My Trip to Houston, TX -- Part 2

Check out Part 1 of my trip to Houston right here

So, after the trip to NASA Space Center in Houston, Steve & Jackie took me to a really cool area called Kemah Boardwalk.



We put our names in at a cool restaurant called Aquarium (more on that in a second) and Jackie practically sprinted next door to Stingray Reef. “The Reef”, as I like to call it, had a large, shallow tank containing dozens of different sized stingrays. You could buy “food” (i.e. dead fish) that you feed the stingrays with. If you get there before feeding time, the stingrays are practically jumping out of the tank trying to get the fishy goodness. At first, it’s startling to see these wide, flat creatures sliding up the sides of the tanks and jumping out of the water. Once you get used to it, it’s pretty cool. They are very soft and slimy to the touch and very playful. It was very fun.

Sooner than expected we were called by the restaurant to be seated. The name of the restaurant was Aquarium. It is owned by the same people that own Landry’s and Joe’s Crab Shack. Actually, the entire boardwalk seems to be owned by these people. The restaurant is surrounded by giant aquariums with real fish swimming around inside. I saw grouper, nurse sharks, leopard sharks, angel fish, eels and many other cool to look at species just swimming around in circles. Naturally, I had to get a seafood dish, but was disappointed that I didn’t get to point at a fish in the aquarium and say, “I’ll take that one, he amuses me” like some over-indulged king preparing for a feast in his honor. Nevertheless, the food was delicious and the environment was very cool and the company (as usual) was wonderful.

By the time dinner was over the boardwalk was, for the most part, shut down. I got to walk past “The Beast”, which is a high powered rainbow-colored boat used to take people on tours of the bay. Hopefully when my wife and I return to Houston to visit the Dupuys, we’ll get a longer look at the boardwalk because it was really cool. After returning home we stayed up late into the night talking and watching Jason Collier’s DVD journal of his adventures as Access Hollywood’s Ultimate Star Wars Fan.

The next afternoon, we had a Houston Astros game to go to. We got a little lost on the way down, but finally made it to Minute Maid Park. That park is AMAZING. So nice, so clean. There’s a retractable roof that they mercifully shut because it was over 90 degrees outside. With the roof closed, it was very pleasant inside. We had pretty good seats looking down on the field. The game started out as a blowout with the Braves running up the score but the ‘Stros made a late run only to lose at the very end. This was easily one of my favorite, if not THE favorite, baseball game I’ve been to. As for the Park’s concessions, they were better than expected, but ridiculously expensive. I had a burger, a bucket of popcorn and 2 sodas and I probably spent 30 bucks. Like I said, a LITTLE pricey.

After a good day at the park, Steve & Jackie wanted to take me for dessert at a Sno-Ball hut. For those that don’t know, Sno-Balls are cups of shaved ice drowning in one of a hundred or so flavors. They have everything from Cherry to Wedding Cake.

We went to this place right by their house called The Chill Spot. They had tons of flavors and I had trouble choosing. Jackie got the aforementioned Wedding Cake. It rocked as hard as you think it does, tasting exactly like, surprise-surprise, a wedding cake. Steve changed it up a bit and got a flavor called Popeye. It was one of the greenest things I have ever seen in my life and I asked him if it tasted like spinach. It, apparently, does not. I went old school and got sugar-free Cherry. It was the classic choice (some would say boring….but I say, nay, it’s genius in it’s simplicity) and it was AWESOME. So good. I’m glad I got a medium because I might have eaten myself sick on a large or Xtra Large.

After the Chill Spot, we headed back to the crib to rest before planning the evening’s activities. What happened was, we all were pretty wiped from the long day at the game and we decided to get Mexican take-out, lots of beer and liquor and drink ourselves silly at the house while we watched their wedding video. It was a blast being able to catch up with my boy, Steve, and his lovely wife Jackie. We had so much fun that I hated to get up on Sunday and leave.

Visiting Houston was awesome and I can’t wait to go back with my wife for another visit and hang out with the Dupuys.

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