I’m lucky enough to have 5 full days in Houston before I fly over to San Jose to start camp next Monday which I’m sure will pretty much consist of eating and napping but it’s fine!

Wednesday

Jet lag hates me, I went to bed at 7.30pm (so like 1.30am uk time which is always my problem) and I was up at 4am thinking ooo ok what can I do?? So after a brief Instagram, Twitter & Facebook update I settled back down to force myself to snooze. I finally got up just after 8 to find a little note off Jen which was super cute basically telling me to make myself at home.

She had cooked me cinnamon cake for breakfast and roast beef, potatoes and sprouts for lunch, I am legit so spoiled haha.

I spent the day whilst Jen was at work watching GMA, reading my book (I’m busy reading all of the Zoella book club books) and enjoying the sunshine. It is super hot it’s amazing, however, my friends definitely have my sympathy because I can’t imagine having to go to work everyday in this heat I’d definitely rather be lazing around and finding shade when I need it.

It’s sort of become tradition that when I’m in Texas we go to a restaurant called Pappasitos on a Wednesday night for happy hour, so myself, Jen and Loni (Jen’s daughter) jumped in the car to be met by crazy traffic that made our 10/15min journey 45mins.

Homer (Jen’s partner), Amanda and Leandra met us there and waiting for us were some giant margaritas (they are beaut), chips and green dip (because I don’t like salsa) and fajitas. It was a good laugh as always and the food is always good.

Jen is definitely a mother as she goes to me – you’re tired aren’t you? You can go to bed you know! Haha proper looks after me. So I managed a later night by a few hours which to be fair is probably a sensible way to do it, ease myself in!

 

Thursday

I’m getting better I didn’t wake up until like 5.20 this morning opposed to yesterday morning’s 4am so I stayed tucked up in bed and finished my book which was super emotional (I was reading All Bright Things from Zoella’s book club keep an eye out as I’ll be posting reviews of them all soon).

Overall I had a totally lazy day, my plan was to read 3 chapters outside in the sun, then come inside to cool down for a chapter and so on. Even with my factor 50 on I felt like I was burning it was so hot (luckily I’m still pale though) I definitely need a hotter world than England haha.

When Jen finished work we headed over to Gemma’s house to see her Mam and Dad who I absolutely love. Steve is an absolute gem who gave me a phone to use whilst I’m here and a camcorder so I can give vlogging a go (I’m really nervous about that though).

We then headed out to Kemah which I love. If it’s a proper summer boardwalk with rides and stuff it makes me think of California even though I’ve never been. They do a Rock the Dock night where they have  live music and a water fountain type thing for the kids to play in. It was super relaxing apart from the fact the band were pretty rubbish. Loni had fun getting drenched though!

For months and months Homer has been telling me he’s going to take me on the Bullet a wooden rollercoaster on the boardwalk and I think he thought I would be too scared, haha I am such an adrenaline junkie there was no chance I was backing out. So we headed round to the rides, we all went on the ferris wheel as that was Loni’s choice, and then me and Homer headed to the bullet, it was so rickety and noisy but fast and I loved it.

You’ve also got to hand it to Texas, they have some amazing skies at sunset (I’ve been told they have good sunrises too but so far I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed that..).

The sky ended up a glorious pink splash which was amazing. I literally love this place, anybody who hasn’t visited really should!

 

Friday

Waking up to discover the UK has voted to leave the EU was a strange one. I’m sort of disappointed but I suppose now we will find out what the honest plans are and see what’s going to happen.

I’m drowning those concerns with some junk tv – The Bachelorette. I’ve never actually watched the Bachelor or the bachelorette but considering The Selection is my favourite book I should enjoy it right? Also maybe I can bag one of the cast offs? Lol. Simple things. I do need to stop eating Jen’s cake though that definitely is not helping!

When Jen finished work we headed out to Galveston. Galveston is the closest beach but can also feel like you’re in another world because it’s pretty run round, from what I’ve been told it sort of blunts the force of most of the storms so gets knocked around a little bit. We grabbed some lunch in a cafe called the Sunflower Cafe, and although we were probably the youngest people there it was sooo good. We got sandwiches with fries and coleslaw and then grabbed a sweet to go. The choice of sweets was crazy because everything looked so ridiculously good like huge meringue pies which were insane. In the end I opted for a cheesecake brownie and Jen had a ginger snap cookie. I’m not sure why I ever thought I was going to be able to eat it but I tell you one thing I gave it a damn good try.

