Daily Archives: September 16, 2017

Up Way Too Early . . .

But Well Worth It!

Today was the big birthday celebration down in Galveston. Our granddaughter Piper’s was on September 7th and our daughter Brandi’s was yesterday, the 15th. And also thrown in here was Landon’s 7th birthday last month.




His big party for all his friends got hurricane-cancelled, so he was in on this too.

So Jan and I were on the road by 6:30, more than 30 minutes before sunrise, way too early for anyone, especially me. The one positive thing to all this was there was no traffic, even through downtown Houston. It was just 70mph all the way.

We got to our son Chris’ about 8am where we were all rendezvousing. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up a few minutes later, and in turn, we were all on the road with Jan and I riding with Chris and Linda, and Miss Piper riding with Brandi, et. al.

Our destination, the Sunflower Café, has been a favorite of ours for a number of years, since Brandi and Lowell introduced us to the place. It’s always been a great place for breakfast , brunch, and lunch, with a wide array of specialty dishes, like Fried Quail and Grits, Crab Cakes and Eggs, and Eggs Benedict Surf and Turf.

Of course, with all these wonderful selections, Jan got Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes, and Toast.

Sunflower Cafe Small Breakfast

For me, I branched out a little with the Hatch Green Chile Omelet, stuffed full with Hatch Chiles, and Havarti Cheese, along with Potatoes and Jalapeno Toast.

Sunflower Cafe Hatch Omelet

The Hatch Chilies were very hot, and really good.

And it was all topped off with a large carafe of OJ and a bottle of Cook’s Champagne for breakfast mimosas.




It’s always hard to get this ragtag bunch to all smile at the same time. In fact a couple of them are downright surly.

Sunflower Cafe Group Shot

But I get other photos when they’re not paying attention.

Sunflower Cafe Landon

Sunflower Cafe - Piper

Leaving breakfast we all headed over to Moody Gardens to check out the newly-remodeled Aquarium Pyramid, and the da Vinci exhibit.

We started off with the penguins, always everyone’s favorite.

Aquarium - Pengquins 1

They’ve really got a great habitat here and they seem to be very happy.

Aquarium - Penguins 2

Here’s Miss Piper and Landon trying to get a shot of a baby penquin who was very curious and kept coming right up to the glass.

Moody Gardens - Landon Piper and Penguin

And the many reef and coral displays are just beautiful.

Aquarium 1


Aquarium 2



Aquarium 4


Aquarium 5

One of my favorites, the Lionfish.

Aquarium - Lionfish

And they had a number of tanks filled with jellies.

Aquarium Jellies

Aquarium Jellies 2

Finishing up the Aquarium, we next headed over to the da Vinci exhibit in the Discovery Museum, but I’ll save that for tomorrow since this is running long.

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Since we’d eaten early, by the time we got back to the Clear Lake area, we were all hungry for Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, one of our favorite places since the 90’s.

This is Jan and I finishing up a dozen raw oysters, with chile sauce and a lot of horseradish mixed in.

Floyd's Oysters

Jan got her favorite CFS, gravy on the side,

Floyd's CFS

while I just had a bowl of their Shrimp Gumbo, chock full of shrimp.

Floyd's Gumbo

All really good, and the perfect way to end a wonderful family get-together.

We finally got back to the rig about 5:45, and both immediately took naps. An even better way to end a really great day.

Finally I want to thank everyone for their many kind words about the blog. It’s much appreciated.



Thought for the Day:
 

The executive who works twelve hours every day will be successful, and be fondly remembered by his wife’s second husband.

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