Houston!

Hello :)

Katie and I spent our entire day exploring the city of Houston.  We had such a fun day!  We got our tour stop ideas from Pinterest - of all places - but it worked out well.  Katie and I set off with the idea in mind that "Austin may be proud to be weird, but Houston is funky!!"

Our first stop was the Beer Can House in the River Oaks area of Houston.  Apparently if you're a celebrity in Houston - you live in this neighborhood...and this is your neighbor:  

Beer Can House

This house is in the middle of a normal suburban neighborhood.  The story is that the owner got tired of mowing his grass so he covered his property in over 50,000 beer cans.  I could live in a house like this!  The hanging chains of beer cans sound like chimes blowing in the wind :)



Next up, we headed to the Art Car Museum.  It was a small exhibit but there were some really cool cars inside.  Bonus - the museum was free.  They do an Art Car Parade each spring and I definitely want to try and catch it.

Art Car Museum

Art car covered in everything you can think of.

We also window shopped at the all-local Revival Market, which highly tempted my chef sister to start spending $$.  But we're both on budgets so we just enjoyed the shop.  We will have to hit it up again when we have more cash!

Revival Market

From there it was onto the Heights area of Houston.

Lots of good shopping along W 19th street.  Once I am gainfully employed again, I need to come back here and Texify my home and wardrobe :)  Specifically at Jubilee - very cute and not too expensive!  We also went to another "store" on this street that was a junk yard lot FILLED to the brim with piece after piece of antiques - old signs, radios, statues, bathtubs, fire extinguishers - anything you can think of.  My sister said dad would be "bird-doggin'" it if he were with us in that place.

Display at Jubilee.  Would it be too much for me to add wooden angel wings to my current dresser/mirror?  ;)

Katie and I were both excited to head to the Texas Junk Company in the Montrose neighborhood.  Unfortunately it was closed this Saturday :( BUT we will head back.  We peeked in the windows and it was amazing.  They have over 1,000 used cowboy boots and random antique items.  Everything is in good condition and low priced.  So bummed it was closed!

We'll be back!

We headed to Rothko Chapel which, today, stood in the midst of a very Portlandia-esque "Indie Book Festival."  The Rothko Chapel was built in the 70s as a sanctuary of peace for people of every belief.  The "Indie Book Festival" was a sanctuary of tribal drums and gongs for hipsters of every denomination.  We didn't stick around too long with that ;)

"Hipsters make me ashamed of my glasses!" - Katie Marsh 

Instead we headed downtown and found some interesting antique stores along the way.  We found thrones!

Only $1,000 :(

Dad's office is downtown so we went on to see his workday sights.  Downtown Houston is very clean and full of skyscrapers.  There weren't many people on the streets because most socializing occurs in the shops and bars in the tunnels beneath the city.  We didn't have time to make it down there today, though.

Downtown Houston - everyone is underground.

Katie and I ended up having dinner at El Real Tex Mex which had good food but slow service.  We made up for the bad service by visiting House of Pies afterward and ending our evening on a sweet note.  

Yum

Katie and I are both being diligent with the My Fitness Pal app but Saturday is our day off.  We took our day off very seriously :)

French Silk Pie

All in all we LOVED Houston.  I could definitely see myself living here just as much as Austin.  It was a very vibrant and diverse town full of really nice people.  We met a couple late in our day who told us that Texas is very friendly, and we are very friendly, so we've come to the right place.  :)  We hope so!

Love and miss you,

Becky