100 Things To Do in SETX in 2015

I love reading through the Event Book every month. Without it, I would have on clue about anything that is happening here in Southeast Texas. Even though I've lived here for almost 3 years now, there is still so much to do in this area that I don't know about!

Sure, having a schedule where I'm working many weekends probably has me tuning things out just because I know I can't attend them, but there are so many things that I CAN do!

The Event Book decided to give me an awesome checklist of things to do! Some of them I may not be able to do (due to time restraints, financial restraints, etc.), but I'm going to make it my goal to do as many of these as I can this year. 

In case you were wondering what the list entails, see below!

Music Monday - Symphony Thoughts

Yesterday, the Symphony of Southeast Texas offered a free concert, so the Boyfriend and I were anxious to take it in. We love symphony. We love free. We're a little poor right now, so it fit in our budget.

There were some technical difficulties at their concert in September. Due to these difficulties, they did not get to finish their concert. Thanks to some amazing sponsors, they were able to offer folks the second half of their show for free! (Thank you sponsors!)

Getting dressed to go to the Symphony was a challenge. My first trip to anything of culture was during my semester in London, where I learned that the people of London don't really dress up as we do in America. I had a few cocktail dresses ready to go, but saw that the Boyfriend (who is usually the better dressed of us two) was wearing jeans, so I opted for a dressy top, my dark blue skinny jeans and a pair of heels.

When we arrived, most people were in church clothes, and the Boyfriend started to get outfit panic. (It was cute.) He was saying that we needed to go home and change. I reminded him that we didn't have time for that, and told him to walk in like he owned the place and it would be alright. (My life motto.)

Once he saw other people in jeans, he felt better. He said we should feel better, but I told him that I was never concerned with my outfit to begin with. If there is anything I learned from my semester abroad, it is that confidence is key at events of culture. (As well as in life.)

Walking into the Julie Rogers Theatre, you can't help but notice the interesting color scheme. The baby blue with subtle pink was an interesting choice, but it felt very welcoming. I found this picture online that captures what none of the pictures I tried to take with my phone could.

What we were able to see last night was Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. While the piece itself was brilliantly beautiful, the conductor truly made the show for me. Before they began, he gave a little introduction and spoilers as to what we should be listening for during the piece and what the story of the piece was.

His excitement for what he does showed and I can only imagine that any children who leave the Symphony's educational programs are fired up to learn how to play an instrument,

Heck, I was fired up to learn how to play an instrument! Particularly the oboe. Not because of the cool name, but because of the cool sound it have during the second movement.

For anyone who has ever thought, "I would love to go to (insert event here), but I'm not the type of person who should go to that," my question to you is why not? Why not go and see for yourself if it's something you could enjoy? We all need moments where we are forced out of our comfort zone a little. So go ahead! Put on that dress you keep saving for a special occasion and go! Pull that suit out that you only wear to weddings and get some more use out of it! Or just go as you are and don't give a thought to what other people are thinking. Hint, pretty much all of them aren't really thinking about you anyway.

It took me a while to pick up on the tone of that last paragraph. I grew up in the middle of nowhere Louisiana and never felt that I really fit in at places like the Symphony. I've decided that I don't care if other people don't think I fit in, I enjoy myself when I go, and that's all that really matters. Now to find a day where there is a concert that I don't have to work ...

I took Thursday off to spend the day with kiddo. One of her FAVORITE things is back in town, and I wanted to be there with her when she went for the first time this year. 

The Scarecrow Festival at Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange, Texas.

Kiddo loves the scarecrows, and this is usually our official beginning of fall family activity. We spent a few hours looking at the scarecrows, and were shocked that there were so many more this year. (Over 60!) All of the people who put these together are way more creative than I can ever aspire to be. 

We didn't spend too much time looking around the gardens themselves (which are gorgeous!) because kiddo had to hang out with her favorite scarecrows. She danced for them. She sang for them. She didn't want to leave them to go to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant where we are more family than customers with the owners. 

Voting is taken VERY seriously. 

If you go to Two Amigos, and you should, get the Skinny Special. There is nothing skinny about it (just named for the chef), and you will love every bite of it. Unless you hate spicy things. Then you won't like it so much. It's grilled chicken, jalapenos, and cheese wrapped in bacon. YUM! 

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After lunch, I wanted to surprise kiddo with a trip to a pumpkin patch. We had some time to kill before it opened, so we made a pass into Port Neches, TX to visit Mike's Old Fashioned Soda Fountain. My folks and taken kiddo before and enjoyed it. I've been dying to go, but haven't had the chance. I was not disappointed. 

This small little shop is extremely charming. From the outside, I wasn't expecting what I got when I opened the doors. I couldn't keep the grin off my face the entire time we were there. In fact, I don't think you can go to Mike's and not be instantly put in a better mood. 

Kiddo LOVES the jukebox and keeps talking about how much she wants to go back and visit it. 

In fact, I had to eat all but one bite of our ice cream cone because she was busy dancing and playing with the jukebox. 

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After our dessert, it was time to hit up the pumpkin patch at one of the churches in Nederland, TX! I wasn't prepared to spend $13 on pumpkins, but kiddo was having such a good time that I let her go a little crazy. She keeps wanting to go back, and I told her that she can only have one small pumpkin on each trip back to the pumpkin patch. I'm convinced she's trying to create her own mini-pumpkin army. 

