April
30, 2015
We
had another great breakfast with Ilse and Jimmy and talked for awhile
and then spent the day driving to Houston. We got in about 3:30 and
headed over to Don and Sidney's. After some conversation we all headed to dinner for Tex-Mex food, not far from their
house. Too many chips and salsa, enchiladas, tostados and we had a
food coma! An evening of catching up on the computer. This was the
first day that Jodi did not take a single photograph. Historical event!
May
1, 2015
Day
24
We
woke up and had breakfast with Sid and Don. Listened a lot about their travels to Peru, New Zealand and
Australia with Friendship Force. We set out
to Mercer Arboretum which is only a short distance from their house
and walked the nature trails and then went to the side with planted
flowers and garden. We were surprised that there was no entry fee to
this lovely place. After running errands,we headed to downtown Houston and used the Best Parking
app to find $5.00 parking for the whole day. Not bad considering it
was within 3 blocks of Minute Maid Stadium. We walked to the
Discovery Green which is right by the enormous convention center. It
has play areas for kids including a water feature with fountains
coming up from the play area. It also had a place where you could
rent a kayak and paddle around.
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| Discovery Green |
It was built as a model for
sustainable building with many solar panels over one of the
buildings. We headed to the center of town with the information
center and talked to a gal who gave us several ideas. Set out to Sam
Houston park where they have moved several historic buildings
including St John's church, a German Lutheran church and several
historic houses. We wander around and then set off to the tallest
building in Houston, the JP Morgan Chase Building. You can take the
elevator to the 60
th floor where there is an observation
center. You can only look out in one direction but it is amazing to
see just how huge Houston is even from the one view. The building is
actually 75 stories, but we were not able to go any higher. It was
amazing to all the cars.
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| View from 60th floor of the Chase Building |
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| Cars, cars, everywhere |
 |
| JP Morgan Chase Building |
We continued walking and came across a
police horse parked at a corner with the police officer talking to
some people at a bar. It seemed so ironic after looking out at the
size of the city to suddenly come across a horse! We decided to go in
and share a local beer.
 |
| You have to admit, a little odd after all those tall buildings and cars! |
We wandered back to the car for a sandwich
for dinner. Jack was able to make 2 whole sandwiches out of his half
from lunch. We walked all around Minute Maid Park and took pictures
of the outside of the building. It seemed taller than some of the
other stadiums.
 |
| Home of the Houston Astros |
The roof was open so we were able to enjoy a
relatively comfortable Houston evening. We talked to a man from
Cleveland who was in Houston for a wedding. He was interested in our
trip and told us how much we would like Cleveland. He wants to
follow us on our blog. We entered through the old train station
which is very nice and the ballpark is built around it. We stopped
at St Arnold's Brewery store and were shocked to find a Happy Hour in
a ballpark. We had 1 minute to order a $5.25 beer. This was the
lowest price in all the parks we have visited and actually one of the
few beers we have purchased. You can't change frugal!
Inside the park they had a $5.00 haircut promotion. How
funny. It went on all evening during the game. Jack should have got
one!
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| $5 haircut,anyone? Get a haircut while watching the game,how cool is that? |
We walked up to the highest level and then saw Logan Morrison
signing balls. Unfortunately at that point he was too far away to
get to in time before he would leave.
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| Lomo signing autographs for Mariner fans |
The stadium was probably less
than half full by game time, so Jack and I adopted seats along the
3
rd base line. We saw 5 home runs. Unfortunately only 2
were by Mariner players, Nelson Cruz and LoMo. If the prize went to
the ball hit the furthest, it would definitely be awarded to Cruz.
He hit the train that runs on a track every time Houston hits a HR. The train sits on top of the high wall.
Otherwise it would have been out of the ball field.There was still
hope in the top of the 9
th but unfortunately Altuve and
crew handed it to the Mariners with a 4-3 loss. So sad, now we are 6
games back.
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Mariners lose and we have our own "Blanks" in the rotation
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