If you go to Tokyo

... There are Denny's and convenience stores (like 7-and-i-Holdings and AM/PMs) everywere!

The Texas Hill Country

Sorry it's been so long between updates, here, but I got very busy and I hadn't been traveling much. Then a bunch of stuff happened in a row: Justine and I got a VIP tour of the Hill Country (the rolling hills to the west and south of Austin) lead by a co-worker of hers, and then I went to rural ND for a family reunion and Los Angeles for a wedding and the equivalent of a graduate school reunion. Norff Dakota was boring except for visiting with my family (and I did have one really outstanding meal there). Los Angeles was amazing, as usual, and our friends took care of us and we ate well and they even took us surfing on a Sunday evening. The water was warm, the air cool and clear, and huge dolphins were doing full flips out of the water no more than 25 feet away. I think one of them winked at me! After that, we ate at a delicious pasta palce in Santa Monica, but I can't remember the name... it was on 4th and Broadway I think.

I was really sad to leave LA and come back to my smelly-ass apartment (it's smelly because they're re-modeling the unit next door, so it smells like paint and concrete stain and wood floor stain... blech!). Then we went to suburban Houston for the 4th of July to visit my very pregnant cousin and some aunts and uncles. That was fun, but it made me miss Austin! I guess I'm just a city kind of guy...

So on that note, enjoy these photos of old ranch lands in central Texas that are be restored to their original grassland savannahs / praries, which are from the Hill Country tour we took with Justine's co-worker.

-Mike.