Great place!!

Think this tree would be hard to trim? The Galleria Mall - 4'th largest in the US


Try this one!!! On top of the mainmast of the barque Elissa in Galveston Harbour












One of our “bibles” on this trip is the book “1000 Places to See before You Die”. We have checked many of the 1000 places off on our little journey. Fortunately for our longevity, we have many hundred left to experience! The book highly recommends the “Menil Collection” in Houston. This eclectic art collection of over 15,000 items, ranging from Greek and Roman artifacts to surrealists Max Ernst and René Magritte, is one of the world’s largest private collections and, is housed in the most spectacular, purpose-built art gallery we have ever seen……..including the Guggenheim! A magnificent collection. There are even numerous works by Barnett Newman who, you might recall, caused a storm of controversy when the National Gallery of Canada paid $1.8 million for a large Newman canvas portraying a red stripe on a blue background (Voice of Fire). The Foundation operating the large, minimalist, modern main gallery has purchased the entire surrounding residential neighbourhood and transformed all of the structures into a homogeneous arrangement of buildings with strong design integrity in all aspects, including the surrounding gardens resplendent with large sculptures and “people spaces” and 1,000’s of Paperwhites. One building, a Mark Rothko “chapel”, features 14 oversized Rothko canvases which, to my unknowing eye, look like the artist ran one work through a special Xerox and hung the copies side by side. Got to be careful…….Rothko is our son’s favourite artist and, I know he reads the blog……hi Jonathan! Guess I’ll have to work on my artistic sophistication! The “chapel” was a very contemplative space none-the-less.

Houston / Galveston is Brenda’s second favourite city along our route to date. I think we will be returning home with Chicago still firmly in first spot. For the fourth largest city in the country, Houston is a clean, modern, vibrant metropolis with a wonderful system of highways, parks, trails, and all the modern trappings of good planning. There are numerous museums, galleries and interesting things to see and do and; Galveston Island, the Gulf of Mexico, and wonderful beaches are 60 miles south, with all the Tiki Bars any self respecting sophomore could hit on a rainy March break. There is a “vibe” to this place.

We’ve toured north, south east, and west in this city; saw the sights and visited many attractions. We’re sold! All the high office buildings downtown have their roof-lines outlined in white lights. Very effective. TO could do that. We rode down Oak Post Boulevard tonight, where they claim to have 500,000 white lights on hundreds of Christmas trees. Looked like more to us but, we lost count at 56 lights. Think of University Avenue in Toronto with the power meter spinning big time! The “high rent district” is an entire neighbourhood of “Bridle Paths”. And… real estate here is cheap ………relatively speaking. Tomorrow – Austin.