Remembering 9/11
The first time I had ever been to NYC was June 2001, when my husband and I took a trip to NYC, New England, and Montreal. We stayed with my best friend from my childhood while in NYC. He had moved there in 1998. We did one touristy day of NYC where we went to Little Italy, Chinatown, Staten Island, the Met, Empire State Building, you name it.
We parked on Church Street near the World Trade Center, but decided to go in on our next visit. Here are some photos of the World Trade Center from that day:
Thinking in Traffic
I spend a lot of quality time sitting on Mopac in the mornings. I see a lot of interesting things: people reading, putting on make-up, arguing with a passenger, having elaborate one-sided arguments with other drivers (with the windows rolled up, nonetheless), and singing encore performances.
Today I noticed a bumper sticker on the Kia in front of me that made me smile. It simply said:
“Lord, please help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.”
Perhaps it’s that simple.
Back from Orange
We’re back from our whirlwind trip to Orange, Texas. The Honda Civic Hybrid we bought back in May proved that it was worth the wait:
The Civic does well on long trips. Not only does it get great gas mileage, but it’s also a comfortable ride. Of course it has more road noise than the 2005 Acura TL we had, but with the upgraded speakers this isn’t really an issue.
I highly recommend upgrading to navigation, bass speakers, and an iPod link for your Civic if you are either thinking of purchasing one or have just bought one. This truly makes the car a driving experience, and I don’t miss the fringe benefits of the TL one bit. Who needs heated seats in Texas, anyway?
Saturday night we took everyone to The Schooner, a great seafood restaurant that has the best barbequed crabs I’ve ever tasted. This restaurant has been around for more than 50 years, and I’ve been going there my entire life. One of the things I like about The Schooner is that it always has the same menu — one of the most important components of a comfort food restaurant. On Saturday I had the blackened snapper, a favorite of mine that packs a little heat. And some barbequed crabs, of course.
On the way home Sunday we stopped at James Coney Island, a Houston institution since 1923. I had not been there in years, and my husband had never eaten there. We both had the Texas Style Chili Dog — mustard, chili, onions, and cheese, and my husband also had a Chicago Style Dog — mustard, relish, onion, pickle, peppers, and celery salt. Both were very good and I’m surprised that the restaurant was relatively empty. $10 for the entire order and we were out of there in 20 minutes.
Of course, no trip through Houston is complete without some minor damage to a car. Flying rocks broke one of the fog lights:
Oh well. Could’ve been the windshield…
technorati tags: hybrids, travel, honda, houston, dining, food
You All Can Go to Hell. I’m Goin’ to Orange, Texas (until Sunday)
Or something like what Davy Crockett said.
The hounds have all been dropped off at their various sleepover locations (ah, live with special needs dogs):
Overnight bag is packed. Paper has not been stopped.
My husband and I will be crossing one of my unaccomplished summer vacation goals this weekend: visiting my family in my hometown of Orange, Texas.
This is the first trip we’ve taken in the hybrid and are looking forward to seeing what it will do on the highway without the Austin traffic stops. My guess is we’ll make the 600-mile round trip on one tank of gas. (Those who say hybrids don’t pay for themselves should see the savings when you have a 22-mile commute each way to work everyday.)
Have a great Labor Day weekend, all. Stay safe!
Countdown to ACL Festival: 8 Weeks to Go
When I was in college my now husband and I took several road trips: Washington, DC to see the Grateful Dead, Colorado, and a couple to the Southwest. We enjoyed the Southwest trips the most, and have talked about doing another one since our last road trip in 1996 (we fly everywhere now).
An important piece of road trips is having the right music. Before road trips we would spend hours making mix tapes for just about every mood or landscape imaginable. The Southwest mix tapes always had a calming, almost mystical feel to them. The music was meant to have a feel of being in wide open spaces, alone.
When we first heard this week’s ACL Festival pick, we immediately thought back to those road trips.
This week’s pick: Calexico
Hailing from Tuscon, Arizona, Calexico has captured the sound of the Southwest. The music can be described as spaghetti Western meets surf meets mariachi meets western swing.
We originally saw Calexico at the 2004 ACL Festival. It was in the middle of a 100+ degree day facing the sun, and the music felt perfect for the weather. That night we stopped at Waterloo Records and bought The Black Light, which is still my favorite Calexico album.
We saw Calexico again last November with Iron and Wine, where we bought Scrapping and The Book and the Canal, two albums that are only available from the band. Both are great live albums, and worth every penny.
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To see the complete ACL Festival line-up, click here.
Countdown to ACL Festival: 10 Weeks to Go
I grew up in what my husband refers to as the swamps of southeast Texas. A few years ago we went to the tourist bureau when we were visiting my family. My husband likes maps, and I like showing him where I came from.
That particular visitors’ center has a nice scenic deck that takes a person on a brief tour of the Blue Elbow Swamp, the swamp that snakes through Orange, Texas. While taking the tour, we came across two things that we still talk about today.
The first one was the alligator gar, a prehistoric-looking fish that I had watched boys catch in the local bayou as a kid. But if you didn’t grow up in a swampy area, chances are you’ve never seen one. My husband, being a native New Englander, had never seen one until that day. The conversation went something like this:
Husband: “What the hell is that?”
Me: “Oh that? That’s a gar.”
Husband: “Is it a fish?”
Me: “Yeah, I think so.”
Husband: “Are those teeth?”
Me: “Yeah, they’re really sharp too.”
Husband: “Do people eat gar?”
Me: “I suppose so.”
Husband: “What does it taste like?”
Me: “Probably like chicken.”
The other thing we came across was a description of the snakes that live in the area. We had been joking that we wondered how long it would take for something to kill you if you fell in the swamp. Well, it appears it wouldn’t take too long at all. In addition to the alligators and black widows that live in the area, so do all of the poisonous snakes that live in Texas.
So who is this week’s pick for the upcoming ACL Fest? Someone from the swamps of Louisiana, of course.
This week’s pick: Buckwheat Zydeco
Zydeco music is some of the most fun music a person can see live. Even people who normally are the stand in one place, bob head, and tap foot type of live music patron end up shaking booty. I have never personally seen Buckwheat Zydeco live, but you can count on me to be one of the too cool patrons turned booty shakers at this show.
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To see the complete ACL Festival line-up, click here.
technorati tags: music, austin, acl, festival, swamps, texas, travel
Pictures from Tahoe
Here are some pictures from my trip to Tahoe, which was absolutely gorgeous.
Our first view of the Lake, taken in Tahoe City:
From our hotel room:
A waterfall at Emerald Bay:
Our favorite watering hole:
From the grounds of our hotel:
For a more complete description of these pictures and more photos, please visit my husband’s blog.
technorati tags: travel, tahoe, california, nature
Beers of Northern California
I think I made it clear in yesterday’s posting that we had a great time in Lake Tahoe. My husband did it even more justice than me in his latest posting on his regular blog.
One thing I failed to mention in yesterday’s posting was the quality of the beers in northern California. While I’ve enjoyed many northern California beers in Texas, what I realized is that what gets sent here is skunky or a little stale.
Here’s a rundown of the beers we enjoyed last week (in no particular order):
- Steelhead Extra Pale Ale from the Mad River Brewing Company
- Eye of the Hawk Select Ale from the Mendocino Brewing Company
- Tahoe Red Ale from the Lake Tahoe Brewing Company
- Great White HefeWeizen from the Lost Coast Brewing Company
- And of course, our ever-favorite Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
We get our photos back tomorrow.
technorati tags: travel, tahoe, california, beer
