Monthly Travel and Life Recap: April 2025

I can’t believe it, we’re already a third of the way through 2025 🤯

April was a busy month for travel, social activities and entertaining guests. We flew out to Pennsylvania for a wedding, hosted a couple of friends who stayed with us in Houston for a week and did a short road trip through Tennessee with friends.

Wedding in History Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

We were invited to a friend’s wedding in the little quaint historic town of Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania.

My husband’s friend from Melbourne was marrying a Pennsylvanian local and we were invited to celebrate their big day with them at the The Lodge at Mountain Springs Lake.

We flew into Newark, New Jersey and drove around 2 hour north to Stroudsburg, right into country side Pennsylvania.

It gave off small town America vibes with it’s weather board houses, big pieces of land and small windy roads.

The bride had specifically chosen April for the beautiful northern spring weather. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Instead we actually experienced snow and sub-zero temperatures! Thankfully they decided to move the wedding ceremony and reception indoors for a warmer experience.

It was a beautiful wedding and so fun to see how they combined the Australia and American vibes into the one wedding.

The wedding celebrations kicked off with a Friday night meet and great at a local Irish pub, then the wedding day celebrations and ceremony kicked off on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday morning, they hosted a morning brunch for guests who were still in town to casually mingle and relax before everyone headed their separate ways.

The wedding speeches are always the best part of the wedding I think, it’s often funny and emotional, and you really get to know the couple (and learn a thing or two about their childhood that you didn’t know).

When visiting a new city, it’s always interesting to check out the go-to local grocery store to see what the local culture is like.

The bride was eager for us to check out her local, Wegmans. It reminded me of our Texas grocery store H-E-B. And like many American grocery stores, Wegmans was massive. It even had a huge to-go and hot food section, with a little seating area.

Road trip to Great Smoky Mountain, Nashville and Mammoth Caves

Another bucket list item for living in the US was checking out Nashville and a few more National Parks.

It was one of the more eventful road trips where things didn’t go exactly according to plan.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Since we had to head back to Houston early for medical reasons, we had to cut short our road trip a little bit.

But we still got to spend a day in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We visited Clingmans Dome, got to see the stunning views of the endless layered mountains in the distance, saw two black bears, a bunch of white tail deer’s and a lot of wild turkey while driving around Cades Cove Loop.

If you’re into homesteading history, there are a bunch of historic cabins and churches to see along the loop.

Be warned, despite the one-way loop being only 17km, it’s a very slow drive. Drivers are often slowing down to see wild life, or turning in and out of historic sights.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park is free to enter and it’s one of the larger National Parks.

If we had more than a day, I would have loved to do some waterfall hikes and tried my hand at long exposure photography. But given our limited time in the park, we focused on short walks and sight seeing.

We had initially planned to get into Nashville in time for dinner after a day in Great Smoky Mountain.

But unfortunately our friends in the second car ended up with some car troubles and had to wait for the tow truck for several hours in the park. We tried to help, but ended up being there for mostly moral support and giving them a chance to at least check out Clingmans Dome while we waited for the tow truck on their behalf.

So by the time we got into Nashville it was well past midnight.

Highlights from our one day in Nashville

• Visited Jack Daniels Distillery for a tour and tasting flight. Justin our tour guide was entertaining and educational, I’m not a bourbon drinker, but it was still interesting to hear about the history and what makes a bourbon a Tennessee bourbon.
• Tried Nashville’s famous fried chicken from Hattie B’s and Prince’s Hot Chicken. Medium spicy was not as flavourful and spicy as I thought it would be—Also controversial opinion… I think Mico’s fried chicken in Houston is much tastier!
• Dinner at Adele’s was great. As we had a table of 6, we decided to opt for a feed-me menu where we selected 6 dishes off the menu and dishes were proportioned out. That was my highlight meal for the trip.
• After dinner we headed towards Broadway Street where the main bars and clubs in Nashville are located. We attempted to visit a honky tonk or two, but it ended up just being live country music without the line dancing. After visiting Ole Red and Jason Aldean, it was close to midnight and decided to call it a night.
• As our flight back to Houston was delayed by 4+hours, we had some time to visit Joyland in East Nashville for lunch before we flew out of Nashville. It was a hidden gem I found watching Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix. The crustburger was my kind of burger, small, salty and crusty. The waffle hashbrowns and joystick (chicken on a stick) were also delicious.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Even though we weren’t venturing onwards to Louisville with our friends, we did join them for a short Mammoth Cave National Park tour.

Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest cave system, and we only got to see a small snippet of the caves.

There were a bunch of paid tours to choose from, but since we were short on time, we chose to do the self-discovery walk. It wasn’t the most interesting part of the cave, but it was interesting enough to see just how large the underground cave really is!

