Fun in Houston

 

This weekend, I was on a business trip to Houston, Texas for our first leadership program of the year.

I was on a way too early in the morning flight which required me to get up before 5am.  No bueno!  Needless to say, I slept the entire 3.5 hours to Houston.  We hit the ground running as soon as we landed with meetings at the food bank, with the Guard, and at the Texans facility.  We did manage to sneak a lunch at Jack-in-the-Box in there somehow though.

After our meetings ended, we went on a mission to find a cupcake shop.  We stopped in Tiff's Treats to ask if they knew the best spot. Cookies looked yummy!

Their suggestion was right on the money - Crave Cupcakes.  These might possibly have been the best cupcakes I have EVER tasted.  And I have tasted a lot of cupcakes!  The cake was extremely moist and so yummy that the frosting wasn't even a major factor in taste.  The frosting was also minimal which was nice.  I got a hummingbird and a strawberry.  The hummingbird cake was filled with tiny chunks of pineapple, pecans, and banana with a sweet cream cheese icing.  The strawberry cake had little pieces of strawberry baked into it with strawberry frosting.  Both were absolutely delicious down to the last bite!

Friday evening, a small group of us headed out to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen for dinner.  There was a pretty long wait, but it was most definitely worth it!!  The food was amazing!  And I was able to try crawfish for the first time.  What a crazy process for such little reward!  It was pretty tasty though. Glad I branched out and gave it a try!  I was also pretty bold with my main course selection going with redfish and dirty rice.  Proved to be a little more spicy than my taste buds appreciated, but it was good.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed over to Reliant Stadium for our leadership program.  It was a great event that was well received by the kids participating and our sponsor.  Win-win!  The program has three main sessions - character development presentation, leadership competitions with the Guard, and community service project.

Registration and Dr. Irving Fryer speaking on character development

Team-building and leadership driven activities with the Guard

Volunteering to provide nearly 6,000 meals for the Houston Food Bank's Backpack Buddy program

The event ended around 4pm which left us just enough time to hit up Chick-fil-a before heading to the airport for our 7pm flight back to NYC!!  YUM!!

I spent most of Sunday relaxing!  I did manage to file my taxes, but mostly just rested up for the week ahead!  We have another leadership program in Cleveland on Friday so it will be a short, but busy week!!

How was your weekend?

Andrea :)