Visiting sons 2 & 4 this week, I have driven around the Houston area, both with and without purpose.
On the plus side, there are no political billboards here, which is a nice break from NH. Houston seems to like fountains as well; even boring fountains are still attractive, to my mind.
On the downside, a limited number of businesses dominate the area. It's a growing area, so real estate and building materials aren't much of a surprise; restaurants in an area without any natural and few historical attractions are expected. But I do wonder how so many storage facilities stay in business. And academic enrichment (or rescue) schools for children must be either a very good or very bad sign.
No wildflowers except some yellow blossoms; no bright-colored birds, though the varied song is nice. Brush obscures many views. Fascinating trees, though perhaps only to those such as I who are interested in bark and leaf-shapes. Not a lot of fruit, flower, or crops. Perhaps that is an October problem.
Addendum: Those enormous abstract metal sculptures in public spaces - the ones that any sane person looks at and wonders "what were they thinking?" They are very fond of those things in Houston.
Drive TX roads March-June, and you will see a RIOT of wildflowers on roadsides. Thanks to Ladybird's influence, the TX Dpt of Highways seeds the roadsides.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't care for Shiner Bock?
While Houston drivers may leave something to be desired, and Houston frontage roads are even more of a curse than E New England traffic rotaries , as a native New Englander I will swear on a Bible, or Koran if you like ( HAH!),or on An Inconvenient Truth, that the worst drivers I have experienced are to be found inside Route 128.
While I appreciate the beauty of the prairie, the New England meadows and forests are embedded in my consciousness. You can take the boy out of the country, but you cannot take the country out of the boy.
Have you tried Marini's Empanada House? Probala!
Wildflowers are in the spring and they are amazing.
ReplyDeleteIf you want colorful birds (of the mundane variety, but still) February brings thousands of Robins waiting to bring spring to the rest of the country.
And I'll take a Texas frontage road over Boston any day! ;)
Houston has a much better zoo than most--cheap and you can actually see the animals.
Gringo--you owe me a new keyboard for that swearing on Inconvient Truth comment!
I concede the "inside 128" comparisons. Frankly, we're not quite sure that area is really part of northern New England, in much the same way that southerners are ambivalent about whether Atlanta is really part of the South.
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