30TH ANNUAL HOUSTON ART CAR PARADE

Saturday, April 8 – It seems like there is something interesting and unique going on in Houston, TX, just about every weekend. Today was no exception! The Art Car Parade fills the streets of downtown Houston. The history of the Art Car Parade is very interesting. You can read about it here. The cars are parked on display at 11 a.m. So after a quick breakfast at one of the many mid-town/downtown restaurants, we along with daughter, Carrie, headed over to the show.

Carrie works downtown, so we took advantage of her parking garage. There are over 250 cars in the show. Many are professionally done but that doesn't stop the local school art programs, elementary schools and just ordinary everyday people from entering their own creations. The following are entries that did not win in any categories. We will show you the winners of the parade in the next post.

Camera car.

Guess what this car was entirely made of.

That is right…Peeps.

Carrie just couldn’t pass up a Shock Top beer out of this car.

The Houston Opera sponsored this one.

This car was completely made out of wood. It was beautiful.

Their motto:  We are #1 in a #2 business.

We walked several miles taking in the sights. These crazy events bring out some people looking to party and have a good time, so the “people watching” is in full-swing as well.

Many of these decorated cars will end up in the Art Car Museum which is also located in Houston. That is a stop we've made in the past and is enjoyable and FREE. We planned on walking around viewing the cars, and then high tailing it before the parade started.  But we were having so much fun, we just headed back to the parking garage where we moved the car to the 2^nd floor railing and sat there to enjoy the parade. What a hoot!

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

ART CAR MUSEUM

Wednesday, March 30 – We don’t normally go in for modern art, but Marsha wanted to visit this Museum. Before I agreed, I asked how big and long would it take to go to the Museum. She promised it was small and wouldn’t take all day like the ones in Washington D.C. So off we went.

The Art Car Museum is a private museum of contemporary art.

The museum showroom celebrates the spirit of this post-modern age of car-culture, in which artists have remolded stock cars to the specifications of their own idiosyncratic images and visions.

Art Cars are, plainly, cars turned into works of art. By the way, all of these creations are drivable and were driven.

The Museum only has five rooms.

The Museum was featuring a truly original Houston art car artist, Mark David Bradford  aka “Scrapdaddy”. He has built some of the greatest innovative pieces of engineering/art on wheels.

Spoonozoid. This exterior of the car is covered with spoons. Actually pretty cool.

Seahorse has a saddle. Its eyes move back and forth.

Cable Guy was our favorite. It can be is covered with wires and cables.

Mark is a sculptor working primarily in metal and will exhibit both freestanding & wall related pieces. Many of his works are motorized.

Richard Cranium…very unusual to say the least.

Batman

He has been featured on such TV shows as Battle Bots and Junkyard Wars and hosted Scrapyard Scavengers for the History Channel. He won a contest for designing a guillotine that could slice a car in half. It is way to big to exhibit. They had a small-scale version of the device and a video of how it worked.

This one is called Self-Portrait, but we have no idea why.

There were many, many more of his works on display. The exhibit will only be there until April 24.

The Art Cart Parade…yes, you read correctly. There is a annual parade in Houston. It will be held on Sunday, May-11. If we were around, we would check this out.

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

ENJOYING OUR TIME IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

Wednesday, March 28 – We've been in Houston for a little over a month and are preparing to head to Florida to visit family. After spending Easter weekend with our daughter, Carrie, we'll head East. It's been a busy time, but we've also spent many a day just relaxing here at the Houston Elks Lodge Campground and enjoying the spring weather.

It's been fantastic to visit with Carrie. She's preparing to move into a new downtown apartment, so she is very busy. This was not her choice. Her landlord sold her loft and gave her three weeks to find a new place. Carrie has moved several times and seems to have everything pretty much under control. We're happy to be here to help ease a little of the stress involved in moving. She'll put Paul to work installing a couple TV's and possibly rearrange some furniture after the movers finish their work.

We've spent several Saturday afternoons downtown enjoying the city life with Carrie and watching NCAA March Madness in several of the thousands of sports bars around town. It sure has been a crazy and exciting tournament with numerous bracket busting games. Hope you've been able to enjoy a couple games!

We are always discovering new places to watch the game, grab a bite to eat or just quench our thirst. Today we discovered King’s Bierhaus.

We shared an order of the American Sampler, which is one of their signature dishes. Delicious. We all ordered one of their German beers on tap. Yes, Marsha even had one, and she hates beer. She said that if you don’t like beer, try the Stiegl Radler, Grapefruit. She loved it.

Carrie took us to the Art Car Graveyard that she accidentally found during one of her many outings around Houston. We were in town for the Art Car Parade last April but unfortunately will miss it this year. It's a wonderful event and a great time! This scrap metal yard is where many of the old cars, and parts removed from unused vehicles, end-up after the parade. We recognized many of these cars and weird parts from past parades and visits to the museum. The museum (you can read about our visit here) is where the car art is on display and makes for an unusual place to visit while in town. We highly recommend a visit to the Art Car Museum.

Before…Azaba, 2011. It isn’t your eyes; it is a bit blurry…hehe

Graveyard….Azaba, 2018

Before…Eele, 2011

Graveyard, 2018

Before…Cable Guy, 2011

Graveyard…All that is left, 2018

Before…2012, Mr. Green.

Graveyard, 2018. Not too bad.

Before, 2011. No idea of the name.

Graveyard, 2018

This weekend is Easter and a sure sign of Spring with warmer weather finally arriving in Houston. Of course, Marsha has planned dinner for Easter Sunday and was adamant about Paul not even thinking about leaving before Tuesday, April 3. This will be the last we see Carrie until her planned visit to Ohio later this summer. Of course, we'll return here next fall on our way to visit places unknown at this time!

A little taste of Spring here in Houston for our family and friends up North.

We'll be heading East along the Gulf next week for an eventual stop in Florida. Stop back and enjoy a few days at the beach in beautiful Amelia Island, Florida. See you there!

We wish all our family and friends a very blessed Easter day!

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