Next stop was gas station breakfast tacos. I was excited to try these, being in the Valley I figured these would be really good, but sadly all the options were premixed with eggs which meant I could not try them. Oh well.

Our plan was to head north to Corpus early afternoon and let Chase have a little of his weekend to himself. But first we had a really authentic send off meal at Jason’s Deli…we know how to do it up right!

As we were about to leave, we were reminded via twitter that we needed to try corn in a cup. The mixture of white sweet corn, mayonaise and cheese with some spice sounds really gross to me but I hear it is amazing. So, Beth and I went on a bit of a hunt for a food truck that sells it and had no luck. We were kind of bummed. But we did manage to come across the Iwo Jima memorial, I had no idea there was one in Texas.

After that we set out on our journey northward looking forward to going through the border check point in Saritas. Though neither of us quite understood why an hour north of Harlingen we needed to go through a border checkpoint, we weren’t after all at the border. Luckily we made it through with no problem and kept on our way.

We weren’t really in a big hurry to get to Corpus because we had gotten a call earlier from Todd & Lindsey that they had to run their dog Rocco up to San Antonio to the Vet so they wouldn’t be back until close to 5:00 pm, I was sad we weren’t going to get to see him:

So, since we extra time we decided we had to stop by and see “Big Jesus” as Mom calls it. This giant statue of Jesus is out infront of the church Ryan and Sunny got married in a few years ago:

After that we let ourselves into Todd and Lindsey’s and watched “Adventures in Babysitting” while we waited for them to get back.

That night they took us to Sushibar Downtown for dinner. It is the Sushi restuarant that is in the back of their night club. It was delicious and I actually tried everything they ordered included raw stuff…well most of it.

After dinner we headed to Aria for “Project Slicker.” It’s a fundraiser for Family Planning of the Coastal Bend that featured a condom fashion show. It was actually pretty impressive the outfits the designers were able to create.

Sadly I wasn’t really able to get good pictures because some girl decided to stand RIGHT in front of me. And since I’m so short I could not see over her. Luckily the fashion show was filmed and I could kind of see it on the video screen. We ended up hanging out until about 1:30 just chilling with our “cuddies.”

Here is Beth and I with Todd:

Here is Lindsey and her fabulous sister Ashley:

The beerstaches even made an appearance!

We dropped Ashley off and before we could even make it back to Todd and Lindsey’s we lost Beth:

Our first stop of the day was just out side of Austin to fill up with gas and so Beth could get a new pair of sunglass:

We continued on our way southbound with our next destination being the Alamo.

We went once as a family years ago but Beth didn’t remember seeing it and since we are doing a tour of Texas this seemed a fitting stop. Plus we knew it’d make Mom happy! We walked through the inside but there were so many school groups that it was way too crowded to really look around. So we headed over to the Riverwalk for an outdoor lunch.

After lunch and about 4 attempts to get back on the highway I was so happy to see this sign:

Once again we arrived a little later than we had estimated and made it to Harlingen about 5:30. Since it is getting darker earlier these days our first stop was the border wall. I had NO idea that Harlingen was so far south and so close to the border.

Then we headed to one of Chase’s favorite restaurants:

The food was great and the margaritas were cheap and it was just fun to finally see where Chase lives and hangs out. After dinner we headed to Oxygen Bar for a few drinks and even got Chase to test out the beerstache

A little after midnight we all decided we were tired and headed back to Chase’s apartment where we were greeted by this dude:

FINALLY once I had my rental car keys in hand, because I had to work at convincing the guy I wasn’t going for class, all I needed was good gas mileage and an iPod port, I headed back to pick up Beth. Here’s our hot ride for the weekend:

We quickly realized that our plan to have dinner with Ryan & Sunny in Austin wasn’t going to workout; 35 was packed. In Waco we decided to grab a quick dinner at Chickfila so we didn’t waste too much time. Wrong. Chickfila was a quite a venture off the highway, so don’t let the sign fool you if you happen to be passing through Waco.

With Chickfila in hand we got back on 35 only to hit more traffic…not what we were hoping for…after jamming out to my “White Trash” play list on my iPod we finally made it Austin about 9:30. Since it was so late, and Sunny needed to work the next day it didn’t make since to go out somewhere to hang. Instead we ran to Walmart and picked up some wine and headed to Ryan & Sunny’s place. We were greeted by their adorable dog Riley, who I totally would have stolen if I thought I could:

We stayed up until after 1:00 am catching up and reminiscing, all the while half watching “Get Him To the Greek,” which incidentally I need to go back an actually watch because it looked hilarious. Beth and I were both bummed we got there so late and didn’t have more time to hang with Ryan and Sunny but I guess that means will just have to head down to spend a whole weekend in Austin with them soon!

