A Weekend in West Texas!

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Yeehaw! What a fun weekend we had exploring the dry lands of West Texas! My hubs rocked his two workshops at Texas Tech in Lubbock on Friday night and then in the morning in Amarillo. Shout out to District 23 for having us-thank you for the hospitality!

To celebrate, we went out for Thai food once we got back to Lubbock at a thai restaurant. I felt really into the Texas spirit so I put on my leopard print sweater (thanks Nana), pulled on my boots, fluffed up my hair, grabbed my cowboy and out we went! I posted this on Facebook and got some responses about my awkward leg on the counter…this is always how I get ready to make sure my shoes match my outfit, don’t you?

newlywed tips chelsea avery ryan avery texas date nightThe hotel we were staying at had the most interesting waffle maker ever because…it was in the shape of TEXAS. What other states do that? None, none is the answer. My husband prepared this and placed a dollop of butter in Houston, where he hails from and truth be told…it was indeed the most delicious bite.

newlywed tip texas waffleOur friends Jef and Kate came and picked us up to show us some true West Texan sites. Our first stop was Spanky’s where they are famous for their burgers and fried cheese, so naturally I had to find this out for myself. The cheese was whoa delicious. Any time I have mozzarella sticks I fondly think back to my childhood when my grandpa and I would go to restaurants, order up some fried cheese and compare and contrast them…these ones are at the top of the list Papa!

newlywed tips fried cheese

Spanky’s encourages graffiti so we all came up with a tag line or words of advice for the people that sit in the booth next. My husband naturally wrote “Always Dream BIG” and I, of course, sat and stressed out about what legacy I should leave. Jef leaving his mark and Kate being very supportive:

newlywed tips spankies lubbock texasI eventually decided on “choose happiness” and felt solid in my choice. Later in the meal we decided to change this to “choose happiness and eat a frozen snickers.” If you are ever in Lubbock, go sit in the booth on the 2nd floor directly across from the stairs and write your legacy lines by ours-we even left you some space!newlywed trips graffiti in spankys

After we ate incredibly unhealthy foods that were very delicious, we ventured about an hour outside of Lubbock to Caprock Canyons State Park. It’s $4 a person to enter the park and there is a promise of seeing wild buffalos! It was a glorious, sunshiny, laughter filled time.

newlywed tips chelsea avery ryan avery lubbock texas

We walked along a dried up river path in the canyon and I stopped about every 7 feet to examine rocks that spoke to me. I love nature and I love rocks but did a very good job and left them all there even though I wanted to throw all my clothes out of my suitcase and fill it with my new found rock treasures.

newlywed tips dry river walk travel blogThere were some very cool things to be seen. My soon to be brother-in-law is a geologist and I wish he was with us so he could educate us on all of the formations and processes that we had no idea about except they looked incredible.

newlywed tips travel dry canyonWe drove and walked all around the park trying to spot buffalos (actually they are officially called bison bison, yes twice) but no such luck. We came to the conclusion that they were burrowing underground- that was the only feasible reason why they weren’t being seen.

To take away some of our sadness about not seeing any bison, we found a little playground in the park where about 7 kids were playing and decided to swing. We asked the group of kids if one of them could take our photos swinging and one little girl jumped forward to offer up her services-she is a leader.

Here is the progression of great photos she took:
1) We are having such a fun time swinging normally!

newlywed tips travel blog swnging lubbock tx2. Then my husband says “okay…now let’s jump off!” That’s me looking at him saying “wait, what! I didn’t sign up for this!” Thank goodness my subconscious kicked in and got me into position to leap:
newlywed tips about to jump off swings3. The Landing! Kate and I totally stuck it like a gymnasts.

newlywed trips the jump lubbock texasWe drove back to visitor’s center and Jef said “If I don’t get to see buffalos…then I’m going to eat them!” and bought the very last package of buffalo jerky. We aren’t sure when they plan on restocking so sorry in advance.

IMG_4653Right as we made a lefthand turn to get back to civilization BOOM! BISONS! Then we all felt kind of bad munching on their species while we watched them roam so I changed to eating Chex Mix and then resumed eating meat again after we left.
newlywed tips travel blog lubbock tx buffalosOn the way back to Lubbock, we essentially had a dance and sing-a-long party the whole time until we arrived an Italian restaurant and stuffed our faces with carbs, wine and made up stories about the table sitting next to us. They sure were a scandalous bunch.

newlywed blog ryan and chelsea avery lubbock texas

We had a great time in West Texas and I really appreciated the lack of humidity as compared to Houston-whew! The sunshine, good company and friendly southern hospitality was just what I needed the week before my birthday (see how I casually slipped that in there? January 25 I turn the big 27 wooohooo!)

Today is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day so I am on a mission to attempt to do good things in the Lubbock airport, Denver airport and Portland airport to be of some sort of service today. What an incredible man who inspired and changed a nation, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do something great with your day!

The New Wifestyle: Try not to judge a city before you visit it, enjoy simple pleasures like swinging and even small acts can better the world.

Questions:
1) If you could write on a wall only one line to inspire or motivate someone, what would it be?
2) When is the last time you were on a swing?
3) Have you seen bison in real life before?
4) What are you doing today to commemorate MLK Day?

3 Comments

  1. leannalindquist

    January 20, 2014 at 10:39 am

    Chelsea,
    I just realized you are using capital letters. WOW! I’m not sure when you changed, but change you did. Is this in preparation for the book you are writing?
    Hugs, Leanna

    • chelsea

      January 22, 2014 at 7:03 am

      ohhhh you are GOOD Leanna and very observant! i thought i would try my hand and capitalizing things but i didn’t really like it. it was with the intent of preparing for book writing…well done!!! thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

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