Houston – The Rest Of Our Trip

I posted previously about day 1 of our trip to Houston, where we enjoyed the Marriott Marquis, and I explored parts of the city by MetroRail.

We were in Houston because Caroline was a featured speaker at the AAJA conference. Since she spent time each day at sessions of the conference, and I spent time working on my own things, we didn’t have time to fully get out and explore, but we did find the time to do something interesting every day.

Fun With Google Maps

When flying into a city, I sometimes take photos from the airplane window. When I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at when reviewing my Houston photos, and really curious about it, I realized that I might be able to find the same exact view using Google Maps 3D.

Knowing the general direction we approached from, and having a curvy road as a nice landmark, it took about 5 minutes of experimenting, but I was able to find it!

You can see the same 3D Google Map by clicking here – note that the 3D view is not available on mobile.

Turns out I was looking at the Texas Medical Center in the upper left, the strip of green along the bottom are giant power lines and train tracks heading through the city, and the curvy road that was my landmark turned out to not be a road at all, but part of the Buffalo Bayou, a river that winds through parts of the city.

Houston Astros game

On Friday night we went to the Houston Astros game vs the Seattle Mariners. I’m a big baseball fan (namely of the New York Mets) and look for any opportunity to visit a stadium in a new city.

While Caroline will sometimes join me on these baseball park visits, she was very excited about about joining me for this one, because it was 70’s throwback night, and the Astros would be wearing their old rainbow uniforms, one of Caroline’s favorites!

The night was well done by the Astros: 70’s throwback uniforms worn by both teams, replica jersey giveaway, 70’s music played throughout, very old looking 70’s style graphics on the scoreboard, and fireworks to top it off! They even played a reel of classic local TV commercials from the 70’s which were quite nostalgic and comical compared to what we have today.

While we arrived at the stadium before 6pm for the 7:10 game, we were not one of the first 10,000 fans, so we sadly did not receive the replica jersey giveaway. We missed out on the souvenir, but it was still great to just see the old uniforms on the players and get our own photos.

We were also able to take a long walk around the stadium to explore. The stadium is not so new anymore, opened in 2000 as Enron Field, but still feels very nice and modern. Although they had a Shake Shack and some interesting food options the variety of the food overall didn’t touch the great options at my home Citi Field!

The Astros lost a fun game, but the cap to the night was first watching the roof open up after the game, and then to see the fireworks on display to 70’s disco music!

Visiting the Houston Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden in Houston is located in Hermann Park, not far from downtown, and accessible by MetroRail. We intended to travel by MetroRail to get there but it was a Saturday and when we went to transfer to the red line we found it was not running, so we had to order a Lyft to get the rest of the way.

We were dropped off by the Sam Houston Monument and walked a short distance through Hermann Park to the entrance. The gardens opened in 1992 and so last year marked 25 years! Over time, it apparently was turning back into more of a Texas-style garden, so beginning in 2007, a multi-year effort was started to restore to its Japanese intent. I’m no expert, but to me it looks very authentic.

The garden area is very calm and serene, with lots of winding path, plantings, streams of water and a large lake with a few footbridges. A great place for quiet meditation, to read a book, or simply enjoy the landscape. Since it was mid August in Houston, and so hot and humid, we only stayed for a short time, walking the entire garden, and finding a nice place to sit for 10 minutes to watch the turtles and fish in the lake.

The Japanese Garden is free and there are entrances on each side, so there are multiple ways to get in.

The trip home was free, as we reused our MetroRail tickets, and took a combination of the train and shuttle bus, which served the stops that had been closed for the weekend.

Running and Racing

I am an avid runner, almost always bring my running gear with me when I travel, and love to explore new cities by foot. Even though it was hot and humid, I vowed to get some running in.

First, on Friday I ran about 2 miles out through downtown and partially down the Buffalo Bayou path, and then 2 miles back. I went early in the morning, and at the turnaround point, I had a really nice view of the buildings downtown, which you can see at the top of this page.

I also discovered a 5k race taking place early on Saturday morning, so I registered and ran. It was aptly called the Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer 5k, and while my time was a little slower than I would have liked, I was very happy considering the heat and humidity.

For more on the race, including my finishing time, check out the more detailed post on my running blog.

Rounding out the trip

On Saturday night, we enjoyed a great dinner at Kulture, a new restaurant, whose tagline is “an urban komfort kitchen.”

We didn’t make a reservation and it was crowded, so we had the choice of waiting a while, or sitting on couches in the lounge area, near where a live band was playing. We opted to sit in the lounge area, so we had a great view of the band, and it was very comfortable.

The food is southern homestyle, and really good! We started with a sampler appetizer, called the 3 p’s, for popcorn, pickles and peanuts, although more specifically “cracklin popcorn, seasonal pickles and spicy peanuts.” The pickles were a little weird but good, the popcorn had pork rinds in it, and the peanuts were coated, spicy and yummy!

We then shared some small plates: Riplets, Yams and Johnny Cakes, which were all outstanding, and finished up with the smores poundcake, which was 3 layers of poundcake with marshmallow and chocolate sauce throughout, with some thin chocolate crackers.

Overall, the food was fantastic and the decor was stylish. Would definitely come back or recommend to others.

One last neat thing about Houston was spotting lots of different phrases about “time”. I noticed them in the sidewalk on one particular city block, and as the backdrop on at least one of the MetroRail stations. I can’t find any mention of this or the origin of this by searching Google, but still a cool discovery, and I got photos of a few of my favorites.

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I’d love to spend more time in Houston when it isn’t so hot and the trip is not focused on work. There is so much we didn’t get to see, like any of the museums, or the bats emerging at sundown on Waugh Drive.

What is your favorite attraction or activity in Houston?