Looks like I survived long enough to join Allison on our trip to Houston last week. Needless to say we had a wonderful time, but it was a lot of hard work too. Primarily for Allison. We traveled to Houston TX last Weds to attend the Girls Scouts of the USA National Convention. The Conventions are primarily for the Board Members running the entire organization, so I usually don't attend. But this year they added some courses for GS Leaders. Primarily, Allison was attending as a delegate and she had to go to the daily meetings and vote on new proposals. I also signed her up for a few seminars. The classes I wanted to sign her up for were full-they were on interviewing and writing college applications. Instead I put her in a Research and Development class which she thought would be boring. Turns out the person teaching the class was one of the cast members from the PBS show ZOOM which we all enjoy. Allison was thrilled and enjoyed the class. Much better than the presentation from NASA she went to (Allison is certainly not interested in zooming into space!). She was just keeping a friend company during the presentation. So the information was great, but the entertainment was even better. Katie Couric spoke at our opening ceremony, wearing an old GS uniform like she had growing up in Arlington VA. And Robin Roberts from Good Morning America spoke at our closing ceremony. There were lots of performances, one being Sarah Bareilles.(Sp?) and a bunch of up and coming singers. WE had a big dinner party on Saturday night. The girls had their own entertainment and a new boy band-Mindless Behavior. They opened for Justin Bieber and Janet Jackson. Allison wasn't really into 13 and 14 y.o. boys singing rap, but she loved the games and Wii dance. Our party consisted of good but incredibly loud music so you could barely talk to anyone, good food but no tables to sit at and a limited number of chairs and a big Birthday cake(which they ran out of) to celebrate our 100th Anniversary which will be next year-2012 The Year of the Girl. They did manage to pull off a wonderful fireworks show outside the convention center afterwards(little scary I thought with the drought and all) but fun. I actually think I enjoyed the big GS sing- a- long most after the party. About 8 GS adults had brought along their guitars and we sat around a hotel conference room singing. It was like having a campfire without the fire (but the lights were on). I finally pooped out around 11pm.
I couldn't believe how tired I was every night. We did do a lot of walking though. On our first day there we walked through downtown Houston and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Allison and I haven't been to Houston in about 5 years so it was a special treat to see my brothers and their families. ON Weds night Allison and I joined them all for dinner at one of my favorite Houston restaurants-mexican. WE got to visit with Dan and his wife Sheila, her parents, and their two kids Caroline and Clayton. We also met with DAve and his wife Sandra and their two boys Christopher and Nicholas. Their daughter Sarah is away at LSU. Poor Allison was so exhausted she would have rather gone back to the hotel and gone to bed. We had to get up at 4am that morning to get checked into the airport by 6am. Which we did quite nicely. She also still had quite a bit of homework to do since she missed 3 days of school. I personally had a great time that night. I also spent Friday afternoon at a Christmas Bazaar shopping for gifts with my brother Dave. I managed to pick out some fun items for myself including some silver charms and a new bracelet. I really couldn't haul back a bunch of breakable Christmas decorations(and I really don't need more!). Dave and I also enjoyed sampling food items from all over the country and Texas, like Pecan Pie and were surprised to see a company there from Michigan selling cherry jams and salsa, etc. I figured I can get that stuff in Michigan! After walking around for several hours(and looking at most everything) we headed out to lunch(yeah more mexican). Then it was back to DAve and Sandra's to see the kids, the dogs and the sugargliders. And the house which I hadn't been to since they first bought it 5 years ago. They had purchased the house and then moved to London before we could get down to Houston and visit at that time.

I opted to leave Allison downtown Friday evening. She was trying to get a bunch of girls together for an outing to the Galleria Mall. Allison was hoping to go ice skating as they have an indoor rink. However, our hotel did not have a shuttle to the mall, and the taxi would have been too expensive for all the girls and adult supervisor. INstead they had dinner at the steak restaurant at the hotel and went swimming in the hotel pool. (Not only was the entire trip paid for by Girl SCouts for the girls to attend, they were also given $200.00 spending cash which came in handy for meals and souvenirs). Meanwhile, I stayed with my brother Dave and had dinner with Dave and Sandra and Christopher at their house. Nicholas went out to dinner with his girlfriend and her parents for his girlfriend's birthday. It was odd seeing Nicholas driving by himself since Allison and Nick are the same age, but Maryland's law is 1 yr later for a driving permit than Michigan and apparently TExas, and Allison is still working towards her driver's license.

We enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs and a visit from Sandra's sister too before Dave drove me back to the hotel.

Saturday Allison was busy in meetings and I spent time on an outing to the local park inside the HOuston beltway, Memorial Park. I visited an arboretum where local girl scout troops had designed rain gardens and put up a water cistern for times of drought. Dave had already pointed out many marked trees in the park that have to come down since they died in the drought this summer. The arboretum had girl scout troops planting new rain gardens and they gave them some seeds to take home and plant themselves. I picked up an activity patch and some Texas coneflower seeds for myself. I also enjoyed spending time in our Exhibit hallat the Convention Center buying 100th anniversary shirts and pins, patches and GS shirts for Allison and my uniform along with checking out all the activities and programs available for Girl Scouts all over the U.S.

We spent our last day(which just happened to be my birthday) at the closing ceremony and went to lunch at a restaurant in the local aquarium in downtown Houston. The restaurant had large tanks full of salt water fish, and some plastic decorations that made you feel like you were underwater. The food was great and the atmosphere was even better(it felt like Sea World meets RAinforest Cafe). A nice treat for my Bday. Afterwards we took a quick train ride through a shark tank before heading back to the hotel and then the airport. WE didn't get home until 11pm. Allison was busy trying to catch up with her homework in the airport and on the plane. She had to unpack and repack for school the next day.

We had also been busy monitoring the status of her Field Hockey team. On Monday before our trip, her team won the first round of the state Semi Finals. They made it to the Finals game on Saturday Nov 12th. Unfortunately Allison was in Texas and missed the game. Turns out the team lost in double overtime. She was sorry she missed it, but she did receive a personal trophy for the semi finals game. She also finished her first semester, and considering she had a very busy start of the school year, she managed to come out with A's on her report card.

Scott and Tom meanwhile were holding down the fort and Tom managed to help SCott get through all his assignments and study for tests as he still had a week to go in his semester. I had spent the weekend before trying to help Scott get ahead with a few of his school projects due at the end of the week. They celebrated Scott being done with his first semester by going out to see PUss in Boots which even Tom enjoyed, and driving up to Hershey for a Hockey GAme(sold out as usual). I think they got the last two tickets. Tom even sat in the dealership for me and got my oil changed on the van(boy did I appreciate that!).

The only thing I did not like about our trip was that I brought home a very strange rash on my abdomen and trunk which is very itchy. I was a bit worried about bed bugs. Guess I will find out at my doctor appointment next week.