Staci, my little sister, graduated with her Ph.D. last Thursday! Of course, Cody and I could not pass up the opportunity to travel to our beloved College Station to see her walk across the stage, so we made a whole weekend trip out of it!
Me and Cody with Staci!
It was a great trip. On Wednesday, we drove to Fredericksburg to stay overnight so that we wouldn't have to make the whole trip from Midland to C.S. in one day (it's a long drive). And we LOVE Fredericksburg. We have been there many times.
We always stop for German food when we go there. Usually we eat at the Auslander, but we wanted to try something different this time so we went to the Altdorf to change it up. I always get a schnitzel and Cody always gets some kind of sausage. The Altdorf did not disappoint!
That was about all we had time for on Thursday since we got there too late to go drink any wine... :'-(
On Thursday, we woke up early and drove to College Station. We got there about lunch time and our first stop was the lab that Staci works at. They were having a little get together for all the grads they have this year that work at the lab. Staci's been working with Dr. Club for several years now, and he is the one who hooded her at the ceremony.
My parents drove in on Thursday too, and when they got there, we went to meet up with them so we could all drive together to the ceremony at Reed arena.
After the ceremony we went back to Staci's house to hang out for a little while until supper time. Brandi and Adam didn't make it to the ceremony, but they came over after Brandi got off work to eat with us. We decided to go to Chuy's since we don't have one in Midland, and I think that we were all craving the creamy jalapeno dip (love that stuff...).
The next day, we spent the morning walking around campus and reminiscing about old times ... and also oohing and ahhing over the new Kyle Field!! That thing is massive. And there are some new statues and monuments that are really cool.
Cody insisted that I take his picture with the Heisman Trophy ... and they had a really cool thing that would let you take a picture of yourself wearing a virtual uniform, so we all took turns trying on the football uniform! We also got to go out into the stadium and take pictures.
This is the War Hymn Monument. Very cool. The people in the statue are so detailed. I could have walked around this one for a while.
After we finally got done with Kyle Field, we walked over to North Gate to eat lunch at the Dixie Chicken. I could not believe that my mom had never been there to eat before. She didn't like it very much, I don't think. She said it smelled like an alleyway.
On our way back to the car, there was one more cool statue that I wanted to look at, so we walked through some of the civil engineering buildings to look at it.
Me and my dad thought it was really cool. Apparently, we took to long looking at it and so my sister took this picture of us.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
She thinks she's sooooo funny.
It is a neat statue! It has pretty much every type of steel connection you can think of! I took pictures from every angle...however, I know that it's not that exciting to everyone so I will spare you having to look at the rest of the pictures I took.
After a nice nap, we went out to Caldwell to meet my other sister, Brandi's fiance's parents. They live on a big ranch with about 500 acres, I think. It was pretty awesome, and I think that it's pretty perfect for Brandi.
The next day me and Cody left to go back to Fredericksburg again. This time we made sure to leave early enough so we could stop by some wineries and have some wine.
The first one we stopped at was the Woodrose Winery. I'd never been to this one before, which is why we stopped there. On the weekends there, they do a lunch thing where they pair the different wines they have with food dishes. We hadn't had lunch yet, so it was the perfect place to stop.
Then we jogged on over to Hilmy, one of our favorite wineries to stop at. Me and Cody shared a tasting there, and then we got a glass of wine and sat outside for a while. It was a nice day.
We also stopped by Grape Creek for a tasting with our friend Joseph who came in to hang out with us for the night, but I didn't take any pictures there ... Grape Creek is one of our favorites also. Most of our wine from Fredericksburg comes from there. They just put in a restaurant there, so we got some brick oven pizzas to share with our wine!
Then on Sunday morning, it was time to end the weekend. We stopped at a restaurant in town for some breakfast and then we drove out to Wildseed Farms to take some pictures. That place is pretty. They have a lot of plants and little nick knacks that you can buy. Cody and Joseph both drive Subaru WRX cars, and they are serious nerds about them. They made me take a picture. They even positioned their cars together so that it would look "cool."
It was a fabulous weekend!
Thanks and Gig 'em!
