Business Travel - El Paso, Texas

I'm back on the road again, this time in El Paso. With daylight savings, I actually got here during the daylight hours.

On a whim, I thought it would be cool to go by my grandmother's old house and see what it looked like. I wish I had a picture for comparison. My grandmother had painted her brick white. So the whole exterior of the house was white. The lawn was just dirt. When I drove by the house, the owner was outside doing yard work. I felt a little weird driving by and taking a picture of the house so I got out of the car and introduced myself. Ida, the owner, was so nice. She actually invited me in to see the inside. She's made some really nice changes.
This is the house. She took off all the brick and added stucco. Then she painted it these earth tones. It looks really nice. Plus, check out the lawn. She has two trees in front. I didn't want to ask to take photos of the inside but there were a lot of changes. I guess it's good that it wasn't the same house. Too many memories.

From there it was off to Chico's tacos for dinner. This place is an El Paso institution.
They make these rolled tacos that they put in a tomato type sauce and then they put cheese and it's yummy! You can also add this green chile salsa for a little pep.
Don't they look delicious? Every time I go to El Paso I have to go to Chico's at least once, preferably more than once.

So my uncle and family live in Dallas. They live about an hour from my house but we hardly ever see each other because we're all so busy. They happen to be in El Paso the same week as me so we all hooked up for dinner.
Me & Allen. We met up for dinner at Leo's. Holy cow! That's good stuff.
They were there visiting Ed's dad, Burt. Here are 4 generations: Burt, Ed, Allen & Drew.
Chantal with her Grandpa. She is so pretty. She came out with her kids and rode back with Ed & Allen.
Me & Ed.

It was a full week of work. I was doing training sessions for my clients. I did, however, have time to meet up with my cousins. My godfather & Charmaine & her family were on Spring Break and they went to San Antonio. But I met up with Angie and Lupe and Lupe's kids. Oddly enough, we met up at Leo's. I had Mexican food pretty much every day. This is the place to be for good Mexican food.
Me & Lupe.
Angie.
Dahlia & Nadia. These are Lupe's girls. They are so sweet. Dahlia is a primo basketball player. Nadia is a funny girl. I was really giving her grief at dinner and she was a great sport.
This guy was shy all of a sudden. He was talking to me all through dinner. He told me he was 4 and how he thought he saw his sister in the kitchen and all kinds of stuff. But when I wanted to take his picture, he was shy. This is Lupe's son, Ryan.

As always, it was great to see my family. I wish we all lived closer and saw one another more often.

Like I said, I was there doing software training for my clients. Every morning I would drive to their office and I'd see the mountains. It was so beautiful. It looked like scenery in a movie. I tried to take a picture but that's kind of hard to do while driving. I couldn't pull over because I was on the highway.
This was the best picture but it doesn't do the live view justice at all. Driving in you would see the mountains and the hazy blue behind them. With the sun rising, it was really breathtaking.

My clients were awesome. I really enjoyed this job. Most of my clients are pretty nice but with these guys, I felt like I was leaving a job that I'd been at forever. They really made me feel like part of the team. It was kind of a double edge sword - I was sad to be leaving because I really enjoyed the group but I was REALLY glad to be going home.

I've been very fortunate that my job has taken me to El Paso twice this year so that I've been able to see my family. Next time I go El Paso, I'm hoping it will be for pleasure, instead.