Category Archives: Travel

Back in the states!

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Back from Colombia today. Not a real adventurous trip (I guess I should wait to say that until after my MIA-DFW flight, but oh well) . Saw more capybaras and some big iquanas about the size of the ones we saw in Cozumel. Bought some Juan Valdez coffee this time to see how it stacks up to the local stuff I bought last time and to the Juan Valdez coffee you can get here. Gotta see if the man and his donkey are worth the hype! ;) There were some crazy thunderstorms in the town we stay in during the nights. I usually sleep though all storms but these ones were quite heavy and had some insane thunder…enough to wake me each night. I have some pics from the flight and the huge hotel room I had in Bogota that I will post later.

-peeps

Cozumel Baby!

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This past week we went to Cozumel for 4 nights and stayed at the Occidental Grand Cozumel. It was just the 2 of us and we had a great time! The weather was mostly good, aside from the raining most of our last full day there. We took a snorkeling tour one day where we got to check out 3 different reefs. The last reef was a deep one and the water way pretty rough. By the time we got back in the boat it was about all I could do to keep from hurling! Next time I will be taking Dramamine for any snorkeling we do!!! :D

The resort was a decent place. We would probably stay there again if a smokin’ good deal came up, but it wasn’t so great we would just not consider other places the next time. I mean what kind of Mexican resort doesn’t have a swim-up bar????

Click on the pic to go to the pictures. Enjoy!

- peeps

Seattle…the city that doesn’t let me sleep

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My flight to Seattle on Sunday was delayed due to mechanical problems. I had already chosen the latest flight from DFW since we were in Austin for the weekend. I was scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 11:15p. After a late arrival of the inbound plane and a mechanical inspection that removed our scheduled aircraft from service, I finally arrive in Seattle by 12:45a. My rental car reservation was canceled due to my flight delay and I waited for 15 minutes for the Hertz rep who had apparently taken a “lunch” break. After getting the car and checking in at the hotel, I settled into my room at about 1:30am. I suspect I got to sleep around 2am for a 6am alarm and 7am breakfast with colleagues and a day of meetings at a jobsite.

The next night I settled into bed around 10pm hoping for a restful night. The alarm was again set for 6am so I could arrive to the jobsite early and get all my work done before catching my afternoon flight. Through the night I think I woke up on average about every 20 minutes!!!! I’m not exactly sure what it was other than maybe a paranoia that I would miss my alarm since all my colleagues were leaving that morning leaving me as the only one heading to the jobsite that day. I managed to get through the day OK but I had to drag myself to the plane…where I am typing this during airplane dinner a questionable cheeseburger…yeah, I dunno either! ;)

I requested an upgrade for the trip home after determining on the flight to Seattle that 4 hours and 20 minutes is beyond my economy seat threshold (yes, even exit row due to the shorter seat length resulting in weird thigh support) when I am tired and trying to sleep on the plane which is normally next to impossible anyways for me. I find the larger comfy seat and the free cocktails and wine in first do the trick to calm me enough for some sleep ;)

On a better note, we went to a place called Salty’s on Monday night for dinner and had some awesome NW food and wine. The weather was amazing!!!

Well enough with my adventures in travel….time for a nap!

-peeps

The Great Outdoors

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…sort of, but not really ;)

I mean, we are outdoors, in the middle of the big trees in east Texas enjoying the sights and sounds of the outdoors, but at the same time, I am writing this on a wireless internet connection, listening to random tunes on the iPod waiting for the flat screen TV with DirecTV to tune into the Texas vs OSU game ;)

So far we are really enjoying our time here at The Greer Farm. We were welcomed by Sid and Eva, the owners, yesterday and shown our cabin where we found a great little gift basket from my mom (THANKS!). The cabins are exactly as shown on their website. We got settled in and then took a trip to the local Brookshire’s. After that trip, I have determined that all grocery stores in big towns are just a rip off! There were small town values galore there! We came back to the cabin to find Tux, the Greer’s cattle dog waiting for us. He does this funny thing while playing fetch. While walking, he would bring the piece of wood we were playing with and drop it about 10 feet in front of us and then run ahead and wait for us to kick or throw it. This continued for a couple hours while we walked around the lake, sat on the dock, and chilled around the cabin. We cooked some nice ribeyes last night on the grill and watched a couple movies. It was pretty chilly last night so we didn’t hang outside for very long.

