Fudge-Berger Summer Vacation 2011

Finally! I have time to blog about our vacation! I'm letting my child sleep way too late on a weekday just before school starts and I refuse to feel guilty about it! I'm just going to enjoy the time to fill you in on our latest adventure! As many of you know, my sweet firstborn is in Houston. I miss my Meg! Many of you also know my great love of the State of Texas. My husband and I enjoy the concept of exploring our great state because there is so much to offer! Well, that plus the fact that I'm like the old lady in the shoe with so many children that I don't know what to do! I've said many times before that I wouldn't mind being on an airplane with any one of my children. But, I refuse to be on an airplane with all of my children at once! What does a big family with teenagers, a tween and a 6 year old do for vacation? They go to Houston/Galveston, of course! It was a perfect choice since the drive time is less than 5 hours, my Megan is there and the grass is definitley greener on the other side of the drive.

My current favorite show is Daytripper on PBS. One of the more recent episodes featured Galveston. I think the show is filmed by spunky grad students from UT. The host, Chet, makes the most mundane Texas spots sound like must-see destinations! After watching the episode, I was inspired to plan a trip that incorporated unique places that we might have otherwise overlooked. Since our vacations are funded about as well as the day trips of under-employed grad students, I decided that I would start by checking out the places Chet mentioned on the show. One thing led to another, and I became obsessed with everything that the Houston/Galveston area had to offer. It took a while to finalize the itinerary, but I was most pleased with the outcome.

My first order of business was to secure a place to stay. I haunted priceline.com until a hotel accepted my unreasonable offer of $30 per night. I later had to add an additional night for $40. I'm still patting myself on the back for my perserverance and victory! I. Love. Priceline. Dot. Com. (William Shattner voice...) I arranged to visit Megan first thing upon arriving in town. That put us up in the north part of Houston just off of 45. My second order of business was to find a cool place to eat in that area. I googled "kids eat free" in that zip code. From that, I found a site that listed, day by day, the restaurants in the area that offered kids eat free. Only one was listed for Wednesday, the day of our arrival. It happened to be The Little Bitty Burger Barn on Pinemont in Houston. It was about a mile from where we needed to be. I looked up the website and noted that this place was featured on one of our favorite shows on The Food Network. This was our place! Kids eat free and reportedly the best sliders ever. My checklist for evening number 1 was complete.

My planning continued. The website that I found with my kids eat free google search also listed free things to do in Houston. Thursday is free museum day! Free admission to the Health Museum, The Weather Museum and the Children's Museum of Houston!! I checked out their websites and fell in love with these places! I was most excited about the giant, walk-through brain at the Health Museum. I also learned through a google search that there was another burger place in the area that was also featured on Food Network. (Yes, this became a theme.) It was called Bubba's Texas Burger Shack. I was intrigued because they served buffalo burgers. Thursday lunch was going to be the coolest! Another place we wanted to visit was the Kemah Boardwalk. I emailed my sweet friend who lives in the area. We met at church camp the summer before 7th grade. She and her family agreed to meet us in Kemah at TBone Toms, a steak house featured on, you guessed it, Food Network. Thursday's planning was complete.

Friday was beach day in Galveston. Our original plan was to meet Megan and Brady's sweet cousin Rhonda and her boys at Moody Gardens. We were very excited about getting to catch up. A few days into my trip planning, I learned that Rhonda and her extended family had suffered a devastating event. Her niece, Amanda, had been in ICU after suffering an asthma attack. She didn't make it. My heart hurt for their whole family. As we always do when things like that happen, I offered to do anything I could if it would meet a need. That is one of the things that you hear over and over when you suffer a tragic loss. "If there is anything I can do, please let me know." We all know that there just isn't anything you can do except pray. God is the only comfort. I told my son about his cousin. He struggled to remember whether or not he'd ever met her and with the fact that he couldn't just call his dad up and ask him. I'm still praying for the family. I do hope that we get to meet up with Rhonda on a return trip to Houston very soon.

Our last day in Houston was going to be Saturday. The one thing that Jeremy wanted to do most was visit the Space Center. I found that discount tickets were available at Fiesta Grocery store in Hosuton. I didn't plan anything else for this day in honor of Jeremy's love of all things aviation and space related. Our itinerary was full! The planning was done. Time to pack up and go!

Here are some highlights from the trip:

The Little Bitty Burger Barn was great! Jeremy said it was just another burger, but I thought the sliders were the best I'd ever had! They were so juicy that they had to be wrapped in a napkin to keep the juice from running down your arm. They had fun signs and photos on the wall that interested the kids. It really was a dive looking place. Would have overlooked it had it not been on the show!

