After several months of trying to work out a mutually agreeable weekend, we were able to make it out to Houston, Texas to visit our friends David and Lauren. Since Phillip started his residency we’ve had difficulty making travel plans since he rarely has multiple consecutive days off. But since he was at the VA in November, he was off work for Veteran’s Day and we booked a flight to Houston. David picked us up at the airport and we headed out to Pearland to the Wilsons’ lovely home.
The fresh flowers on the bedside table. Lauren and David are such thoughtful hosts!
We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and even though the mariachi band seemed to have taken a permanent break, we had a great time catching up. The next day Lauren and I dragged the boys to the Houston Nutcracker Market – an enormous exhibition hall full of vendors selling jewelry, gourmet foods, crafts, and everything in between.
There were SO many people at the Nutcracker Market!
We did our best to take it all in, but it was impossible to see it all. I can’t speak for David or Phillip, but Lauren and I had a lot of fun!
After all the walking around at the market, we decided to take pedi-taxis back to the car.
We had lunch and then watched football that afternoon in David and Lauren’s “media room” – Phillip and I felt pretty fancy. We went out to a really nice restaurant and had a wonderful meal complete with wine, cheese, and dessert. It was a challenge for the guys not to check the score of the Bama game on their phones during dinner since we were recording the game to watch later.
The next day was David’s birthday so we went to one of his favorite restaurants, Black Walnut Cafe, for breakfast. This was Phillip’s favorite meal from the entire weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed my hot chocolate.
Lauren and I enjoying our breakfast beverages.
After breakfast, the Wilsons took us to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 
No, they did not have examples of the radioactive elements.
The museum had a giant pendulum which I could have watched for hours. It takes a full day for all of the blocks to be knocked down.
Witness Earth turning! So cool.
I apparently run a tad bit warmer than Phillip does.
We did manage to figure out the timer on the camera so we were able to get one group shot:
We had a great time catching up with David and Lauren and hope we have the opportunity to spend time with them again soon!
