Romantic evening in San Antonio

We arrived to San Antonio sometime around noon - headed into downtown, hoping to find a parking spot. After some time driving around, we decided to park at an abandoned yard just across the street from The Alamo. To avoid the risk of getting fined, we took shifts with another RV that followed us into the park. One stayed guarding while the other went to see The Alamo.
After finishing this "must do" item, we headed to the campground - just 15 minutes from downtown. After settling in, the kids decided that they are NOT going out to see the city. So - with Aviv as a babysitter, we hopped on the bus and went to town - just the two of us.
We visited the Mexican Market

and the highlight was of course - the River Walk, which is a river flowing below street level with zillions of cafes and restaurants.

and the river at night..
We had great stakes at the Saltgrass restaurant (thanks Iddo for the recommendation) and we had great time with our romantic evening.

Today we are heading to the Big Bend National Park. We will probably will be out of communication and internet during the next few days...

Bandera

נר שמיני של חנוכה

Hee-Haw! We are in Bandera, a cowboys little town that looks like it was taken from an old western movie.
Attorney office
We parked in a campground very close to the town center so we took advantage of that and went out in the evening to the local Bandera Saloon (not before lighting the 8 candles, god forbid). The kids stayed home.
The place was under a thick cloud of smoke and all cowboys sitting in full uniform, drinking beer and having fun watching famous Walt Wilkins greatest hits show. We were the only ones to hear the songs for the first time.
It was a very special experience for us to spend an evening with the locals and get a bit of their culture. Dagan made new friends in no time and here are two of them:

"My horse is parked outside"

Wimberley

נר שביעי של חנוכה

Today we visited Wimberley, a cute little town in the hill country near Austin. We browsed through many crafts stores and saw this cool tea bag.
Aviv was very excited, because we were supposed to meet Andrea there at noon. Andrea is Aviv's friend from Brazil that now lives in Austin. And finally she arrived with her family - her mom, aunt and her 4 cousins. We had lunch together
Curly fries
and then we went down to the river behind the restaurant to play and run around
After that we all came to the rv to have coffee. We could fit 11 people into our house, that's a new record.

Austin

נר שישי של חנוכה

On Christmas day we spent the day in a park in Austin area. There was nothing else to do because everything was closed and people stay home with their families. We parked for the night at Wal Mart. We've never seen an empty Wal Mart parking lot before
In the evening we lit the candles. Adi was very excited because the next day we were going to meet his first best friend from school in Brazil.
This morning we drove to meet Raymond, Ricky (Adi's friend) and Isabella. Ricky had no idea that we were coming and as he walked out the house to welcome us he said : "Is this Adi...?" in an unbelieving voice. They were so happy to meet each other after 2 years! All the kids grew up and changed so much. We went out for lunch to a stake house
Raymond's coolest car
On the way back home we stopped by Dell to see where Raymond works
Tomorrow we're meeting Aviv's friend Andrea and her family in the hill country. Another fun day!

Houston, what's the problem?

נר שלישי של חנוכה

Arriving to Houston, we went directly to check M&J's culinary recommendation for lunch:
It's a very simple restaurant with many choices of meats. We came underdressed since we forgot our boots and cowboy hats at home. The meat was excellent! You can even ask Aviv
Today we visited the space center in Houston. The most interesting part was a visit to the astronauts training facility

and the Saturn V hangar which is a launch vehicle.
This is the Apollo 11 crew before going to the moon
And this is the crew that came back. Can you tell who's missing?
This afternoon as we were looking for a campsite in the campground we came across this little guy in the grass. First time we see a nine-banded armadillo.
Later on we made sufganiot and svivonim

Attention! We have a new quiz on left!

נר ראשון בסגנון עדות המזרח הטקסני

English below...

ספיישל עבור מישה, פוסט באנגלית קלה במיוחד.
לפני הכל קצת שאריות מלואיזיאנה. בצאתנו מניו אורלינס ראינו שיירה של עגלות קרנבל שלא ברור מאין באו ולאן נסעו. עשינו פרסה במיוחד כדי לעקוב אחריהן ונשברנו לפני כניסה לכביש אגרה. בכל זאת, טיול בתקציב נמוך...

לעת ערב לאביב היה רעיון מבריק. לא רק רעיון, גם ביצוע - להלן מכונה להעברת מחשבות
בצהרי היום חצינו את הגבול לטקסס ועצרנו ב"קנה ובנה" כדי למצוא חומרים לבניית החנוכיה שתכננו בראש. לאחר הרכישה והחיתוך שנעשה במקום, נגשנו לעבודה. עדי על השופין
ודגן במחלקת צבע
וככה זה נראה. מחר יתוספו גם הגלגלים
בערב הכנו לביבות מן המטבח הישראלו-טקסני
והדלקנו נרות. למי שלא מאמין, גם דגן בירך על הנרות. שרנו שירי חג וזללנו לטקס. לקינוח - עוד לטקס, עם סוכר. שימו לב לקישוטי חנוכה בסגנון הגלותי על החלון ברקע.
ועכשיו אני חייבת לרוץ, המטבח הטקסני מחכה לי

חג אורים שמייח!!!

This post is mainly in Hebrew for Hanukkah. I'm adding few words to describe the pictures.
Just before leaving New Orleans we saw spectacular carnival carts. Later at night Aviv had an idea for a "thought transmitting" machine. I was chosen to be the lab rat and I can testify that this machine looks simple but it actually works!
Today in the afternoon we crossed the border to Texas and stopped at Lowes to get supplies for building our dream Menorah. We lit the candles in the evening, sang holiday songs and had traditional food. Now we're looking for a volunteer to wash the dishes.
Happy Hanukkah!