Today, we got up, made breakfast with the Greer’s farm fresh eggs and lounged for a bit before getting outside. We went for a fairly long walk, where we were greeted today by Peppie, one of their other dogs. He isn’t one for fetch really, but just a good companion for walking around. We checked out a pretty good portion of the farm, including the main house, chicken and goat pen (where I did a sweet Mark Wahlberg talks to Animals impression…here is the link for reference). I will post the video of that when we get back home. We also saw the blueberry and blackberry fields.

Tonight we are probably going to head into one of the nearby towns for their fall festival. Tomorrow we will likely just chill some more and maybe take a canoe out on the lake.

Hope everyone is doing well and will post more later.

- peeps

So how about an update?

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So, here is what we have been up to the last couple months.

August
We spent a couple days tubing the Guadeloupe River (actually the Comal one day which wasn’t as fun) with some GTO buddies. It was fun to do 2 river days back to back and now that we have tubed the Comal, I can’t say we will ever try it again. The Guadeloupe is just SOOO much better. Natural rapids, less developments around, etc. After a weekend tubing the river, we spent a day or so in San Antonio checking out the Alamo, Natural Bridge Carverns, and the Riverwalk since it had been a while since we were down that way. From San Antonio, we headed towards Galveston (despite tropical storm Edouard hitting the area at the time. We killed some time on the way there at the Spoetzel Brewery where the lovely Shiner beers are brewed. If you have never been, I suggest you take the trip down to Shiner next time you are in the area to check it out. They give you 4 little cups of free beer and the tour is pretty cool too. We spent the rest of the week and weekend in Galveston at BJ and Jim’s beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula soaking up the sun, chilling out, and celebrating with friends. It was great to get away for such a long time and enjoy what would turn out to be probably our last trip to that beach house (thanks alot Ike! We enjoyed that place!!!!) More on that later… Rae and Hugh came back and spent the following weekend with us and we went to a place in Denton and saw a cool old man sing the blues!

During that trip, we “adopted” an addition to our family. With Rae and Hugh heading on a couple month vacation around Central America and then headed to Asia for who knows how long, Rae’s little doggie Darwin (a 7 lb Crested Malt) needed a place to hang while they were out gallivanting all over the world. We of course welcomed him in. So far, he has been a trip! Watching him and Jester play just cracks us up and the way he barks at ANY animal on the TV is always worth a laugh.

Mid-August, I took another trip to Indonesia that I covered while on my way there, so you can read all about that below. Jakarta was quite different than the places I had stayed before in Indonesia, but not different enough… :D Traffic is INSANE there!!!!

At the end of August, our friends Doug and Renee had their 3rd child…Cade Carson! We went up to the hospital to visit the day after he was born (since I was flying back in from Indonesia the day he was born). I’m sure he will grow to be just as fun as his siblings!

September
We spent a weekend in Austin and Burnet a couple weeks ago for Sara’s baby shower and Lisa’s birthday. I got to see Byron, who informed me that he and Christy are expecting! We chilled at Sara’s house for the shower while enjoying good food an good company. For Lisa’s birthday we drove into Kingsland to eat at the Junction House. While we were out that direction we drove out to see the Rybaski lake house…not sure if they still live there, but it still looked nice!

Last weekend was Kai’s 1st birthday party (son of our friends Charity and Greg). He got all sorts of cool toys! Ahh to be a kid again!

This coming weekend we are doing the Texas Motor Speedway Laps for Charity again! It is always fun! Hopefully they give a bit more room to stretch the Goat’s legs this time!

In sad news, Hurricane Ike let loose on the Bolivar Peninsula and wiped out much of the area. After scouring the web, I found the aftermath photos of BJ and Jim’s house. It looked like it was still standing, but likely had lots of roof damage and no telling what else. They will head down there once they are allowed to check things out and gather whatever they can salvage. I guess that is always the chance you take when owning Gulf property, I just wish Ike had chose somewhere else! Good luck to them while getting through this.

I am loving that football season is here now, although I know Tasha isn’t nearly as excited. She pretends to like it to humor me…she is a trooper! That’ why I love her! :D

Well, that’s all I have for now…Hook ‘em! and Go Cowboys!

- peeps