Our penultimate day in Houston and the U.S.A. After five
weeks we have done all we wanted to do and see, and are ready to go home.
However we had a free day today, so I looked up the nearest Hobby Town U.S.A
Store which was about 30 minutes away, so after a leisurely coffee &
breakfast we jumped in the car and headed out to the store. The store was in a
strip mall along a wide boulevard so I went to look in there while Deb wandered
off to look at a clothing store. Hobby Town U.S.A is a chain Hobby store with
locations (as we know) throughout the U.S, but sadly they are usually far out
of town!
This particular store was quite a large one and so I spent a
few happy minutes browsing coming away with a kit and a few paint sets. There
was a Barnes & Noble book store a few doors down (Barnes & Noble are
similar to Whitcoulls) so I met Deb there and spent another few happy minutes
browsing before we headed into town. There was a place called “Discovery Green”
which is a sustainable green space in the CBD so after getting a park close by
we headed down there.
First things first and we stopped at a restaurant along the
way for lunch. This place was called Pappasito’s and was a ‘Tex Mex’ type
place. The first thing they give you is a small basket of corn chips and salsa,
complimentary of course, and Deb & I kicked off with a non-alcoholic
cocktail. She got a salmon & mango salad, and I got a fajita with Beef
& chicken. Fortunately I asked for a small size as when it came out it was
huge! However the food was delicious and after five weeks of food on the road
it really was welcome. I’d also ordered a dessert called Sopapilla’s , small
pastries covered with icing sugar and cinnamon, drizzled with honey and a
caramel dipping sauce. Heaven! However I was as full as a tick so we had to get
the doggie bag of shame and left to carry onto the park.
The green space is really nice, it’s a mix of grass, a pond,
a hill and various sculptures dotted around. There’s also an amphitheatre and
it looks like the area’s used quite a bit for various events & concerts. We
wandered around and sat under the shade of some trees and watched the world go
by for a while. Opposite the park, and parallel for a distance of about three
blocks, is a huge new events & conference center being built which is a stunning
piece of architecture. The noise of the construction and roadworks barely penetrated
the park area. There were quite a few people dotted around with badges and
eating lunch out of large cardboard boxes, and, catching a glimpse of one of
the badges, saw they were all from a Japan Space Agency – welcome to Houston!
We wandered around the area for a few blocks but remarkably,
and much like Memphis before, the area was very sparsely populated and it felt
more like a weekend that a weekday. Maybe the tendency is to stay in the office
block rather than go out?
By this time is was getting late, and so we jumped in the
car and headed back to our hotel room. Once again, the freeways seem maniacal
and it’s seriously like looking at a “dance of the cars” – how there aren’t
more collisions I don’t know.
Our flight is tomorrow, sadly it was time to begin our final
preparations, so the evening was spent cajoling various items of luggage into the
cases we have. Deb’s space management skills come in very handy, and we managed
to get it all done.
So tomorrow, it’s off to the airport and home, back to windy
and shakey welly.
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