Chateau de la Route's Blog

JANUARY . . . After a leisure morning at home watching The Rose Parade, we enjoyed a New Year’s Day family dinner at the home of niece Jennifer, her husband, Steve, and their delightful daughter, Nicole.  Peter’s brother’s wife, Shirley, prepared an extremely delectable roast pork, homemade potato pancakes (to die for!), red cabbage, and all the fixings one could think of!  What a way to kick off the New Year…thank you Jennifer, Steve, Nicole, Shirley, Steve, Michelle, Savannah, Racheal and Garrett for a really great day!!  (Jerry and Ian…you were missed!)

On January 8th (still having our rental car!), we drove into Houston to meet up with one of Diane’s former colleagues from Pfizer (Pat Cunningham and his wife, Susan).  They have a lovely 29th floor apartment in a prime location in downtown Houston, directly across the street from ‘Discovery Park’ – what an amazing view!  We enjoyed an exceptional meal at Massa’s Seafood Grille, followed by a lovely stroll through Discovery Park.  Good times…

Peter, Diane, Pat, and Susan

Peter & Diane, Discovery Park, Houston

January 15th we attended another of grandnephew’s basketball game, which was a lot of fun – enjoyable to get to watch him play (he’s really quite good!) and also see niece Michelle, and 2 of her other children, Racheal and Garrett.

Ian Cooper...#23

Ian on the court

 January 16th we met Steve, Jennifer and Nicole at “Bouncin’ Bear” – quite the place for kids (and ‘grown-ups’ alike!)…what a FUN experience for us!  It’s an “indoor inflatable playland that is filled with huge obstacle courses, 16-foot double-lane slides, castle councers, and more….”  It’s a great place for kids to go and play safely indoors to their hearts’ content (and physical exhaustion!)…..

Nicole at Bouncin Bear

Nicole & her Daddy at Bouncin Bear

After a yummy and hearty lunch of homemade soup at their home, we headed back home to settle in and watch THE game between the Patriots and the Jets – unfortunately, as is well known, our beloved Patriots lost that all important game!

January 20th we went to what was (for us), Ian’s last Basketball game – his team WON (34-11)!!  Following the game, we’d been invited to join the Cooper Family at “Incredible Pizza” for Garrett’s 8th Birthday Dinner . . . FUN place, good food, good prices and awesome games for the kids!!

January 21 – January 23rd.  We thoroughly enjoyed a 3-day weekend in “the hill country” of Texas…. having the opportunity to go up and see niece Jennifer and her hubby, Steve’s, newly acquired 25 acre property about 45 minutes outside of Austin.  It really is an impressive piece of property, great location, fantastic view; just beautiful. This will be a long term project for them – clearing the land, planning the home and guest house (for her parents), meeting with architects, eventually landscapers, and all that entire process holds.  But, they are certainly up to it, having designed and built 2 absolutely beautiful homes already. 

Keffeler Property in the Hill Country of Texas

Nicole at the propery on her 4-Wheeler

We all stayed at Steve’s brother’s Lakehouse (Bob and Sharon) on the Colorado River (close-by) – which is a lovely, lovely place (awesome location) – and they are wonderful, warm, and genuine people – we were totally spoiled!!  We were also able to view Steve and Bob’s sister, Chris’s, nearly completed new home on a nearby lake, which is a large, contemporary and sure to be comfortable home for she and her hubby, Willie.  

Dock at Keffeler Lakehouse

Dinner at Keffeler Lakehouse

Bob & Sharon; Steve, Jen & Nicole

On Sunday, while Steve and Peter went out “tractor shopping” and again “walking the property”, Jennifer, Nicole and Diane took in a 1-1/2 hour tour of the caverns at Longhorn Cavern State Park (“just down the road from their property”).  It’s “a state park featuring a Texas Hill Country wonder, Longhorn Cavern was created over many years by the dissolving and cutting action of water on the limestone bedrock.  Fossils, Texas history, legends and rumors all play a unique part in the story of Longhorn Cavern.”  It was a wonderful experience – and Diane couldn’t even believe that she almost passed it up!

Longhorn Carvern State Park

Longhorn Carvern State Park.

Longhorn Carvern State Park..

Longhorn Cavern State Park...

Longhorn Cavern State Park!

We just hadn’t felt right about leaving our Stella alone for 3 days/2 nights, so we scouted the area and found a wonderful place for her to “vacation” – “Best Friends Resort”.  They were absolutely wonderful with her, though she didn’t think too highly of it!!  Jennifer went above and beyond ensuring we got back (just) in time to pick Stella up Sunday night so she wouldn’t have to stay another night.  We (and Stella!), appreciated Jen’s perseverance more than we could convey…and Stella subsequently didn’t leave our sides for days!!

