Two-sport weekend...2.0

Heading to Houston for a two-sport mother-daughter weekend is beginning to look like a summer tradition. Readers with long memories might remember our trip last June. Well, schedules aligned favorably again this year and last weekend we were able to save ourselves from the agony of watching the Astros lose two baseball games, which was our original plan. Instead, we got to watch the Dynamo win one!

These fine fireworks were at the baseball game Friday night, and they were certainly the highpoint of the evening. As Chronicle beat writer Zach Levine (a much better writer than the Astros are a baseball team) penned in Saturday's paper:

It's a good thing it was fireworks night. That’s probably the only thing that stood between the gathering of 29,252 and the Minute Maid Park exits as the captive audience was treated to nine of the worst innings of baseball by the home team all year as the Astros lost 11-4 to the Atlanta Braves.

But the fireworks, though spectacular, weren't the only interesting thing about the game. For folks who were seeing their first game of the season, the new incredibly hi-def scoreboard cum video screen was pretty impressive. On the right is the pre-game animation it showed.

And, of course, just being at the ball park is fun. Especially when it's really hot outside and they have the roof closed and the a/c contained. It really is a lovely stadium. Here's our view as the roof was opening after the game for the pyrotechnic display:

But as we headed back to our wonderful lodgings (many thanks to Barbs and Paul for being such great hosts) we knew that our weekend had really only begun.

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After sleeping until an ungodly 10 a.m. the next morning (driving 3½ hours to watch your favorite team get mauled is exhausting work!) we headed out for a full schedule of activities.

First on the agenda was the quirky Orange Show, which I've wanted to visit for years and just never had gotten around to. Reminding us somewhat of the Bishop Castle that we stumbled upon in Colorado several months ago, although on a much smaller scale, it's an eccentric Houstonian's monument to things orange. And things mechanical (-looking). And things musical (it's a concert venue where the setting must upstage a lot of the acts). And just things odd.

Apart from size and setting, another difference between it and the Castle is that the Show is a finished product. Recently re-opened after refurbishment, it has become something of an institution in the middle of the nation's 4th largest city. Rather than a continuing project somewhat isolated in the Rockies.

It's also affiliated with Houston's most concerted effort to out-weird Austin, the famous Art Car Parade of song and story. [We saw it once in pre-blog days; my brother takes it in every year and it would be fun to go again. We'll have to put that on a future Houston calendar.] The art-car sculpture on the right is in the front yard of the house across from the Show.

Here are some more Orange Show photos:

a panorama
Sally taking a sight-seeing break on one of the remarkably comfortable
tractor seats available for viewing shows at the Show

the entrance booth (where they collect the $1 admission) and gift shop

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And now for something completely different, as Monty Python used to say.

Not far from the Orange Show (especially not far in Houston terms) is the Forest Park cemetery, where I learned to drive and where most of my forebears are buried. [When we first moved back to Houston after my father died in 1960, Mom took us out here very frequently. And when I was old enough, but before I got my learner's permit, it was a good place to practice driving and get ready for the more daunting experience of Houston traffic.]

I had felt rather bad about not visiting the site in such a long time, so this was a perfect opportunity. We stopped at a little florist shop across the street and took flowers to the sites of my parents', grandparents', and several aunts' and uncles', graves.

The environment is just as peaceful and nice as I had remembered, although Houston is almost as dry as we are and the vegetation looked a little brown. I'm sure our flowers won't survive long in the heat, but it felt good to make the gestures.

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Since it took us surprisingly less time to get around than we had planned (this hardly ever happens in Houston) and since the Orange Show didn't take nearly as long to see as we thought, we had some extra time on our hands before the weekend's second sporting event was to get underway.

So we decided to head over to my old stomping grounds, the Rice campus, and walk off our large Tex-Mex lunch (a highlight of the trip which I neglected to mention) taking in the sights there. As it turned out, we did some walking, but also spent a refreshing hour recharging our batteries in the pleasant (air conditioned) atmosphere of the new campus pub that you might have seen in my last post.

One of the highlights of the campus ramble was getting to go into the (relatively) new Rice baseball stadium, which I had only seen from afar. [Note to selves: we must come to a college game here next year!]

Reckling Park with the Houston Medical Center beyond the outfield—what a great view!

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Now for the sport number two. A short jaunt to the UH campus and we were surrounded by the sea of orange that is Houston Dynamo soccer. The fans were just as enthusiastic as last year and I was so glad to have found bright orange Dynamo gear for us to wear. [See photo at the top of the post. Thanks to our friend Amy (who met us there with her mom for the game) for taking the picture with Sally's camera.]

Here's a shot of the crowd, celebrating the team's first goal (they ended up winning a very exciting match, 2-1):

The win was a perfect end to a perfectly orange day. Historically, before the Astros were the Astros they were the Colt .45s, and their colors were orange back then, too. So it was really an almost totally orange weekend.

A most cheerful color for a very satisfying and fun trip, in spite of the dismal baseball. Here's hoping the Astros will be in a bit better shape in time for our two-sport excursion next year. Maybe they should bring back the rainbow jerseys, with all that orange?!