Austin Girl's Weekend

Oh my! It sure is hard to blog with a full time job :-P I have been trying to find the time to sit down and write about my last weekend spent in Austin, but between work and overbooking my week, I have barely had time to check Facebook, let alone blog!

Since going to Galveston last week, my life has been gogogo and I have definitely broken in my new car. Last Friday, I went straight from work to Lindsay's house right outside of Austin. She is near and dear to my heart. In the past year, she has moved from the Heights to Austin, gotten pregnant, and now has a 2 month old son named Jack!

 Baby Jack is just so "chill"and was such a good boy! He rarely cries and mostly just smiles, sleeps, and looks around the room with his big baby blues.

 I had found this beer at Specs that I LOVED in Amsterdam called Choffee. I brought some for Lindsay to try, and we ended up having her husband, Andrew, take dorky pictures of us consuming it. I really just wanted to spend time with Lindsay and not do anything too crazy, and that we did! A little poker, some good food, a swing on the hammock, walk to the pool, and of course copious amounts of wine made for an awesome 24 hours together.

I left Lindsay's around 2 to head off to one of my other BFF's, Anneke's house. We were going to be each other's date to our friend Lauren's wedding, because let's face it, we knew we would have more fun with each other than our husbands at a wedding!

 It was SO nice getting to see so many old faces at Lauren's wedding. Cannot believe that it has been  nearly 6 years since we graduated! It made my heart so full to see how great everyone seems to be doing and getting to catch up.

Anneke and I had talked about going out after the wedding, but I really just wanted to sit in her house and talk in our PJs! I really wasn't up for doing anything Austin-y while in Austin. I just wanted to talk to two friends I hadn't seen in a long time. You don't realize how important it is to have people that really, truly know you until you are an ocean away and don't really have that at your fingertips.

 Before heading back to Houston on Sunday, Anneke and I went to "Sandy's" aka Sandra Bullocks little bistro and had the BEST french toast in the history of all breakfasty foods. Then Anneke showed me her office- it is in the heart of Austin and has panoramic views of the whole city. Very Fancy. 

It was hard leaving Austin, but I am thankful that seeing some of my bffs is only a 3 hour car ride away! Love you girls! 

Galveston Girls Gone Wild- Curry Edition

Everyone has a little town they grew up going to that brings them so much nostalgia. Mine is Galveston. We went to this little island an hour outside of Houston every single summer and often times spring growing up, and memories just come flooding in every time I go back. The same restaurants and shops I went to as a kid are still there. The people of Galveston are the same as people were from back when I can remember, with neon tank tops, tanned leather skin, Texas flags standing proudly in their yards. If you aren;t from Texas, you would probably go to Galveston and declare it a crap town. But people from Houston especially have a special fondness for this coastal town. 

My mom's sister Mary has a STUNNING, HGTV worthy bay house in Galveston and invited all of us gals over for a girl's trip. My mom is one of 5 sisters, and they were all there, plus the head of the roost, Gigi, and most of my girl cousins (although we really wished Hailey and Tiffany could be there). I was so excited because A. I hadn't seen them since Christmas! And B. I start work today and this was the perfect little fun getaway I needed before getting started. 

 We met at a cute little restaurant called Farley Girls on Tuesday, and then walked the strand for a bit before heading to Mary's house. We immediately put on our swim suits and became sunbathing beauties, before us younger chicks tried out the paddle board.

 Cousin Kayla was the first to give it a go and she made it look so easy! She was our coach, since she'd done this before.

 At first, it was a bit harder than I thought it would be keeping balance, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy peasy. You also have to get over any fears of falling in the water- it'll probably happen or almost happen a few times until you get the balance.

   

   

 I was more into trying to headstand on the board after seeing cool shot of this online. I fell my first try, but got it my second. Holy abs, they are still sore from trying this.

 My younger sister Madeline gave it a go, but wasn't quite ready to stand up yet. I'm proud of her for trying!

After our swim, Mary took us on a golf cart ride around her neighborhood. Are there any golf courses in this neck of the woods? No. But does everyone drive around in a golf cart? Absolutely. And Mary's golf cart is like none other- it fit almost all of us! 

 Keepin' it classy with my glass of Rose on the back of the golf cart.

We got home, Mary made some delicious crab cakes, and we talked and looked at old pictures until close to midnight. 

The next morning (I SOOOOO wish I took pictures) Kayla, Madeline, and I rode bikes. Madeline's had a baby seat on the back, mine had flat tires, and Kayla got the cool bike. We rode on the beach, which is easier said than done, and we ALL fell over into the sand a few times before Kayla declared "Ima Walker! I'mmmm a walker!"