Contented Stella...happy again!

January 25th.  After we recuperated from our busy and active weekend, we ventured out to see “The King’s Speech” (which was really excellent, by the way) and then even partook of a “Potato Bar” put on here at the RV Park. Baked potatoes were provided, everyone attending was to bring a “topping of choice” to share – what wonderful and unusual items….all we tried were excellent!  (We’d picked up a sun dried tomato pesto at a very high end gourmet shop here, which was a big hit!!)

On January 29th our Houston friends, Pat and Susan, came up our way for dinner with us and to see our home and rig. We were very fortunate that the weather was still nice – making it enjoyable to eat outside, with our “campfire in a can” keeping us all plenty warm – and provided a very pleasant atmosphere.  Lovely evening being able to visit with them again; good people.

On January 27th Peter came down with a very nasty cold; on February 1st Diane came down with it as well.  As miserable as we both were during our turns, the timing could not have been better as it became very clear that this area was to be a part of “The Wintry Mass” engulfing much of the US.  Fortunately we were well stocked with supplies and just hunkered down and waited it out.  Saturday morning was sunny, bright and WARM!!  Niece Jennifer called to invite us to come out and play, which we wholeheartedly did!!  It was heaven getting out into the sun and fresh air…we even all enjoyed lunch at P.F. Chang’s.  We then ran just a few little errands and headed home for naps!!

FEBRUARY . . . was a very fast month for us, though not a very active or eventful one.  We spent time at our RV Park and at our own site, even so…we did have some highlights . . .

We went to 2 movies: “The Fighter” and “Unknown” – both were good, though we enjoyed “Unknown” considerably more.

On February 12th, Rayford Crossing RV Resort held a Valentine’s Day Dinner, which inclued a “Neil Diamond Tribute Show” – the entire evening was just plain FUN!! 

Peter & Diane at Rayford Crossing Valentine's Day Dinner

Our "Neil Diamond"!

Valentine's Day "tree" at Rayford Crossing RV Resort

On Valentine’s Day we thoroughly enjoyed an excellent sushi dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse.

February 18th we rented another car for a week – this time a new, black Dodge Charger (fancy!).  Diane enjoyed again having a car around town; Peter liked that it was a Charger!!  

Dodge Charger rental car

On February 19th we attended one of Ian’s football practice games – that boy has one heck of an arm!!! 

That evening, for Peter’s birthday dinner, we went to “The Olive Oil”, a local Greek restaurant, complete with singing, dancing, plate throwing and belly dancing!!  We had a BLAST . . . and oh, the food was absolutely delicious!  We started with typical Greek stuffed grape leaves – for main courses Peter had pork skewers; Diane had moussaka (we both agreed the best moussaka either of us had ever had!).  We were treated to dessert of their homemade baklava, which was incredibly good and light (Diane would love that recipe!!).  

The dance line begins...

Peter throwing plates!

First Belly Dancer

Second Belly Dancer...Note broken plates on floor!

On February 22nd we obtained our Texas driver’s licenses.  That’s been the plan all along, to become Texas residents, but it sure was difficult handing over our Connecticut licenses!

Our “residence” (mail service) is in Livingston, TX – so on the 24th we took another drive up there.  Unfortunately, it took us much longer than anticipated – one reason being caught in a complete downpour.  Diane, for once, missed the big truck for this particular outing!  The day ended wonderfully, however – enjoyed going to grand niece Nicole’s 7th birthday dinner.  Dinner was superb and Nicole was precious as could be.  What fun it was to watch a 7 year old open birthday presents!!  So pure and sweet.

On the 25th we enjoyed a “family dinner” with both nieces at a family favorite Mexican restaurant…Macayo’s.  We were even able to see Sophia, our favorite server there and say our ‘good-bye’s’ until next time!!

We wanted to do something special for Jen & Steve for ALL they’ve done for us while we’ve been in the area, so we took them to a restaurant they hadn’t even tried yet (The Black Walnut Cafe).  Turned out to have been a good choice, food and atmosphere was very, very good; very enjoyable evening with them.

Our last night in the Houston area was Diane’s birthday (or “non-birthday”!); we went to Amerigo’s Grille – an upscale Italian restaurant close by.  Peter enjoyed Almond Encrusted Grouper and Truffled Macaroni & Cheese (excellent); Diane had Lobster Linguini (with leftovers for 3 more meals!), which was outstanding!

March 1st we hit the road again . . . making our way s-l-o-w-l-y back up to the Pacific Northwest in time for son Jerry’s birthday on April 8th.