in Houston...

[jay]

Crowded 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 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.

Comments

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

*yes* on the salt water taffy and the Strand and Bishop's Palace. And by Montrose/Rice, do you mean Rice Village? (I declined to make him promise to get gelato on Buffalo Speedway, though it is terribly, terribly good).

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

By Montrose/Rice I mean the general area (since I have no recollection of what "Rice Village" is in particular). Queerest place in Houston!

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.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

Ah...Rice Village (aka "the Village") is bounded by Greenbriar, Holcombe, Kirby and....not sure. It is between Rice and the town of West University. And not nearly as queer as Montrose, which wasn't as queer as it used to be last time I was there. I know Christ the King, but mostly as a parking lot to hang out in and drink beer. I did summer camp at St. Lukes Methodist a couple of years.

Brian was surprised to hear that I know Houston better than I know Mountain View. I think now maybe he might believe me?

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

Wow. I should look at a map. I spent most of my high school summers in Houston, going up to work with my mom. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Sometimes I worked, sometimes I bummed around Montrose. The last time I was there my favorite coffee shop had become a wine bar, and I was disturbed.

I do get nostalgic towards a certain place in time for Montrose, though.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I spent time in Montrose in like 1982-1985 (high school and college), and was last there in 1995 or so...and by that time, I'd been living in SF, so my idea of a "really gay" neighborhood may also have shifted a great deal.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Down here, they talk about that area (Montrose) as though it were a dangerous part of town...

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

Really? *blink* Well, I was there regularly in 1992. And then it turned into wine bars.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Yes, dear. :) Much better than I know Houston, although I know the Clear Lake area pretty well after coming here for 15 years.