Vacation or What!!

Starting 18th December, my vacation officially kicked off. Now that Ms.Better-or-not-Half has access to my blog, I should be doubly careful of what I put here. That includes any discussion of my future in-laws (henceforth lovingly referred to as FILs).

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Austin, Houston, Kemah, Galveston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio was the phase I of the road trip undertaken on my slightly in-need-of-service car.

About 1600 miles, this loop of a trip started with a party on the boat on Lake Austin, Austin. But before that, a quick visit to legendary RoundRock Donuts, followed by the Capitol, and the University of Texas at Austin campus and their famed Bell Tower. The evening party was of course all a super secret plan of the guy in charge (or the brains behind the entire party) to propose to his girlfriend (who had just graduated couple of days ago along with Ms.Better-or-not-Half) by having a banner, carrying the proposal, fly out in the open behind a small plane, over the lake.

Disclaimer: I wasn’t a witness to the said monumental moment, rather I was the “driver-of-the-night” ferrying my FILS, so had to rely on photographs and witness accounts.

The evening party on the lake, which I had the privilege of attending late, thanks to a great brain-freeze on my part confusing the locations of two same brand hotels, went extremely well, with gorgeous ladies in their best outfits (proclaimed by everyone) along side their better halves (some not) and of course few of the parents and guardians. Yes. Them. The old ones.

Fortunately, Ms.BonH had an interview scheduled on the next day, sparing us from the usual tension filled days we would have to otherwise endure if the said interview was scheduled for later. After dropping her off at the office, we three left for a drive to The Oasis on Lake Travis for lunch. Need I say anything after the photos from here?

This was followed by a quick visit to Mt.Bonnell, which has become a ritual of sort for our visits to Austin. This time of course, I was accompanying guests (FILs) so that went without any hiccups.

On the way out, we picked up Ms.BonH, and headed out to Houston, which we reached sometime late in the night (read 9.30pm) and checked into what would be one of the best places we checked in the whole trip, Courtyard by Marriott at the Medical Center Houston. Now, the whole reason am hyperlinking it here is to show my appreciation, partly to Priceline for giving us a mindboggling price of $40 for one night stay!! Disclaimer: I am not paid, neither is this post an advertisement for any of the places mentioned, I swear!! I wish it was but it’s not.

The big thing-to-do in Houston was the NASA Space Center, which was the 3rd in our list after the Water Wall and Galleria mall, followed by an unplanned stop at  Bombay Brasserie for some good Indian lunch buffer (point to note: first time ever sighting of INDIAN CHICKEN WINGS).

The post lunch session was spent at the space center, till evening when we started for Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah. It’s a bayside entertainment park with some costliest seafood restaurants I have seen in my life where I had chicken. Yes, you read it right. The cheapest menu item was in excess of $12, some reaching astronomical sums too. The fun part was the special carnival for Christmas by guess who? The Firefighters of Kemah!! And what a loud mess it was. People were horrified to find sirens heading to their location wondering which fire went unnoticed only to see waving firemen with their families and blazing sirens. Oh, did I mention a Santa Claus too??

I officially reached my day’s end. For the new semester starting tomorrow, I need to sign off. Hopefully, if you’re unlucky, I will be back to finish this.

Dedicated to my LOYAL followers: PV and others who accidentally read this place.

 

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