Texas ~ Part 3...with a touch of Colombians

Hi.  If you missed part 1 or part 2 of our Texas trip, you can read about it by clicking on the links.

Today is part 3 and was a pretty special day.

After part 1 and part 2 of our weekend in San Antonio, we left there with full hearts.  It was so life giving.  Then we rented a car and drove to Houston.

As some of you may know, my family and I lived in Bogota, Colombia as missionaries for 3 years.  While there, we met many special people, but one of our favorite Colombians is Edwin.  He became like our Colombian son.  He just got married 2 days prior to us going to Houston.  He and his new bride, whom we also had met before in Colombia, flew through Houston and had an afternoon there.  

This was Edwin's first trip to the USA.  I am telling you, to greet someone when they get off the plane for the first time in the USA, it is the neatest experience and even more fun with people you love.

I was so happy to see them.  It had been over 3 years since I had seen them, so I was pretty excited to hug necks!  

Of course, our first stop was Chick-Fil-A!   They wanted to see what all the fuss is we Americans make about this place.  They really liked it and even tried Dr. Pepper too, which is made in Texas.

We went to Best Buy and then to Wal-Mart.  We walked up and down the food aisles and showed them the food we have here.  They laughed that most flowers sold in the USA are imported from Colombia.  It's true....just look at the labels when you look at flowers at your local grocery store.

They were amazed at all the packaged/frozen/boxed/canned foods we have and all the choices.  

We also went to a mall, because they wanted to see how they are in the states.  Malls are a much bigger deal in South America.  That is where people do most of their shopping, including their grocery stores are often in malls.  After the mall, we went to a McAlisters, just so they could try a fresh cookie and sweet tea.  They liked the cookie much better than the tea :).  They are not accustomed to such sweet food as most Americans are and their baking is so different, so chocolate chip cookies are not sold there for the most part.  If you do find one, it is quite different from what you find in the states.

We ate some Tex-Mex, then we went to a sporting store and they held guns for the first time.  Guns are not sold there like they are here.  They were amazed by all the parking lots, no taxis and no motorcycles.  The driving is very different than in Bogota, which is one the worst traffic cities in the world.  It actually ranks number 3...IN THE WORLD! (behind Bangalore, India and Manila, Philippines, if you're interested in the one and two rankings).

We felt like they got a small taste of life in the South in the USA....Chick-Fil-A, Wal-Mart and holding a gun.  We did tell them a lot of what they saw is similar in any big city, but there are many differences around our country.  They definitely want to come back sometime.

We only had an afternoon night with them, but needless to say, it was wonderful, beyond what we could have expected and now are hearts were overflowing.  I honestly hated saying goodbye.

But, the next morning, we were ready to come home to see our daughter who had been staying with friends.  Flying out of Houston is fun to see NASA/space things at the airport.  I am a fan of space and the International Space Station, so I thought it was cool to see this model ISS which is the size of a football field.

Hope you all have a good Wednesday!