Texas Road Trip--Part One

Grandma Cuca turned NINETY this year! Hooray! The pandemic has subsided enough that Mom and Aunt Irene decided we could have a party for her. It was in Abilene, where my parents and Grandma Cuca live now. Whitney needed to stay home and work. And Andrew felt like he should stay home, too. So Caroline and I took off on a warm-up road trip. :)

I usually hand down Caroline's clothes to Olivia.

Since I didn't get to see Destiny last year,

AND Caroline went through a huge growth spurt,

we had A TON of clothes to pass on.

Good thing it was only C and I going on this trip!

No one else would've fit with us!

Caroline is a great travel buddy!

We had a new Road Trip CD, which we both liked.

And we had several middle-school horror stories on audiobook,

which we both enjoy.

First stop: Atlanta

Caroline was supposed to go to Atlanta on an overnight

6th grade field trip, but it got canceled because of COVID.

We decided to stop at the Georgia Aquarium,

which was the stop she was most excited about on the field trip.

It is AMAZING.

We've been to lots of aquariums,

but this one has some animals we'd never seen.

The one I was most excited to see:

WHALE SHARKS!!!

They are so cool!

I want to go swimming with them now!

It's hard to understand how BIG they are.

Loved seeing them.

I thought this sign was funny.

Probably meant more for B than for C. :)

Colorful starfish.

Caroline was most excited to see

a Beluga whale!

She was all alone in her tank.

I'm not sure if I should feel bad for her

or be happy for her.

Her shape was kinda weird,

not what I imagined.

But she was very active,

swimming around the whole time.

They also had a few dolphins.

There is a dolphin show that you can watch,

but we decided not to wait in the long line to try to get a seat.

There's also a really cool shark tank.

Hammerheads are so interesting.

This tank made me miss snorkeling.

We love garden eels.

They're so cute!

This turtle looked like he was waving to us.

We only spent about an hour and a half there,

but it was a FANTASTIC fun stop.

Coke World is right there in the same plaza with the 

aquarium. Neither of us are soda drinkers, so we 

didn't figure it would be worth it for us to go,

but it looks cool.

We drove by Mercedes Benz stadium, where the Falcons play,

as we were leaving town. It's so futuristic looking!

We love being on the road!

The world is just beautiful!

We've missed driving across the country.

Downtown Birmingham

We stayed our first night in Missisippi.

The next day we were off to Louisiana.

We had another GREAT fun stop there!

I called Brian with the Renesting Project THAT morning

to see if he could use a couple of volunteers.

It is a nonprofit in Shreveport that helps homeless

people get into homes.

After taking a tour of their facility,

they put us to work.

We were in charge of sorting donated silverware

into sets that look homogenous for the homes.

We loved being able to spend some time helping

while we were vacationing.

This Rolex spoon was the most interesting find of the day. :)

Also while in Louisiana, we HAD to get some beignets.

It was easier said than done!

We had to drive all over town to find them,

but finally got some at Crawdaddy's kitchen.

Toni Walker told us we HAD to stop at Buccee's while

we were in Texas. We had never been.

Oh my goodness.

It is crazy!

It's the biggest convenience store you've ever seen!

It even needed a pano to take it all in.

They have yummy treats and food.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

You know you've made it to Texas when you see 

the GIANT Texas flags flying.

My parents have moved to Abilene and we made it there

on the second night. We got to stay with them and Grandma Cuca

for a couple of nights.

It was SO lame not seeing them last year.

I was so happy to be back with them.

The next day, we took Dad and Grandma to 

Frontier Texas, a cool museum.

Veterans and their families get in FREE.

Score!

One of the unique features is that they

have lots of holograms throughout

the museum, sharing vignettes about their lives

on the frontier.

We were glad they had a wheelchair for us

to borrow so Grandma could enjoy the museum

without having to walk.

At the end, they have a 4D movie experience.

You sit on these rotating stools so you can

watch the movie all around the room.

It's pretty intense--some violent parts that would

be scary for younger kids. And then there's a loud

thunderstorm at one part. We liked it.

Signs of Texas pride all around.

I was so excited to play Rummy with Grandma Cuca.

She's forgetting lots of things these days, 

including the rules of games.

It's not the same as it used to be,

but still fun to spend time with her.

We also got to play several games of Chicken Foot 

while we were there.

Abilene has the coolest feature at one of their public parks:

A prairie dog exhibit!

I LOVE IT!

They are SOOOO cute.

There were even some baby ones.

We went on a couple different days and

had fun watching them run around.

It was tempting to just pick one up and bring it home.

Then my brothers told me that they can harbor the plague...

That same park has some workout equipment.

Care Bear and I had fun getting some

exercise while we were there.

Destiny and her kids came to see us the next day.

Hide and seek :)

I had fun playing with the littles.

Paul and I played blocks and did puzzles.

Cousin time

I got to read some stories with Trini.

She is a doll.

I'm afraid if I were her mom, she would be spoiled

rotten. How do you say no to that face???

Care Bear has ALMOST caught her Aunt Destiny

in height. I think Dest still has a fraction of an inch on her.

The older girls came up with a fun game 

where they had to solve crimes and hide 

clues around the house.

The adults would have certain lines

we had to remember to say when we 

were questioned.

So cute.

Oh, how I've missed having extended family time!