LIGHT THE HEIGHTS

Saturday, December 8 – WOW! What a display of Christmas lights. Our daughter, Carrie, recommended to us the 25th Anniversary of the Lights in the Heights event here in Houston. The Heights is a downtown neighborhood on the northwest side of Houston. This is a neighborhood Christmas festival.

The snowmen are even bigger in Texas.

The lighting takes place on two streets each about 8 blocks long. We did see several other parallel streets also joining in on the festivities. Just about every house is decorated to the “nines.” It's "try to outdo the Jones" time. Thousands of lights, bands, Christmas carolers, Santa Claus, manger scenes, bell ringers, etc. You name it; it's on display.

If this works for the Guyre's, we are doing it next year.

One of our favorites.

See Santa back there.

Thousands pack the streets taking in the festivities. Hundreds of families with their kids, teens, young adults, and plenty of us older folks too!

Many of the homes have private parties with groups of friends enjoying the beautiful 80 degree weather on porches and patios. An outdoor event like this couldn't take place in many parts of the United States. I know it would pour down rain or snow and be bitterly cold if they tried to do something on this scale in Northeast Ohio.

These kids were so cute with this bear.

We arrived to the area just as things were beginning about 6 p.m. Crowds were already descending on the area, so we zipped in the first place parking spot we saw. It turned out to be a perfect parking spot, only about two blocks from the holiday lights.

Thousands of  luminaries line Bayland Avenue and Highland Street from Houston Avenue to Studewood.

We walked up and down the streets enjoying the lights, listening to some great music and, of course, people watching. People never seem to disappoint us for a source of entertainment.

Early on, only a dozen or so musicians performed on porches. Today, over seventy entertainment groups volunteer their time and talent for this event.

Several houses had bell ringers. They were wonderful.

Several children's choirs entertained the crowds.

The celebrating officially ends at 9 p.m., and we are sure the partying goes on long after that deadline. By 8:00, we had completed the two street loop and were ready to head home.

You just never know how Santa is going to arrive.

True Houston Texans' fans live in this house.

It was a great night and more lights then we've ever seen. The Houston skyline was pretty impressive as we sped down I-45 on the way home. What a beautiful city.

What the season is all about.

This photo is for Judy of Travels with Emma.

The end.

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

 

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON

Thursday, December 6 –  We walked around downtown Houston Tuesday. We began at City Hall where we picked-up a tourist map and some suggestions at the Visitor's Center. This is a very nice visitor's center in the heart of downtown. The ladies working there are extremely friendly and helpful.

Sam Houston overseeing the running of the Visitor's Center.

They have just about anything you will find in Houston.

From there we headed to the Underground. A mere 20-feet below downtown Houston is a maze 7.5-mile-long tunnel system for 150,000-employee workforce. There are doctors' offices, banking, shopping, post office, salons, tons of eating establishments, etc. Anyone can access the network via street-level stairs, escalators, office-building elevators or head to Wells Fargo Plaza, which offers direct street-to-tunnel access. It is entirely air-conditioned which is pretty nice for a city that can see 100+ temperatures and high humidity.

It is so clean everywhere.

We then headed down Main Street to the Chase Tower.

Here you can take a free express elevator up to the 60^th floor observation deck. That elevator flew! We enjoyed a marvelous view of the city and the maze of the famous (or is that infamous) Houston highway system.

This view is only half of the freeway roads. This does not include I-45 and all its feeder roads.

We then walked to Discovery Green, home of many outdoor activities in Houston. It borders the Convention Center, The Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets NBA basketball team, and some exclusive downtown living centers like One Park Place where apartment style homes sell in the million dollar range.

There is a beautiful pond in the middle of the Green.

With temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, this ice skating rink isn't getting much use…yet.

Can you guess which is One Park Place? Yep the tall one with the peaks. An amazing place.

From there we walked to the Houston Pavilion, one of the many, many nightlife sections of Houston.

The 24,886 sq. ft. Lucky Strike Lanes and Lounge, aka bowling alley, is one of a kind. Lucky Strike Lanes features 14 state-of-the-art lanes including a Luxe Premium Suite complete with four private lanes, a separate bar, and a 20′ x 12′ HD projection screen perfect for exclusive parties and events.You enjoy bowling from a living room style lounge area....no plastic chairs here!

Luxe Premium Suite

We then walked back toward our starting point.

Houston has a free bus service in the downtown area. The bus covers most of the downtown area. Since we wanted to see the city "up close and personal," we opted to walked the 100s of miles…just seemed like 100s. All kidding aside, Houston is a very easy, clean city to get in a nice walk.

 

We then scurried back to the truck managing to get out of town BEFORE the famous rush hour began....whew!

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

CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKING DAY

Tuesday, December 4 – Saturday was Christmas cookie baking day. This is an annual event for Marsha. Paul thinks it's one of those women “nesting” thingies! Marsha and Carrie planned on baking some cookies for Carrie's Christmas party coming up in a couple of weeks and for us to enjoy.

Unwrapping the Peanut Butter Cups and Hersey Kisses.

While the girls baked, Paul's job was to wash dishes, take pictures, help whenever assigned a duty, and test the cookies as they came out of the oven. If any cookies were slightly overdone or broken, Paul had to consume them. Tough on a guy's waistline, but a man has to do, what a man has to do!

The gals baked several types of cookies, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Blossom, Funfetti, and Rugelach, an Italian cookie and Paul's favorite! All in all, they baked 444 cookies....HOLY SMOKES! They still have cut-out cookies to bake in the near future...WOW!

Everything tastes so delicious, Paul is having a difficult time deciding which one to eat first.

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