July 3 – July 7, 2014

Food, Fun and Friendship in the Brazos Valley

You know the saying about fish and company and smelling after three days? Since my friend, Karen Y. doesn’t read this, I can say it was a long visit. But it was a most fun visit. On Thursday, July 3, we had a great dinner at Napa Flats and then enjoyed a glass of wine at the Benjamin Knox Wine Bar and Gallery. Friday, July 4 was spent at the George H. W. Bush Library. We had free watermelon and Blue Bell was a dollar. The Brazos Valley Symphony entertained us with patriot songs. The fireworks were a good, Republican modest type. Not too bright and not too showy, probably about a thousand points of light per explosion. But I am pleased with my first attempt at night photography.

On Saturday, we started the day about noon with a burger from Grub Burger. In spite of the possibility that the burgers were made with actual grubs (another TAMU experiment), they turned out to be delicious and gave us enough energy to tour campus.

Walking in the hot temperatures, however, soon created an intense thirst. So we went to the Dixie Chicken for a pitcher. I mean a picture. I was glad the rattlesnakes were gone. Nothing, but a ply board covers the glass where they used to be.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Bonfire Memorial. Each of the twelve who died in the collapse is memorialized by a column that faces their hometown. On one side of the column is an engraved image of their face and information about their Aggie life. On the opposite column is their signature and personal attributes by family and friends creating a legacy of their sacrifice and what the world missed with their untimely deaths. I was unable to read those because of the blur by the tears because “We are the Aggies; the Aggies are we.”