Amanda's Awful Houston Tour

So, not only am I an awful tour guide, I'm a bad blogger friend! Amanda came to Houston on a work trip over 2 weeks ago, and we were able to hook up for a Houston mini-tour with drinks and dinner. Since I've been finishing up my South America trip pics, and I've had class every weekend, I've neglected to put together a tour re-cap for Amanda.

Amanda was in town for a conference and was staying at the University of Houston. I was able to grab a few photos while trying to find my way to the hotel. Since I gave the worst tour ever of Houston, didn't stop for any tourist photos and EVEN forgot to take a pic of us together, I thought I'd provide Amanda with a re-cap of her pathetic Houston tour.

Since it was late afternoon, we rushed out to explore the town before the sunset. Our first stop with a mini-drive though of downtown. Only when I came to my senses and realized she lives in New York City, did it down on me she probably wouldn't be too impressed with all our pretty skyscrapers.

But we did get to see Minute Maid Stadium- home of the Houston Astros!

M0ving right along, we headed just east of town and stopped at the fabulous Corkscrew for a drink & to enjoy some of the wonderful Houston winter weather.

Moving right along as the sunset, we drove along the fabulous Buffalo Bayou. Down Memorial Drive through Memorial Park and into uptown Houston.

We drove by the Williams Tower at the Galleria, where H almost proposed to me.

Our last big stop was for some awesome Tex-Mex at the hometown favorite, Ninfas.

It was really great to meet you Amanda & I'm sorry for the lame tour! Houston is really cool & I hope you come back soon (or we can come to NYC!).

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Finally back home from the frozen tundra & don't leave again till Monday.

University of Houston

I just happened to be down at the University of Houston to see a friend a few weeks ago. I had a few minutes to get lost around the campus before picking her up, so I snapped a few pics.

U of H, as it's known here, is a probably the most over looked school here in Texas. Though not as prestigious as University of Texas (UT) or Texas A&M, the school still has about 35,000 students.

I've never really taken much time to explore their campus, but H tells me it's grown quite a bit even since he graduated a few years ago. New buildings give the school a modern and sleek feel.

It was neat to be back in the school-zone, people playing a good game of flag football and students just getting out from a Saturday afternoon basketball game.

The university is really a great opportunity for many commuter students and tons of international students. Their programs in hotel hospitality are probably their most widely known, and their law school is considered Tier 1.

It was neat mini-field trip. I'll have to go back with H one day, so he can re-live all the nostalgia and torture of his undergrad days.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Off to the Canadian border of Minnesota today!

My Caucus Experience in Texas

NEWSFLASH: Obama won (more delegates in) Texas!! WHOOT WHOOT!!!

The major news stations are failing to report the final delegate numbers slowly rolling in from the caucuses on last Tuesday. I'll say I was very upset that he lost the primary, and by such a large margin. Sorry for the crappy pictures, but it was dark, cold and crowded.

I wanted to share and document my first (and probably last) caucus experience. In case you didn't know, Texas has a crazy Two-Step Primary System, whereby a portion of our state's delegates are awarded based on a primary vote and the remaining 1/3 are awarded based on the results of a caucus, held on the night the polls close.


The polls officially closed at 7PM, so I arrived at my local polling place around 6 to watch the last of the voters rush the polls. Somehow, at the last minute, the voting locations were consolidated and 5 different precincts were all voting & caucusing at the same location. The parking quickly got out of control, but that was the least of the problems. I met up with a rapdily growing group of Obama supporters, standing at least 100' from the actual voting area. We chatted with voters, answered questions and encouraged people to stick around for the caucus.


A little after 7, the group of Obama and Clinton supporters were instructed by a mysterious source to move forward near the empty space between the gym building and the main school building. About 7:15 I could still see a line with about 70+ people snaking out the voting door. These voters had arrived, parked and made it to the primary voting line before 7.



Both groups of caucus supporters had to wait outside, in the 40 degree weather until all the voting had concluded. We waited, and waited and waited some more! We were herded around a few times since all the supporters were technically violating the law by being too close to the voting area. It was great to see so many people standing and waiting patiently, committed to our crazy democratic process.


The precinct judge eventually came outside the voting area to attempt to divide the 5 precincts into separate groups in order to prepare for the caucus. My precinct ended up having about 80 people, and I would guess there were 300-400 people there total with the other precincts.



It was 8:45 before the last voters exited the primary voting area, and they poll workers could then begin organizing for the caucus. We were the first precinct to go into the gym, and I think the other 4 groups went into the school itself. We started out by dividing our group into a Clinton area and and an Obama area. A sign-in sheet of paper was distributed to each group and we all signed in and listed our candidate of choice. I was actually surprised how quickly the caucus itself went, it was just the wait for the voters that was awful.


