A trip to Home Sweet Texas

Sometimes everything combines at just the right time to make the perfect trip: great company, a wonderful destination, good chocolate, a head-full of fascinating topics to discuss, and Texans. 

That’s what happened exactly 4 weeks ago today. Curtis and I boarded a lovely large jet bound for home sweet Texas, and it whisked us away to a beautiful hot land of amazing sights and smells and tastes and even more amazing people. 

This post is a small interlude between series-posts, which will continue soon (when I can catch a snippet of time in the midst of packing, labeling, and stacking piles of moving boxes). 

(where, you might ask, am I getting the time to write this post? Well, it happens that it’s about 9:00 at night, I have just finished a massive day of said packing, and now everyone is catching up on life for a few minutes.)

So… need I say that it was good to be back? It would be the understatement of the year. Just arriving in Austin, getting our feet on solid Texas soil again, and hearing the rustling paper-shuffling sounds of grackles outside the airport was incredible enough. Curtis and I exchanged smiles. I cried. We filled our lungs gratefully with the good strong hot air of a Texas afternoon, and we were very happy.

That was only the beginning! Here are a smattering of pictures to give you an idea of our awesome time! Note: I didn’t get any pics of what we actually went to Texas for, which was for Curtis to check out the orthopedic residency options… but those would simply have been pics of the outsides of buildings. Not very interesting. Just thought I’d mention…

"Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong....." Sigh...

Enjoying some much-anticipated R&R time at the home of some of our favorite people...

...As well as enjoying lots of music with friends. Okay, a note about this picture: in case you are wondering why in the world Curtis has his pants rolled up, it's because (after a LONG day of appointments), we had the privilege of sitting outside in the Texas afternoon/evening with our feet in the pool, solving the world's problems with another of our favorite people!

Yet more music...

...And a very ingenious way of enjoying s'mores without mosquitoes! :)

I don't think it gets more idyllic than this, unless you add wonderful friends into the picture (which was true for us), in which case life is about perfect.

We arrived early on Sunday morning to help get breakfast ready. I LOVE this church kitchen! I think they have everything you could possibly need, all organized beautifully. Somebody has really thought ahead about this. I'm very impressed.

Our beloved adopted Grandmother... we love her to bits, and miss her like crazy!!

A good man, among bluebonnets. I see the beginning of a song. It's going to be epic.

Speaking of epic, this ride! Wow. We were so happy to be able to spend some time with a wonderful couple who live out in the middle of nowhere; their stories are incredible, their lives fascinating, and their testimony inspiring. It is SO encouraging to see couples who are still strongly committed to each other and still loving each other after 50+ years of marriage. I want to be like them someday.

I also wouldn't complain if I lived in Texas someday. Is this amazingly beautiful or what?! Just looking at it reminds me of the smell of that grass, and the trees, and the sounds of the goats nearby... aaaahhhh....

And here we are, back in the airport again, heading home to Vermont. What a trip! I wonder if I could convince Curtis that he needs to check out some more residency programs in San Antonio?? :) If so, my bags are packed (and I have a feeling that one of them would contain a little-sis stowaway)......