Memorial Day Flood

Houston got hammered with rain and flooding over Memorial Day Weekend.  We were told to show up to church in work clothes to go help.

The Mayor of Houston came to church!

We ended up being split into groups and canvassed to see where the need was and what the needs were.  It wasn't a dirty job at all, but we saw some serious damage.

The streets were just piled with everything that needed to be thrown out.

And this guy's pool (it was empty) flooded right out of the ground!  Crazy!  We sure were thankful we didn't have any flooding!

Austin: The Last Little Tidbits

Here's a few more photos from Austin:

 The LBJ Presidential Library.  I hate to say it, but I'm going to have to: meh.

 In the cave.

Watching TV in the hotel room.  Vacations are so fun!

Austin: Texas State History Museum

For the first time ever in my life, a fire was a good thing.  We went to the Texas State History Museum in Austin and not more than 5 minutes after we paid and entered, an alarm went off and everyone had to get out of the building.  We had to go outside and across the street for a while until they found the problem.  I guess there was a small fire in a kitchen area or something.  No harm really done, we got our money back and found out that admission was free the next day.  Yes, please and thank you!  We went back the next day and breezed through the museum before we headed back to Houston.

The highlight was definitely the free poem Miles got!  There were writers set up with their type writers offering free poems.  They would ask you what you would like them to write a poem about and they would do so right in front of you!

Miles got the guy writer.

And you better believe he asked for a poem about hockey.

Check it out:

"Hockey Poem (for Miles)

gliding so fast across the ice

it feels like flying

but i barely notice

every speck of attention i possess

is focused on one small

black

disc

skittering around the rink

its path carved by one hooked stick

and then another

i skate closer and closer

all of us moving together

toward the goal

coming up from behind

i hold the stick, swing it...

WHACK

and

SCORE!!!!!"

Pretty amazing talent, if you ask me!

Austin: The 4th and Longhorn Cavern

On the actual 4th of July, we went to Longhorn Cavern.  It was cool, even though our guide kept saying it was a "pretty boring cave."  I was like, "Dude, you need to up your salesmanship."  I'm sure there are far more fascinating and eye catching caves in the world, but it was still cool to us since we don't go in many caves.

After the cave we went to Bee Cave (a city) where they were having a Independence Day celebration!  We scored a parking spot right away and took it as a sign: we were to spend the rest of our 4th in Bee Cave, TX.  We ate pizza, checked out all the outdoor vendors, listened to the live music, ate ice cream and watched fireworks.  It was a great 4th!

Austin: The Arcade

We took Miles to an arcade in Austin that had about a billion pinball machines and a billion other games.  Pretty sure Miles had the time of his life there.  Check it: