Texas is Wierd.

Everyone always asks us, "How do you like Houston?" and I never know quite what to say. But I figured I would at least share with you a few of the wierd things I have learned about Texans and then some of our recent favorite things to do.

5. Texas Cowboys starch their blue jeans. They take them to the dry cleaner and have them starched. Gross.

4. When we transferred our drivers licenses to Texas ones, they gave us this (see below) - very official looking peice of paper, which was to serve as our official identification while we waited for them to mail us our licenses in 6-8 weeks. We literally had to carry around this sheet of paper and show it at the grocery store as "ID." Unfortunately, our actual licenses still look pretty ghetto.

3. Despite being a city known for their engineers, these highway death traps are all over the city. Honestly, I probably drive on an average of 3 main highways a day, just in order to get to the gym or David's office. Definitely not good for my fear of bridges. In addition to crazy highways there are a ton of tollways with very specific rules! For example, the Westpark Tollway is EZ Pass only, meaning that anyone can drive on it but if you don't have an EZ Pass sticker on your car, they take pictures of your license tag and fine you for not paying a toll. I just thought that I got lucky and didn't pass any toll boths on the section I drove on. Luckily, someone explained how the Westpark Tollway worked and I was able to pay my toll and fine pretty easily. In contrast, the Katy Tollway simply applies to the HOV lane but if you have more than 2 people in the car, then you don't have to pay the toll. Seriously, is it really worth it?

2. In my opinion, there is a such thing as having TOO many Mexican places to eat. I would like some variety. And every Houstonian has about 4 personal favorites. I think so far David's favorite has been a place called Chuy's but the verdict is still out for me. I am partial to my own lime fajitas!

1. It is not nearly as pretty or hilly as North Carolina and Georgia. But we do have some of the biggest houses I have EVER seen. We live pretty close to a neighborhood called River Oaks and David and I spent Saturday morning just walking around the neighborhood with our jaws dropping. They even have their own private security cops patrolling the area. We can dream, right?

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So, we are still learning our way around, making friends and finding cool places to eat. Mom, I can't wait to take you to THIS place. It is only about a mile from our house, so we walked one night and had the BEST sliders on homemade yeast rolls and homeade french fries. Definitely will be a frequent joint for us!

And David's new obsession is this bar across the street from our house called W. Alabama Ice House. (Literally our house is the reddish one in right corner of the picture below). I think it has been there since the 1930s and people are literally there 24 hours a day. It is really laid back with lots of picnic tables. They usually have live bands, which we can hear very well from our apartment. And an interesting clientele, with lots of jean-on-jean and doorags. But we aren't there to judge. Just to enjoy a beer on a lazy afternoon! My brother William is going to LOVE it. Great people watching.