Austin City Limits

Friday in Austin I found a restaurant that had been reviewed by Rachael Ray called Cafe Josie which served food from the "American Tropics". I went for the soup of the day, a sweet corn & crab meat chowder and off the lunch menu:

PEPITA REDFISH WITH MANGO HABANERO BUTTER
Pepita and Spice Crusted and served on Poblano Rice and Cotija Black Beans with Tomatillo Chile, Ancho Chile, Spicy Pepitas and fresh Vegetable

I have got to say this was the best meal that I have had while on the road so far. The food was spiced and cooked perfectly and the ingredients seemed very fresh. The side of vegetables were steamed just the way I like them, leaving valuable nutrients and plenty of crunch.

With a full belly, I made my way to the Austin Museum of Art which had a show consisting of mid to late century NYC artists of the Abstract Expressionist era. There were a bunch of pieces that were outside of conventional theories of art at their time. I could see how a lot of these artists contributed to the type of work that my fellow art students had been doing.

I managed to waste time with some adventures in commerce before meeting up with Cindy, Reid and Amy at Chuy's for some excellent tex-mex. They all play ultimate in Austin and we all had meet in Hawaii a year earlier. The next day I was to meet up with them to play in their winter league, but when I got up it was 40° and raining. I did not feel adequately equipped for playing in that kind of weather... so I went back to sleep. That evening Patrick, Jamie and I Watched the Illusionist, a rather interesting movie about a magician.

Sunday my hosts were throwing a birthday party for their daughter at some party center. I went and got some Sonic and prepared to watch a couple of games of football. I was bummed that the Saints were not able to take care of the Bears and glad that New England is not going to Miami.

Wraping up Houston

Well here I am catching up a bit. So I last left off on Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday. So I will pick up from there.

Tuesday was a slow day for me... I washed my car and went up to Houston to meet up with Liz & Kevin. We went to the Galleria (the largest mall in Texas) and had a creole dinner at a place called Woodrows.

Wednesday was to be my last full day in the Houston area so I determined that the Space Center Houston would be on my itinerary. I am sometimes skeptical of really touristy locations due to the high likelihood of lameness. Well in that aspect, I was not let down. With the small amount of people there it did not seem as though there was much to take away from the experience. Then I realized there was a tram that toured the base. It took us to the now out of use control room from the time of Apollo 13 and to a training area where the astronauts could familiarize themselves with the equipment they would be using in space. Later on, I meet up with Liz & Kevin for dinner in "LJ" and then went over to Ben's place for some video games before hitting the hay.

Thursday I packed up my car and headed to Houston to have lunch with Liz & Kevin. We had some rather good chinese food at a place that they seem to frequent occasionally. It was great to be able to spend a week with the two of them. Liz and I were practically roommates for three years and Kevin and I were teammates for even longer.

After parting ways, I went over to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston which had some pretty neat exhibits on a couple of artists from the area. From there I went to get my first oil change on the Prius and mad my way towards Austin where I would be staying the weekend with Liz's brother Patrick and his wife/ Liz's best friend Jamie and their two year old daughter "M" spelled Iym (I think, please correct me if I am wrong).

Quick update

I am apparently somewhere close to 10 days behind, I will try to get postings of that time up shortly. Of course my photos are pretty much up to date, for those interested.

As for now, I got into Phoenix yesterday and spent the night at Bailey's. I am going to be playing at New Year Fest this weekend. I plan on making my way to San Diego in time to watch the Super Bowl next weekend with Bob.

I would like to thank everyone who is supporting me along my journeys.

MLKJRBDNH

Liz and Kevin were off on Monday due to the holiday, but Liz was inclined to stay home and get some work done while Kevin and I ventured out to the island town of Galveston. This was to be the first of quite a few cold days in the not so sunny state of Texas. The downtown area of Galveston was unusually quiet for a national holiday. Kevin and I bundled up and made our way up the cold and breezy street. The place appeared to be gearing up for Mardi Gras celebrations with beads for sale in all of the stores including the military surplus store we spent nearly half an hour in. We eventually hopped back in the car and went to The Spot for burgers. After a breakfast of IHOP and then the burgers, it all settled rather heavy in both of our stomachs. We weren't quite ready to leave this chilly resort town yet so we headed to Moody Gardens which is comprised of three glass pyramids, one with an aquarium, the next with a rain forest and the third with a science exhibit. We forked out our cash to check out the rain forest. Besides the trees and plants, we were treated to views of exotic birds, humongous fish and bats with rather large testicles.

We eventually made our way back to "LJ" where Liz had some sort of mexican casserole waiting for us.

"The City of Enchantment" Pt. 2

Sunday was another day of watching NFL Divisional Championship games. In the morning Liz & Kevin went to church while I continued my running routine which I had been putting off until I reached a warmer climate. Liz directed me to a path in a nearby park, it was nice and wooded running next to a river. One thing that caught my attention was the regular signs to "watch out for alligators and snakes". I had a constant urge to both locate a gator and to get out as soon as possible.

Before Liz and Kevin got back, I managed to shower and make some guacamole for us to enjoy while watching football. After the first game, we went over Liz's brother Ben's house. I got to meet Ben, his wife Renee, and their two sons Mikey and Joey. We put off watching the second game to play a little tee ball with the boys.

After that we we were able to watch a bit of the game before grabbing dinner with Liz's dad and Ben's family. After dinner we went back to Ben's to play some video games on his projection screen and then moved to his Wii in another room. Kevin and I had a blast fooling around with the video games before heading home for bed.

