Lone Star State, Day five and slx

 Friends and Gardens

The hotel we were staying in is under construction, and we decided there were too many noises and chemical smells to stay. Our plan was to book a room in the adjacent sister hotel. The staff bent over backwards to help with the move, and we got an upgrade for the same price. Now we have a little apartment with all of the amenities and are quite comfortable. We are not complaining. 😀

We had a fun time visiting with old friends.

Yesterday, we meet with old friends from our New Orleans days. We have kept in touch sporadically over the years, but have not met in person in 30 years. And you know what? We picked up right where we left off. It's great when it works out that way.

Today, we went to Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. This was another family favorite when we lived here. Many of the gardens were wiped out during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, but they have rebuilt them beautifully. Here are some pictures from our visit. Yesterday, you saw a lot of animals. Today, you'll see a lot of flowers (and maybe a few animals).

Mercer Botanical Gardens and Arboretum is named for Theresa Mercer and her husband. She was an avid gardener and started the garden on 14.5 acres. Today it is owned by Harris County and has over 300 acres.

Ward studying a map of the gardens. This koi pond was a favorite of Wally and Theo's back in the day.

Cypress swamp

Bluebonnets (Texas state flower)

We saw several people using the gardens for a photo shoot. I assume this is for a quinceañera.

This nice couple stopped their photo shoot and volunteered to take a picture of Ward and me.
Check out her outfit. Those are laced, leather pants with fur around the bottom. We don't have any pictures of the cheesecake bathing suit shoot that was going on.

On the other side of the park , there were a couple of miles of paved trails that Ward and I walked. I was getting hot near the end. The temperatures were only in the mid-high 80s, but it was very humid.

Then, it was back to the hotel to do some laundry. For dinner, we went to an In-n-Out Burger. I've heard about how great they were for years, but have never seen one before. Our opinion: They were pretty good for a fast food burger, but nothing to write home about.

Until next time...

Lone Star State, Day Four

Zoo and Nostalgia

Before moving to Maryland, we lived in Houston for ten years and part of this trip was planned to visit some of our old haunts. First up was the Houston Zoo. We visited there often when the boys were young, and it was a family favorite. It did not disappoint all of these years later. 

Below are some pictures of our day. BTW, get ready for a lot of animal pictures.😀

The zoo was busy with timed entries. We saw lots of strollers and kids on school field trips. but it was not too crowded to enjoy things. The field trip kids reminded me of when I went with Andrew here on his first grade field trip.

Galapagos tortoises

Orangutan

Baby Asian Elephant Kirby. She is a year and a half old.

Zoo humor elephant sculpture

Male African Lion

Female African lion

Ankole cattle

Malayan tiger. Even though this tiger weighs over 300 pounds, it looks just like a house cat when it's sleeping.

Cheetah 

Giraffes

Mongoose

Whooping crane. I had special interest in this bird since I recently read a book about Texas whooping cranes.

Bald eagle

After the zoo, we drove around our old neighborhood and found our former house. Both have aged well.

And we ended the day with some good Texas bbq. Ward had ribs and brisket and I had a baked potato.

Until next time...

Lone Star State-Day Three

 Waco

We took off this morning from Dallas (really Plano, suburb of Dallas) to head south to Houston. After we figured out the several complicated interchanges, we made it out of town to the open road. Goodness, this part of Texas is flat. Our first stop was Waco, a couple of hours down the road. Below are some pictures from there.

First stop was a place where they found several fossils for the now extinct Colombian mammoth. The original 13 complete mammoths they found were given to Baylor university.

Everything else has been left in place and is part of an active dig. If you study the picture you can make out the parts of the mammoth that died in place. At the very least, the tusks are easy to see. I was very excited to see the actual bones/fossils because in museums you usually see only models or plaster replicas. We also saw remains of an ancient camel, giant tortoise, and a saber-tooth tiger.

 

We also hiked a short trail that was part of an Eagle Scout Project. Wally and Theo are both Eagle Scouts and I've been around quite a few projects. However, this is the fanciest project sign I've ever seen.

Next up was the Brazos River Riverwalk in downtown Waco.

Ward wanted to see the historic Waco suspension bridge there.

I was happy to see the full-size bronze sculptures of a cattle drive.

The heat was building so we decided it was time to move inside with a visit to the Dr. Pepper museum. Dr. Pepper was invented by a young pharmacist, Charles Alderton, who mixed 26 flavors for the winning combination.

The museum was very well done and at the site of the former bottling plant.

At the end, we got a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Too bad that I can't stand the stuff, but Ward was happy.

And if you watch much HGTV, no visit to Waco would be complete without a visit to Chip and Joanna Gaines' Silos.

However, they are closed on Sunday.

Then we got on the road for a few more hours to Houston. We took the back roads looking for the famous Texas bluebonnets that are in bloom now. We saw many along the way. BTW, I think the camera did a pretty good job capturing these flowers at 60 mph.

It was another good, but tiring day.

Until next time...

Hello from the Lone Star State, Day one and two

Ward and I are in Texas on vacation where we are visiting with friends and being tourists. The days have been full, but good. I'll see what I have time to squeeze in here before it's time for bed.

Travel Day and Gardens

Our flight went off without a hitch. We signed up for TSA precheck to hopefully help with the long lines that are forming at airports these days. We didn't have to wait long in our lines, but the regular lines had only a normal wait.

We began our trip with a visit to 
long-time friends, C and M. We had planned to stay with them, but there were some last minute changes, so we stayed at a hotel nearby. Yesterday, we went to the Dallas Arboretum.
It was hard for Ward to get a word in edge-wise as C and I were catching up.

There were a lot of people enjoying the gardens even though it was in the 90s F.

At the gardens, the daffodils were done and the pansies and tulips were almost done blooming. It was interesting to compare that to the almost flowerless Maryland that we left.

This frog fountain was blocked off or I'm sure there would have been people in it to cool off.

Harvest sculpture

Even the tunnel from the parking garage to the gardens was colorful.

After a few hours, the heat was starting to get the best of us, so we headed back to C and M's house for more catching up and a great meal that C prepared.

Today was another busy day of travel and sightseeing as we made our way from Dallas to Houston. Next, time I will share with you what we found along the way.

Until next time...