Texas Glory

In my last post I wrote about my trip to Texas to visit my daughter and see my firstborn grandson married. Rather than go over every party and aspect of this grand occasion, I thought I would just tell about some of my impressions.

Above is a picture of the wedding couple. The wedding was distinctly a reflection of Chelsea ‘s unique tastes and it made for a very interesting and varied experience. Chelsea was a dream in her mermaid like dress—one that very few women could get by with. A perfect figure wrapped tightly with the ruffles below her derrier (I think). The bridesmaids wore short skirts with cowboy boots and Chelsea herself is said to have changed into her boots under her dress for the dancing. Food and drink were wonderful and plentiful and the setting at the ranch was beautiful.

I learned to love the Texas Aggie’s fight song and it is ringing in my head all the time. There were a lot of the grads there and they get in a circle and sing it and then lock their legs and sway and whoop at the end. They first did this on the ship we were on for the rehearsal dinner and I thought it sort of interesting, but the second time at the reception for the wedding, I decided I really liked it.

By the way, on this ship we were supposed to see millions of bats flying out from under one of the bridges. We sat and waited but this was not their night. If Texans were this hard up for entertainment I felt sorry for them. And of course, they aren’t , but people were lined up on the streets above and all the ships were sitting there waiting. I guess it is sort of like the swallows coming back to Capastrano, but then this is supposed to happen every night!

But the really beautiful wild life I saw were the two white swans on the lake guarding their young. And deer were around too at night.

Roadside Texas Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes and some little white things and some pink cup like wild flowers were abundant along the roadsides all over. Sometimes there were fields of bluebonnets—a lovely sight. And the trees and shrubs were at least 10 shades of green all the way from almost black to a light chartreuse. I never became a great painter, but I did learn to see the world in a whole more vivid way!

But my most favorite sight are the cows out to pasture not in fields , but in groves of live oaks. I love this scene more than any other in this hill country. It is one of the first things I ever noticed about the Texas countryside.

Learned that when Texans say “It is only down the road a piece” could mean anywhere from 15 to 100 miles.

A plethora of friends and family attended—260 of them found their way through curvy, hilly LBJ country even fording streams to get to this wedding. In the car I was riding in we were using one of those new-fangled direction things they have on the cell phones and finally even the machine gal gave up and got lost in the wilderness we were in!

So many of these people have such interesting family histories that go way back to Poncho Via I think. I believe they all fought at the Alamo along with Davy Crockett. I jest. But Chelsea goes back to Robert E. Lee and her grandfather and great grandfather were all professors at Texas A and M.

When it rains it is as if someone is up there tipping over the clouds it comes down so hard and fast. And the thunder scared the bejesus out of Dave from San Diego.

The lake house is heaven on earth. People we knew from all over the United States were there—good friends that one wishes one could see every day . There were people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, San Diego, Dallas, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Colorado. Old friends who mostly all knew one another met for dinner and two or three good evenings of catch-up conversation and fun. It was a very special time.

Chelsea and Jake are somewhere in Italy now enjoying their honeymoon. They had an auspicious beginning. Let us hope and pray that their lives will continue to be filled with happiness and joy.