Houston yesterday

Guillermo and I got up EARLY today (early for us, anyway) - we got up at 5:30am, so that we could get out on the road by 6.   Today is the day we decided to go to Houston, since we finally had everything we felt was required to be turned in to get our visa for Spain.  The closest Spanish consulate is in Houston, so that's where we had to go.  There is no mailing the stuff in, it has to be delivered in person.  It was a great day for a drive - cloudy, sometimes a little misty, and traffic wasn't bad here and in Houston.  We stopped at a Taco Cabana in Seguin for breakfast and to fill up the car.

We got to Houston around 9:20, and finally got to the consulate around 9:40.  We had spent the evening before trying to get each one of the required documents translated into Spanish,  but we failed to do one - our marriage certificate.  They looked over all our documents and seemed to be happy with it all, except for that marriage certificate.  They wanted it translated, too.  Ok, the consulate closes at 1pm.
So, we left the consulate, and we're not from Houston, but we had to somehow find a place where we could use the laptop to get that done.  (At this point, Rebeca'd be saying, well, if you had a Blackberry, all you'd have needed to do was look it up!)  ANYway, we went back out to Westheimer (where we thought we'd have the most luck) and saw this print and copy place, went in, but they didn't have wireless for us to use our laptop.  And since we had our laptop with us, we just didn't want to pay to use their computers.  So, back out on the road.  Then we saw a public library, and figured if they didn't have wireless, well, they'd at least have computers there we could use - for free.  Who ever heard of a library not opening until 11am?!??!?  But  (once they opened), they did have wireless, and we spent the better part of an hour trying to get that certificate translated - what would we have done without Google Translate to help us on our way!?!?!!?

Of course, things just can't go ABSOLUTELY smoothly rough.  It is now 12:30, and the certificate is totally translated, all we needed to do was place our flash drive into their computers and get the thing printed.  BUT, since we used Open Office to create the document, and their computers don't HAVE Open Office, our document could not be recognized!!!!!  Bless that employee's heart, she tried her hardest to help us get that document open, but it just wouldn't.  It is now 12:40.  So, we race out and decide to go back to that Print and Copy store, to see if maybe they can print it from their computers.  We took our laptop in with us just in case.  The next thing we knew, the employee told us she had printed it and even showed it to us!!!  It looked like gold.  We actually felt like we had a chance now to get back to the consulate before they closed!!!  We gratefully paid, rushed out to the car and got back to the consulate at 12:52.  We park, rush up to the 6th floor and - we did it.  We got everything turned in.  We breathed a happy sigh of relief, and decided to go eat at a Greek restaurant we had seen on the way in.
We are JUST about to pull out of the parking lot of the consulate, when we remembered that the lady at the consulate had said she was going to change the type of visa we'd be getting, but we didn't actually change that information on our application.  So, I turn the car around, and drive right up to the door of the building and Guillermo runs back up to the 6th floor to check about that.  They tell him not to worry, they were going to change it themselves anyway, when they entered the information electronically.
Ok, so we're done now, and NOW we can see about getting some good Greek food.  We drive over to the restaurant, (which is several blocks away) and as we're looking for a parking spot at the restaurant, we remember that WE DIDN'T PAY FOR THE VISAS!!!!!!   We were shocked that the lady forgot to ask us for the money, but to get a visa, you need to pay.  That's all there is to it.  Those applications were going nowhere if they weren't paid for.  So, we had no choice - we had to try.  Guillermo gets on the cell phone to call her (it is now 1:20pm and I'm circling the parking lot at the restaurant) and the lady from the consulate is just as shocked as we are about not having paid, and she said if we can get there within the next 10 minutes, she'll wait - to just knock on the door.
Houston traffic (and traffic lights) don't let you get anywhere anytime soon, but we tried our hardest to get back to the consulate - getting there at 1:33.  Again, park at the front door, Guillermo racing up to the 6th floor.  He knocked several times, and finally finally the lady answered - took his money, gave him a receipt and NOW we are finally done.  For real.   But by this point we are OVER trying to get some Greek food, and decide to just eat at a Lebanese restaurant that was close to the consulate.  What a disappointment - most tasteless Lebanese food we've ever eaten.
Nontheless, we accomplished what we went to Houston to do, so from the restaurant, we went to REI to look for a coat (and while in that store, reminisced a little about when Fernando was with us in that very same store and we were all shopping for the South America trip).  No luck with a coat this day, so we got back on the highway and headed home.
We were glad to have gotten the visa process on its way and now all we can do is wait........