Texas Independence Day (Weekend) at the Austin Capitol

March 2 was Texas Independence Day! If you’re not a native Texan — or have no Texas pride if you’re from here (and if that’s you, for shame!) — Texas Independence Day is the date in which the Texas settlers officially broke away from Mexico, and created the Republic of Texas.

As you may remember, my mother is Japanese and moved to America in 1980. The rest of her family still reside in Japan, and that includes many siblings, now with teenaged or grown children. It’s become sort of a rite of passage for my cousins to come to America, to stay with my parents for a little while in Houston, to study English, and to eat as much BBQ as their stomachs will allow. So on March 3, my parents drove up with my cousin Rina to spend the day with us. We showed Rina the Capitol building, and although this is a few days late, I thought it’d be nice to share my take on this beautiful historical building. Fun fact: the Texas State Capitol is the largest state capitol in the United States. Everything is bigger in Texas.

You can see the (very cute) back of my cousin Rina, and my dad wandering off onto the grounds…

If you ever wondered what I looked like sitting on the ground taking photos of my husband’s chin, this is it. Thanks, Dad!

My shot above, and Dad’s shot of me taking that shot below…

The hinges are so cool. I know, I am taking a photo of door hinges. But LOOK at those HINGES.

You think Texas really likes its stars? :)

We also had lunch at Magnolia (yum) and showed her the shops on SoCo. We ate too much chocolate. That’ll be in this week’s Hello, Friday :)