Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Houston Adventure

So, as I said in my previous post, I (and Clyde) actually successfully non revved (flew standby) to Houston with Greg on Friday.  He's been wanting me to come out there and hang out with him at his home away from home for a while now, and it seemed like a good time to go.  Also, it didn't hurt that it happened to fall around the right time of month for baby making.  Sorry, maybe that's TMI, but it's true!

Anyhoo, we caught a flight to Houston and got in late afternoon.  Greg's apartment in Houston is in an area called Greenspoint, which isn't too far from the airport (he's near Bush International).  The area is okay, but slightly ghetto, and I guess that's kind of well known among pilots because they are always saying, "Oh GUNSPOINT" when ever he says his apartment is in Greenspoint.  Nice.  Sadly, of the apartments Greg has had at various bases in Newark, Columbus, Charleston (W. VA), this is by far the nicest pad and also has the cheapest price tag, so he's pretty happy with his digs.

The other funny thing is that his place is barely furnished.  When we drove out to Houston in January in our old Honda Accord that Greg keeps in Houston, he only brought what he could fit in the car, so that really didn't include much furniture.  He bought a small table, chairs, and a desk in Houston, and sleeps on an air mattress.  I keep telling him to get some more stuff, but he thinks he's actually going to end up making another trip from home with some stuff he wants to bring out there.

After checking out his bachelor pad, we decided to head out in search of some dinner.  Greg said most of the pilots he flies with live in an area called The Woodlands.  We headed there to check it out.  The Woodlands was a really fancy town center with lots of shopping and restaurants.  Very nice.  So nice, that in fact, once we got to the center area with Clyde, we noticed that there was stuff posted about no dogs allowed.  Bummer!  We quickly headed back to the car and headed out of there.  I remembered a website called Bringfido.com which could be used to find dog friendly places in many cities and suggested we consult that for some Clyde-friendly dinner options.  We found a place close by called Beck's Prime.


Clyde seemed into it...


It was actually a really beautiful night to dine outside.




And then we saw it...  Yikes!!  We think it was a black vulture.


It was super creepy and lurking nearby...


I tried to distract myself while eating my California grilled chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries.


But that creepy bird actually got closer, probably trying to get some morsels of food, or possibly even try to eat Clyde!  He was only about 10 feet away from us!


Anyway, we survived our dinner at Becks, but it would have been a lot nicer without that freaky bird!

Saturday we got up and had breakfast consisting of oatmeal and fruit cups at the bachelor pad, and then took Clyde for a walk around the area.  Greg is on what is called a "reserve" schedule.  That means on days on duty he's basically on call, and might have to be at the airport in 2-3 hours to fly.  So we knew there was a good chance he would get called in to work on Saturday, but we took our chances and I went out there anyway.  Amazingly, he did not get called to work all day, so that worked out really well!

For lunch, we headed to Greg's favorite, Taco Cabana.  We'd gone there in January and my first experience was not that impressive, but I was up for trying it again and was dying for some Mexican food.  Plus, they have outdoor seating, which was essential for Clyde.




I ordered chicken fajitas, and check out the spread...


Um, yeah... this was actually meant for two people, but Greg had ordered something else.


The good news was that this was excellent, and far better than the burrito I had last time I came.  We also had plenty left over for dinner later.  The rest of our day in Houston was spent exploring a little and getting some fro-yo later in the afternoon.

Sunday morning, Clyde and I caught a really early flight back to Charlotte, because it had the most seats open for standby and we wanted to make sure we got back.  Clyde did great on the plane in his carrier under the seat.  He's such a good boy :)  It was a nice little adventure and makes me less afraid to non rev now that I had an easy time with it.  The last attempt before this one left me stranded in Newark and needing to buy a one-way ticket home for more than I would have paid to fly round trip with a positive seat.  I'm glad everything worked out for this trip!

5 comments:

Brittany (A Healthy Slice of Life) said...

How fun that Clyde got to go with you!! Looks like you had a nice little getaway :)

Ashley said...

Aww sounds like you had a great trip, and it's always nice when the non revving part is easy. I'm thinking about going out to Vegas to visit my husband at his crash pad too, but the bad part is he shares it with like 6 or 7 other dudes. Ha.

Other than the creepy bird did you like The Woodlands area? I've been there once and thought it was pretty nice but that was a long time ago.

Glad to hear you had a nice trip! Maybe you and Clyde can go again soon. (:

Carly said...

Your posts always make me hungry. Now I want Mexican food. :-)

Katie H said...

I'm so glad you were able to get out there! Yay! ;) How cute that Clyde was so good. Love it! I love most birds but that one would have freaked me out- if I saw him when I was with Bailey I would have been convinced he wanted to eat him!

Null said...

Glad your nonrev expereince was good this weekend! Last weekend the airports were packed, but I was pleasantly surprised they weren't too bad this weekend either.

That's awesome Greg's crashpad is in an area where there's actually decent restaurants and things to do. Makes for a much happier husband and nice weekend getaways. Yay for not being called in to fly!


In Dh'ss old crashpad, they had folding lawn chairs set up in the family room instead of a couch, and a card table to eat on in the kitchen. Sad thing is the airmattress and target bookshelf made their way from his old place and are still inhabiting our guest bedroom/office/home gym.

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