Trip to Houston

We arrived home yesterday about 4 p.m. from a 5-day trip to Houston. We stayed with my aunt Nancy in the Clear Lake area. Nancy moved there earlier this spring after living in the same house in South Houston for as long as I remember. She's now within walking distance of her daughter Teresa and son-in-law Mark.

Trip Summary

Monday evening
We left about 6:30 p.m. and drove to Houston. We arrived about 11:30 p.m. Amazingly, we didn't get into any construction delays. That may be a first for driving in Houston.

Tuesday
Nancy's oven had gone out and a guy from her home warranty company was supposed to arrive mid-morning to replace it. He ran late, really late. I think he finally left close to 4 p.m. That evening, we drove to Galveston and had dinner at Casey's on the seawall.


Wednesday
We had lunch with Nancy and my cousin Teresa at a restaurant called Thai Cottage. I had the Chicken Pad Thai, described on the menu as "Rice noodles with chicken, onion, bean sprouts, and peanuts." It was terrific.

In the afternoon, Roxanne, Nancy & I went to see Ratatouille at the local cinema. For dinner, we cooked spaghetti at home to try to slightly offset all the eating out.

Thursday: We cooked breakfast at home. Most mornings, Nancy ran out for kolaches. Compared to Dallas, Houston has tons of kolache bakeries. In the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which has free admission on Thursdays. I'm not a huge art fan, but they had a really nice exhibition of panoramic photos of the Great Wall of China. The main exhibit, called Red Hot, was on contemporary Asian art. I don't normally say this, but this is one of the few museum exhibits I've ever seen that I'm trying to forget. I can't try to describe it because doing so evokes too many disturbing images in my head. I think Roxanne and Nancy were a little traumatized by it, too. If it had been up to me, I would have put a parental advisory notice on the entrance.

Thursday evening, we drove out to Kema and met up with my cousin Kirk, his wife Brandi and their daughter Reagan.

We had dinner at the Flying Dutchman outside on the boardwalk. After dinner, we walked along the boardwalk and watched while Reagan went on some of the rides.

Friday: We were all a little slow getting going on Friday. We finally did get out of the house and went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They had an interesting, albeit very small, exhibit on the ancient Scythian culture, now present day Kazakhstan. The museum also has a terrific collection of gems and minerals. For dinner Friday night, we went to Gringo's Mexican Kitchen.

Saturday: We were slow again getting up. We had a very late breakfast at the Seabrook Classic Cafe, right by the Clear Lake waterfront. We split a spinach & mushroom omelet, an order of beignets, and an interesting dish called a fresh fruit club. We spent a few minutes walking along the waterfront.

After that, we went by Half Price Books for a while. I found a book to add to my reference library.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to Galveston again. We walked around The Strand District, then went for dinner at a hamburger place on the seawall called The Spot. It's a very popular place. We waited in line for at least 20 minutes, then were told at the counter that it would be a 45-minute wait for our order to be ready. No problem. We were on vacation, after all. The burgers, waffle fries and onion rings were terrific. We did tease Nancy about bringing us to a biker bar.



We left The Spot about 11:10 p.m. and drove home. We were nearly home when we witnessed a very interesting car accident. As we pulled up to the left turn lane on El Dorado Blvd at Torrey Pines, a car ran the red light and hit a Houston Police car. The officer was unhurt, but she had to crawl out of her car on the passenger side. Being the only witnesses, she asked us to stay until the accident investigator arrived. It turns out that the accident investigator had to come from downtown Houston, easily a 30-minute drive from where were were. He arrived about 12:30 a.m., we gave our statements and contact information, and finally got home about 12:50 a.m. It made for a memorable ending to the trip!

Sunday: Nancy left for church about 10 a.m. We left about 10:30 a.m. Other than a restroom break at the Outlet mall in Conroe, a gas/restroom stop in Buffalo, and a quick trip by the Buffalo cemetery, we drove straight through. We got behind an accident a few miles out of Fairfield, but still managed to arrive home about 3:58 p.m.

It was a really great trip. I hope we get to go back soon.

P.S. When we arrived home, we found that our housesitter Dan had done quite a bit of housework for us. That was a nice surprise. Thanks, Dan!