zimmers in texas

Erin arrived safely and we have just experienced our first winter Christmas but unfortunately without snow.

Our friends Judy and Tom invited us to their home to share Christmas lunch with them. We provided the plum pudding and pavlova. Tom cooked deep fried turkeys for lunch and we had the typical sides of mashed potato, seasoning and gravy. Judy had cooked cherry pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie which were all delicious.

The week between Christmas and New Year was very busy with selling the car and packing up as much of our belongings as possible before Daniel and Mum go home.

We also did some sight seeing, shopping and took everyone to see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse where the comedians talk over the show with pointed comments.

Erin and Daniel have been quite impressed with the shopping especially the outlet mall at San Marcos.

New Year’s Eve was a great evening at Judy’s. It was a fun night and Erin even got to let off the fireworks at midnight. We all got to hold a real shot gun and have the photos to prove it complete with a cowboy hat.

We set off for New York very early on 1st January. It was much too early considering our partying the night before but we managed to make it to the airport on time.

New York is amazing. We were amazed at the size and the amount of things to do. You would need about 3 months there to even begin to visit everything. We took a tour and got to see lots and lots of buildings in the comfort of the tour bus. We caught a ferry to Staten Island and saw the Statue of Liberty, we saw a play on Broadway and went to the museum of Natural History. We also took a horse and carriage ride in Central Park and saw where they drop the ball on New Year’s Eve. We visited Ground Zero and went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and saw the sights from the top and the skating rink and giant Christmas tree from the ground. The queues were hours long for the Empire State Building so we gave that a miss. We tried all the foods we were supposed to like New York pizza, New York cheesecake, hot dogs from a street vendor, bagels and hot pretzels. We also caught the subway up and down Broadway and Grand Central station and walked all around Times Square.

We were very tired by the time Thursday afternoon came round and it was a relief just to sit down for a while. We must have walked miles and miles all though Manhattan is smaller than Dallas/Fort Worth International airport.

Today was our last day in Austin and we managed to pack up everything and all get away on time. I took Erin out to the airport and she made her flight to Los Angeles and I caught my flight to San Diego. Judy was coming in from Indiana and got off the plane I was due to board so we got to see each other for a short time and had a tearful farewell. I am now sitting at Houston Airport awaiting my flight to San Diego which has been delayed an hour and the gate has just changed for the third time.

Hopefully Glenn caught his train OK but I wont find that out until Sunday.
Monday we are planning to visit the Maximus sites in San Diego and drive up to Los Angeles. On Tuesday we will be going out to Palm Springs and from their into Arizona for the Grand Canyon and then Las Vegas. Our last port of call will be San Franciso and we will be heading home from their on 17th January.