Our Weekend in Houston, Y'all

I am delayed on this post. Oops. A few weeks ago we went to Houston!

Everyone knows of my deep love for Texas and their items that are deep-fried and their rodeo and their people who wear boots, but alas, that was not the reason for our visit this time. Three of my besties from college live there and one of them recently had a baby so it was time to pay a visit to the Lone Star State.

(Sidebar: we ACTUALLY were supposed to go last month over President's Day Weekend, but our flight was scheduled for the day that LA saw more rain than we've seen in goddamn YEARS, so that trip got canceled. I was not happy. It was not pretty. Don't take away my vacation plans, rain!)

Anyway, so this was our raincheck trip! We got in late Friday night and after a quick stop at Whataburger (Ram's first time, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?), we checked into our hotel (we shared a room with Gerrick and Daniel, who drove in from Dallas). I accidentally booked us at the Aloft Houston Downtown instead of the Aloft Houston Galleria - rookie move. My bad. But we were only staying there for sleeping so it was fine. I am mainly writing this down so I don't make that same mistake again.

Saturday morning our whole group (5 AEPhis + 4 husbands + 2 children + 1 baby + 1 special guest Lauren - missed you Linds!) trekked out to Pearland, Texas (pronounced "Pair-land" and not "Purl-lind" as I was rudely corrected) for some real Tejas BBQ. We waited in line at Killen's for about a half hour on the side of the freeway (#soTexas) until we got to the front of the line, where our rowdy crew of Jews proceeded to order more pig than you have ever seen in your life. Y'ALL, it was SO GOOD. Shout-out to the pulled pork and the burnt ends. And the fried mac & cheese. Oops. 

After lunch the ladies went off to the best store in the world, Kuhl Linscomb, where I celebrated the end of NO SHOPPING MARCH by spending $80 on greeting cards and lipstick and other nonsense. And then we headed off to a Houston pal's birthday party at the Karbach Brewery - I don't drink but it was a very cool place and despite Houston's humidity I remained calm and we all had a delightful time, complete with a very strange photoshoot. My friends are weird. Quick reminder that we are all in our thirties.

I don't really have words to describe dinner on Saturday night. Our whole group (including special guest Alyssa, my dear friend from college) had reservations at a new-ish Houston place, Underbelly, and it was MAYBE one of the most delicious meals I've eaten in recent memory??? We ordered tons and tons of things to share and it was so incredible I didn't even take a single picture. Ya'll will have to be satisfied with this slightly blurry photo of the restaurant sign. (See how I start saying y'all after two days in their company? Ridiculous.)

On Sunday we reunited at the Texas version of a New York Deli, Kenny & Ziggys (spoiler alert: LA's delis are better) and then marched around Nordstrom for a while - I bought two dresses and cuddled the baby so I was in fine spirits. And then before we knew it, we were off to the airport :( a too-quick trip! 

It was amazing seeing my friends - five out of the ten of us from college were together for most of the weekend, but I am already counting down to next month, when we ALL go to Philly for a wedding! We get to be together so soon!