Back in action

We are back from Costa Rica as the more rested and tanned versions of ourselves. Many stories to come, but I just wanted to share a few teaser photos.

Vacation Part 2: DC is the Place to Be!

After we left Philadelphia, we took the train down to Washington D.C., where we were able to stay for 4 days and 3 nights! Turns out, that is not NEARLY enough time to see all that there is to see. But, we have a running list of things that we want to do next time we make it up there.

Highlights from D. C. include...

Preferred mode of transport: The train, hands down. It was great. It is like being on a plane, except you don't have to deal with airports, it is much cheaper, and you can talk on the phone. Unless you are in the "quiet car", that is.

Best middle eastern dining experience: Mama Ayesha's. We had dinner here with Judd Littleton, Travis's friend from law school. The food was really good, and so was the Lebanese wine and beer.

Worst middle eastern dining experience: Marrakesh Palace. Mediocre Moroccan food at outrageous prices.

Worst major league baseball team with the sweetest ballpark: The Washington Nationals.

Best cup of coffee: According to the hotel concierge, Starbucks (strike 1 for the JW Marriott). According to Travis and Katie, it all tasted like Folgers. Seriously. Not a good cup of coffee to be found.

Most moving memorial: Lincoln. It was incredible.

Biggest disappointment: The White House. I mean, it is cool and everything, but there isn't much to see.

Biggest kid-in-a-candy-shop moment: Travis at the Supreme Court.

Most cultural experience: The National Gallery

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

The U.S. Capitol

Travis & Katie in front of the Supreme Court building.

Travis posing with his favorite Supreme Court Justice. Don't ask me who it is.

Travis & Katie at the White House

Lincoln Memorial

Gothic architecture at Georgetown University

Travis, Katie & Judd at a sports bar in Adams Morgan watching Michael Phelps and the American 4X200 relay team beat France. (I got to watch the Olympics after all!) Adams Morgan is cool - it is like 6th street except with gangs.

Vacation Part 1: Philadelphia

This is the first in a series of many posts about our vacation to the Northeast. We started our trip in Philadelphia, PA. Many have asked why we chose to visit Philly since we had so many (seemingly) more exciting cities on our agenda. There are a couple of answers to this. First of all, Southwest has a killer nonstop flight to Philly from Austin, so we ended up saving a lot of time and sanity by flying into there. Second of all, Travis's cousin, Joel, just moved to Philly to start medical school, so it afforded us a good opportunity to see him.

We spent less than 24 hours in Philly, which is not a lot, but we were able to learn several things about it before leaving.
1. There aren't a whole lot of "landmark" things to see and do there. Besides the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the Rocky steps, there aren't very many things to see for sightseers. (Not a knock on them at all, because you could definitely say the same thing about Austin.)
2. Philly is not such a safe place. If you wander too far outside of the center of the City, you could get yourself into some rough areas. Luckily, we did not learn this from experience.
3. We had cheese steak sandwiches at this one restaurant that was supposedly pretty legit, and Travis and I both agreed that Texadelphia does a pretty good job making its sandwiches "authentic" compared to the real thing. All in all, however, I don't really get the cheese steak obsession, because they are kind of heavy and gross. To each his own I guess.

Here are some pictures from our short stay in Philly.

The Liberty Bell. It took me at least 5 minutes to get a shot with no other people in it. Apparently it is pretty cool to pose in front of it.


Downtown Philly


Independence Hall

Where we'll be

For the next 10 days or so, Travis and I are taking some much needed time away to celebrate being done with law school and the Bar exam. Here is our schedule for the next couple of weeks:

August 13: Philadelphia
August 14-16: Washington, D.C.
August 17-20: New York
August 21-22: Boston
August 23: Dallas
August 24: Back home in ATX!

We are very excited to spend time together relaxing and exploring new cities.

Here are some photos from Travis's graduation - realized that I had not posted any.

People who should move to Austin

A lot of exciting happenings!

On May 23, I made a last minute drive to Dallas to attend the (surprise) engagement party for one of my dearest friends from Rockwall, Kim. It was a fun time to see my friends and celebrate two lives that God is joining together. Below are some photos of the crew from Rockwall (plus Jennifer!) with the bride-to-be.

The very next weekend we had the incredible opportunity to visit our friends Jeremy and Michelle Utley in California. Jeremy is a student at Stanford and Michelle is studying fashion at the super-hip Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Fransisco. We had a blast exploring Palo Alto and San Fran and catching up with our amazing friends. We even sat in on a Stanford Graduate School of Business class...a bit awkward, but interesting nonetheless. Here are some photos from the trip.
View of the Stanford tower from Jeremy and Michelle's patio.

Golden Gate Bridge in black and white. Spooky. It was really foggy the entire time except for Sunday, the last day we were there.

This is one of us on a hike. Notice Travis's shaved head. He decided to do it while we were there...What do you think?

Good Times with Old Friends

We have been blessed to share some great times with some of my oldest and dearest friends recently. My childhood friend Rena Padachy was married on February 16, and we had so much fun at her wedding with friends from High School. I don't get to see folks from Rockwall much anymore, so it was a great time.
Rena and I at her bachelorette party in Austin (check out our matching shirts!)

Kim, Abby and I at the wedding reception at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.

This weekend we had the great pleasure to host Kim and Chris at our humble abode for the weekend. Chris is in a band called Sleeperstar
and they played two shows this Saturday for a music festival called South By Southwest. We got to go to both shows, which was a lot of fun, and spend extended time with our incredible friends. We were so blessed to have them with us this weekend.
The rockstars at Doc's Motorworks.

Amanda and JP joined us at the Dizzy Rooster.

Me and Trav.