MARCH 27: HOUSTON – DAY 3

Easter was a day of exploration for us.  The Easter Bunny left two small sparse baskets in the hotel for us, slim pickings but better than nothing.  Before we left for the Gulf, we went to downtown Houston.  We walked through the Historic and Theatre Districts as well as a small part of the Buffalo Bayou Park  Not far from the Aquarium we found monuments to George H. W. Bush (#41) and James Baker.  The downtown area was nice.  We enjoyed the public art sculptures and fountains that Raleigh certainly lacks.  Since it was Easter morning, the city was a ghost town which made it easy to get around but we missed the vibrancy of the hustle and bustle.

We love “cheese”.  If your town has a “World’s Biggest ____”, we are going to get our picture in front of it.  So our next adventure started innocently enough... to get a picture of Mount Rush-Hour.  Driving into to town it is visible from I45 / I10.  There are, what we thought were, four President’s head statues similar to Mount Rushmore.  You cannot, safely, get a picture from the highway so we exited and hunted on the side streets.  Before we found it, we found... well, we weren’t sure what we found.  At 2401 Nance Street there is a rundown industrial building and a fenced yard adjacent to the interstate and train tracks with salvaged President heads (I assume) from President’s Park on Deer Mountain, Lead, South Dakota.  Oh, and there was also a 20 foot Charlie Chaplin too.  It was bizarre, sort of creepy and sort of fascinating.  In our own mind it was a huge find.  We were looking for four and we found dozens!  Several U-turns later, we eventually found the four heads (1400 Elder Street) visible from the highway and got the coveted picture.  Later we did some research and learned more about the history of the American Statesmanship Park (aka Mount Rush-Hour) and Presidents Park.  The four heads were President Washington, President Lincoln, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston.  It appears Houston artist David Adickes created most of them for parks in Virginia and South Dakota (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidents_Park_(Virginia)).

With this final adventure, we hit the highway and headed south to Galveston.  We stopped at a Saltgrass Steakhouse for lunch and a view of the Gulf.  Afterward we took a long walk on the beach past Pleasure Pier.  Before leaving town, we stopped to visit the Ashton Villa House, Sealy House, and Moody House.

We decided to take the “scenic” route from Galveston to Corpus Christi – Rt. 6 / Rt. 2004 / Rt. 288 / Rt. 35  What we found is there was very little scenery.  The long flat fields of grass and bush were green this time of year with occasional ranches, small towns, and large oil refineries along the way.

We checked into our hotel upon arrival in Corpus Christi and walked to the neighboring Outback Steakhouse for a late dinner.

Downtown Houston

Mount Rush Hour and Presidents Park

Galveston Beaches near Pleasure Pier

Galveston Landmark Buildings

MARCH 26: HOUSTON – DAY 2

Today we drove to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and made a few stops along the way.  First we stopped at the University of Houston and took a walk.  The campus wreaked of 1950’s and 60’s architecture.  Like many of our public universities, the campus could use some TLC.

Outside JSC we stopped for lunch at another family first, Whataburger.  Better than Jack-in-the-Box and without the creepy mascot, it was good for a fast food burger joint but nothing special.

Finally we arrived at JSC.  Rounding the corner we could immediately see a Boeing 747 with full-size a replica of a space shuttle on top.  We had bought our tickets and reserved our times for the Shuttle Tour and Tram Tour the night before.  At first that seemed like a wasted effort but when we went to board the Tram Tour we realized it was a tremendous time saver as we passed hundreds of people waiting in line and went to the front.

The Johnson Space Center is a must see if you are in the area and have any interest in the Space Program.  The kids loved it.  Highlights of the visit included the space shuttle tour, the Saturn V rocket, and the astronaut training center.

Since it was the night before Easter and Cara likes to listen to Joel Osteen, we went to the Easter evening service at Lakewood Church.  Lakewood is a mega-church with professional stage production capabilities.  Since we were visitors, they sat us up front.  It was an impressive service.  Lakewood is near the Galleria area where we picked up Chinese at Pei Wei and took it back to the hotel to wind down.

University of Houston

Johnson Space Center

MARCH 25: HOUSTON – DAY 1

By the time we touched down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and got our luggage, a rental car, a hotel room and our bearings, it was time for a quick bite at the Jack-in-the-Box next to the hotel.  It was our first time eating at one, and probably our last, but we wanted to try it and it could not have been any more convenient.

We headed down to the Museum District and walked around Hermann Park (http://www.hermannpark.org/).  It was a nice city park with lots going on.  It made for a pleasant way to stretch our legs and enjoy the perfect spring weather.

From there it was a short drive onto the campus of Rice University.  A beautiful and well-kept campus, similar to many Ivy League caliber schools, but has a distinct Byzantine architectural flavor.  It is Easter Weekend and the campus was quiet and serene.  After our walk, we drove through the Galleria area and stopped for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.

Hermann Park

Rice University

PREAMBLE

Like so many others, we had hoped to travel more but found it difficult with small children.  In 2010 we were not sure our kids, 7 and 5 at the time, were old enough for a serious road trip but we rolled the dice and took 18 days to visit New England and Eastern Canada.  They were amazing and it inspired us to plan and save for our cross country trip, aka “The Big Trip”, in 2013 (http://wehnervacation2013.blogspot.com/).  It was truly amazing and created memories we recall often.

Well our list of places we’d like to see and share with our children has grown significantly.  It has transitioned from a mental list of a few to a written wish list of many to a challenge, one we have accepted.  We have 20 trips, some quite modest and some quite grand, we would like to take in the next 10 years.  Beyond the money and time from work, minor issues ~, we are finding coordinating them with the kids school schedules, each different, to be a challenge.

I decided to chronicle some of these adventures partially for our relatives and close friends who are interested but largely so our kids might someday remember the details of them.  Many years removed, sadly I only remember small moments from my family vacations.

This Spring Break we are going on “The Texan”, a drive through central and southern Texas.  Why?  Why not?  It fit the criteria, warm climate and doable in a week.

To start our journey, we drove Thursday night from Raleigh to Charlotte for dinner at Cracker Barrel, last minute shopping at Target, and a hotel stay near the airport in preparation for our morning non-stop flight to Houston.