I know I've been complaining about our drought a lot lately, but I saw a brand-new manifestation of it in Houston a couple of weeks ago. Not the brilliant green of the grass in the picture above (how do they do that?). But I rather suspect that the picturesque little trench crossing it is filled with water in better times, no? Any Houston resident more familiar with the wonderful institution for which this is the yard can correct me if I'm wrong.
You see, we had a couple of hours to kill before meeting some people for lunch and so I googled "free Houston museums" and came up with this jewel: the Menil Collection. Wow! What an amazing place! I was expecting just modern stuff but we saw all kinds of art there, some of the most impressive being from New Guinea (where Hal was recently) and other Pacific islands.
Plus there were Rothkos, which some of my readers might recall I have a special attachment to. (The Chapel in whose dedication I participated is actually on the grounds of the museum, but unfortunately we didn't have time to go in. I'm definitely putting that on my next Houston trip to-do list!)
We spent a fair amount of time downtown, too, with trips to the ball park (team is too sorry to take pictures of this year; plus, I'm now officially only a casual fan), a movie (very entertaining Prometheus, in 2-D), and some really good eats. I wish I'd thought to take a picture at one of the restaurants we visited, the Reef: great seafood in a funky setting).
I'm always blown away by Houston's spectacular downtown, though, and don't really need an excuse to drive around and enjoy the ambiance and the architecture.
It does make San Antonio's tiny downtown seem awfully provincial, however...
...I doubt we'll ever have anything this big in our downtown...
But Houston isn't just a dynamic, exciting, sophisticated (at least in comparison to SA) city with great buildings and great food. It's also my city of roots, where I spent most of my life from age 11-25, plus a few earlier stints. Both of my parents are native Houstonians, and I imagine there's a pretty small percentage of its current residents who can say that.
We still have lots of family in the area, and one of the highlights of the weekend was a cousins' lunch (after the Menil interlude) at Buca di Beppo, a great family-style Italian restaurant that made familial visiting and food-sharing easy.
Can you believe it?! ALL of our maternal grandparents' grandkids, plus one set of great-grands, gathered in one place?! I still can't believe we happened to hit upon a time when everyone was in town and available. We had a wonderful visit, shared some great memories and learned some neat family history.
3 comments:
I still haven't been to Houston yet! Unless you count the airport, or driving through it to get to someplace else...
Glad you had fun!
I wish I had taken pictures of the elegant movie theater. I have had a hard time describing how nice it was.
The little armrest tables were pretty sweet!
Kim, when my son was "counting off" states, he refused to count a state if he'd only be to an airport in it. However, driving through should be ok. 8-) Next time, you should stop a while, though, it's a pretty interesting place.
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