Back from the big city...
and wifes side and accomplished our mission of taking Jack to a major sporting event for his birthday as depicted above. And no..that's not photoshopped [although it looks like it to me too]. We were in the shade at Reliant Stadium with bright lights behind, I had to use a low level flash to get Jack and his friend Mackey's faces to be more visible.
We stayed at the very nice Omni Hotel Riverway, which very coincidentally is in the same parklike office complex with the bank where one of my old friends and fraternity brothers is the president. Being rerouted due to traffic on our trip from the airport, we were not sure of our approach into the complex from the maze of freeways and so I called "Mac" on my cellphone to confirm that we were on the correct route to the hotel. I told him where we were and he told us to take the next left and look for a surprise. We took a left and the surprise was "Mac" standing out in front of his bank building pointing the way to the hotel. Nice in a megalopolis to see a friendly face to give directions. And...we were invited to come to the banks Christmas party the next morning being held at our hotel. I did go and had a nice visit with him and his wife.
The trip was full of coincidences for me. Since Julie was off to The Woodlands on Saturday yet another fraternity brother who lives in the West University area, fairly close to the hotel, came out to escort me around for the day. This fraternity brother, an engineer with the Bechtel Corp., was good friends and workmates with the contact that I am presently negotiating our large gas/electrical project with. The frat brother, John, and my contact Ken, used to race their sports cars around the Bechtel parking lot several decades ago.
John and I toured around areas of Houston I have not visited since the '80's and I got to see John's home which houses the sports car that use to race with Ken. A 1973 Maserati that John bought from Dr. Michael DeBakey. Knowing that John would want to meet my brother the NASA engineer we then drove to his house, which coincidentally is only about a mile away. When we arrived and introductions were made both my brother, Mark, and John each said that the other looked very familiar. John is working on a project out of Pasadena Ca. and lives at the Marriott Hotel there for much of the month. My brother, a Deputy Director of NASA, is at the Jet Propulsion Labratory in Pasadena several times a month and also stays at the Marriott. And you guessed it, they were sure that they had seen each other there very recently. Strange how small the world is.
With all the elegant living, seeing my family and friend as well as Julies old Midland friends and her brother and his family, the main purpose of the trip was a day at the Texan's football game with Jack. We would have paid to get in, of course, but if the old friends from Midland have season tickets with a close in parking pass all the better. And we had a great time, just the guys, Me, Jack and his long time friend Mackey and Mackey's dad Robert, a great guy who has been battling cancer for years but hasn't let this setback stop him one bit from living a full and active life. And thank God, the prognosis is very good for him now. A lesson in a positive attitude overcoming a deadly disease. Even though the Texans lost, I was impressed with the engineering wonders of Reliant Stadium and we got to see Peyton Manning in action. His arm and instincts are amazing. The stadium is one jumbo gigantic colossal piece of work but from where we were the field was very close and so the feeling is of a smaller place. Until, that is, you look up at the small specks that are the poor schmucks setting in the upper tiers. Small dots of humanity seemingly resting miles above the firmament. An impressive place. I was most impressed with how easily we got in and out by car, having endured the parking misery of the old days at Texas Stadium in Dallas.
All in all we had a great trip, enjoyed seeing friends and family, living the life of luxury at the hotel and eating beau cuisine in the big city. But, Toto, there is no place like home. Especially a home where you can drive down the uncrowded streets without feeling like every turn of the steering wheel just might be your last.
 | We're back from the perils of the big city of Houston. The main peril being driving anywhere. Although we had a rental car from the airport, luckily we had friends, family and a hotel limo to negotiate most of the driving dangers for us. Houston is an interesting place, but we're glad we live in Midland, smallish town, Texas. That said, we had a good time, got to see family and friends from both the husband |
We stayed at the very nice Omni Hotel Riverway, which very coincidentally is in the same parklike office complex with the bank where one of my old friends and fraternity brothers is the president. Being rerouted due to traffic on our trip from the airport, we were not sure of our approach into the complex from the maze of freeways and so I called "Mac" on my cellphone to confirm that we were on the correct route to the hotel. I told him where we were and he told us to take the next left and look for a surprise. We took a left and the surprise was "Mac" standing out in front of his bank building pointing the way to the hotel. Nice in a megalopolis to see a friendly face to give directions. And...we were invited to come to the banks Christmas party the next morning being held at our hotel. I did go and had a nice visit with him and his wife.
The trip was full of coincidences for me. Since Julie was off to The Woodlands on Saturday yet another fraternity brother who lives in the West University area, fairly close to the hotel, came out to escort me around for the day. This fraternity brother, an engineer with the Bechtel Corp., was good friends and workmates with the contact that I am presently negotiating our large gas/electrical project with. The frat brother, John, and my contact Ken, used to race their sports cars around the Bechtel parking lot several decades ago.
John and I toured around areas of Houston I have not visited since the '80's and I got to see John's home which houses the sports car that use to race with Ken. A 1973 Maserati that John bought from Dr. Michael DeBakey. Knowing that John would want to meet my brother the NASA engineer we then drove to his house, which coincidentally is only about a mile away. When we arrived and introductions were made both my brother, Mark, and John each said that the other looked very familiar. John is working on a project out of Pasadena Ca. and lives at the Marriott Hotel there for much of the month. My brother, a Deputy Director of NASA, is at the Jet Propulsion Labratory in Pasadena several times a month and also stays at the Marriott. And you guessed it, they were sure that they had seen each other there very recently. Strange how small the world is.
With all the elegant living, seeing my family and friend as well as Julies old Midland friends and her brother and his family, the main purpose of the trip was a day at the Texan's football game with Jack. We would have paid to get in, of course, but if the old friends from Midland have season tickets with a close in parking pass all the better. And we had a great time, just the guys, Me, Jack and his long time friend Mackey and Mackey's dad Robert, a great guy who has been battling cancer for years but hasn't let this setback stop him one bit from living a full and active life. And thank God, the prognosis is very good for him now. A lesson in a positive attitude overcoming a deadly disease. Even though the Texans lost, I was impressed with the engineering wonders of Reliant Stadium and we got to see Peyton Manning in action. His arm and instincts are amazing. The stadium is one jumbo gigantic colossal piece of work but from where we were the field was very close and so the feeling is of a smaller place. Until, that is, you look up at the small specks that are the poor schmucks setting in the upper tiers. Small dots of humanity seemingly resting miles above the firmament. An impressive place. I was most impressed with how easily we got in and out by car, having endured the parking misery of the old days at Texas Stadium in Dallas.
All in all we had a great trip, enjoyed seeing friends and family, living the life of luxury at the hotel and eating beau cuisine in the big city. But, Toto, there is no place like home. Especially a home where you can drive down the uncrowded streets without feeling like every turn of the steering wheel just might be your last.
