Everything's Bigger in Texas, like guts, doughnuts, serving sizes, drink cups....

We knew we were in Texas when we saw a black Texas highway state patrol officer in a large brimmed cowboy hat with someone pulled over on the side of the road. We cruised through rural eastern Texas, often driving along side the freight trains. We arrived at friends Neil and Bonnie's place in The Woodlands, a north Houston suburb created with nature in mind. There were beautiful homes, tree lined streets, bike paths for miles, and a lake in the center of the community making you feel as if you weren't in Houston at all.
We met Wyatt, 5 and Adam, 2 in their pajamas, additions to the Backhouse family since we last saw them living in London years ago. It's been odd for us to see our long distance friends as parents, but these two were blowing our minds. The last time we saw them they dressed in black suits and trench coats and boarded the tube in the morning, by night we cruised the streets of London in search of the best kabob stands. While in Scotland, we pub crawled, watched tribute bands, and were yelled at by hostel owners. Now they traded off each taking their turn to entertain two energetic boys. It was like watching an 80's wrestling tag team, one would tap out when they were about to lose their shit and the other would jump in with authority or softness or threats of timeout. It was impressive. After the kiddos hit the hay we spent the evening in the hot tub and pool with beers, a Houston must as the day time temps reach the 100's often. We got caught up on the last 5 years and how it came to be that Neil and Bonnie moved from London to New Jersey to Houston and had two new family members. We were also warned that "Wyatt LOVES dogs." Great, we have a dog who LOATHES children. This was going to be interesting.

The next day we hit the bike trails and rode into the town center. Bonnie and the little one had an super exciting 2 year old birthday party to get to, so the rest of us spent the afternoon downtown and later hopped in the pool again to escape the heat. Bonnie returned and laid Adam down for a nap, when asked how the party was, we got a resounding two thumbs down. It was clear that Bonnie wasn't going to be turning into a Real Housewife of Houston any time soon. While they had made a few new friends and it was a good place for the kids, they admitted that Houston was a bit of a culture shock.

Wyatt greeted us in the morning at 8:00 am in our bedroom, with absolutely no fear of the growling dog at the foot of our bed. "Hey, Nicki can I feed Kaylee? Hey Nicki, can I take her on a walk now?" I got a small glimpse of Neil and Bonnie's world this weekend when I attempted to reason with the 5 year old. "Hey buddy, why don't you give us a little bit to get woken up and then we'll take her out ok?" Exactly 4 minutes later, a still pajama clad Wyatt was back in our room, Kaylee growling again at the said intruder. I got up and dressed and we took Kaylee on our daily walk down the street, Wyatt on the other end of the leash. I couldn't believe my eyes, our sketchy old Husky walking along, tongue out, and gentle with this little wiry 5 year old. He pet her, he fed her, he brought her water, he hugged her, he walked her, he asked about 89 times if she could sleep in his room. When I said that might not be such a great idea he simply said, "Why? I don't snore." Ha!

The only other thing besides the dog that could hold the kids' attention was the Truckster. If Wyatt wasnt asking to do something with or for the dog, he was asking for another tour of the camper van. It was 90 degrees outside, probably 100 in the van and the boys were on tour number 9. Their hair wet with sweat they pretended to drive, navigate, and sleep in the van. Also fascinating to the boys was loose change, they were stoked to gain some pennies to put in their piggy banks and we were glad to be rid of them as they're essentially worthless. 

How my cousins looked the last I remember

After 2 nights in The Woodlands, and 18 tours of the camper van, we hit the skids for Austin. I have cousins that live in Austin that I haven't seen in years. We drove to South Austin and were greeted by 3 little dogs and one large one sort of resembling our own. My cousin Danny and his girlfriend Tristy live with the dogs in a ranch home that he built himself atop an old horse stable, on lots of land in Manchaca. Tristy's artistic touch was everywhere from the deep teal paint to the photography and art on the walls. We quickly got caught up on the last 20 years while we drove to downtown Austin for an eating tour the Travel Channel would've been proud of. We started with simple local beers on a hot deck. Wrapping up there, we moved in to a Mexican restaurant for air conditioning, snapper ceviche, and avocado margaritas. After that we headed for the main course at Polvos, an Interior Mexican restaurant. We'd never heard this term before, but evidently in Texas where Tex-Mex reigns king, you need to distinguish your regional cuisine. It was recommended that we promptly order coconut margaritas and Fajitas al Guajillo to share. We didn't want to end up as Texas sized individuals so we split the meal. It was probably the best fajita dish I've ever had. A dark red sauce covered the beef and sauteed onions and peppers, pecans, raisins, sun dried peppers and peanuts in the perfect blend of spicy and sweet. Fresh tortillas, charro beans, and guac accompanied the feast. The coconut margaritas tasted like key lime pie in a glass. Smooth like a creamsicle and boozy like Mexico, it was even more delicious than the avocado margarita the hour before. After this, just when you thought we couldn't possibly eat more, we drove to Gourdough's Doughnut trailer. An old airstream trailer converted into the best dessert restaurant in all of Texas (that's just like, my opinion, man). Gourdough's serves up giant square doughnuts topped with ridiculousness. We ordered the Funky Monkey (fried bananas, brown sugar, cream cheese frosting), Black Out (brownie batter, fudge sauce, chocolate chips) and Feel the Heath (frosting, Heath bar crumbles). We shared the three giant doughnuts among the four of us and had to stop after just a few bites. It was the richest, gooiest, most decadent treat we've ever experienced, it's no wonder Texas is one of the fastest state. Not fat, however, were our hosts, they were waking up at 5:30 am to go to the gym where Tristy instructs a CrossFit course. There was much talk of us all attending, but several beers and a bad, red-neck television show later, it was just Tristy who ended up at the gym the following morning. Unfortunately our visit was ill-timed as my cousins' paternal grandmother had just passed away and her funeral was that morning. We didn't get to see my other cousin, Danny's older brother, Joey. I guess we'll just have to return to Austin soon. So we said our goodbyes early that day and planned to stay in better contact over the next 20 years. We stopped at the end of his street for deliciously affordable breakfast tacos and coffee before getting on the interstate. 

World's Best: Coconut Margarita

Danny and I

Danny had recommended while we were in the area to check out the Alamo. It was a quick jaunt down to San Antonio and we easily found parking and a nearly empty Alamo.  We toured the grounds and the church before hopping in the van for the long haul ahead. 

Don't Forget About It

While we initially were headed to El Paso to fall in love with a Mexican girl, we got sidetracked in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We camped that night below a million stars and a bright Milky Way galaxy. We laid on the cold picnic bench for a while watching for shooting stars while KK had diarrhea near by. (Back at Cousin Danny's house she ate an entire rawhide as dessert the night before and 2 turkey jerky treats for breakfast courtesy of Danny). The next morning we headed north to the New Mexico border for the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a recommendation from my grandmom back in Anchorage.