Tags
austin, beaches, family, food, friends, houston, karaoke, new orleans, party, pensacola, seattle, sightseeing, traveling, vancouver
The day after FujiMatsu, Kenji and I were on our way to Seattle for a busy three weeks in the states! First up was a brief day in Seattle, before we flew down to Houston, rented a car, and took a road trip across the Southern States.
New Narita Sky Train, faster, slicker, and all that jazz. It had a “new car” smell, though I guess in this case it is “new train” smell…
I tried to sleep through most of the trip, but this is passing over the Olympic mountains
Hit by Jet Lag, Kenji and I take a VERY early morning moped ride to take a nice nature-y walk
Then we went downtown for various things.
Picking up in New Orleans at the Queen Anne
Did the tourist thing in NOLA… beignets, Farmer’s Market, Riverside…
From Houston to New Orleans, then from New Orleans to Pensacola where we took the scenic route and got in just in time to see my Uncle playing!
Uncle James!
Then we hit the beach the next day, which was BEAUTIFUL! Gosh I miss Pensacola… other beaches just don’t live up to it. And no oil, woo!
After seeing family in Florida, we swung back around to New Orleans, but to River Road to stay in one of the illustrious plantations. And the best, in my opinion… Bocage! Oh man. We felt like royalty, it was so beautiful! We had a great dinner, then took off the next day to see a few other plantations before heading back to Houston for Kenji’s early morning flight.
The parlour and dining room. The whole house was just as gorgeous, but Kenji has all the good pictures!
Outside. The gardens are just now being renovated.
Houmas House right next door, front and back
The gardens were very lush, but I don’t think a plantation in Louisiana would have had a Japanese style garden, as appealing as that was to me.
But they definitely got points for care! We didn’t bother going in the house.
Nottoway, where we had champagne and the most delicious salmon ever for lunch!
And then there was Oak Alley, and then we made the long drive back to Houston, which really took forever.
Kenji went home, and I went on to Austin for a few days.
Then went back to Houston.
Little Kitty Terror!
Going out with Mary&co the night before a 7am flight… fun, but not entirely the brightest idea ever…
Then it was back to Seattle, then to Vancouver for the night, then back to Seattle again to relax before finally flying back to Narita, feeling like a year had gone by and not just three weeks!
So the next picture requires a bit of explanation… the night we got in, we noticed people doing a lot of work on the street our hotel was on… putting up pictures, flowers, etc., but we didn’t think anything of it. Then we walked out of the lobby the next morning and went HOLY CRAP WHAT HAPPENED?!? It looked like a hurricane hit, but they were actually shooting a Planet of the Apes Prequel. We went back up and tried to see what was going on, but all we saw was a “San Francisco Animal Control” van, and a million papers.
Iiiiinteresting…
More interesting in downtown Vancouver
Back in Seattle, a Brazil Festival and an AWESOME FOUNTAIN! I wished I had a bathing suit. Looked like fuuuun!
aaaaaand that was it!