It has been a year since I saw my dear friend Amanda, which was during the craziness of her wedding, so there wasn't really any hanging out time. As you may recall, she and Jason moved to Texas and got married there. They even bought a house in Houston! (I'm very proud of them.) But since I wasn't able to do much touristy fun, I decided it was high time I did. This time, I invited my friend Stephanie, who recently relocated to Ohio, to fly down and play too!
Me: "Amanda! How will we ever recognize each other? It's been sooo long!"
Amanda: "Well, I'll be the girl wearing glasses waiting in Baggage Claim for you."
Me: "Maybe we should wear flowers in our hair so as not to miss one another."
(Reunited and it feels so good! Steph, me, Amanda.)
(Steph and I. Let's do this!!)
The reunion started immediately in the airport. I found Amanda and Jason and popped both of their heads off with a giant hug. We waited for Steph and as we did, Amanda and I had to turn away as a military dad was reunited with his wife a young son. And then another returned military man meeting his own family. Brings tears to my eyes every time. As soon as Steph came down the elevator, we were off to our first stop!
That's right, Jason wanted to take us somewhere he'd been dying to go: Menchies frozen yogurt. YUM! We then drove back to the Chan house and were very impressed by the new home owners' new abode. I must admit, seeing amanda and Jason in their own home, able to design and decorate however they will only made me long to buy a house even more. This has been in my mind for over a year now, but this only made me want it more.
(A pretty successful shopping trip!)
The few days we were there we did 3 main things: Eat, Talk and Shop. What else do you need in a vacation, really? :) We hit the outlets and let's just say we all did really well there. We hit pretty much every restaurant Amanda and Jason wanted to hit up. And by the way, yes, the food in Texas is SO yummy!! Mmmm, now I'm craving meat... Good thing we're celebrating Adam's birthday tonight and he wanted BBQ! Funny how that works!
(Breakfast at Whataburger!)
(Our wonderful hosts, Amanda and Jason.)
Another fun event was The Star Wars Exhibit. I love Star Wars so I was super excited when Amanda asked if this was something I'd be interested in. Steph ended up getting sick during breakfast so we dropped the poor girl off at the house and were on our way. It was super cool! They had models of all of the ships, costumes and all sorts of fun stuff! They even had the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as a ride simulator! Pretty rad, I must admit. I love this kind of stuff. :D
(In the cockpit of The Millennium Falcon! So cool!)
(That is one tall dude, that Darth Vader!)
(Sweet little Piggy... erm, Yoda. Sorry, wrong Frank Oz character!)
One of the only things (aside from all of the above) that I REALLY wanted to do was drive to The Gulf and touch the water. I have never been in that part of the ocean and I NEEDED to experience it. Everyone told me it wouldn't be worth it, but you know what? It absolutely was worth it. I love being in new places I've never been to. Even if it hadn't been as gorgeous as it had been, I would have loved it! We drove to Galveston and wow, I don't know if you know about the history of the hurricane of 1900. It caused the most deaths out of any natural disaster -- 6,000 deaths to be exact. You can see some of this history as you drive through the town. It's just incredible. And yes, that Stone House you hear about is still standing!
(A beautiful day at the Gulf!)
We had such a great time. Even if part of it was watching youtube videos hours on end, we still had such a blast just being with each other again, laughing and laughing and laughing! Man, I love my girls. I am so happy to say that even thought we're all miles and miles apart (and were when I was in Hawaii), we're still super tight and talk to each other very often.
It sucks to grow up and move, but that doesn't mean we can't remain friends and stay in touch. It's amazing how technology has made it even easier! So if there's someone you are close with, but it's been a while, why not take a quick minute to email/text/call/facebook/tweet them? Because really? There's no excuse not to. :)
