Another road trip

The original plan was to write up a post everyday but I'm a day behind because my relatives and I were on the road all day long and I didn't have Internet access. There wasn't really a chance to make the most of the day but I did get a chance to go into Fort Sam in the city of San Antonio which is something I'll probably never do again in my life. It was very eye opening to see soldiers in real life in their army uniforms and I've grown a feeling of deep respect for them. My cousin who's in the navy was telling me about her daily routine and it's crazy how intense their training is. We saw a whole group of them with their giant knapsacks that they use to carry what seemed to be like practically everything they owned. So that was something new that I did the other day.

Something that I wanted to touch on though, was dad and daughter relationships. My relatives and I had to drive about 3 hours from Houston to San Antonio. The purpose of the trip was to deliver some goods to my cousin. My mum's uncle (i.e. my cousin's dad) had already done that insanely long 18 hour drive the day before and now he was back behind the wheel determined to get to Fort Sam in time before my cousin had to report back to base. We were cutting it so close but he drove the 3 hours straight. Now, we had breakfast that day, but then from 12 noon until 6.30pm he drove us around Houston and then to Fort Sam. He didn't stop to eat. He just kept driving. Even from the back seat I could see his determination to get to his daughter in time. This just made me think of dad and daughter relationships. I've really grown to love the relationship that I have with my dad, and he's the type to drive all night just to deliver me some of my belongings from home. My dad does a lot for me and as normal as that seems to me, I've come to realise that not everyone is as lucky as I am. Anyways, all this reflecting got me thinking about all the movies where there are great dad and daughter relationships. Here's a list of a few of my favourites:

To Kill a Mockingbird - The relationship is there throughout the whole movie.
Sixteen Candles - The scene when they're on the couch.
Mulan -The blossom speech & at the end when Mulan comes home.

No fresh prince in this 'Bellaire'

It has been so challenging trying to find decent vegan food for the past few days. We've been on the road a lot and most of our stops have just been at the big fast food joints. We arrived in Houston today on our way to visit another of my mum's uncles. We went to the Grand Buffet in Bellaire and it was vegan galore. One of my favourite Vietnamese dishes is banh xeo (Vietnamese crepe/pancake) and normally it's eaten with fish sauce. At this particular restaurant, they even had vegan "fish" sauce. Heaven. Just heaven. It was the best meal I've had in days, and even though it's not anything special, I've never been to a buffet which had so much Vietnamese food and this is something I definitely won't forget and something that makes me have love for Houston.

Apologies for all those people out there against instagram photos of food, but there was just so much good vegan friendly food!

Road tripping

I'm a little late with my post today because I've just come back from an 18 hour road trip from Chicago to Dallas, Texas. We drove from 5.30am to 12am. I saw both the sunrise and sunset and all the landscape in between. I've never done such a long road trip before and by the end of it I was itching to be anywhere but near a car, but I'm glad I had the experience. 

We didn't drive through any big cities or anything like that; mind you, i slept through most of the car ride. Of what I did see, it all reminded me of Amish barns and houses. It wasn't the kind of road trip with the window down and the hair blowing in the wind Thelma and Louise style. It was six people in a car (four crammed in the back) with What is love by Haddaway playing far too many times for my liking. By the end of the trip, we were listening to a Mexican radio station...don't ask me why. This is definitely something I don't do often, and I tip my hat to those who love road tripping to far off places. You must have butts of steel, because mine is numb as anything. 

At new heights

Chicago is beautiful! 

The houses are so cute and every church we drove past looked amazing. I went to Chicago with the expectation that it was this flash town but the buildings don't have much colour and the streets are pretty quiet in winter because it was so cold. The city reminds me of Gotham City from Batman. It's got this eerie kind of feel to it; but i really love it.

Today i went up the Willis building onto the Skydeck. It's the tallest building in Chicago with 
its 103 floors. We got there at around 4 while the sun was still up but the lines were so long and at first it was a real dampener on the day but by the time i finally got up there, the sun was just setting and it looked beautiful. A great end to my day.

Chai latte love

I didn't mention it in my last post, but my day yesterday wasn't the best. However writing my little reflection about how much I enjoyed going to a museum for the first time helped me to go to bed feeling happy. I guess that's what i wanted to achieve with this blog. I want there to be something that I can still feel grateful for no matter how my day went. You may think that making a whole blog dedicated to achieving this is unnecessary but I've tried doing something similar without getting the results. I have a little whiteboard at home which i tried to write something that i was grateful for each day but I found that there were days where I just felt too lazy to write something down. I'm hoping that because there's an audience on this blog (even if it's a small one) then I'll be more motivated to make the most of my day. 

My day started with a soy chai latte from Starbucks. I've never been to a Starbucks before, as there are none back home in Perth and so this was an exciting first for me. Now, I'm vegan (just for health reasons) and I'm pretty sure there's milk solids in the chai powder, but I'm on holidays and so for this one time, I'll let ignorance be bliss. 

I hope you find something to be grateful for today. 

Getting my intellect on

The family and I took a day trip to The Field Museum in Chicago today. I feel really jealous of the kids (and everyone else) here who have the opportunity to come and soak in all the knowledge that this place has to offer. I won't go on forever about it, and anyone who ever gets the chance to visit Chicago should most definitely pop in. The admission cost is good and if you went and read every bit of information on the walls/displays, then not only would you make for great dinner party conversation, but you'd have to make two trips to the museum I reckon. I can't remember if I've ever been to a museum before but this one had me so captivated. It was anything but boring. Opportunities to explore places like this make me so grateful that I have eyes to see, an ability to read and the brain capacity to understand and be in awe.

Happy New Year!

I was on a plane flying from Las Vegas to Chicago with my mum and Grandma when the clock ticked over to 2013. Unfortunately there was no big countdown. No one opened a bottle of bubbly or popped party poppers. In terms of a new years kiss...I kissed my mum and grandma on the cheek...does that count? 

One of the reasons I've been looking forward to 2013 is because a friend of mine gave me a one year Bible. It's set out all nicely so that you read a bit of scripture everyday and by the end of the year you would have read it all. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received. There wasn't even an occasion. She gave me the Bible just because she knew I'd like it. I love it.

My trip to America was very spontaneous. My family found out that my grandma was in hospital so mum and I booked tickets a week before we flew out. My new years eve may not have been a lot of people's idea of starting the year off with a bang, but it was pretty great for me. I guess I'm just strange that way. So how was your new years eve?