Chanukkah celebration, pool - Day 918 (Year 3, Day 185)

Houston, TX

We did attend the public menorah lighting in Sugar Land (what a sweet town!!!).  There was music and dancing and a large crowd.  They gave out light sticks and "gelt" (chocolate coins) to the kids, and followed the lighting ceremony with donuts (which we didn't partake in -- we wanted to leave the area before all the crowds did).  Before the lighting ceremony, there were the usual speeches by the rabbi, prominent members of the congregation, and politicians -- the message by all being one of hope, and that we need to share the light to dispel the darkness.

The ceremony was held in the Town Square in front of City Hall.  What a beautiful town this is!  Lots of very upscale mom & pop stores, and office buildings & condos above them.  Not an old timey town (in fact, very modern), but quaint all the same.  I wish I could have gotten better photos, but it was dark.

Streets, with lights on all the trees.  I'm not sure if they're there all the time or just for the holidays:

 

City Hall (you can see the menorah in front of the steps), and large fountain with beautiful sculpture:

  

Mitch sitting in front of the menorah:



Juggler on stilts:



People gathering around:

    

"Shamash" (lighter candle) being lit:



Three candles lit (this was the 3rd night).  We are standing behind it.



After the ceremony, we went to this really cool sushi restaurant.  Coincidentally, just the other day, Mitch was reminiscing about a place we visited in California in 2010, which had a plates of sushi moving around the restaurant on a conveyor belt (the cost was based on the color of the plate).  Interestingly, we found such a place about a mile up the road from town square!  The 2nd picture shows the conveyor belt.  This was only 1/2 of the restaurant.  There was an identical setup on the other side.

  


Changing topics now.....

The weather here has been in the high 70s and low 80s.  Yesterday we actually had a lot of sunshine and 80 degrees.  I pulled myself away from work for a few hours to go swimming.  It was so delightful (and still hard to believe it's the end of December!).  A few pics of the pool, and Mitch relaxing (can you find him?)

  

And one last note regarding our upcoming travels...  we do plan to leave next Thursday - Jan. 5th, as we made reservations for NASA for next Wed.  We were unable to find a campground with long term availability in or even close to Austin, so Mitch will need to commute at least 25-30 miles each day (it's ok - he gets paid for this travel time plus mileage).  The reason is that a huge tech and music festival ("SxSW" - South by Southwest), a major rodeo, and spring break all happen around the same time in March.  So we'll be staying at a nice park in Bistrop, TX.  This campground is right on the Colorado River and I'm told it's a very lovely place to be.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's also about 130 miles from here, so we can make it in the morning.