Other People's Chillins'

Before we get too far away from the event, we should share a few moments from our "South Texas Family and Friends Desert in the Winter" tour from the second week of January.

After our all-too-brief-2nd-Christmas weekend in Phoenix with Rachel's wonderful family, we flew into Houston, where we spent a few days with Patrick and Deann Taylor, Eric's cousins, and their kids Douglas and Evelyn, who are a total bundle of fun. We learned a lot about Captain Underpants, and we got the privelege of taking the kids on their very first geocache, which by some lovely mystery turned into a hunt for Davy Jones' heart and other Caribbean treasure. Patrick took us through Houston, and we saw some NASA, some Gulf coast, some oil rigs, and of course, neverending Houston. You know, the works.

Danny and Abby Fahim, Michigan med school friends at Baylor Medical now, met us for dinner at a fab old place with a mean brisket, which was next to a bar with a gigantic (I mean, 25' tall) armadillo out front.

Lastly, we headed up to see Peter and Sarah (and baby Greta!) Bast a few hours north in Temple, TX, where we also got to see Jaime Paauw. As seen truly in the photo, Greta is an adorably smiley little girl, and we all enjoyed a veritable Festival of Meats from the hand of Grillmasters Basts. A fun side trip to Austin discovered a nice Dim Sum locale, a must for topping off any traditional trip to Texas.