Day 9--Houston

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning and so we have 6 more weeks of winter coming. No surprise there! But it was in the low 50s when we woke up and was predicted to hit 60° and be sunny today so we weren’t too worried. Three things really struck me today. One was how really huge the Houston area is. Herb told us it’s the 4^th largest city in the US and that was easy to believe as we drove around. Another was that we really had chosen a good location for the camper to be close to everything we wanted to do in this large metropolitan area but still be able to stay in our camper. The last was to marvel once again at how easy traveling in unfamiliar territory can be with a GPS. For the most part, all we have to do is input an address and “Mabel” tells us exactly how to get there. She is sometimes thrown by new construction or unexpected U-turns (especially along the freeway here in Houston), but can usually recalculate and find a way. We used it many times today as we found a CVS Pharmacy, a Kroger store for groceries, two museums, Betty and Herb’s for a second time, and then finally home again. After running our errands we went to the Museum of Natural Science. This was one of the passes we had on our “Day Pass” booklet. Had it been a beautiful, sunny day we might not have been so interested in visiting it. But the sun never did make an appearance today and, in fact, it rained several times. The museum has an extensive paleontology exhibit, an informative area on Energy (especially gas and oil, of course), a whole floor devoted to North and Central American Native people, and a dramatic display of gems and minerals. There was a special exhibition on Faberge jewels but since it was an extra $22 each we decided to be satisfied with the ones we had seen. After manufacturing a quick and simple meal from our new groceries we walked to the nearby Museum of Fine Arts, also on our Day Pass booklets. At that point the booklets had more than paid for themselves. Throughout the museum there was a bit of a theme on the use of gold in cultures all over the world and since ancient times, including Korea, Indonesia, Africa, and pre-Columbian America. It was pretty fascinating. We also perused photographs taken by a class of high-schoolers in the Third Ward, a depressed area of Houston, with accompanying narrative of their reflections on the world in which they live. As we wandered through the American Art exhibit in the second building, we became aware that we were being shadowed by a couple of guards. We wondered about that until we realized it was moments from closing and they were securing the areas as we walked out. So we took our leave of the museum without getting to see the six hundred years of European art on the next floor. It was then time to find our way back to Betty and Herb’s for a delicious dinner of beef tenderloin, brown rice and fennel salad prepared by Betty. I did a load of laundry as we enjoyed our delightful evening and then we returned to the camper, to begin straightening up to be ready to leave tomorrow. It was still in the high 50s and was a bit windy as we went to bed.