Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Houston Trip: Sights and Success in Bayou City

The flights, delayed.

The trip, a success.

A home, found.

Day 1: In addition to rentals found through the internet, the owner of the B&B (Sara's Bed and Breakfast) provided us with a couple of printed pages from the Houston Association of Realtor webpage. He had already recommended a great place to eat the night before. Vietnam Restaurant provided much needed health after bad airport food and at $20 for the two of us was easy on the budget. We wouldn't have found the place with out the guidance and it was just what we needed that night.

Day 2: Much time was spent driving, and very little picture-taking. The city is deserving of more photography. Looking for places, bad time management led to low blood sugar and food issues. Found some good-bad chinese (you know greasy & and tasty plus cheap) which restored much-needed marital happiness. Found a few promising leads and driving all over Houston was good exposure to the city. Blocked roads in the medical district meant traveling 2 blocks in 50 minutes. The cause, nicked gas main by construction guys. Damn them! Dinner = Italian at Spaghetti Western. Went to art opening at Lawndale Art Center.

Day 3: The end of our search was near. Drove around the overcast city, surprising the missus with David Adicke's studios and giant head repository.

The massive collection of giant presidential head make the warehouse's storage lot a political Easter Island. But it wasn't just politicians.

Monstrous Beatles! After that, more apartment searching. By 5pm a place settled upon. Low end of the spending limit may equal new laptop due to savings. iFrugel! Ate France in the morning and Belgium at night at Cafe Montrose. Muscles and fritz (or mussels and frites for those sticklers for accuracy) for the missus. No thank you sez I. The evening... spent with Harry Potter.

Day 4: Play day! Visited the Artcar Museum. Many pictures taken.


Outside the Artcar Museum, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Me with a dog on a car. Also grabbed a local arts calender. Before flight, drove around city and made fun of bad mansions. Whole neighborhood full of boring, rich people with no imagination who built dull, large houses. The upside?... no gates to keep the riff raff from viewing the poor taste and making rude comments.

Lastly a postponed flight got use home hours later then expected. Tired but relieved.

Learned that this will be a good city to call home. The people we met were generous with their time and advice. Two of the landlords we didn't choose may be good sources for job-related info. One offered to help despite being told we choose a different rental than his. The other offered an introduction to a couple of intriguing collectors. More on that once we move to the city. All in all a promising start.

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