General Sam Houston

Omni Hotel

So I just got back from Houston, and I can totally see why my husband is obsessed with Texas! Call me stereotypical but it just seems like everyone is happier and friendly in the Lone Star State!

I stayed at the Omni Hotel, which was beyond luxurious. They had a huge outdoor pool (the only kind, if you ask me) and a large pond with black swans in them (in reference to their Black Swan night club). I have to say the swan looked rather depressed and disinterested in living. I tried to feed him some tuna and bread but he wouldn't even try it. Seriously, I am concerned for that swan.

The Omni Hotel is located near the Energy Corridor area of Houston, where there are a lot of oil companies. I am surprised by the wealth I see around me--until I look up the house prices in the area.

Honestly, if you want proof of why a small government is a good government for an economy, go to www.trulia.com and look up the house prices in Texas. In-fucking-credible. A 5 bed, 5,000 square feet house (mansion?) costs less than half a mil. Compare that to any other state in the union and you're almost guaranteed to pale in comparison.

Yeah. I used to do that, too.

One of the other things I love about south Texas is the weather. Warm, humid, with gorgeous palm trees and delightful wee little lizards. It reminded me of my childhood vacations visiting my aunt in Tampa, Florida. Except I wasn't chasing after them and using them as earrings.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to visit the Houston Galleria. If you visit this mall, be prepared to part with your money! All the best designers and stores have a location here.

As part of my idea to sprinkle my dad's ashes around the world, I started with Niagara Falls on the Canadian side of the border (Toronto). Since my dad was such a staunch Republican, I thought he would like to be able to visit Texas waters, too. I did some research and read about Kemah Boardwalk, which I wanted to visit for this occasion.

Not as good as it looks.

I have to say, this one was a big miss. Kemah Boardwalk was like a second-rate city fair on a boardwalk, with horrible restaurants (couldn't even get seated in one, and not because it was crowded) and dirty water. Nevertheless, I sprinkled dad's ashes on the boardwalk next to a flock (band? tribe?) of jellyfish, which reminded when we went snorkelling together on our family trip to the Bahamas and he claimed to have gotten attacked by a manta ray. I was a bit tickled when a group of fish immediately surfaced to swallow my dad's ashes down. I guess I should have been horrified, but it amused me a bit because my father was such an animal lover, and hopefully those fish will carry my dad's remains far away from the nasty waters of Kemah boulevard.

I concluded the last week of my month in Houston in an Embassy Suites hotel near the Energy Corridor.

EDIT: I also learned that Houston is named after General Sam Houston, an influential senator/governor who helped Texas join the states when it was still part of Mexico. Apparently he was married for an extremely brief time to Eliza Allen, who left him and publicly announced that he had "sustained the 'dreadful injury' of emasculation in the Creek War of 1814". I can only imagine what that means (although I don't want to).