The Houston Museum District was fantastic. However, FREE FAMILY THURSDAY made it very crowded. There were lots of daycare kids there. It was evident that the kids were in charge rather than the daycare staff. We parked in the parking garage at the Children's Museum and walked over to the Health Museum. The only time it rained that day was during that two block walk. The rain stopped just as we went inside. I was annoyed at the time, but the kids had a good laugh. Evidently, running around in the rain is great fun when you are 6 years old! I did learn that my general life expectancy is 91 and Mason knows what he will look like when he's 70. The kids were particularly facinated by the sheeps heart and a visual display of how much salt, fat and sugar are in their favorite foods. By far, their favorite was the 3-D movie, Planet You. It featured all the microscopic creepy crawlies like bacteria on our skin. It was great fun. I noticed all the adults were scratching their skin as they were walking out. We also visited the weather museum. It was boring for me, but the kids had fun for a few minutes before they were ready to go on to the next big thing. The Holocaust Museum was fantastic. It was very well organized. Mason especially loved the artifacts and wanted me to explain each and every on in detail to him. I had the amazing chance to explain to Brady a little about the Nuremberg code and how it relates to my job on a daily basis. At one point, Brittany was standing in front of a display that included a labor uniform worn by a person in a camp. The uniform was on a mannequin form that filled out the pants and shirt. Brittany stood there for an unusually long time, staring at this uniform and the picture of a person wearing one just like it. I joined her to ask her what she was thinkng. At that moment, I noticed that the reflection of her shoes was perfectly alligned with the uniform. It looked as if the person wearing that uniform was also wearing her lime green converse. I asked her not to move and everyone came over to see what was going on. After that, others wanted to stand where she was standing. The moment gave new meaning to the phrase, "in her shoes..." It was both creepy and thought provoking. I highly recommend this museum. We all chose to go back to the hotel and swim instead of going to The Children's Museum. We got there an hour early, and the line already stretched down the side of the building. Maybe next time.

Bubba's Texas Burger Stand was fantastic! It was a rickety looking little place right under the highway. There place was full of folks eating on the porch and a few inside. The buffalo burger on wheat was fantastic! I'm so glad we ate there. It reminded me of a different time and place. Has anyone ever had a burger at Bo's Bait Shop on the lake in Sweetwater? Bo's wife was a one of a kind character. I'm sure she had a name, but everyone just called her Mrs. Bo. If you went into the bait shop and asked for a burger, she would gripe about having just cleaned the grill the whole time she was cooking. An outsider would be offended. The people that knew her just accepted that as part of her charm. She would watch you eat your burger and smile when she saw that you were enjoying it. The last time I had a burger there, Mr. Bo had a young shoplifter outside digging a ditch as restitution for his crime. In one ear, I had the sweet sound of Mrs. Bo saying she had just cleaned that *&%# grill and in the other ear, Mr. Bo supervising the labor of his young offender while offering advice on life and how to effectively use a shovel. That place looked alot like Bubba's Texas Burger Stand. I will eat there again if I have the chance.

TBone Tom's was pretty cool. Jeremy and I shared the special, steak and shrimp. I have to say, that I'm spoiled when it comes to steaks. It wasn't the best steak I've ever had, but the prices were good and the atmosphere was fun. I would have had fun anywhere since we were having dinner with my sweet friend, Ellen, and her family!

Kemah Boardwalk was a money trap! There are many things to do with midway games and rides. I had to set a strict limit with the kids. Again, the best part was strolling and catching up with Ellen! Her family is great. We watched a fantastic fireworks display and enjoyed being together.

Stewart Beach was great fun! In fact, the kids enjoyed this most of all. They had great fun playing in the surf and on the sand. It was only $8 to park. Jeremy took the older kids out way farther than I was comfortable with, so I turned my back to them and helped Mason with a sand castle so that I wouldn't have the urge to scream out in horror. He also put Mason up on his shoulders and let him experience being out in the water. We walked up a hill and lunched at McDonalds and visited a surf shop. We bought a boogie board. By the time we got the boogie board back down to the water, a storm hit! Again, something about running around in the rain brings out joy in my kids. Unfortunatley, we were covered in wet sand, but they didn't care. They even enjoyed the rain.

Space Center Houston is definitley a must-see. I was visiting Megan, so I missed the tram tour of Johnson Space Center. But, there is alot to do and see! We watched films, touched a moon rock, walked through a mock-up of the space shuttle, and more.

Buc-ee's wasn't on my radar until Brady suggested we stop and check one out. It was actually pretty cool. I was facinated by the ordering system at the deli...so efficient! I can now say I've been to Buc-ee's.

Another year, another great Texas trip. I'm feeling blessed that we were able to make a trip happen this year. I'm also looking forward to the next one!