We had some scrumptious pasta salad and shrimp thai salad courtesy of my mom and sister before heading out to a friend's pool. 

 At the pool, I realized I only had one pad in my bathing suit top (and it happened to be all wonky and folded over), so I discretely took it out and left it on the table. We kept hearing the rest of the time there "Who's pad is this? Is someone missing a pad?" When I admitted it was my pad, my family kept trying to find the other pad. We thought we saw it on the way home, but it was a false alarm. Oh well!

For some reason when we gals get together, we end up being about 500x hungrier than normal and eat snacks all day. I'm not complaining! 

 We found this HILARIOUS picture of me looking at Megan's booty. I wish we could go back in time the 24 years ago this picture was taken and figure out what the heck we were doing!

My trip had to end Wednesday night after dinner at the marina, since I work today! I'm sad I had to leave early, but thankful for the time we got to spend together. Too many laughs, good eats, and drinks. I love my Curry girls!

 My mom, sister and me :-)

 Cheers to a fantastic girls trip! Love you ladies!

White Linen Night

This past Saturday was the 8th annual White Linen Night in the Heights. It's described as a huge neighborhood block party...shops have their doors open late, restaurants close their parking lots and put extra tables outside, there are bands playing on the street corner. It has the potential to be great, but usually it is SO crowded (over 30,000 people!) and so hot that I yearly ask myself, "Why am I here?!?"

Before we even knew White Linen Night was scheduled for that weekend, we had bought tickets to see Ben Kweller at Fitzgeralds (our neighborhood music venue). I actually wasn't planning on attending WLN, but since we were going to one of the main streets anyway, we decided to partake in the festivities.

We were headed to White Oak (6th street) and live on 16th street, so decided to walk there. Coming from London where we walked everywhere, we figured 10 blocks wouldn't be too terrible. About 3 minutes in to the walk, we were complaining that we had barely made a dent in our walk (how can we only be at 14th street?!?! I totally felt like orphans in Annie walking the 45 blocks from the orphanage to Daddy Warbucks). And then Daniel got pooped on by a bird. It was more like a bird explosion. We blame it on him throwing away this maggot-infested baby bird that a street cat left in our flower bed to die, instead of giving the said bird a proper burial. We took that as a sign we were supposed to drive, turned around, changed clothes, and drove the mile like the lazy Houstonians we are.

I say this every year, and I'll say it again. I DON'T GET WHITE LINEN NIGHT! Maybe it's because the Heights is my home, but why go out on this one scalding, packed night when I can go to Onion Creek any other night and actually sit at a table? I do 19th street once a week...I am not going to even think of going into one of those shops when I am pretty sure 300 fire code violations are being broken. I'm going to sound like a Heights snob, but I kinda miss the days when we first moved here and people thought the Heights was a dangerous no man's land. I didn't need a reservation anywhere. Didn't have to wait at the 11th street light for 3 go's before getting to drive through the green. Didn't have young fratty neighbors playing the drums at midnight. With that being said, I am happy that the Heights is the place to be, with so many new shops and restaurants popping up because of the extra attention given to it.

We ended up eating at Taco Nut food truck because every other restaurant was either jam packed or not even serving food. Fitzgerald's was awesome. I hadn't listened to Ben Kweller in about 10 years, but he and Austin's Amy Cook put on a great show.

We ended our night going to 16th's street Alice's Tall Texan. It is a 40 year old hole in the wall, cash only, beer joint where they only serve Shiner or Lone Star in a frozen goblet for $2.50. We could actually sit at a table and I think we were the only English speakers there, let along the only people dressed in white linen. At least Alice's hasn't been touched by the fancy shmamcy (yet).

Santorini

Happy Friday! Here are the pics from Santorini....so pretty!

From Athens, we took a highspeed ferry to the island of Santorini. It was still a 4 hour ride, but much better than the 9 hour ferry! Daniel's travel extravaganza had to end in Athens, so he flew back to London while we floated our way to the island. 

We were really surprised with how nice the ferry was. It was very spacious and even had a little store in it. 

We were able to walk around, but unfortunately could only go outside when the boat was stopped. We had one stop before Santorini, so we went outside to take pics of the lil island. 

Once we arrived to Santorini, we had to pick up our awesome clown car. It's a good thing Daniel wasn't with us- there's no way he could have fit! And the roads were so narrow, I don't think we would have been able to drive a larger car! Our host rented our car for us, and it was only 25 euros a day! We were so happy we had a car. Santorini is a small island, but too large to walk everywhere. We literally saw the whole island with a car! 

