Melty in Houston

My trip to Houston was quite lovely. Houston is a huge city, and kind of smells.  But I had fun nonetheless!

Last Friday I flew out there in the afternoon, on an express direct flight with no air conditioning.  This was completely fine with me until it was time to land.  Then I was wondering if I could still brag that I have not been sick or nauseous at all.  The poor lady next to me was quite concerned that I would lose it all over the plane.  But I did not.  

Then I got off the plane, and there was no air conditioning in the terminal at baggage claim.  So I sat for a bit and sweated while I waited for my luggage.  

Then Kristin came to pick me up!  We checked into our hotel and went for a lovely dinner!  Since I'm very into salad, I had a big salad and some grilled Mahi. The next day we went to the zoo for about 3.5 hours.  The animals were even hot!  But we had a great time:

There was a sea lion show!  

Kristin is a huge fan of shows at the zoo.

"OHMYGOSH it sounds like they're having a thing!  Let's go seeeee!"

But I have to admit it was pretty good.

The zoo had two baby elephants!  This is "Tupelo" walking with his/her momma.

Treats! I love it when elephants look like they're smiling.

It was kinda gross when mom accidentally peed on the baby though.

 Probably the cutest human-nonhuman-primates ever.

 The "dissertation-writing lion".

The lioness tried to come snuggle but almost lost her head in the process.

 Baby bears! Squeal!

Use of tools at its best:

He was using a stick to dig frozen fruit juice out of tubes installed in the wall.

I love giraffes.  Probably because I wish to be tall.

 Melty.

 Melty x 2.

So then I tried to work out in the hotel gym but the air conditioning was out.  See the trend?

Anyway, we went for another great dinner (grilled salmon and salad) and said our goodbyes Sunday morning as Kristin dropped me off at the hotel for the conference.  

The conference was busy, and they seemed very interested in scheduling a 12 hour day with no breaks and feeding us a steady diet of fat and sugar.  But I managed to hoard enough fruit to keep me happy. And I skipped a couple of less relevant things to work out in the (air-conditioned and well-equipped) gym.  Plus my program directors stole apples for me from the front desk! They are the best!

Photos from conference (turns out "science talk" doesn't make for great pictures)-  Thanks to other folks in my program for sharing their pictures so I could have something to tell the internet machine about!

Everyone "presented" a poster. 

Christine:

Hope:

 Jessica:

 Me:

Tabitha:

The group.  Yes, our program is all females except for Scott, our evaluator.

Rob has been offered a spot on the estrogen wagon though, so we shall see!

So on the way back, Christine and I were on the same flight.  There was bad weather.  There were delays.  We got rained on while waiting for the shuttle. There was an hour sitting on the runway, and then a VERY turbulent ride and another difficult landing.  The girls across the aisle from me were super-interested that someone (me) might actually use the airsickness bags. By the time I made it to baggage claim, I wanted to die. 

But I was home!  Overall, a great time, but I was happy to see the hubs and the animals and I think I might remain grounded for a while!

Have a great weekend everyone :)