Hosting and entertaining friends in Houston

Showing our friends around Houston made me really reflect on our life and experience of living in Houston and explore the USA for the last 21 months.

We’ve learned a ton about the American culture and how surprisingly different Australia and America really is.

We shared many funny stories of our experiences here in the USA—from flight delays and crazy borderline dangerous Houston driving, through to hurricanes and unexpected tornados.

Since I unexpectedly came down was a terrible bout of food poisons that knocked me out for several days, my husband did most of the entertaining.

Houston isn’t really a tourist city (like San Francisco or New York), but it is the 5th largest city in the USA with a ton to do if you look in the right places.

Besides NASA Space Center, there isn’t anything else that’s particularly touristy.

But it’s filled with excellent restaurants, watching sports and entertaining activities.

A few places we took our friends out to:

• Coffee in the Heights area.
• Played virtual baseball at Dugout.
• Played a round of mini-golf at Popstrokes.
• Drove around Katy town and visited another iconic shop, Bass Pro Shop.
• Outback Steakhouse (to see what America’s interpretation of “Aussie” steakhouse food is)
• Since its baseball season, took them to a Houston Astros baseball game on $1 hot dog Tuesday.
• Pappa Bros Steakhouse, for real American steakhouse food. This is a classic place we like to bring visitors to.
• Brought them to Texas’ most iconic gas station, Buc-ee’s to experience the best gas station “shop” and restrooms ever.
• Try Houston’s competitor to Nashville’s hot chicken, Mico’s Hot Chicken in the Heights (they agree that it was better than Nashville’s!)

Dining Out in Houston

As we count down the remaining months we have left in Houston, we’ve continue to make a point to visit some of the Houston food institutions.

• We finally visited Xochi, another popular Mexican restaurant in Downtown Houston. Really great food. The Cacao desert was absolutely to die for. Though if you don’t like chocolate, don’t order it.
• I love visiting the Heights in Houston for coffee. This month we tried two new places, Tenfold and Forth and Nomad Coffee. Both served the usual spread of espresso coffees. If I had t pick , I thought Tenfold served up a better flat white coffee than Forth and Nomad.
• Since I was still feeling the after effects of food poisoning, I wanted to keep my food light and simple. I stuck to mostly noodle soup based dishes for a week. Grabbing some pho takeaway from Moon Rabbit in the Heights was my treat after days of being bedridden.
• One cuisine that Houston really lacks and does poorly in is Malaysian food. One of our first meals in Houston with friends was Papa Rich in Bellaire 21 months ago. It was shocking bad and we hadn’t returned since. But recently a trusted foodie friend returned to Papa Rich and told us it’s turned a new leaf with new management. We decided to give it one more go this month. It was definitely better than our first visit, but of course not quite the same as having Malaysian food in Australia or Malaysia itself.
• I made another visit to Aga’s Indian restaurant, this with with a little foodie group. It’s my third visit to Aga’s and it didn’t disappoint.

Watching the Baseball at Daikin Stadium: Houston Astros vs Detroit Tigers

Houston is city big on sports.

Since living in the US, we’ve made a point to watch a few basketball, baseball and football games live.

This month, we got a chance to watch the Houston Astros play (and win!) against the Detroit Tigers from my husband’s work’s corporate suite. As it was his team’s night for the suite, it was mostly colleagues I’ve previously met rather than complete strangers.

The view of the game and the food package on offer in the suite were great. A range of fajitas (beef, chicken, shrimp, lobster, salmon), the usual salsas, guacamole and game day hotdogs.

One of our favourite things about watching games and shows from the suit is the dessert cart that comes around to each suite mid-game.

It’s always a treat.

And to add to the baseball vibe, they serve your customised ice cream desserts in a little plastic baseball hat.

We’ve collected so much march over the the 21 months of living in Houston. Got to do a bit of a declutter before we move back.

Making Travel Planning Easier (Free Template in Notion)

A goal without a plan is a dream.

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Final Thoughts

Just like that, the first four months of 2025 have flown by.

With 3 months left of my 2 year sabbatical, everything is starting to feel like “the last time” we’re doing something.

Now I’m really making a bit effort to absorb the sights, scenes and experiences—no matter how small.

I’ll even miss the crazy Houston driving and the terribly humid and hot Houston weather at some point I’m sure.

We’ve been blessed with being able to explore so many places and meet some great expat friends over the last 21 months in Houston. I’ll definitely miss the friends we’ve made and the funny moments of life we’ve shared together—unexpected tornados, hiking trips, resort side relaxation and the many restaurants we’ve checked out together.

Only a few more months left of monthly recaps before we’re back in Australia.

Until next time, happy travelling!

Janice.

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