The last week in January saw my family braving the transatlantic flights to come and visit us here. Well, technically they flew the week prior and spent time in Florida having a good time.

Deciding to drive from Florida to Austin we went to meet them in NOLA to spend the weekend there, letting my Mum and DmentD’s Mum meet! We had the Saturday together to wander about town. Morning coffee at Cafe Du Monde, a walk around the French Market, and the French Quarter. Stopping at St Louis Cathedral to replicate a photo mum took there 30 years ago. And then on to Crescent City Brewhouse for a snack before we went on the river boat.

While we were stood waiting the fog started rolling in off the river and by the time we left dock it was thick around us. Most of the trip we were surrounded, you could catch glimpses of things if you were on the top deck. We came out of the fog right at the point where we were turning around to go back! It was still fun, and oddly atmospheric. We had lunch on board which was surprisingly good, and were able to go into parts of the engine room to be nosy!

We walked around a few shops and then headed off to Lola’s for dinner, followed by Angelo Brocado’s for ice cream!

We drove back into Austin on Sunday to spend Monday being good and lazy having BBQ for lunch and then homemade jambalaya for dinner.

Tuesday promised to be the nicest day of the week so we headed downtown. Stopping in at my work for lunch and then a walk to the capitol building, we went on the Duck Tour. It was slightly different to when I did it 3 years ago, on my first visit to town, and was still interesting. It was a newer vehicle too, much nicer!

We ended the day by going out to the Oasis for dinner, I’d not been there before. Beautiful views, even when the sunset wasn’t all that spectacular, and good food.. Nice cocktails too!

We took them round the games shops, and introduced them to Amys Ice Cream and the Alamo Draught house, we made them some authentic gumbo too.

The end of the week we took a side trip to San Marcos to visit the outlet mall.

Their trip coincided (on purpose) with my graduation from the TCA. The Friday night had an open house at the school, for free food and a chance to show them round the place. The ceremony was Saturday morning.

DmentD and I were up bright and early to make sure I got there in good time, so I could get my photos done without queuing for hours. Badly organised, the students were told where we needed to be and what we needed to be doing with little time to spare, I was glad I’m halfway through the alphabet so I could see what other people were doing! It was nice to see people from class and catch up, and the instructors too.

I got the gold braid for graduating Summa Cum Laude, the medal on the blue ribbon for attendance, and the pin just for graduating *grins*

The Saturday evening we invited people round, a belated wedding celebration (we promised to put it off until my family visited), a graduation celebration and a ‘hey, here’s my family’ celebration *grins* We pulled together a cake, baking it Friday night and decorating it Saturday, DmentD made some of the ever popular family ribbon cookies and we cooked a whole pork loin that we’re still eating!

It was a fun week, and now I’m back to the grind! Work should start picking up finally with Valentines day on its way.

Rest of the photos in the usual spaces