Sunday, November 24 - We were back in Houston last Wednesday to do some more visiting with Carrie. She had some interesting city sights to show us. After finishing some work around her apartment (hanging pictures), we jumped in Carrie's car and headed downtown. She's a fearless big city driver, so it's good to let her do the driving in Houston.
Our first stop was Carrie's new office building, Enterprise Products. It's one of the highest buildings in Houston – wouldn't you know it. What a beautiful place to work, It is connected to the Houston Underground, a huge shopping/restaurant area located BELOW the city.
We walked around a bit downtown stretching our necks to see the many tall skyscrapers. Some very interesting architecture! With the train running right through downtown, it makes getting around fairly easy. Carrie rides the train to work...nice! They are currently expanding the train system to hopefully relieve the madness of the highway system here in Houston.
We ventured into the Historic District containing some of the oldest building in town. Most have been converted to restaurants or taverns. This area of town is also being revitalized with remodeling and planned events taking place to get the people here in the evenings.
The Hearsay building once served as a Confederate armory during the Civil War.
We stopped to view Houston's 9-1-1 monument. It's a memorial to a Houston native, Lauren Grandcolas killed on United Flight 93. An interesting feature is the smoking fountain (We think they use dry ice for the smoke.) with a tall skyscraper, similar in appearance to the NY towers, in the background appearing through the mist.
The information about this fountain is fascinating. 
It was getting near four o'clock, that means the three-hour rush was about to begin, so it was time to scram or hang around Houston for awhile. We choose this time to flea before things got nuts. Even during non-rush hour times, Houstonians drive a little crazy, during rush hour – forget it!
We'll be back on Saturday to watch college football with Carrie and her gang, a pretty constant happening during football season. Nice they welcome us “old folks” to come along and soak up some of their enthusiasm.
Flowers are still in full bloom.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!
I love the building with the interesting round corners. Very unique looking. I sure don't miss driving in rush hour traffic any more.
ReplyDeleteCarrie is very wise to use public transportation.. .rush hour and downtown are just crazy! Thanks for showing me an area I haven't see yet. . .nice!
ReplyDeleteNice tour. I lived in Houston from 1969 t0 1972 and I honestly do not recognize any of those places:(
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is nice to have a local tour guide. It takes the fear out of getting lost and not knowing want to see or where to go away.
ReplyDeleteYour photos of the downtown architecture are amazing! Also love the collage with the pink borders. I am not a big Houston fan, but your photos make we want to give it another chance.
ReplyDeleteThe important thing for you is clearly daughter time. Glad you are making the most of it.
What a beautiful 911 Memorial and historic downtown Houston has so many interesting buildings. Thanks for the tour! What a fun day with Carrie!
ReplyDeleteLove Carrie's building...very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThe historic district architecture is gorgeous.
That is a beautiful memorial, very creative. I like the smoking fountain.
City drivers are a unique breed. It was amazing how the traffic never lets up in Atlanta. Every time we got back on the five laner to go back to the campground our comment was the same...look at all the cars! The drivers are scary! Glad to be out of there! Smart of you to high tail it our there before the big crush.
Hope you had a great football afternoon with the younger generation!!
Haven't been to Houston as we try to avoid big cities these days. Does look like an interesting place to visit, though, except for that traffic!
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have such a good tour guide to show you the beautiful city.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great tour of downtown, certainly a place we would venture to.
ReplyDeleteWe country folks.
Thanks for the fun and informative tour. I used to be pretty good driving in crazy traffic but now I avoid it at all costs.....I'll leave it to the youngens - our daughters lol !
ReplyDeleteThose buildings in Houston's old town are simply amazing - beautiful architecture. Sure nice to see they've kept some of those along with all the shiny steel and glass skyscrapers.
ReplyDeleteYou have a great tour guide!
I was most impressed with Lauren's Garden. Such thought and symbolism went into that monument.
ReplyDeleteNice tour. I especially enjoy the historical buildings. They have so much personality.
ReplyDeleteGreat tour!! Carrie's office building is incredible...bet there are some good views from the top! The historic area showed some really neat buildings.
ReplyDeleteHouston is a neat city, great architecture and good eats.
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