(Too bad we didn’t take a pic from our hang out but I like this one Beth took at Todd and Lindsey’s wedding back in February.)

Thanks so much Ryan and Sunny for letting us crash at your place for the first night of our tour of Texas. We are definitely blessed to have some amazing cousins!

Feel free to follow us on twitter to keep up with our shenanigans: Kate & Beth

Brew-B-Q is a huge tailgate every year a good friend of mine named Josh helps organize. Basically it’s like a mini reunion with big group of my college friends. Some I haven’t seen since I graduated and some I see all the time.

I first saw the Beerstaches at Blog World, thought they were hilarious and wanted one, so I found them online. The customer service was awesome and I got them in no time! They arrived Friday afternoon just in time for my trip to Aggieland.

We busted them out at the Elliotts, on Northgate and even at Brew-B-Q; hope you enjoy the pictures. I borrowed them from my sister.

I’m sad this one is blury but I’m pretty sure my camera has some issues.

Thursday morning, the keynote speaker was Scott Stratten, he was awesome. I had seen him on Twitter and knew the Social Media Club of Dallas had had him as a guest not to long before Blog World. After hearing him talk I was bummed I hadn’t heard here; if his Unmarketing book tour comes to your town you definitely need to go hear him! He gives you a great outlook on social media. He stressed, that people do business with people they know. As simple as that may sound, to me he really highlighted the importance of interacting with others and with being yourself.

That afternoon we got to hear Mark Burnett. I was a Survivor fan before going out there, even though they didn’t pick my friend Joe to be on it. But after hearing him talk, I’m an even bigger fan of it now. Hearing the creator talk about his masterpiece gave me a better understanding of what he tries to accomplish with the show. His key point was that when he selects the cast he is choosing the “content” he is using to tell his story, and how important it is to choose the right content.

After the sessions wrapped up, Whitney and I made our way back to our hotel, but first stopped to pick up our complementary tickets to see the Lion King. Disney gave us our tickets, and let me say, they were probably the best tickets I’ve ever had. Even though I love musicals, I can’t afford the close seats and always watch from the balcony, needless to say this was a real treat. Thank you Disney!

A few years back I saw the Lion King here in Dallas, but we ran late and missed the first 10 minutes. I was impressed with the show the first time I saw it, but this time I was blown away. I think we were on the 8th row and being that close to the aisles as the animals entered was breath taking. The actors moved with such grace it was easy to believe they were the animals they were portraying. I am quite convinced I will never have the words to express how amazing this performance was.

Throughout the entire show Whitney and I had to fight the urge to sing along, pretty sure our neighbors would not have been too happy with us. The actress that played Rafikki did such a good job that she stole every scene she was in. It was so much fun! In an effort to keep this post from getting to long, I am going to end here but will post more about the rest of my time at Blog World.

Saturday night, we headed out at 7 for our pedi-cab tour. I know what you’re thinking, pedi-cab, random. And I had the exact same thought, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in forever!
I think it was Claire that came up with this idea, but it might have been Sammie; regardless it was through Urban Taste Tours.

Since there were 7 of us we had to have 3 pedi-cabs and our guys were hilarious; they were Andrew, Andre (sp? I know there was a y in there somewhere) & Robert. Here is a picture of Mandy, the bachelorette with the guys.

We did the margarita/mojito tour instead of the “Bachelorette” theme because basically we would have just paid more money for the guys to pedal us around without their shirts on and I think a little toile would have been attached to the cars. Although after teasing the guys about it a little two of them did arrive at our second stop shirtless for an added bonus. See:

The first stop was at El Sol y La Luna. We got there and our waitress Andi was waiting for us with a table all set up. It was so nice to just be able to walk in and be seated. At this restaurant we got one appetizer for the table, we went with guacamole (and I recommend it), we also each got one drink. The margaritas here were huge.

Second stop was Trio at the Four Seasons, I know, I know we’re fancy! At Trio we didn’t just get an appetizer for the table, we each got an appetizer. We went with one of everything with the exception of I think 2 items on the menu and all shared them. Everything was so good! We had a variety of foods from steak fries and sliders to beef carpaccio and ceviche. And, we each got an on the rocks and a frozen margarita. I couldn’t believe how much they gave us; we kept thinking it was a mistake. So if it was, thanks for the hook up!