Out in Galveston there’s also a free ferry service that takes you over to the peninsula, I guess people use it for their daily commute or what not, but I love it because you’re pretty much guaranteed to see dolphins on it. I don’t know why but I literally love dolphins they’re my favourite animal so anywhere you can see them I’m game for and even more so when it’s free. Now don’t get me wrong they’re kind of in the distance but you see their fins breaking the service and it’s just lovely. I know I’m a dork.

Once we got off the ferry the heat had definitely picked up it was super warm and Jen took me to her favourite bar in Galveston. It’s called the Rum Shack and it is an upstairs bar totally exposed to let you get great views of the sea and beach whilst also getting some breeze as a break from the sea. 

We grabbed some cocktails and chilled and talked for an hour or so. I really enjoyed it and I’d really recommend the place it wasn’t too expensive but the location was brilliant; although Jen did say on an evening it gets super packed so I think I’d definitely prefer it during quiet hours when it feels relaxed.

In true form of spoiling a good day I didn’t feel too good once we got back home so I literally crawled in to bed at 6pm with the intentions of having a nap before we headed out to see the fireworks at Kemah, but I never got back up. Damn it!

 

Saturday

This morning Jen made me a typical southern breakfast of gravy and biscuits, which I was a little bit nervous about, but it turns out it was amazing; probably in part to just her being a really good cook. Biscuits are kinda like scones without any sugar in them… It was good.

The one thing I really requested to do in Texas before I headed over to the West Coast was to go and see Finding Dory, like most people my age (I’m sure) I’ve been dying to see it since it was announced and lucky for me it was released in the US last week, so we went on an outing to the cinema. 

I was not disappointed, I really loved it. Like literally everybody needs to go and see it, and don’t do it an injustice and watch a dodgy copy online like this film is worth your money. Although I did start to get a bit annoyed towards the end when I was thinking come on guys get your act together and stick together. But it was great, I loved the addition of some of the new characters too, whilst they still managed to incorporate some of the characters from the original film in sort of cameo roles.

It was sooooo hot that even I couldn’t face going outside, but Homer fired up the BBQ and grilled some skewers that Jen made – chicken, red pepper, mushroom and onion which were delicious. Then we just literally slummed on the sofa watching tv. As somebody that works weekends back at home I don’t often get to enjoy then but I suppose that’s what they’re supposed to be about right?

Once the sun had started to set and it started to cool off outdoors, we went to grab some sno cones. Now, in the UK if you’ve ever had a snocone I swear all they do is add a colouring on to some ice, so I wasn’t overly keen on the idea, but Jen told me that they were amazing and she’s a little bit addicted so it was definitely worth a go.The shop we went to was packed! Like how crazy that a shop that sells ice with flavouring on was so busy but it was. They had sooooo many flavours to choose from it was a little overwhelming, but in the end I chose Cherry Coke (I wanted to try Princess but I was a little bit concerned it didn’t have an actual flavour attached to it), Jen had Blue Coconut, Loni had Watermelon and Homer had Root Beer. They were genuinely good, basically just a slush but really good. I was impressed they had sugar free options too!

The amount of colouring in them definitely dyed your tongue a funny colour though.

There’s a DVD rental service over here called RedBox which is like super cool. Essentially it’s like a vending machine that you rent films from; I’ve always seen them outside of like Walgreens and stuff. So we went and grabbed Deadpool to watch, and it’s pretty cheap too, for two films it was like $3.50. The only problem was I was sooooo sleepy I was wrapped up on the sofa trying to keep my eyes open and every now and again realised they were closed haha. After about 30 mins I had to give up and go to bed!

 

Sunday

Sunday is brunch day. I’ve never experienced a proper brunch, and whilst at Gloria’s in Houston I discovered it’s just breakfast with alcohol lol. 3 bottles of champagne later (and a margarita for me because I don’t like champagne) we were full and ready to go. I’m not totally sure what I had to eat though because the woman really messed our orders up, I think it was a cowboy omelette (which isn’t what I ordered), I did however eat lots of fruit that was super yummy.

The rest of the day was a blur of snoozing and watching trash reality tv – my favourite. I’m so sad that my time in Houston is over (for now) but I’m pretty excited to discover somewhere new. Off to San Jose in the morning!!! Eeeeek!!!