Monday, January 7, 2013

WELCOME TO TEXAS

"Texas is neither southern nor western.  Texas is Texas."  William Blakley, Senator
Texas is Texas and, Texas is our home !!! 
Here are some fun facts, that I looked up when we got here. 
Texas facts
Nickname - The Lone Star State
Capital - Austin
Largest Cities - Houston, Dallas, San Antonio
Entered Union - December 29, 1845 - 28th state
State Flower - Bluebonnet
State Bird - Mockingbird
State Tree - Pecan
State Song - "Texas Our Texas"
Highest Point - Guadalupe Peak in far West Texas - 8749 ft.
Record High Temperature - 120 degrees
Record Low Temperature – minus 23 degrees
Total Area - 268,601 square miles - 2nd largest state
Origin of Name - Texas - Tejas - Spanish pronunciation of a Caddo Indian word meaning "friends" or "allies"

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Honeymoon / Road Trip to Texas

Our Honeymoon may not have been the most traditional one, but it was the most adventurous one !!!

First stop was Charleston, South Carolina

First thing firsts, we went on a carriage tour of Charleston around the Bay and market area. It was so fun to see the history of the town and the beautiful, bright colors of the old homes! Jonny even bought me a  beautiful palm grass rose, a tradition that was brought over from Africa long, long ago. Charleston keeps that tradition alive. 
We went to see the good Old Atlantic Ocean!! That was Jonnys first time seeing, and putting his toes in the cold water. He was so amazed of all the shells that where just laying around, guess they don't have that back at the Pacific.The water was to cold to get into, but I felt at home just standing and hearing the waves crash! Hopefully we will go back soon!! 
Angel Oak was one of our favorite places to see, the tree was huge they said its 400 feet in diameter. It was a beautiful little drive to the tree, really felt like you where in the middle of nature. We enjoyed taking a walk down the trail. We noticed little while animals running around, as we got closer and they where little white squirrels. come to find out it was a save haven for the little white guys. It seemed like there where more white squirrels than gray, but maybe the gray just blended in better!

  Morris Island Lighthouse was so beautiful! Its a really old light house that is now surrounded by water and stands as a landmark today. Jonny and I enjoyed hiking up to see it and walking on the beach. Jonny kept asking me if we could wade out to the light house, little did he know how deep it actually was. In the bottom left picture Jonny asked a man to take a picture saying, " Will you take a picture of my wife and I." This was the first time it hit both of us that we are married and we are husband / wife and we are on our own!!! 

Next stop Atlanta, Georgia 

 The Atlanta Zoo was sooo big and loud with animals. I have fond memories of going to the zoo growing up, but this was Jonnys first time going!! We spent all day looking at the different animals form tigers to little monkey's to frogs. In some places I had to drag Jonny away from one area to go look at another, he was pretty excited! What can I say we are a bunch of monkeys ourselves:)! 

 The Coca-Cola factory was a lot of fun to! We got to see the famous polar bear himself, and even get a hug!!! We went from seeing old artifacts form when Coca-Cola was first invented in 1886 to new advertisements now! At the end of the tour we got to taste around 50 different Coca-Cola products around the world! Some of the drinks where really, really nasty. ( Never drink any soda form Europe) The best part was they make and bottle it right in front of you and at the end you get your own cold glass bottle..

Too New Orleans, Louisiana ...

 We got to New Orleans really late and we checked into the our hotel, we went the New Orleans tourist rout. We stayed at an old hotel that use to be an old plantation house a long time ago. The hotel was cool at first then it started to get a little scary with it being next to a Voodoo Shop! That morning we woke and and realized how ugly  the city was!!! ( sorry if you are from there)  We walked around down town for an hour or two, with people looking at us like we where meat!! Soon after that we decided that we wanted to get out of there before dark! This was the only picture that we took while in New Orleans itself while driving our way down to Texas. The end was in sight and we where really excited to be finally driving to our new home state.