Houston -- Apr. 28-30th

Wow! Haven't blogged in a couple days. Hope I can remember stuff. Oh well, here goes.
I have been taking it pretty easy since I have a place to come back to and I'll be here for like 6 days. I have just been doing like 2-3 things each day and taking my time about it.
Two days ago, after my last post I ran some errands, got my eyes checked, so I could get some new glasses, and went to Eyemasters and got 2 pair for $99. Pretty good. Angie and I went downtown to scout a couple places to take some night skyline and got thrown out of one parking garage...twice. :) Then we looked at another one and it was locked up tight. So we decided to get dinner. We ate at a place called Cabo, it was a tex mex place, and we got tacos and wings. The wings were breaded, which I generally am not a fan of, but the breading was really tasty, it had thyme and something else interesting in there. The tacos were good, too. After that we went home and crashed.
Yesterday I went to a private art gallery, the Menil Collection, and down to a cool little place called Tranquility Park, and both were really awesome. The Menil collection had some really great stuff, including a Picasso. And it was free! Never hurts. The park had some great shots for downtown buildings and skyline pics. Then we went to Demeri's BBQ joint, and I had a four meat/two side plate and a beer for less than $20! It was decent, not as great as I was looking for, but I guess all the best BBQ is in Austin. We're thinking about taking the 2 hour drive and getting some, we'll see. The sausage and chicken were good, the sauce was tasty, I had charra beans and potato salad, both of those were great, but the ribs and brisket weren't the best cuts of meat, and they weren't cooked long enough.
Today, I picked up my glasses. They seem a little cheap, but they were, and I usually only wear them at night, so no big deal. Angie had some errands most of the day, so I was on my own today. I had gone on a decent run the last two days, and my legs were pretty sore today, so I skipped it this morning. I did end up hiking for like 5 miles, though. I found out that the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, was free admission on Thursdays, so I decided to start off there. Come to find out it's two buildings and three floors on each! I stayed for like 3 hours. It was amazing! Totally worth the admission. They had an Afghanistan exhibit, ancient Egyptian sarcaphagai and hieroglyphs, my favorite is always the 1880s - 1900s artists. Especially surrealists and expressionists. There was tons more stuff there, too, those were just some of my favorites. I was accused of using my flash in the gallery by one of the workers and had to get snooty with her because I hate being accused of shit I didn't do. She said she saw the flash, I said no she didn't because my flash was turned off. whatever. I left eventually, and walked around in the adjacent sculpture garden for awhile, and realized I was starving and the Chex Mix I had with me wasn't going to be enough. I tried another new fast food type place, James Coney Island. Touted as being around since 1923, they specialize in good hot dogs with toppings, and real Texas chili. I got the Texas, and tots. The Texas is a hot dog with cheddar, chili, and onions. Mmmmm mmm. It was good and their decor was fun and vintage as well. Hit the spot. I headed west, and went to Brazos Bend State Park. I had planned on just staying like an hour, then heading back to the house, but I ended up staying about 3 1/2 hours. It was great. Mostly just a nice leisurely walk around the lake. But this place was chalk full of wildlife. I saw about 5 new species of birds I hadn't seen before. I saw a large bird swimming completely underwater and come up with a full fish in its mouth, and hold it there plenty long enough for me to get several great pics, beat it on a log, and eat it. A little further, I saw 7 alligators. One of them was ON the trail! He receded back to the water as two bikers and myself got closer to him. I pretty much saw sunset there, but was trying to get a few miles away before the light ran out to get some pictures of some Texas longhorns. I didn't really make it, I got some pictures, but I had to use flash or they were a bit blurry. Oh well, good end to a good day. Even better, Joe got us Fleetwood Mac tickets today through his work for Saturday!! Excited!!