Thursday, December 16, 2010

OFFBEAT TOURIST ATTRACTIONS…HOUSTON

We went on an interesting drive this afternoon. After consulting Roadside America, a Guide to Tourist Oddities, we decided to go see a couple unique things here in South Houston.

On our way to our first stop we saw Reliant Stadium, Home of the Houston Texans.

reliant-stadium

A beautiful stadium with a movable roof.

reliant-stadium-2

The roof was open, and the area was preparing for Monday Night Football. We drove all around, pulling over frequently for photographs. The security officers were taking their places. There are tons of parking areas each with a special color code for special events such as tailgating parties.

Our second stop was The Giant Cross.

cross

Over 170 feet high Sagemont Church Cross , taller than the Statue of Liberty (not counting its pedestal).  it is in the yard of one of Houston's “mega” Churches, Sagemont Church. The horizontal beam is 60 feet long. The cross is lit at night and is visible for miles. At the base is a 2,500 square foot platform for special events such as weddings.

Can you find Marsha in the picture? She is small small compared to this cross.

cross-and-marsha

Baptism area.

baptism-area

Church officials say they want the cross to serve as a symbol of hope. Man was it HUGE!

Our third and final stop was a field full of metal sculptures.

truck

It is located at Texas Pipe and Supply, Highway 288 and Belfort on the southbound side of 288 just south of Bellfort Blvd. The Texas Pipe and Supply call this "The Eclectic Menagerie Park". This was something to see! We pulled over on the entrance ramp and turned on our flashers to wander among the large metal sculptures. There is lots of detail in many of these sculptures.

There was a soldier,

paul-and-man

Snoopy,

snoopy

a rocket ship,

space-shuttle

a modern fighter plane,

plane

Armadillo

armadillo 

Close up of some of the detail.

armadillo-close-up

Why they picked this one of do…who knows.

grasshopper

We called this Monster Man.

monsterman-2

Keep your fingers out of his mouth.

monsterman

If you look real close, you can see a bird standing on the motor.

plane-3

This spider was pretty neat. The eyes were HUGE.

spider

spider-eyes

Marsha was attacked by one of the sculptures.

hipo-and-marsha

This was our favorite. Check out the bling on the legs and head band of the middle cow.

cows

There were lots more. What an interesting adventure. Be sure to check out Roadside America for interesting and unique oddities in your area!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

8 comments:

  1. Too bad you couldn't go inside Reliant Stadium. There is not a bad seat in the whole place.

    You did find the oddities of Houston. What fun!

    Mac & Dianna

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  2. I love Roadside America. And this place is wonderful. A definite must for us.

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  3. Wow!! You have to submit some of these photos to my friend Wendy's site: Roadside Wonders [roadsidewonders.net]

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  4. I life offbest! I also had to look at your picture for a double-take. At first the little red tail wasn't obvious, just the white-appearing hair. Then, I got it. You were wearing a Santa hat. It just took a while.

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  5. We do Roadside America stops, too. They liven us up after the more somber history sites giving our life better balance.

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  6. You need to stop here too!

    http://www.beercanhouse.org/

    My kind of place!

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  7. You should be Chamber of Commerce for S. Houston Marsha! As you know, we are right behind you (travel wise) and you are planning our visit to Houston!!!!
    Thanks for a GREAT post - see you soon!

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  8. Oh I loved those wacky things! Especially the grasshopper.

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