My blue heaven

Thanks to an extremely rainy winter, Texas' Hill Country is having an astonishing bluebonnet season. Last year I think I saw maybe two of them. This year they are popping up everywhere, even behind our house.

So when The Texan was thinking up places for us to do our "couple" shot for our wedding, a hill covered with bluebonnets was one of the first things he came up with. I was a bit leery because it involved just pulling over on the highway, getting out, and taking pictures by the side of the road. I thought that Texas' Highway Patrol might have issues with all these cars stopped for non-emergencies, but The Texan assured me that everyone does it.

Sure enough, when we went to get our picture taken Sunday, there already were quite a few cars pulled over. Of course, everyone else was taking pictures of their little darlings - we were the only non-kids...

...until a big white burly pickup truck showed up. A couple got out. The man was carrying a toy sports car - the kind toddlers use to scoot around in and pretend they can drive - while the woman had two chihuahuas in tow. One had on a dress, while the other was wearing a snazzy new suit. As we pulled away, I saw that they had put the car in the flowers, the dogs in the toy car, and started snapping pictures.

Earlier in the day, when it wasn't so god-awful bright, we were at the botanical gardens taking pictures, as well as San Antonio's newly-renovated Japanese Tea Gardens. The latter has been around for decades but over the past few years fell into disrepair as the original owners died out. The city recently took it over and has been working to turn it into a city park. As part of the high quality control standards that you see so often here, they even put up a wooden gate with the following etched into it to greet all guests: "Welcome to the Chinese Tea Gardens."