Forrest and Elin Roberts: June 2012

Elin on the left, me on the right. She has white hair, I am bald. And we drink wine.

Elin wants me to do the writing, because I am the funny one (she said it). I told her that funny can't be forced, but we'll see what I can come up with. So last night we went to Rudi Lechner's (Check it out here), a German-Austrian restaurant a couple of miles from our apartment. It was awesome. While most of the servers were definitely not German, the rest of the place was. We were serenaded by accordion, tuba and guitar. We heard that song "A knapsack on my back," and were encouraged to join in on the "val-der-ee, val-der-ah," etc. We also heard Edelweiss twice, and a song that said "I don't want her, you can take her, she's too fat for me." It was lovely. The food was good, too, and as far as we know, very German. We had schnitzel and strudel and bratwurst and another -wurst, and sauerkraut and some other red spiced cabbage. I had some of the leftovers for breakfast and lunch, and will probably have some more in the next few meals. If anyone comes to visit us while we are in Houston, we can go there. Wednesdays are Oktoberfest!

John. Delys and Co. came to visit us our second weekend in Houston. We took a drive down to the coast (1.5 hrs) to spend some time at the beach. The beaches in Texas aren't that pretty and the water is not very clear, at least compared to the beaches in Australia, where we usually spend our time (see previous posts). The reason is the Gulf current. It flows counter clockwise, so all the sediments from the Mississippi River come this way, instead of towards Florida. I know this because I am a geologist. The water is nice and warm though. And if I had a boogey board it would have been put to good use. It was nice to be in the sun and water and have the company of the Tylers.

Elin and baby Ben, Surfside Beach, TX.

Me. I had to check out the water.

Katie, John, Delys, and Ben.

Check out the waves. The reason it is called Surfside?

Over Mother's Day we flew up to Frannie. Well, we flew into Billings, Montana, and drove down to Frannie. The forecast for Dallas that day, which we had just left, called for 95 degree weather, so I was glad to be gone. Little did I know that by the time we actually would get to Frannie the temps would have dropped to 40 degrees. A fifty degree swing is pretty severe. Luckily things warmed up and the weather was nice for the rest of our time there. The water at the Deaver Reservoir wasn't quite as warm as the water in the Gulf, though. Elin wanted to do a weeny roast, so we went to the reservoir and had one. It is a good thing we had hotdogs to eat, since no fish were caught. I haven't spent a lot of time fishing there, but enough to know it is basically impossible to catch a fish. Anybody who says otherwise is probably lying. I did catch a crawdad though. Quick hands.

For Mother's Day we took a page out of Logan's book and prepared a five-course meal for Mom, Grandma, and for some reason, Dad. I should have made Elin sit at the table while we took care of it, but let's be honest, it would have been a debacle. This was the menu: butternut squash soup, caprese salad, shrimp orzo pasta with fresh vegetables, cedar plank salmon, finished by a berry trifle accented with elderflower juice. Homemade lime sorbet was the palate cleanser, and the beverage was elderflower soda. It was pretty awesome.

Check out the ripples. Deaver Reservoir. Russell on the left, me on the right. Russell fell in.

Explaining the finer points of marinading cedar-planked salmon.

The salmon, and what is left of the cedar plank. I was in charge of the marinading. Russell was in charge of the grilling.

Our respective mothers, and dad, enjoying the Mother's Day 5-course feast.

Back in April, when it looked like Ben and Ryanne would soon be leaving the country, we took a quick trip over to Gonzales, LA, to visit them. Ryanne documented the trip in their blog, but we'll add our two cents. Even though Texas borders Lousianna, it was still about 8 hours to their place. Ben was at work when we arrived, so Ryanne took us to a plantation that was nearby. It was pretty neat there. The house was filled with a lot of history and relics of the era. The tour leader said the average height of the women at the time was 4 ft, and men, 5 ft. I don't believe that. The average height for women now is 5'2" (so I have heard), which would mean it has increased 14 inches in 150 years. No way. The rest of the tour seemed to be accurate though. I know this because I am a geologist.

After the tour we picked Ben up from work. On the way home we stopped at a little village/shops of former slave quarters and ate some delicious beignets, pronounce benyays. You can tell that is French because most of the letters are there for no reason. We also saw some gators there. That night we went out to a cajun restaurant and had some delicious food. Most of this blog is about food, I noticed. Over the next day and a half we played our new favorite game, Telestrations, played with Stella who made the trip, played some basketball (not Elin or Ryanne), a little bit of Halo (not Elin, much to everyone's disappointment), visited the French Quarter in New Orleans, and went to church. As always, Ben and Ryanne were the true delight of the trip.