Spring in East Texas

Blooming Redbud

Well, spring has come to East Texas and the redbud trees, pictured above, are blooming all over!!  The other trees have a faint light green glow to them as their new leaves are coming in now too.  When we lived in Ohio, I always looked forward to seeing those redbuds but not until late April to early May and then I would know that winter was finally over.  I think East Texas has the same kind of winter season my friend Stephanie tells me they have in costal North Carolina.

Last week we took Mike's cousin Terry to Hobby Airport for her return home to PA.  She was able to visit us for 5 days and her visits are never long enough.  We didn't do much more than show her the island and relax/veg during her visit.  We did find two other restaurants in our search for gluten free menus.  They are Mario's Seawall for pasta and wood fired pizza and Nick's for seafood.  Terry says Nick's makes a wonderful mojito too with lots of fresh mint and I can vouch for their Grilled Mahi Mahi with mango salsa.

After driving up to Hobby, and since we were half way there, we decided to continue on north to Livingston to pick up our mail, instead of having it shipped to General Delivery here in Galveston.  And since Texas votes March 1st in the Super Tuesday primaries, we dug out our new Voter's Registration Cards and took them with us too.  Texas is another state which now allows you to vote early and not wait for election day.   I hadn't checked into absentee ballots so I was happy we could stop by the Justice Center in downtown Livingston and cast our votes.  Not saying who each of us voted for and both chose different candidates.  I am already sick unto death of all the political rigmarole.  By the end of October, as the political ads overtake the air waves, I will probably stop watching TV, listening to radio, checking the Book of Face, etc.  For November's general election, we will request absentee ballots as we will be somewhere in between Colorado and Tucson.

One of our meal stops in Livingston is either Manny's for Cajun food or the Whistle Stop Café across the street from the Polk County Courthouse.  Yesterday it was Whistle Stop.  We'd had breakfast at Denny's by the airport after dropping Terry at Hobby so we decided Whistle Stop would be the perfect spot for a snack.  Both of us had Bean & Andouille sausage soup with Mexican cornbread (nice and spicy with jalapeño peppers).  For dessert I had a slice of very tart lemon meringue pie and Mike had peach cobbler.  I like the Whistle Stop because its atmosphere reminds me of Griffin's Bar-B-Que run by my Aunt Griffie (Martha Ellen Griffin) and Aunt Peg Anderson on Shinnston's West Side.  Whistle Stop is obviously a local restaurant in a small town with waitresses who know most of the customers and what they usually order.  And the pies are almost as good as my Aunt Griffie's  but the crust just isn't as good.  There is also a gift/antique shop connected to the restaurant and it's always fun to explore.

Whistle Stop Café

We are still really liking Texas and Galveston.  This winter has been the best in many years!