two weeks and 2340 miles

(On the road. Somewhere between BR and Houston)

(Galveston, Texas)

(Hello! from the NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas)

(Boots etc in Gonzales, Louisiana)

(Beignets at Coffee Call in BR)

(State Capital in Jackson, Mississippi)

(Dinner at Huey's in Memphis, Tennessee)

(Graceland)

(On the way to Shreveport, Louisiana)

Some photos from our mini road trips, and time in and around BR with Jon's family, who spent two weeks with us recently. It was really great to see them, and
a little more of this big, big country.

We managed to cover quite a few miles in their short visit. We picked them up from the airport in Houston, and spent a couple of nights in Texas (in Humble and strange, kind-of-beach town, Galveston) before heading back to BR for a few days. Over the Easter long weekend, we drove up to Memphis. We spent two nights there, and got to look around Beale St and Downtown, and fit in a visit to Graceland.
On the way back, we stopped in at Little Rock (Arkansas) and spent a night in Shreveport (Louisiana). We spent their last night here in New Orleans, where we
ate ourselves silly – red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya and beignets (too many beignets! Maybe... if there is such a thing?!)

It was so nice to have family with us for a little while. While their visit seemed to
go quickly, the time we spent together felt full, with all the things we got see and do. It was lots of fun. Thanks for visiting us, family!

san diego and ensenada trip

I did a massive Flickr upload a few days ago of photos from our trip. I probably went overboard (there are a hundred photos), but I think they might tell the story better than I can, so if you have the time, please have a look!

San Diego was nice. We went as a group with other students and the supervisor from Jon's lab, for an aquaculture conference. It was nice to spend time (in another new place) with Jon, and for us to spend time with the others when they weren't at the conference. For the times they were, there was plenty for me to go out and see on my own.

We spent an afternoon in Old Town, the site of the first Spanish settlement in California. There were some nice shops and places to eat. After some time looking around, we found a place to sit down for happy hour drinks and tacos. This place had a large selection of chilli sauces, and after trying a couple on our tacos, Jon and a friend decided they'd do a 'hot sauce tasting'. There were a couple of habanero based sauces that really burned, but for the most part, they were pretty mild.

On our way back from Old Town, we ran into some friends organising a trip
to the other side of the city for tacos. We decided to join them. It took three different trams, and a while to get to (even longer on the way back), but the food was definitely worth the trip. And the smile/look of surprise on the lady's face as we
(a group of around 12-15) arrived was pretty funny! I was not very adventurous
with my choices from their menu, but Jon tried the lengua (tongue) and buche (esophagus), and thought they were great.

(My pastor (pork) and carnitas (slow-cooked, shredded meat) tacos)

On a day Jon was at the conference, I took the trams (they call them trolleys) into downtown San Diego. I walked around Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter, found a little Thai restaurant for a big lunch, and walked down to Seaport Village. Nice.

We had heard the San Diego zoo was a good one, so we were keen to visit. We made it there on Friday, our last day in town, and saw lots of animals. Lions and tigers and ... gorillas (no bears). And some nice-looking free range peacocks.

We were picked up and driven down to Ensenada Friday night. It was actually a pretty hairy van ride. I'm not sure if the driver thought we were in a race? He was going VERY fast, and not slowing down for the bends in the windy road. But don't worry parents – we are all OK!

Once we arrived, our hosts prepared us dinner. Tacos and quesadilla with BBQed beef, salsa and guacamole. After dinner, we walked to a nearby bar. They had a live band, and the grossest toilets ever. Dirty, kicked in doors and no running water! That's right folks – no flushing and no hand-washing. Eewww. Anyway, Jon and I called it a night after a couple of drinks, but a few others kept going.

In the morning we were brought sweet Mexican breads (like brioche rolls with
a sweet, crumbly topping) for breakfast. We were picked up and driven to the university/research centre for presentations, a tour and lunch. In the afternoon
we went into town for coffee and a short look at some of the local shops.

(View from the research centre)

We went out to a taco place for dinner. We could pick from beef, chicken, fish or pork, and could add chopped onion, coriander, cabbage, sauces, salsas and fresh lime. Delicious. Afterwards, we met up with some more people for drinks at one of the oldest cantinas in the area, Hussong's. It was a pretty cool place. The old timber floor was littered with peanut shells, and walls were packed with framed pictures. Groups of musicians would move around playing songs for people who were dancing and singing along. A few of us moved on to different bars. Jon and I ended up (with a few others) at a place with people lining up to sing karaoke – badly!
It was a pretty fun night though.

