Day in Conroe

Today we cleaned up and explored Conroe and Montgomery. 

We visited the Starbucks to sync our emails and visited Cluver's for some ice cream.

 Let's rent a pontoon boat and take a boat ride!!

We used Nauty Days to rent the boat. They were the only rental facility open and  could not have been nicer.

We saw our house from the water side.

We saw a bald eagle.

We saw great blue heron.

Then it was to Fajita Jack's for lunch.

The Cousins Get Together

Today is the big day : two of barney's cousins and their families are coming over!

Craig and Lori have not seen Barney in 15 years (?).  Their daughters Amy, Lindsey, and Becky were able to join the party.

Becky, Melissa, Barney, Ethan, Kendall, and Lindsey

Becky, Ethan, and Melissa

Melissa and her two children also joined us.  Having seen them in the summer makes them more acquainted - of course, it had been 18 years before that for Melissa and Barney to get together.

Craig and Amy Simon

Kendall and Lindsey

For dinner we had debris from New Orleans, ham from Port Charles, polenta, and bread pudding, and I seem not to have taken any photos of any of it.

Barney and Lori

Conroe: Day 2: Christmas Day

Well, today will be disappointing. Mom and Dad turned back when mom broke her arm.  So this holiday will be just Amy and Barney.

This morning we took a drive around the southern half of the lake, crossing on FM1097 from west to east.

During the trip, Barney lost the reindeer antlers.

For dinner we had the crawfish etouffee and the oyster dressing for dinner.

We broke into the bread pudding for dessert.

Christmas Eve Dinner : Hugo's

I would love to show you beautiful photos of our dinner at Hugo's

but they are of the class of restaurant that feels the less you actually see of the food, the better you will think it tastes!  I know there are studies about sound's affect and taste,  and lighting's influence on the taste of wine, but i am not aware of how dim lighting make food taste better.

Here are some of the dishes I was actually able to photograph:

Conroe: Day 1 Christmas Eve Dinner Plans

When you are out of town, where to go for a dinner like Christmas Eve dinner is almost as hard as Christmas Day's dinner.  Our first choice was Hugo's,

 but this was high on many people's list too, so we ended up on the waiting list for Hugo's; when we called, they could seat two parties of two, but not at the same time.  We also had other options we were thinking about:

The Walden Yacht Club The are 1/3 of the way up the lake.  They have a fantastic buffet many times during the week.

or the Cozy Grape in downtown Montgomery 

My parents were to meet us here in Key Harbor, but while we were at the Black Bird Bakery back in Bristol, my mother called and said that having driven from Tucson to El Paso they had stopped for the night.  They has gone to dinner at Cheddar's and after dinner she fell and broke her arm.  They were turning back and headed home.  

This is the last time we were all together, Christmas 2015:

Follow up:  Mom did have two fractures in her arm.  It was really painful, and only had to have splints and a sling.  All seems to be headed for a full recovery. 

Amy and I called and changed our waiting list reservations to only 2 people.  This worked, because they called on the 23rd and told us to be there at 6 pm:  Next Post:  Hugo's!!