Houston, TX

SUN., MAY 1, 2022 THRU MON., MAY 9, 2022

We left Galveston on Sunday, May 1st after a 2-month stay. I always hold my breath after we’ve been parked for 2 months…. hoping that everything works as it should on the day of departure. One never knows! Thankfully all went well, and we traveled 60 miles on Highway 6 to arrive on the outskirts of Houston at Lakeview RV Resort. Unlucky for us Texas is setting records for high temps this early in May. Just our luck! Upon arriving and setting up, we realized our air conditioner in the living room was leaking water. Rut roh. Gary dismantled the AC inside then went up on the roof and discovered the culprit was a plugged drip tray. I was tasked with being the helper. One of my jobs was to throw a rope up on the roof to him so that he could tie it to a bucket and I could then put tools in the lowered bucket for him. Throwing things is not a strength of mine. After the 5th try and practically peeing myself from laughing, Cheryl bailed me out and threw it up to him on the first try. Show off! lol. Joe helped with operating the landing gear control panel. We had to tip the RV a bit to get all the water out of the drip tray. A team effort! Problem solved. Then we all decided to avail ourselves of the pool that afternoon! One thing we didn’t count on here at this campground is the salvage yard next door hidden from view, which starts work about 5 in the morning… loud. After the first night Gary brought the Bose speaker into the bedroom and set up white noise in the form of an ocean sound. It was so loud it was like we were in the belly of a whale. It had to be to drown out the excavation equipment next door! A more enjoyable sound were the frogs calling to one another at dusk. Quite the cacophony! 

We’ve decided I’m a magnet for anything stinging. I had been bitten by something on my ankle during our last visit to High Island to see the birds while in Galveston. Then a week before we left Galveston I was stung by a bee on my arm, then a day before we left Galveston I was bitten by a few fire ants on my toes while sitting at the pool. What all these things had in common was that they itched like crazy! As I write this blog post, I’m all healed now but it was a tad annoying at the time. 

On Tuesday, May 3rd, we braved the Houston traffic and visited the free 8-acre McGovern Centennial Gardens, which is part of 445-acre Hermann Park. It has a variety of themed gardens situated around a spacious central lawn and is home to more than 490 trees of over 50 species, 760 hedge shrubs, 55,000 perennial bulbs, 650 azaleas and 4.5 acres of grass. The gardens include, among others, a Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Arid Garden, and a Family Garden, which produces seasonal vegetables and herbs. Lovely spot! 

After walking through the Gardens, we continued on to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which was the main focus for the day’s outing. First we visited the Cockrell Butterfly Center with hundreds of butterflies in a rainforest environment. Absolutely beautiful and many butterflies we hadn’t seen before! Gary did a short video of our walk through. 

If you’d like to see some photos of butterflies, they are below:

Then we moved on to the museum’s dinosaur collection. They have the largest dinosaur hall in the U.S. So cool. Fabulous display. So well done! Some are recreations and some are the actual fossils. It’s worth the price of admission just to see this! The museum also had an old fashioned curiosity cabinet, or in this case multiple curiosity rooms. So interesting! It harkens back to the humble beginnings of the first museums being a privately-owned collection open to the public. I’ve never seen anything like. Utterly delightful. Finally we visited the gem collection. My favorite was the Opal, my birthstone. 

Our time was growing short as we had reservations for a “linner” at Lucille’s in Houston, billed as Southern soul food with a twist. Gary and I saw the owner interviewed on a recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning and wanted to try it out. Cheryl & Joe were game to join us! Fabulous experience! The food was delicious! We all shared Fried Green Tomatoes and chili biscuit bites, then Cheryl & I shared a stuffed acorn squash, and she & I each had a scallops appetizer. The guys didn’t share. Steak for Gary and Red Fish for Joe. We split three desserts… Tiramisu, Key Lime Pie, and Bread Pudding. Then we waddled back to the truck. The restaurant was started by 2 brothers and named after their great grandmother. We had a wonderful server. The owners also give back with a community kitchen and teaching young people about the food industry. Once we returned to the campground, we topped off the day with an evening swim. Something you can do when it’s still 80 degrees at night!

