the camping weekend

it's been a couple of weeks since i posted (surprise, surprise), and in order to catch up, i will be completing a series of posts, updating you on my past few weekends. you might call it the weekend updates.

the week after i went to austin, katie and i continued to think about adventure. all week we talked about going camping over the weekend. when friday finally arrived, it was the coldest day we've had in houston yet (45 degrees, kansans. read it and weep)...rainy and just all around miserable. but, we decided to go anyways. we drove an hour north to huntsville state park and spent the oh-so-cold :) night at a surprisingly nice campground, fit with trails, lake access, restrooms WITH toilet paper, and screened shelters that you could pitch your tent in. while there were some crazy children screaming and beating on trees in the morning, and apparently a lot of alligators (signs warning us to not feed them were all over the park. and, at 9:30 in the morning, we heard some man say, "oh, i gotta jump in the shower before the alligator thing." wtf??!!), it was mostly quaint and peaceful. we got to the campgrounds late at night, drank some wine*, and slept. we took a nice hike in the morning around part of lake, and then took an afternoon nap before heading back to houston**. glorious!

*notable story #1: when i say wine, what i really mean is a lot of different drinks. when katie and i started packing up a cooler for our camping trip on thursday night, we ended up with a cooler chock-full of liquids...kombucha, beer, wine, soda, water, coffee, and hot chocolate. i don't know what to say, we love our liquids. no joke, we almost forgot to pack food.

**and #2: on the way back to houston, we decided it was the perfect day for a really hearty breakfast. i was craving biscuits. so, we iphoned the nearest local diner (alice's, in conroe, for those of you who care). now, i was expecting some filthy, kitchen grease kind of place, like waffle house for instance (so good!). and this place looked like it on the outside. it was located on some inconspicuous corner of an obviously unpopular strip mall. it had a banner hanging on its outside wall that not only said "Alice's Diner," but had giant pictures of their food on it as well. the inside, though, was a whole different story. it had carpet. it had paintings. and wooden shelving. and an aquarium. it was also spotless (i guess it was at this point we noticed no one else was in the restaurant). a few further steps in, and we got to their counter seating near the kitchen, that did not have bar stools, no no, but eight full-on, heavy duty, rolly, swivel office chairs. amazing. we sat down (at a booth, thank you), turned on katie's ipod (as there was no music playing in the restaurant - kind of awkward?), and ate a fantastic breakfast. thank you, alice, in every way.