After a quick jaunt in the pedi-cab we were dropped off at our last stop the Belmont. Since the weather was so nice we opted for the outdoor patio. After the margaritas at the first two stops we all needed a bit of a break and went with mojitos. Once again we were surprised when our waiter, Josh, told us that once again we got one appetizer per person.

Needless to say after all the great food there was no need to eat an actual meal. Instead we moved on to the scavenger hunt that was supposed to be completed that night. First task, Mandy had to have her picture taken with a guy named Josh since that is her fiancée’s name:

I completed my task next, to kiss a bald man’s head, lucky me!

Once they guys arrived we headed out again and we had them take us to Little Woodrow’s so we could buy them a beer. (I say we, but really it was Claire who bought them some beers.)

Last stop was the Ranch where we convinced the guys, well minus Andrew, aka McLovin. He had to get back to work to make some dough. Sadly the dress code at the Ranch wouldn’t allow Andre in because he had no sleeves. Claire very graciously offered to buy him a shirt and sent him next door with $20, a few minutes later he was back and ready to go.

We ended the night at the Ranch dancing and hanging out on the outside deck. I will leave the recap there since this has gotten super long.

Thanks for loaning me your pictures Beth!

We stayed at the Occidental Flamenco, all-inclusive hotel. . .it was alright. . .nothing special, but I can’t really complain because we were less than 5 minutes from the beach. My plan for this trip was to relax so there really isn’t a lot to tell about the trip other than our excursion.

My sister had gone to Punta Cana a few years ago and highly recommended the Saona Island excursion. The only day we could do it was our first full day in the DR and it was a great way to start the trip. We were picked up at 7 am and had a 2 hour bus ride. . .that was a bit of drag but once we were on the water we forgot about it. Check out the view:

We took a catamaran out to the island and then had time to enjoy the beach and the water. While we were on the island we got to know the other people on our excursion that were a lot of fun. In fact if you are up in Montreal and looking for something to do, check out our new Stand-up Comedian friend Daniel. After lunch they loaded us up on this huge speed boat and took us to the “natural swimming pull” and got to play with starfish.

It was the best day, after that we spent the rest of the time chilling on the beach and reading. I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation and most definitely will not be waiting another 5 years for my next vacation!

Not that long ago we decided we wanted to float the river this summer and picked last weekend. So I went in search of a place to stay. After scouring numerous vacation rental properties, I stumbled up what I think was a great find; a cute little house in New Braunfels that sleeps 10 called Hausita.

It was perfect less than 10 minutes from both the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers. Last year we floated the Comal so this year we decided to float the Guadalupe. It was high this year so we didn’t have to get up, lift our tubes and walk around rocks. . .for the most part the water took us right over them, every once in awhile a few of us did get stuck.

We did the 5 hour float and had a blast, just a few bumps and bruises and a little sunburned. Can’t wait for next year! Here are a few pictures I borrowed from: www.RiverFotos.com.

If you haven’t ever floated the river you should. Although let me recommend you go with someone who’s been before and hopefully you won’t lose anything like we did (take rope & tie everything down). Last year my friend Joe recommended taking a Camelbak instead of worrying about a cooler. . .best idea ever!

Last week I realize I should probably get off my butt and go get my passport because I’ve already paid for the trip and I’m not going to miss it because of my passport and it is just over a month away. It’s a good thing I went when I did, because the cost of a passport just went WAY up. And since this procrastinator waited so long, I had to pay double and get it expedited, yuck!

As I stare out my window (on my lunch break), this sunny day in July I can’t help but wish I were, here:

The countdown is on. . .

Unfortunately the weather was awful; originally we had thought it would be it would be snowing and we were excited. But instead it was raining and freezing! I was the only one that didn’t bring an umbrella with me so I’m pretty sure my hair froze to my head.

Just as the rain turned to snow we found a great wine bar and grabbed a table right by the window so that we could watch the snow fall. Then we headed out to find all of the fun Christmas decorations around the city. These pictures will be from Saturday night and Sunday morning:

Sorry, that’s all you get for now because I’m not on my own computer and this Mac is a little smarter than I am so I can’t figure out how to rotate pictures. Enjoy!