Houston

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Anna Lee found that the Port Authority of Houston offers free 90-minute boat rides on the M/V Sam Houston so we decided to start our time in Houston with this tour. Near the boat dock, the guest pavilion has a series of mosaic murals showing the history of the area.

This industrial waterway is lined with refineries and scrap collection sites (metal, wall board, chrome).

The latter are designated for shipping to Asia then to return to the US as new products.

Further on, we were treated to watching stacks belching smoke and whatever into the air which made us grateful to the voters of California for defeating an environmental bill sponsored by the ubiquitous Texans Valero and Tesero.

While no one would describe this as a beautiful ride along the river, it was a most interesting experience and one we recommend (especially for the price).

Space Center Houston was our afternoon’s destination. After a nice lunch in Zero G Diner, we got into the slow moving line for the tram ride around the site. Well worth the wait, the ride took us to see places that we only knew from the news and movies.

Our spines tingled as we entered Mission Control Center. There we looked at what had, in the ‘60s, been state-of-the-art work stations with monitor screens and dial telephones (no keyboards or mice). These were the very ones we had seen on television decades ago. We had a bonus opportunity to see Marv LeBlanc (the man in the suit in photo), the original designer of the Center. He was meeting with some BP execs.

Next we visited the Space Vehicle Mock Up Facility where astronauts train and scientists experiment with new designs.

The tram tour ended at the Rocket Center. There we took a long, long, long walk beside one of the last of the Saturn V rockets.

The IMAX movie “The Planets” showed the awesome beauty of the planets while the Houston Symphony Orchestra performed a work by Gustav Holst based upon the Greek gods for whom the planets are named. The word “awesome” is appropriate for this presentation.

Lastly, we saw some real space stuff in the Starship Gallery Artifact Museum including moon rocks, space suits, lots of scientific apparatus, and the interior of SkyLab.

Our next stop was Kemah Island, a combination amusement park, tourist, and restaurant location on Galveston Bay. We gawked at the Boardwalk Bullet, a wooden roller coaster, clattering overhead.

Our Mexican dinner at Cadillac Bar was very good.

Travel is timing and we missed the bloom of azaleas and camellias Bayou Bend, the gardens around the home, now museum, of Ima Hogg. The huge magnolia trees were just opening. Our stop at the Rothco Chapel was also a miss. Our artistic taste does not include 14 foot canvases that are all black and grey like a painted wall. The chapel is for worship and mediation by all faiths and its quiet does invite contemplation.

No day is unfulfilled if lunch is memorable. With several recommendations to attest is quality, we went to Kenny and Ziggy’s for a truly New York deli lunch (actually two lunches with leftovers).

Here we believe Sally would have had a real orgasm. Two older women started talking to us (she is holding her head in the photo). One was the mother of the owner. Her son did well.

Stages Theater had a preview performance of Four Places, a play about the dynamic relationship between aging parents and adult children. The theater is much like B Street Theater at home where we have ushered. The performance was outstanding.