It was a pretty full day of hanging out around the Golden Triangle area for us today. It was a lot of fun, and I'm sure we'll be headed back to all of these places very soon. Until the next trip, happy exploring! 

SCARECROWS!

Today's Friday Five at Five is a preview to the post I'm going to do later on my day off with kiddo. Today's post is all about...

Shangrila, the botanical garden in Orange, TX, has a scarecrow festival every October. Kiddo LOVES the scarecrows!

This festival is serious business because you get to vote for your favorite scarecrow. There are over 60 of them, so picking one is a little difficult. (Unless you're kiddo) As with any election, we took our voting very seriously.

The Judges - Papa TC, Momma TC, Kiddo 

TC to be in some selfies later on...

Without further ado, and without much explanation on each, here are our votes for the top 5 scarecrows of the festival: 

5) 

This one only gets number 5 because it isn't technically a scarecrow at the festival that you can vote on. It's one of the ones done by the foundation that runs the gardens, but I thought it was too cute not to be included. I would have voted for this guy if I could have. 

4) 

I thought the third grade class that made this Flat Stanley scarecrow was so creative! You can't really see him, but he's awesome. Also, this class took a field trip the same time we were there and were pushing hard for votes for him. It was cute, he was cute, and he deserves some props. 

3)  

This scare-y crow scarecrow was Papa TC's favorite, so it only made sense that he make the cut in the top 5. 

2) 

This Olaf (or Frosty if you ask her) was kiddo's second favorite. We spend a good deal of time hanging out with him. 

1) 

This was kiddo's absolute favorite scarecrow of the bunch. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we had to spend almost 30 minutes with this scarecrow so she could dance and sing to her. She also liked to run up to her and imitate her like so...

 The crew and I have a big weekend ahead of us! Bestie and I are headed to a chocolate safari on Saturday morning. Then Bestie, Bestie's Wannabe, The Boyfriend and I are meeting up for an afternoon of fall baseball. There will be a weekly trip to the library on tap for the Boyfriend and me before we head to the symphony on Sunday. 

Enjoy your weekend, friends! I'll be back to report on mine on Monday! 

Discover ... Your Own Backyard?

When I first moved to Southeast Texas, like many people, I claimed there was nothing to go here. I moved here from Nashville, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere Louisiana, so it's not like I'm a city girl who was used to the awesomeness that a big city had to offer. 

Working in college sports, my job is pretty much what people come to do. I'm going on my third year of living here, and I decided that there HAD to be more to this place than I was giving it credit for. 

We're only an hour and a half away from Houston, and to be honest, I've never really done much there except go to Astros games. I'm making it my mission for the next year and change to find something locally to do at least every other week. (Considering most of the games I work would count as the cool things to do, I'm giving myself some leeway on finding things to go.) 

After I made up my mind to embark on this adventure, I've discovered that there are TONS of things to do here in SETX that I've never thought about. Sure, some of the places may end up being repeats, but as long as I and my companions are having fun, what does it matter? Plus, some of these places keep changing things up so it gives me a new reason to go back.

I'll be labeling all of these posts, and will occasionally give you a round up of my experience of discovering Southeast Texas and the towns nearby. There are a few posts coming soon to catch up on all of this, but until then, look around and see all of the cool stuff in your neck of the woods. Sometimes, it's more than you think. 

Monday Fun Day in SETX

You may have noticed that I've been a little absent from social media and the blog this past weekend. I'm trying to do a better job on being more present in my adventures with people. This weekend gave me a few opportunities for that, such as seeing the One Direction film with my bestie, and spending my day off Monday with the boyfriend.

I'm trying to use my days off to explore everything that Southeast Texas has to offer. My boyfriend and I hit up the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur for the first time on Monday. I never realized just how many famous people were from this area before hitting up this museum! Also, getting to see the history of the area was really interesting. There was also a cool exhibit about postcards that had a dress up station (which I took full advantage of). 

I had big plans to take the boyfriend to the old fashioned soda shop in Port Neches, but we found out the hard way that it was closed on Mondays. Instead, I took him to one of kiddo's favorite seafood restaurants before we headed on to the Art Museum in Beaumont, 

I love the Art Museum, and not just because it's free. It always has cool exhibits that have made me come to love art and not just appreciate it. Before we went inside though, we saw that the Energy Museum next door (sadly, not open on Mondays) was gearing up for Dinosaur Day! I had to take a few pictures, even in the downpour. 

Once the downpour started again, we bolted to the Art Museum of SETX to see the new exhibits, I liked this a lot more than the last ones. I'm never sure if pictures are ok in art museums because different ones have different rules, so enjoy these pictures of the handouts that I took home.

This one was AMAZING! It's art based off of the xrays of seeds and plants. How much cooler can you get?!

This one didn't strike my fancy as much, but I greatly enjoyed the food made out of old newsprint. I think I need to go back and spend more time looking at it, because I don't think I truly "got" this exhibit. 

Thursday will be another day off that I get to do some exploring with kiddo. She LOVES to see the scarecrows at the local botanical garden, so we plan to hit that up if the weather is nice. Also, it seems like the perfect time to head out to a pumpkin patch and get our pumpkin for the season. 

Also, I have next Monday and Thursday off too, so I'm going to scour the internet to see what else I can see and do around here that I haven't seen yet to check off my list.