in Houston...
Mar. 14th, 2005 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayCrowded flight, no upgrade, and some guy moved up and simply took the vacant middle seat next to me (I was in an exit row). I made sure to give him as little room as civilly possible. And a couple of accidental elbows.
Rental car... I had a full-size 2-door reserved, usually a Mustang (this was Hertz), nonsmoking, no foreign cars specified. They gave me... a Toyota Solara that smelled of tobacco. Plus it only had a 4-cylinder engine... looked sporty, but couldn't take it seriously with an econobox engine. I wondered if Hertz had somehow learned that I was a friend ofdawnd and akienm's... I went back and got a Taurus with a sunroof.
Looks like a piece of highway history is disappearing... "NASA Road 1", which is the Texas state highway that connects I-45 to JSC to Galveston Bay, is being renamed "NASA Parkway" and given some generic highway number. Maybe this is truly trivial, but somehow it feels like one more of those 1960s Space Age artifacts is vanishing.
Now... working on my poster for Thursday night, IMs with people at home, while indulging in comfort food (ribs, corn, fried okra...) that I brought into my hotel room.
Rental car... I had a full-size 2-door reserved, usually a Mustang (this was Hertz), nonsmoking, no foreign cars specified. They gave me... a Toyota Solara that smelled of tobacco. Plus it only had a 4-cylinder engine... looked sporty, but couldn't take it seriously with an econobox engine. I wondered if Hertz had somehow learned that I was a friend of
dawnd and akienm's... I went back and got a Taurus with a sunroof. Looks like a piece of highway history is disappearing... "NASA Road 1", which is the Texas state highway that connects I-45 to JSC to Galveston Bay, is being renamed "NASA Parkway" and given some generic highway number. Maybe this is truly trivial, but somehow it feels like one more of those 1960s Space Age artifacts is vanishing.
Now... working on my poster for Thursday night, IMs with people at home, while indulging in comfort food (ribs, corn, fried okra...) that I brought into my hotel room.
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Date: 2005-03-15 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:37 pm (UTC)Galveston. Ashton Villa and Bishop's Palace are two great pieces of Victoriana housing you can tour. See the Elissa (big boat!). The train museum is kind of cool. Wander the Strand and find the salt water taffy place. The Peanut Factory actualyl sells antiques. Check out the non-seawalled area of the island.
Actually, see what the water temperature is. Might be warm enough for swimming! (Ah, maybe if you could bring me back a small vial of sand? Enough to color-balance my old photos with...)
And at some point they added a film about the 1900 Storm. Disaster! See that first to give you background.
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Date: 2005-03-15 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 05:56 pm (UTC)Across from the Rice Campus is a large Lutheran church (Christ the King): they have a giant organ, no electronics.
The train museum is probably more interesting to kids. If you want to see where I grew up, and what Dow Chemical can do for a town, you've got to visit Clute/Lake Jackson. Have a good local map, because the streets twist and don't make any sense. But you might be amused by the Natural Science Museum (Or whatever they happen to call it... Its got an actual planetarium next to it. Complete with a freeze-drying unit. I had a HS astronomy class there!) Anyway, the museum has a whole bunch of carved ivory (which I'm curious about /now/), a bunch of insects, rocks(!), and various freeze-dried animals. One large room. Who knows, maybe its expanded?
Oh, closer to Houston: Just south is a park called something like Buffalo Bayou or Brazos Bend. Short drive and then you can see Giant! Man-Eating! Alligators! Ones that pose on the road for you while small snacks run up to take photos.... At any rate, do take a camera. And maybe a zoom. If you go over to the water dock, some will probably swim over hoping to get fed. Try getting a picture of them on the swim over.
Oh, and have some somewhat-guilt-free shrimp! Last I knew, they had turtle-escape devices on all Texan shrimp boats. They complained that would let much of the catch escape too. I never understood why they didn't market their shrimp as special "Texan" shrimp, though. Maybe it isn't entirely ecological, but it probably is better in someway.
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Date: 2005-03-15 06:10 pm (UTC)Brian was surprised to hear that I know Houston better than I know Mountain View. I think now maybe he might believe me?
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Date: 2005-03-15 07:11 pm (UTC)I do get nostalgic towards a certain place in time for Montrose, though.
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Date: 2005-03-15 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 01:14 am (UTC)Get the visitor pass
Date: 2005-03-15 05:57 pm (UTC)Don't rent a bike and fall over the Seawall, Pat will be sad.
Re: Get the visitor pass
Date: 2005-03-15 06:12 pm (UTC)Re: Get the visitor pass
Date: 2005-03-15 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:36 pm (UTC)As a piece of trivia, the Solara is made in Kentucky.
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Date: 2005-03-15 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:37 pm (UTC)