Tour de Texas

I've seen miles and miles of Texas over the last few weeks.  I guess before I go north for the summer it's good to see what I'll be missing.  Mother Nature has surprised us repeatedly with cool front after cool front, blue skies, low humidity (a rarity here!), moderate temperatures and a spring that has gone on much longer than usual.  These conditions have made driving back and forth from Houston to Baton Rouge, Houston to Dallas and Houston to Austin a real pleasure...even for a person who does not love driving long distances.

This is considered a "scenic overlook" in Texas

With the latest ventures across the state I have also noticed the different personalities of the cities in our state.  Dallas is new, shiny, and glitzy with nicer topography than Houston and a very "Texas" feel to me.  If Dallas were in high school it would be that popular football player or the cute cheerleader or the studly cowboy whose family has the biggest ranch in town.  Austin is hilly, lovely, the state capitol, home of the University of Texas....and it prides itself on being weird.  I like that!  Mix politics, education, music and a little weird all together and you get Austin.  If Austin were in high school it would be the artsy, tattooed, smart, more liberal, alternative kid with a future in politics (hehehe).  Houston is home... so my eyes don't really see it as others might.  To me Houston is big, diverse, industrial, a bit posh in places, not as pretty topographically speaking, with a little something for everyone.  Hard to say who Houston would be in high school but possibly it would be all the rest of the kids in the spectrum between the popular kids and the alternative kids.  Don't you just love stereotypes?  I must say I enjoyed experiencing each of these cities and seeing their unique personalities.

A fun Sunday night at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar in Austin!
Sight of the most fun I've ever had on 6th street!

Everything is bigger in Texas!
 Especially our football stadiums!

Back home in Houston, I realized it was less than a month before our departure to Nova Scotia.  This brought mixed emotions, as I knew it would.  Life at home has been good.  No complaints!  Usually I have the stifling weather to drive me north... not this year.  Usually I am bored with the everyday-ness of my life and am ready to change things up.  Usually the call of the shore beckons my soul well before I am able to leave.  The call is a faint whisper right now.  I know in a month it will be a shout that I will feel deep inside and won't be able to resist.  Heart vs. mind... a challenge in so many of life's choices.  In my mind, I know the reasons for our early migration and they are all legitimate and logical.  In my heart, I can't quite get there and embrace it yet.

This face is one reason my heart is hesitating to migrate so soon!

I know that as soon as I see the farmhouse, smell the fresh salt air, see my first of many beautiful sunsets and let myself enjoy the slower pace of life at the shore my heart will catch up with my head and all will be right in my world again....but until then I will be the one dragging my feet, struggling to figure out what to pack in my bags and burning daylight.