Wednesday, May 4th, we visited Project Row Houses in Houston. Located in the historic Third Ward, the site encompasses 5 city blocks. It started in 1993 when 7 African-American artists wanted to save a a block of derelict 1935 row houses from demolition and revitalize the community. Over the years, the area now encompasses rotating art installations, supports start-up businesses, and provides housing for young single mothers. This month’s topic for the art was “The Curious Case of Critical Race… Theory?” Very interesting. Afterwards we visited a few of the local businesses in the area… a small restaurant called Doshi House where I ordered a Zen Smoothie. The guys thought it resembled what comes out of the lawnmower bag. It was delicious! Afterwards we visited a bakery called Crumbville, TX. The owner used to give everyone who bought from her a hug… then Covid hit. Now, she handwrites your names on your bag of goodies and includes a ♥️ so you feel like you’re being hugged. So sweet. 

After that experience, we flipped it completely and went to the ultra posh Post Oak Hotel. The only hotel in Texas with a “Forbes 5 star rating.” It has a helipad on top (because really if you have that kind of money who wants to deal with Houston traffic), a grand chandelier “laced” with Swarovski crystals, amazing artwork, and a small Rolls Royce showroom in the lobby. We could only afford gelato, and we availed ourselves of their very luxurious lobby restroom. 😀 Fun day! We topped it off with a 3-hour campfire that night listening to music from the ’70s.

Thursday, May 5th, we all visited Holocaust Museum Houston. It ranks as the 4th largest Holocaust Museum in the country and was founded by Bill Morgan, a Holocaust survivor and Houstonian. An amazing experience. Extremely well done chronicling the events leading up to the Holocaust thru interviews of Houstonian survivors, photographs, authentic film footage, and documents. There is a 1942 German WWII era rail car on display. Chilling to see. More uplifting were the stories of the resistance and regular citizens doing what they could to make a difference. One such group were Danes helping Jews escape to Sweden. There was a Danish Rescue Boat on display. Photography was not permitted thru most of the museum. We were all so glad we had a chance to visit this eye-opening museum. They also had a temporary exhibit on Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her amazing life and career. A remarkable woman. She figured out how to impact women’s lives through her chosen career… by fighting for better laws. We learned a lot about her and her accomplishments. 

The Hannafords had told Gary & I not to plan anything for Friday evening, May 6th. When the four of us were returning from our pool visit the afternoon before, they handed us an invitation that Joe had crafted inviting us to a “British Isles Night.” Complete with reserved seating at H.M.S. Beauty (Beauty is the name of their tiny home) and to wear “Campground Formal Attire.” lol. Gary and I had a British Isles Cruise planned for this month but had cancelled it back in February due to the uptick in Covid cases. This was the second postponement of this cruise. They felt badly for us so started planning this special evening of dinner and entertainment back in February. So incredibly sweet. I cried when they handed us the invitation. We arrived Friday evening to their tiny home with “Hail to the Queen” playing from their Bose. They greeted us in Captain and First Mate’s outfits with a bag of English goodies… shortbread cookies and English Breakfast Tea. They had decorated their tiny home with flags from all the different British Isles and Joe had made a few posters. (see pics.) So much work! We enjoyed assorted cheeses from the UK, Cheryl’s delicious Shepherd’s Pie for dinner, and hot fudge sundaes for dessert plus all the adult beverages we might want. The entertainment portion of the evening included a few Rick Steves’ episodes featuring the British Isles, a funny Scottish Golf routine from the late Robin Willians, and a stirring rendition of the Scottish Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Plus fitting music selections throughout the evening. I was also presented with a bouquet of tulips since our trip was to include a 5-night stay in Amsterdam. We were both touched. It was incredibly thoughtful! We had a wonderful evening with two beautiful and special people. Thank you both soooo very much! 

The next couple of days were quiet days for us. Cheryl & Joe left Houston on Sunday to head to Austin. I had one last medical appointment on Monday in League City so we had to extend our stay in Houston for two nights. Medical appointment went fine… just a few more views were needed on my recent mammogram, but all went well. After my appointment on Monday, May 9th, Gary and I had breakfast out then headed to the the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston. A Nottingham friend, Janice, had recommended this so we decided to check it out, and so glad we did! Weird, but fascinating! Largest museum of its kind in the US at 30,000 sq. ft. They had displays of Presidential & Popes funerals. The history of embalming, cremation, New Orleans funerals, Day of the Dead, and Fantasy coffins from Ghana among tons of interesting facts. We would totally recommend it. This is a one-of-a-kind experience! I’ll share two interesting facts: (1) The Japanese give the most expensive funerals at an average of $34,000. (2) President Lincoln was fascinated with embalming. He wanted soldiers who died in the battlefield to be returned to their families intact for the burial. Such an honorable man. 

We headed back to our tiny home to chill. Tomorrow we head to Austin, the capitol of Texas. For the record, Gary has done a masterful job of dealing with Houston traffic!