Considering there were NO street signs, NO addresses, NO maps, we found our flat relatively quickly! We stayed in the village of Pygros, and I think we were really happy we stayed there versus the more popular Fira or Oia. There were enough restaurants and shops to keep us busy, but it had a very local feel.

    

Our house was crazy nice. Like, it could have been on MTV cribs. It was a newly restored house meant to look like a cave house, and it just felt so...Greek! 

This is from our rooftop terrace. We could see the WHOLE north side of the island. It was truly incredible. 

The sunsets were worthy of applause. We had a great view from our hot tub (that we could never manage to get hot!). Side note- Santorini was warm during the day, but downright chilly at night! 

Donkey tours are a thing in the main villages, but in Pygros, they were just a part of the culture. This (barefoot) man was moving rocks up and down the windy streets in Pygros. We glared at us when we took his picture. 

There were SO many beaches, and all of them beautiful. The majority of them were black sand/ stone beaches. And that sand was scorching! But the water was cool enough to keep us from getting too hot (and it was crystal clear).

There was also a red beach there. But it was a hike down, so we just took a picture then left! 

And ohhhh the wineries. They were just great. The first one we went to was family owned and over a century old. Those barrels were I believe 80 years old. And to try wine, it was only 90 cents! This one was our favorite.

You stomp on the grapes where the table is, then is flows out into the well. It gets filtered through the woven basket. And if we would have come later in the year, we could have stopped by and helped them stomp! I have a new dream: to work at a winery in Santorini. 

Grapes were all over Santorini- they grew wildly. I tried one, but it was super sour. Give it a couple of months, and I'm sure it would have been delicious! 

This picture cracks me up. Nanette is REALLY contemplating the complexities of her Visanto (a really delicious sweet wine only in Santorini) and I....I don't even know what I'm doing.  Nearly every place we went to for a drink or to wine taste would give us a snack to go with it, which is really surprising when you think about how inexpensive a drink was. I believe it was 4 euros a glass of wine at this place, and it came with greek yogurt with a fruit compote over it and bread. Yum! 

This winery was probably our second favorite. It was also family run and nearly 200 years old! The grounds were stunning as well. 

They gave us 7 full glasses of wine to all try as a group. And guess what- I'm the only one who really likes wine. So I had A LOT of wine at 11 in the morning. 

This winery also sundried their own tomatoes and then make it into tomato sauce. They let us try some, along with their home grown cucumber (sweeter than the variety we are used to- almost tasted like honey dew). All of the wineries were just so quaint and accommodating to us! 

And if you are like me and need more than just a sip of wine, you go to the grocery store and fill up a 1.5 liter plastic water bottle with your cheap wine- straight from the barrel! Every large grocery store had something like this. We REALLY need to bring this concept to Texas. 

As I said previously, the restaurants and bars really treat their patrons with utmost respect. They are all family run- the papa is at the door greeting customers, the children are your waiters, and the momma is the cook! At this restaurant, they brought us a whole bottle of some sort of liquor they made themselves to start us off, and then when we were done, brought us ANOTHER bottle of the liquor, along with brownies. That stuff was strong and pretty gross. But we didn't want to be rude! So we mixed it with diet coke that Nanette had stashed away in her purse. Towards the end of the meal, we were taking shot left and right of this liquor. I am cracking up just thinking about it!

The shopping was fantastic in Santorini- so many locally made items, and it wasn't too pricey. After a winery, we stumbled across a little leather shop. It's a man and wife business, and the husband was hand making shoes as we walked in. I think we all ended up with leather shoes, belts, or bracelets. 

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I regret not buying one of those wind chimes! ARGGGG! 

There's also an archaeological site on the island. The ruins are from a village that was destroyed by a volcano in 2000 BC! The ash from the volcano preserved the ruins perfectly. Those vases are all still intact- some were found with old food in it. Because they didn't find any people, they believe that the villagers escaped...most likely to have gotten killed by a tsunami that came after the volcano.

    

I really, really loved Santorini. It was the perfect place to go to for relaxation. Although it seems like we did so much, there really wasn't much to do on the island other than layout, shop, and drink wine- my personal paradise!

Also, I was pleasantly surprised with how non-touristy Santorini felt. Don't get me wrong, everyone there treated us so nicely....but the island just had an authentic feel to it, and I was expecting more of a resort island.

And that concluded our Bond family travels! We had an unforgettable 2 weeks together, and I'm thankful we were all able to explore Europe together! OK, next update will be about Prague with my brother....stay tuned!