A week or so before starting residency, I decided to make use of my last remaining free hours before intern year and travel out to Texas to visit my friend Meredith (who I hadn't seen since our wedding! Too long!). I've driven long distances before, but this particular 1300 mile round-trip was pretty taxing. I think because once you pass Houston there's really nothing to look at but grass? I was really hoping for some cowboys and ranches and tumbleweeds, but all I got was heat and no shade turning my car into an oven.
Anyway, I finally arrived and Mere, her husband Alan, and I enjoyed a great few days visiting together. We ate (a lot), did some touristy things, and had great much-needed friend time! I'll actually (hopefully) get to see her again in September when I have a vacation week and a mutual friend's wedding to attend!
Here are some pictures from the trip.
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| Hmmm ... welcome to Texas |
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| The Lone Star State |
We decided to tour the Alamo one day .. it was a really interesting historic site. Unfortunately none of us remembered our history too well, and made it through the entire museum not knowing if Texas beat Mexico, or vice versa?! We were too afraid to ask a guide in the case we might injure their ginormous Texas pride, so we just enjoyed the walk-through. Later, though, we found out Texas actually lost the Alamo, then got real mad and with the help of some other folks around the country, turned around and beat Mexico in a later battle. Hmm. I probably learned that in fourth grade?
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| The Alamo |
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| Cute little baby ducks on the downtown "river walk" |
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| The San Antonio "river" runs right through the middle of downtown. Sorry for the bad photo. |
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| Ben and Jerry's! |
We had the week pretty well planned out, but had some time to hang around downtown before our dinner reservations one night. We happened upon a Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, and decided to be super touristy and check it out. Well, it was actually pretty entertaining (and a little bit creepy)!
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| Alan checking out something in the museum |
On the last full day of the trip, Mere and I decided to check out Austin. On the way we passed through this teeny town called Driftwood which just so happens to have a restaurant talked up on the Food Network. Bobby Flay said they had the best BBQ in the country, so we decided we'd see what we thought! We split two combo plates so that we could try every meat they offered. Yes, I think the waiter was a bit surprised to see two skinny girls eating that much meat, but eat it we did! Let me tell you folks, I think Bobby Flay may be onto something! The food was SO delicious! We ate almost every bit of it, and then stopped over at their cute little vineyard to do a wine tasting (PS, Texas wine isn't too delicious. Must be the heat).
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| Brisket, sausage, ribs, turkey, baked beans, vinegar slaw, and potato salad! |
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| Cutesy picnic area |
We also took a tour of the Texas State capitol. Pretty interesting stuff!
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| Their dome is actually bigger than the national capitol. Texas pride again? |
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| Cool lights in the House chambers |
