Spring Break in Texas

Although this was my last spring break, it certainly was a wonderful vacation! I headed back to the South and really lived up to all the stereotypes.

First stop…Roswell, Georgia! I went home for the first weekend to celebrate my 22nd birthday with my family. My boyfriend even flew in from Chicago and it was great getting to show him around my hometown. We checked out the historic plantations in Roswell, visited the ruins of an old Civil War era cotton gin at Vickery Creek, and ate delicious Southern BBQ.

After the very quick trip home, I headed to my future home…Houston, Texas! Me and 12 of my friends met up with our friend Lindsey who lives in the suburbs of Houston to take a whirlwind tour of Texas. The very first night we all changed out of our “LA hipster clothes” (or at least that’s what Lindsey’s parents thought!) and into our Texas cowboy boots! We headed to the Houston rodeo to ride some carnival rides, check out the livestock show, eat fried oreos, and watch the rodeo/Miranda Lambert concert from our special box seats. My favorite event was called Mutton Bustin, where kids 2-5 are put on the back of sheep and try to hold on for as long as they can. Don’t worry…they are all wearing helmets and padding and the sheep only walk around the arena!

The following day we headed to College Station to watch at Texas A&M baseball game. We checked out their infamous football stadium (their student section alone as 70,000 seats!) and their chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta before driving on to Lindsey’s family’s ranch in Brenham, Texas. Their ranch is absolutely gorgeous! The main house is over 100 years old, but they have refurbished the farm house as well as converted a barn into beautiful guest rooms. They had more than enough beds for the 15 of us staying at the ranch. We spent our days on the ranch learning to skeet shoot, feeding their donkeys, reading The Hunger Games on the porch (we all got hooked), climbing trees, fishing, golfing, going on runs through the wildflower fields, and eating, eating, eating. The last night we returned back to Cypress, but stopped by the Blue Bell factory for ice cream and then Uncle Buck’s house for a farewell BBQ. He homecooked ribs, brisket, pork butt, chicken, and sausage for us. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the week.