The next morning we had a 6am start for the van ride back to the San Diego airport. We had a different driver this time, luckily. It took us all day to get back to BR.
So when we finally got back to our apartment at 9pm, we were exhausted, got take away for dinner and hit the hay.

The end!
Of this mini adventure.
Of fun in San Diego and a taste of Mexico.
Next adventure in nine sleeps when Jon's parents and sister arrive!

a mini adventure

On Sunday night (exhausted after a full day of travel), we got back from a week away. The trip was for Jon's work – a conference in San Diego followed by a short visit to a research centre/university in Ensenada, Mexico. We got a little bit of time to look around San Diego, and ate lots of great food on the trip. Will do a post on it when I've edited all our photos and can include some pics.

(Taken in Old Town, San Diego)

back to the french quarter

We spent another afternoon in New Orleans last Thursday. We had a visitor from Australia, and it was my 25th birthday – good reasons to head down to the big easy.
We basically spent the afternoon eating, drinking and walking through the French Quarter. I took a few photos, though they're mainly of building signs, like this...

You can see more on Flickr.

it's been a while...

and it feels like there's lots to catch up on. Time is just flying over here, it seems like the weeks are over before you know it, and the weekends come and go so quickly. Hard to believe we left nearly three months ago already.

A couple of weeks ago, we headed down towards the Gulf of Mexico, to a town called Cocodrie. Jon and a couple of others from the lab organised a five-day work trip based at research centre called Lumcon. The trip there took about two and a half hours. We had to drive almost to New Orleans, then down through a place called Houma. Lumcon was about 40 minutes from there. The last part of the drive was most interesting, as we started seeing more and more water, and houses only metres away (gators in the backyard anyone?!). We were amazed at how flat it was – the water met the land at practically the same level, so a little bit of rain would mean a little bit of flooding, but I'm pretty sure they get a LOT of rain... Most houses were on stilts. It was quite a strange place, different from anywhere we've been before.

Not long after we arrived, we went out fishing with two researchers from Lumcon. It was quite a calm, clear day, really nice conditions (but no fish). Jon and the others went out each day over the next few days, and worked in the lab, while I stayed behind and read, or took photos. We went out for dinner one night and spent a few hours one day at Coco Marina getting Red drum samples from charter boats while they were being cleaned up. It was a good trip, but we were also happy to get back to our apartment (and away from the swarming mosquitoes).

Last weekend, we had our first tailgating experience and it was utter madness! The LSU Tigers (no. 4 team) were playing the Florida Gators (no. 1 team). We knew it would be crazy and crowded, but thought if we were going to see what tailgating was like, this was the week to do it! It actually started Friday night (day before the game). We went to campus for a get together at around 6pm and already the cars and RVs had started to arrive. We got to campus at about 11am on the day, and drove around for ages looking for somewhere to park. We ended up about 20 minutes walk from campus because all carparks and nearby streets were absolutely packed. I'm not sure whether I am explaining this very well though. It was much worse than trying to find a park around Christmas time at Chadstone shopping centre – does this help?

After lunch (hot dogs of course), we went for a walk around campus and the 'RV village'. Our idea of tailgating was probably a bit old school compared to what it is. People set up their tents (like mini marquees) and RVs with BBQs and loads of food, seating, flat screen TVs and sound systems. We actually found out that people pay up to $5000 per season to park their RVs on campus near the stadium. Often people don't actually go to the game, they just come to tailgate. We left at about 6pm and got home in time to watch the game (Tigers lost 13-3). It was a fun, but quite exhausting day.

This weekend was pretty quiet, mainly spent grocery shopping. We went for a drive over to Tony's Seafood, where we picked up some fish (for tacos) and prawns for a boil tonight, yum!

I've maxed-out our Flickr recently with heaps of new photos, starting with this one of my groovy bike, and lots from our Lumcon trip. Will post the tailgating photos soon. I've also set up a twitter account. I'm finding I'm not so good at sitting down to write posts (as the date of the last post would show), so we'll be able to upload shorter 'tweets' more often, here.

Y'all take care, until next time :)