Houston Vacation: Day One

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

Photos here.

First day, we had planned to visit NASA but instead opted for the Children's Museum and park areas instead. Turns out to have been a great plan.

The first stop was Houston's children's museum which both boys really enjoyed. When we first walked it, I could tell NM was apprehensive. After all, there were several buses full of little (K & 1st grade) kids. But after we wandered around the science and cultural exhibits, he changed his mind. Everyone had fun! The thing I enjoyed the most was watching the boys go nuts in the museum's "grocery." You load up your baskets with stuff from the store then take it to check out were you have to key in the prices yourself. There was only one (tired) guy to put all the things back on the shelves. I told the boys to put everything away and they didn't mind doing that.

Afterwards, we wandered around the Hermann Gardens which seems to be the city's version of a central park. There was a Japanese garden, a mirror pool with monuments at both ends, for Sam Houston and the city's pioneers, a little railroad (we rode), an amphitheater (under construction) lots of play areas, a man-made lake where you can rent paddle boats, fountains, an exhibition garden with sculptures (including one of Jose Rizal) and a lot of other stuff we didn't get to see. This is in the area that's close to the Rice University complex which is huge and very pretty. It looked like there was a lot of recent construction/reconstruction and improvements continue. We plan to go back.

After a day at the museum and the park, we headed off to Kemah Boardwalk where there are rides and restaurants. We didn't do the rides though we took photos (we'll go next time). The kids enjoyed walking around the boardwalk anyhow and we ate dinner at a place called The Flying Dutchman. Dinner was good for me, even if overpriced (tourist area, have to expect that). But, sadly, I learned that I am allergic to something on the broiled seafood platter. I had yellow rice pilaf, shrimp, scallops, red snapper and crab. I think it's the crab since I had everything else recently. How did I find out I was allergic? Around midnight, my back was burning and I thought maybe it's just hot. I realized that it was burning because I must have scratched in my sleep. Then the itch spread to my belly. It drove me nuts! I actually got up and had a super hot shower to get temporary relief after tossing and turning for over an hour. I had a serious case of the hives and it spread to my arms and legs the next day. Sad...I love crab!