Our precinct had about 2:1 Obama to Hillary supporters, so hopefully we were able to send a few delegates to the state (or district) convention to represent Obama! All in all, I've read some super crazy reports from the larger voting areas- the caucus not starting till after midnight or people getting into heated altercations. Everybody was fairly friendly, although I did run into a few nutty people. It was a fabulous experience & I'm so happy I was able to be a part of such a great moment in history. (Even if I did give up Faith Hill Rodeo tickets for the night!).

Sorry about the wonky pics- it was dark, crowded and I was doing the "hold the camera over my head and shoot" method.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Obama won Mississippi yesterday too!!

Zoe in Recovery

Warning dear blog readers- there are some slightly graphic photos of Zoe's stitches, so if that might gross you out, please come back tomorrow. You can read about Zoe's Mast Cell Tumors here. I was out of town the day the performed the surgery, so she stayed over night with the vet's office. Apparently they discovered Thursday morning that she had chewed through some of her original stitches and they had to re-do them! :(

So when we brought her home, we tried to keep her very wrapped up and her wounds covered so she wouldn't bother them. You can see where they shaved her for the IV and her earlier heart work-up.

This e-collar only lasted about 2 minutes because it was too big, and the yellow bandage lasted about 2 days before it fell (was chewed) off.

There were actually 2 separate cuts. The larger, upper one to get the two MCT's, and then the other one on her knee cap for that MCT. Her skin is all bruised and swollen and pouchy....makes me more upset than it does her!

By Sunday though, she was back to her usual playful self, just with a minor war-wound. We played with the kong in the backyard and she was running just fine. Monday night however, we started noticing some minor bleeding around a few places on her leg, so it looks like she started messing with her stitches again. We didn't know what else to do, so we cut leg-holes into a pillow case and wrapped her up! Pictures to come ;)

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Going to the one & only, world famous Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo tonight to see Rascal Flatts!!

Everything Else South America

I needed one last blog post to tie up all the fun things that didn't really fit anywhere else. I got the above great photo flying out of Buenos Aires. I didn't have my camera out and ready, but I managed to snag a few shots.

I'm so glad we flew over 9 de Julio Avenue. It cuts an impressive swath through the middle of an otherwise super-crowded town.

This bus on the Argentina / Brazil border cracked me up. I've seen double-decker buses and tour buses, but not a double-decker tour bus! There were tons of tour buses around Igauzu Falls brining tourists from all over both countries.

Much like the chessey rib shot in Uruguay, H was showing off his authentic Brazillian beer while were were dining in this *klassy* restaurant in the middle of Igauzu Falls park in Argentina. Though fairly nice inside, all the tourists were hot, sweat and generally in swim-gear.

I saw several of these awesome trees on Copacabana Beach boardwalk. They had litterally covered the sidewalks and restaurants with hundreds of flowers.

Can't pass up an opportunity to check out all the places on Google Earth. Colonia is above, and you can see it's totally surrounded by water. This picture isn't big enough, but you can really see how the trees line EVERY street when you zoom in to GE.

And of course you can see Redentor from the space as well, probably even better than we actually saw it when we were there! :(

Finally, Iguazu Falls from space is pretty freaking impressive. The Devil's Throat is the huge air that is totally obsured by the white mist. You can really see how all the falls flow around to the Argentina side on the left.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm done with South America trip blogs!

Lantern Fascination

The other absolutly fun photographic thing about Colonia was the lanterns every where in town. Above is the old historic wall, looking out on to the water front.

Even better- trees & lanterns!

I loved capturing the mix of buildings and cultures (see the sushi above?).

There were also very cool tile street names on the cornder of each intersection.

And even sometimes on the brick walls.

We didn't stay until dark, so I'm not sure if they are functional. I'm sure they would be beautiful all lit up at night.

After a while, it became a game for me to find more lanterns. Yes, I'm a total dork like that!

Also, many of them had simple, but elegant lamp posts. Takes me back to a better place and time.....

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Last day of classes! Then study on my own for a month.....bleh!

Tree Paradise

I've got a few more posts about some fun things on our trip, especially since I've been too busy working, studying, traveling and nursing Zoe to do anything else blog-worthy. One of the things that was so awesome about Colonia was the amazing trees. Literally tress EVERYWHERE. It added to my total state of relaxation while we strolled around the historic town.

From the top of the lighthouse, you could see you were surrounded by trees. The towers of the church just peeked above the tops of the trees.

A few decades back, the town must have set upon an ambitious project to plant trees. There were trees planted every 8'-10' along almost EVERY street. Every street was tree-lined and so peaceful.

Trees lined the historic town square and some of the older streets.

With the old cobblestone streets, doesn't this look like a place out of paradise? It was so romantic and relaxing.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Zoe is perking up quite well and acting normal, even though the scars and stitches themselves are still really nasty.