizza was so worth it!

It was a beautiful balmy night to sit outside.

Sunday morning we joined the worship at Woodsedge Church where Chantelle co-led with her incredible vocal skills!! It was great to hear her again after so many years! We heard a great message by the pastor there, and followed church with a swim in the pool. Perfect Sunday and perfect way to spend our last day in Houston.

Florida & 4th of July

The morning after the car ride from hell (seriously the worst road trip ever!) we woke up to an overcast sky. But who cares really when you're in FLORIDA!! We are still adjusting to the fact that we are in America!

The overcast sky didn't last too long and by the time we hit the beach it was a beautiful day in Destin Pointe. The colour of the water was incredible, so clear you could see all the schools of tiny fish swimming around your legs, and the temperature perfect. And the sand, oh the sand, the most soft, fine, white sand I have ever seen. Just incredible. The beauty of the beach left me speechless.

Chantelle and I spent most of the day lounging in the sun. The boys joined us for a while, but the were less keen to sunbake than we were, so we sent them off in search of food. Earlier they had spotted a BBQ ('grill' here in America!) so were in the mood for cooking up some steak! Yum.

I have to say that the beach is the absolute best medicine. I felt a million times better than I did the day before in the car ride from hell!!

So we spent Sunday soaking up sunshine and taking it easy!

Monday morning we woke to even more haze, and it took much longer for the sky to clear and the sun to make it's appearance. We started out with breakfast at Waffle House, followed by a little wander around a near by shop.

Chantelle and I again hit the beach. We decided to hire canoes, and we spent an hour paddling around the bay, about 100 metres from our house.

Following dinner we settled on the top back balcony to watch the 4th of July fireworks.

Happy Friday!

Day 2 & 3: LA to Houston to Florida

After a quick breakfast this morning we packed our bags, said farewell to LA for the next 6 weeks and returned to LAX for our flight to Houston!

Our excitement grew once we were at the airport, but once we were in the air, Dave was soon questioning our decision to fly to Houston. We hit some pretty bad turbulence about 30 minutes out from Houston, Dave was pretty freaked out by it, but the little girl sitting in front of us just thought it was like being on a roller coaster!!

We arrived in Houston at about 5:30, got our bags from the carousel, in perfect time to be picked up at the doors by the Lum's and the O'Kelly's. Walking out of the airport doors we were hit with insane heat and humidity, the like we haven't felt for months. But we were soon in the air conditioned car catching up with friends we haven't seen ages!

Tex mex for dinner was followed by a late night of hanging out, and then an early start the next morning with Danon and Chantelle as we road tripped it to Florida!

The trip started out great, we were all in high spirits, but about 4 hours into it, I got really sick and we had to make heaps of extra stops for me! We also hit horrible traffic a number of times, so what was supposed to be an 9 hour trip turned into a 12 hour trip instead!!

But we finally arrived and this is what we were met with.

One of Chantelle's clients very generously allowed us to use their beach hose for the weekend...for free!! Amazing blessing.

Get ready sand, sun and surf, here I come!

LA: Day One, 30 June

As I said in my quick post yesterday, we have arrived in the USA!!!! It has seemed like such a long time coming, yet the last few weeks have flown by. It still doesn't seem real that we are here!

We had great flights, Air New Zealand were fantastic to fly with. The air stewards were great - one of them was even going up and down the aisles making balloon animals for the kids on board!

The little koala is our travelling buddy. We aim to take a photo everyday with him in it somewhere, and give him a name - still figuring that one out!

We survived the 5 hour stopover in Auckland - although we were definitely relieved to be back in the air and continuing on to LA.

We were prepared for a long wait getting through customs, but thankfully that went smoothly. Our plane was the first of two or three to arrive around the same time, so we were able to get through immigration near the front of the line. Amazingly our bags appeared on the carousel as soon as we were finished being fingerprinted, so we were near the front of the que to go through customs too.

So with our plane arriving at 3pm, we were pretty happy when we arrived at our hotel at around 5pm. 2 hours - not bad!

We went for a little wander up the street and found a few restaurants then went on to the car rental place to pick up our vehicle for the next 24 hours - a convertible Mustang (Dave was in car heaven!)

After a short drive around for Dave to practice driving on the opposite side of the road we returned to the hotel. We picked up some Taco Bell for dinner and spent the rest of the night at the hotel.

Today (Thursday 30 June) we went to Denny's for breakfast. Yummy pancakes with banana for me (and turkey bacon.... sooo good, why has this been hiding from us in Australia?!) a bacon and egg toasted sandwich for Dave.

We had a few awkward moments figuring out how we were supposed to tip, but we got it sorted and headed back to the hotel to collect the car, and we were off to find a phone shop so we could get a sim card for Dave's phone.

We came across a Target so we were able to have a wander and compare prices (and sizes) to Australian products. Dave got a sim card, and across the road we saw, in the middle of a parking lot, a fireworks stand!! We got talking to the security guard there and he gave us directions to the Pacific Coast highway.

We spent the afternoon driving around, up past Malibu and Zuma beach, I lost the lens cap for one of my camera lenses - no idea how, but we couldn't find it anywhere in the car - so weird!

The width of the sand on Santa Monica beach was crazy! None of this lying on the grass when the tide is in like at Torquay surf beach!

The Mustang had to be returned at 7pm. There were tears as I pried Dave's fingers from the steering wheel :)

Well, time for some sleep before our flight to Houston tomorrow!