Paris and other adventures

Sorry for the long hiatus, the last two weeks were incredibly busy.  It all started the weekend of March 24th.  That Saturday Chris, Darleen, and I head up to Dallas for our friends James and Meghan wedding.  I was very excited because he was a key member of our college group, so it was practically a college reunion!  We arrived just before the wedding.  It was beautiful wedding and we all had a blast at the reception. 

The next week and weekend were a blur and before I knew it I was getting packed to head to Paris, France.  I found an inexpensive direct flight and decided it time to get out of the country.  Chris and I decided that six days in Paris would be to long so the first two were spent in Bruges Belgium and the last four days were spent in Paris.  Tuesday after work we sprinted to the airport to catch the nine and a half to Paris.  The flight actually wasn't bad, but it might have been because I spent the whole time reading.

Once we landed in Paris we took a train to Bruges.  Unfortunately with all travel there has to be some issue, our train ended up getting delayed for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Bruges was a beautiful little town all though extremely cold.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around town checking out all the little shoppes. There were probably 300 chocolate shops in a 700 yard radius!  Hello heaven.  While wondering around we found a neat little underground pub and stopped in for a drink.  After that we had dinner and then crashed out.  The next morning we were up early to meet a group for a bike ride through Bruges and to another city.  We rode through Bruges out of town and had Belgium waffles at a town not to far away.  It was a beautiful ride with rolling green hills, little farm cottages, canals, and windmills. 

After the bike ride we took a boat ride down the canals in the city.  Friday we headed back to Paris via train.  The next four days were packed full of walking around Paris and seeing the sights.  Disclaimer: if you have your heart set on visiting Paris do not read the following.  I was not impressed with Paris.  I know it sounds jaded or who knows what, but I wasn't.  It was crowded, cold, busy, and disappointing.  It was like New York except everyone spoke French.  I really dislike crowds, tourist, and lines and that is all Paris was.  The lines were incredibly long, its a huge city so you walk for miles and then stand in line for hours.  No don't think the whole trip was a bust there are a few good things about Paris.  The main one being the bread....hello I have no idea how the people stay thin over there. (well its probably all the walking, smoking, and coffee drinking) There are cafes and bakeries on every corner, with fresh hot french bread, chocolate croissants, and crepes!  I think all I ate there were nutella crepes, french bread, and chocolate croissants.  It was glorious oh and the wine was excellent, most of the days we ended drinking wine in a little cafe. 

Even though it wasn't my favorite vacation I still got to see everything I wanted to see and have some time away from work. I hope everyone had a wonderful few weeks.  Enjoy the weekend!

Train ride to Bruges

Town Square in Bruges

Canals in Bruges

Sweet little underground pub

Millions of chocolate stores...no wonder everyone was happy

Arch de Triumph

Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Waiting in line...

The catacombs

The army museum

Nortre Dame

Palace of Versailles

Marie Antoinettes Farm house

Where she was held before her beheading

The Louvre

Until next time...

Tory

Spring Break

Spring Break has come and gone in the blink of an eye.  Even though I wasn't on vacation this year, I still had a blast because Christy was in town.  Christy arrived Tuesday afternoon with her dogs in tow, once we got everything unloaded and set up it was time for dinner.  I made chicken lettuce wraps, so we relaxed ate dinner and talked.  We were both pretty exhausted from our long day so we decided to rent a movie and stay in.  We rented Immortals which is a movie about the Greek myth, The Bow of Epirus and the Gods of Olympus.  Once the movie was finished I went straight to bed I still had to get up at 4:30 for Crossfit.

Wednesday after work Chris, Christy, a co-worker and I headed out to the local indoor gun range.  I want Christy to become familiar with pistol shooting so she can get her concealed handgun license when she turns 21.  I just bought a new handgun so we were going to give it a try.  Little did I know this range doesn't allow anyone under 21 to shoot with out a parent.  The boys stayed and shot for an hour while Christy and I check out the local SPCA.  The SPCA is a huge animal shelter in Houston, I am sure Uncle James would have loved this trip.  :) After we visited the shelter we went to marble slab and enjoyed a delicious ice cream in the awesome spring weather!  

Thursday after work I headed straight home to pick up Christy for our night at the rodeo.  Once I picked her up we headed downtown to catch the metro.  Traffic is usually terrible in that area so its easiest to ride the light-rail to reliant stadium.  Since it was spring break the place was packed with tons of families and kids, not my ideal setting, but we still had a blast.  We checked out the animal exhibits and watched some cattle shows.  For dinner we each grabbed something different from the food area and then headed to the carnival.  I was pretty excited about the carnival because last year Chris and I cleaned up there.  Apparently I bragged to much about my skills and ended up failing miserably at every game.  One guy must have felt bad because he still gave me a prize!  Christy brought her skills and ended up winning Betsy the cow! Once we exhausted our tickets we headed in to watch the rodeo.  The rodeo was very entertaining, afterwards Jason Aldean a Nashville country star performed.  I didn't realize how many songs he had that I really liked.  Even though we were dead exhausted we still wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, so we did.  After an enjoyable ride we head back to the metro for our ride home.

Waiting for the Metro

Biggest longhorn I have ever seen

Our winnings

Rodeo time

Betsy and Christy on the Ferris Wheel

Health and Science Museum

Thankfully Fridays Crossfit had been canceled so I was able to sleep in until 630! After work Christy and I went to the little pizzeria near my house and had a slice of coal fired pizza for lunch.  Since Christy is a health and science major we decided to go check out the Houston Museum of Health and Science.  It was a lot of fun, they had quite a few interactive exhibits.  Even though it was geared towards a younger audience we still learned a few new things....or at least I did!  Since it was about time for everyone else to get off work we met up with Chris, Caleb, and some friends at a sushi place for happy hour. After Sushi we walked over to a patio bar and had some drinks and hung out for a while.  Since it had been a long week we all ended up going home around ten.  

Saturday just so happened to be St. Patty's day, so what other way to celebrate then dress up in your best green attire and drink green beer.  Christy and I slept in a bit, so around 11 we met everyone at Guadalajara for some Mexican food.  I know it was St. Patty's day, but we just wanted some good Mexican food.  We wanted to go see 21 jump street, but the next showing wasn't until 3 so we walked down to a local bar and listened to some good ol Irish music for a while.  The movie turned out to be pretty funny, I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. Since Christy and I ate junk food all week, we decided to detox and have a salad at Barnaby's for dinner.  After dinner we ended going home and going to bed, we were le tired.  Sunday it was back to the real world for all of us.  After breakfast Christy packed up and headed back to CS.  I cleaned, cooked, and got ready for the new week.  

St Patty's Day

Have a great week

Until next time...