WE WENT ON A CRUISE!

Saturday, April 4 – Well, sort of...... The cruise was on a small sightseeing boat to tour the Houston Ship Channel. This is a hard-to-get ticket, one we had to reserve weeks ago! We tried to sail last fall while here in Houston but were unable to get tickets....sold out! So we reserved a spot for today. What is the cost? FREE!

Our ship.

The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located just a few hours by ship from the Gulf of Mexico. The port is consistently ranked 1st in the United States in foreign waterborne tonnage; 1st in U.S. imports; 1st in U.S. export tonnage and 2nd in the U.S. in total tonnage. It is also the nation’s leading breakbulk port, handling 65 percent of all major U.S. project cargo. The Houston Ship Channel is 45 feet deep and 530 feet wide.

As one of the world’s busiest ports, the Port of Houston is a large and vibrant component of the regional economy. A 2012 study by Martin Associates says ship channel-related businesses contribute 1,026,820 jobs throughout Texas, up from more than 785,000 jobs cited in a 2007 study. This activity helped generate more than $178.5 billion in statewide economic impact, up from nearly $118 billion. Additionally, more than $4.5 billion in state and local tax revenues are generated by business activities related to the port, up from $3.7 billion.

Our daughter, Carrie, joined us for the trip. She's pretty familiar with this area because of where she works. Enterprise Products Partners LP is involved with oil pipelines, tank storage, and loading ships. Interestingly, she was involved with the emergency unloading of a Maersk tanker, Norwegian, that collided with another ship in the channel. Who would have guessed, those two ships were some of the first sights we saw on the cruise. How cool!

Damage to the ship.

The ship that did the damage. It didn’t go unscathed.

Along the Houston Ship Channel lies the world’s second largest petrochemical complex and the nation’s busiest port in terms of foreign tonnage.

The channel was pretty busy. We even had to cut our trip short by about a mile because of traffic. The cruise ship does not travel the entire length of the ship channel…only about half. Unfortunately, we turned around just before the Enterprise Products Partners LP yard, so we didn't get to see it. Carrie's office is in downtown Houston, but she's frequently in this area.

Downtown Houston in the background.

Since we didn't get to see the Enterprise yard, after returning to land, Carrie drove us out to the area where they are constructing new oil holding tanks. These babies are huge! We were a little leery about driving around the area taking pictures. We kept expecting to be pulled-over by Homeland Security.

We enjoyed our cruise and recommend it to others when in the Houston area. Just be sure to visit their website and book your tour way ahead of time.

If that wasn’t a big enough day, we went to one of Carrie’s favorite pubs to watch the NCAA Boy’s Basketball playoff games. Another full, fun day in Houston.

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

A GREAT DAY AT THE PARK AND BREWERY

Saturday, March 28 – We met up with Carrie and her friend, Stephanie, for a walk in the park. Houston Buffalo Bayou Park has just re-opened recently after a many, many million dollar renovation. They have separate paths for walking or running and then one for bikes.

One of the cool areas we were headed to see was the Johnny Steele two dog parks. They have one for small dogs and one for larger and small dogs.

Both parks were packed. Both have a water feature that the dogs seem to really enjoy. Bet they enjoy it even more during the hot summers Houston is known to have. The small dog park still has a very nice grassy area but those big dogs have worn much of the grass in their park away. They get pretty rough!

Spring has come to Houston.

After our walk in the park, we headed to the Karbach Brewing Company. This place was PACKED!

Carrie and Stephanie

There are two tasting packages…$9 gets you a very nice souvenir 9 ounce glass and 4 chips to taste four kinds of beer, and for $12, you can get a 12 ounce souvenir glass and 3 tasting chips. Tours are also included, but they were booked up all afternoon. The earliest spot available was for the 6 o'clock tour, and we didn't want to stay that long.

The girls opted for the 12 oz, and we did the 9 oz.

There is a food truck, or you are permitted to bring your own food into the tasting area. There is plenty of seating plus several Corn Hole games. The young people were having a good time and appeared to be drinking responsibly.

So fitting…don’t you think?

After a couple hours, we headed back to Carrie's neighborhood, Mid-town Houston, for something to eat. After that we called it a day and headed back to the 5^th wheel to watch NCAA March Madness Basketball.

Carrie treated us the entire day. It is part of her birthday gift to us. Paul’s birthday was Friday, and so this was a very timely treat for him. Thanks so much for a wonderful day, Carrie.

Cheers

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

FINISHED OUR TREK ACROSS TEXAS

Thursday, March 19 –  We've arrived at the Houston Elks Lodge. Of course, we are mainly here to visit our daughter, Carrie, but we feel so comfortable here, we call it home.

We continued our journey across Texas on TX-36 and US-290. Again, love the back roads of Texas. Not much traffic, few large trucks, nice wide berm, and enjoyable scenery. For you non-Texans, don't be surprised, if you travel the back roads, to see people pulling over to drive on the berm to let you pass. It's a little scary, but the berms are as wide as a traffic lane and if you're careful, it seems to work well for allowing others to pass. Just BE CAREFUL!

So we are at the Houston Elks Lodge in Stafford, Texas. There are 10 sites here (8 with concrete pads and 2 gravel). We are on our “usual” site #1, a nice concrete pad with no one on our patio side. We have a 50 amp FHU site. The street is gravel and the campground is just behind the lodge. There is a pool, that if it warms up, we will jump in to cool off. Yes, you do have to be an Elk to use the campground, but that makes the lodge available to you also.

We know many of the people here so enjoy staying here. We also have learned our way around Houston and have nearly mastered Houston traffic. “Nearly” because one never “masters” the freeways in and around Houston! Especially, if you are over 50.....ha ha!

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