Mavericks Basketball Game

While Scott was in Dallas, he went with a few people from Gulfstream to the Dallas Mavericks game where they played the New York Knicks. The Mavericks barely won (it was a really good game) and although Scott's never been one to watch basketball on TV, going to the game in person was awesome and he had a lot of fun. This shot was taken at halftime, which is why there are so many empty seats.

Also during halftime, a large Chili's pepper propelled by thrusters mounted to it's sides floated around the center dispensing Chili's coupons to the crowd through the black hatch in the bottom.

Lincoln, NE in a Parallel Universe

For the past week, while Scott was still in Dallas, Renee was in Lubbock, TX, which is in the northwest part of the state getting up towards the panhandle. Unfortuneately I forgot my camera, but I saw some really cool things while I was there, including: a huge tumbleweed I had to avoid with my car, a junkyard full of only 1940s and 1950s vintage vehicles, the Texas Tech stadium (home of the Red Raiders, whom Nebraska played this year), oil derricks, and cotton fields with cotton baled like hay. Mostly what struck me about Lubbock was how it looked exactly like Lincoln. It is the exact same size, very flat, surrounded by fields, and even has the same style houses. I felt like I was home! It is also the birthplace of Buddy Holly and there is a statue of him somewhere, but I never saw it.

Bridget remained at Camp Bow Wow all week, and when Scott picked her up last night they said they never saw her sleep. She was always going full speed ahead playing with the other dogs and wouldn't sit still long enough to rest or fall asleep. Although once she got home last night she crashed and the evening was punctuated with her little beagle snores, but she seems like she definitely had a good time.

We're all back home safe now, and Scott found out his check ride is rescheduled for February. So it's back to the old grind of studying and flying. We'll let you know how it goes!

Dallas Mini Vacation

Scott is in Dallas for a week and a half for work so we decided it would be fun for Renee to drive up for the weekend and make a little mini vacation of it. Bridget was off to Camp Bow Wow and we had a day and a half to check out Dallas and take it easy. There was a museum right at Love Field by where we stayed called Frontiers of Flight Museum, and we spent a couple hours there early Saturday afternoon.

They also had Apollo 7!
We happened to drive by Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys play their games. They have a new stadium starting next season that we also drove by that's much bigger, but we didn't really get close enough to get a good picture.
As luck would have it, Jim and George from Taylor were also in town for the weekend and we were able to meet up with them Saturday night. We ate dinner at their hotel at a restaurant on the 27th floor with a spectacular view of downtown Dallas. It was so great to be able to see them again and catch up. Our only regret is that Wendy and Sophie weren't there. (By the way-they were dressed up for another function, not dinner with us :-)

We had an awesome time, and it was definitely worth the 4 1/2 drive from San Antonio!

Nature Walk

We went for a walk today in the park and saw a deer and an armadillo. The deer blend in so well now that in this case Bridget was only about 10 feet away from it when it started moving and we weren't able to get a picture until it was back a little further.The armadillo was about five feet away and it was so bumbling and slow Bridget could have caught him, but maybe his armor scared her or something. She wasn't interested.

New Year's Day on Mustang Island

Today we decided to drive down to Mustang Island, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, just northeast of Corpus Christi. We had flown there a couple weeks ago from South Padre Island but didn't go anywhere except the airport so we wanted to check it out.

This is the U.S.S. Lexington, a naval ship with numerous types of naval aircraft sitting on it, including a Blue Angel. It's open to the public as a tourist attraction. You can only get to Mustang Island by ferry. This is Bridget keeping an eye on things while we were on it.

Bridget eating a dish of ice cream from the cup holder in the backseat. Bridget likes ice cream very much.

The marina, which was right across the street from the airport.
The airport.

Some kids feeding seagulls on the beach. It wasn't crowded and there were some stretches where there wasn't anyone at all. We're going to come back this month or next month and just spend a day at the beach with Bridget. We weren't really dressed for it today because it was 15 degrees cooler in San Antonio when we left.

On our way back across the ferry there was a school of dolphins, which was really cool to see. You can't really tell from the picture, but they are some huge fish!