sweet home college station

In case you hadn't gathered, we left our home Friday afternoon (after much Royal Wedding viewing) for College Station, TX.

Zach was attending a Feline Medicine Symposium at A&M's Vet School, and Liam and I tagged along. I was much more relaxed going along on THIS CE, as opposed to Port A last year, because I'm super-duper comfortable running and gunning by myself in CS. I lived there for a long time. 

We arrived and checked in at our hotel (which was pretty nice!) and then headed straight to Northgate for lunch/dinner. We spent many, many, many an hour at La Bodega when we were residents of the CSTX, and we miss it so much! Despite the fact that it wasn't even 5 o'clock, we both ordered MexMarts, and enjoyed ourselves completely. 

We parted ways at Bodega, Zach headed to the school for the first 3 hours of the Symposium and Liam and I ran around. We went to Toys R Us (the CS TRU is still laid out like they were when we were kids- you know, the big long parallel aisles, and it's just a great store), where Liam spent the rest of a gift card he had on a Perry the Platypus eye-bugger. Then we headed over to Post Oak Mall for some shopping at Aggieland Outfitters, where I was shocked to have to purchase a YOUTH sized hat for my Toddler... he's got a big 'ole head.

We drove by our old house so Liam could see... sadly, the little yellow shack (yeah, it's not that nice) looked uninhabited, but the roses my FIL and I planted were still in the front yard!

Since I'd gotten up at 4:30 and was beyond exhausted, we headed back to the hotel, and got ready for bed early.

Liam decided NOT to sleep that night, finally passing out in the bed with us at 4:45 in the morning. It was horrendous. We were all so tired when morning rolled around.

Zach had to be back at the Vet School at 8, so Liam and I were lazy in the hotel. We finally left so the maids could clean. We ran by our credit union's main branch, strolled around Target and just meandered through CS. We headed back to Northgate to meet Zach for lunch at the "original" Freebirds. 

Details: The Santa Barbara location is technically the 'first' Freebirds, but they didn't start out selling burritos in the style Freebirds is now known for. When the location on NG opened, they started the burrito building, and Santa Barbara followed. So technically, the first Freebirds as Freebirds IS, is the location on NG. 

While we were waiting for Zach, Liam discovered Bottle Cap Alley, and fell in love. I really do think this was his favorite thing we did all weekend. We walked up and down that strip of alley more times on Saturday than I ever did when I was living in CS. That was hard work so we had to stop for a cookie and water break on the back patio before Zach was able to meet us. Liam was a happy little bugger.

After lunch, I thought about where to take Liam and what to do. I didn't really want to take him onto campus because finals are next week, and I didn't want him running around and screaming when the students are probably (hopefully) getting ready for finals insanity. 

So, we headed out to the George Bush Library. 

I'd never actually been before (except to take an exam at the School of Government building) and a very nice guy at the counter gave Liam and I free tickets to go through the museum. 

(people are nice like that in College Station.)

Liam wasn't thrilled I insisted on taking his picture in front of the Horse/Berlin Wall statue, but I couldn't resist. I just love it. 

After running around outside, we headed out to Maggie Moo's on Rock Prairie for some ice cream to take back to the hotel room. I was hoping for a nap for both mommy and babe, but instead we sat on the couch and watched TV greatness and enjoyed our ice cream:

Dinner was special and fun that night. We met Zach's Aunt and Uncle (Uncle Norm is a professor/Ph.D student at A&M in Industrial Distribution) at Fish Daddy's for dinner. Norm is my FIL's older brother and is an A&M graduate a few times over himself. Liam had too much fun with his Aunt Loueva afterwards, running around outside and having her chase him.

(it was also BHS prom night & Ring Dance night. SO many ladies in lovely/skanky dresses!)

We got back to the room around 9:45 and Liam and I were in bed by 10:15. Thank Lord he actually fell right asleep and slept all night, until 8:30!!

After a good night's sleep... 

Zach had ONE MORE morning of lectures, and after he got back at 11, we packed up and headed to lunch.

We decided to try Chuy's. Neither Zach nor I had ever been before, and we figured we'd give it a try in CS where the crowds weren't going to be OUTRAGEOUS so that we knew whether or not it'd be worth it to fight for a table in Katy when that location eventually opens. 

It was a big, big, big hit with all 3 of us. Liam actually ate ALL of his lunch. Not a speck of his burrito was left.

We had a wonderful time in College Station, and are really looking forward to spending a lot of time up there this football season (hellooooooo season tickets!!).