"The City of Enchantment"

Friday I got into Houston around 3:30. I meet up with Liz at Rice and she showed me around the campus while we waited for Kevin to to get off work. Around 5pm we made our way to the other side of campus where Kevin works and then continued on to a tapas restaurant just around the corner. Both Liz and Kevin are working at Rice University in Houston but they both live in Lake Jackson which is about an hour south of the city. So after dinner we made our way down to "LJ" where I would be staying with Kevin. We had a quiet evening with plans to wake up early and play ultimate league back in the city in the morning.

We all managed to roll out of bed early (well, early for me) and got up to Houston just in time for the first of two games. Their team was missing a few of their better players and I was introduced as the temporary replacement for all of them. Unfortunately I did not live up to the hype, be it being out of shape or my unfamiliarity with the other players. We did not manage to win either of the games. I think we all had a good time though. For some reason Kevin felt the need to curse the entire country of Canada.

After ultimate we made our way back to "LJ" and I was introduced to the gas/wash/dine-omatic mega store that is Buc-ee's. We followed our stop at the gas station with an evening of watching the two NFL Divisional Championships games. We had dinner at a local sandwich shop called "The Local" it was quite tasty.

It's getting hot in here...

From KJ's I made my way down into Arkansas. I headed towards the city of Hot Springs where the Hot Springs National Park is located. I got into the city just after dark and navigated to the campgrounds in the park. There were around 30 sites and only 5 or 6 were taken. I found a site next to a creek and paid my $10 at the check-in cabin. I was able to set up my tent under a dim street lamp and then I moved it to a clearing closer to the creek. After I had thrown all of my sleeping stuff into the tent, I started boiling some water to prepare one of my camping dinners. After eating, it was an early night to bed.

In the morning at the campgrounds, I woke up early and got everything packed away. I headed out from there to go and find the actual hot springs that the town and park are named after. On the main street of the town there are a number of bath houses that are actually located within the park. The bath houses regulate the temperature of the water so that people are not cooking themselves in the springs. Just down the street from the houses is a fountain where the hot water is collected. This was about all I was able to locate as far as springs go, but it lent itself for some good photos.

Shortly after checking out the springs, I headed out of town to meet up with Liz and Kevin down in Houston.

Travels so far

October

November

December

January

Missouri loves company

Tuesday I left Cincinnati for St. Louis. The drive was rather uneventful. I got into the Gateway city and had the urge to be much higher. So I found a parking spot and made my way over to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch. The structure is pretty awe inspiring, and as I made my way towards it I started to get amusement park excited. The entrance to the arch is underneath, so the museum and gift shop are under the ground directly below the arch. With my national parks pass I was able to save $3 off of the $10 ticket cost for the ride to the top of the arch. I approached the elevator with excitement only to find 8 separate cars. The cars are an egg shaped pod that remind me of a tea cup ride out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, each only sit 5 adults (rather tightly). Luckily, it was a slow day and my ride up was with only one other guy. The ride actually reminded me of a ferris wheel. Once at the top and at 630 feet there was a hallway with a few windows on the east and west side of the arch. The west side looks over the city of St. Louis and the east looks over the Mississippi river. I understand that on a clear day the visibility is around 30 miles. Being up there was quite amazing. My cell phone had perfect service up there and I was even able to make two phone calls. My trip down was all by myself, which was nice. From there I made my way over to my friend KJ's house.

I spent the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursady morning with KJ, her husband Rodney, their ~two year old son Trey, and their baby daughter Caroline. Wednesday, KJ drove me and Caroline around town to show me some of the exciting stuff about town. One of the things we drove past was the City Museum, I wish that I had the opportunity to get inside and outside of it to check it out. We had lunch at Blueberry Hill with Rodney, we all had burgers and the food was quite good. Wednesday after breakfast I said goodbye, on my way to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Sin-cinnati

I left Cleveland this past Friday, January 5th on my way westward. My first stop was Cincinnati. I spent the weekend at Roy's. He and his wife Tiffany were wonderful hosts. Their 1 year old daughter, Hazel was a sweetie too.

Roy and I went to the Contemporary Arts Museum where they had an exhibition that included graphic designer Malcolm Grear. It was pretty exciting to have stumbled across this show. Grear's work that was on display included logos for the Veterans Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and Vanderbilt University. It was also exciting to see the work he did for the '96 Olympics (check out his site to see his contributions).

The rest of Saturday and Sunday was devoted to watching football. Monday I managed to get downtown again and took some photos of the city. Later that evening Roy took me out to play some indoor ultimate. We played 6 on 6, all of the guys were competitive and for the most part we were playing savage. It was great to be out playing ultimate, I look forward to more of it soon.

Catsup

Since I am so behind on the East-coast trip, I am going to list a few highlights. If anything was worth it, I may come back to it at a later time.

Playing for 7+ hours and defeating Gears of War. 2 lobster dinner for $15. Ping pong & beer pong. Hanging with Mariah. Harvard Square. Driving to Salem and Marblehead. Parking with Hung. Mexican and cupcakes with Natalie & Chris. The best pizza I have ever had at Frank Pepe's in New Haven. Visiting Yale's art school. Visiting the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Walking around NYC with the family. Top of the Empire State Building. A jazz show at the Birdland. A 3.5 hour, 35 mile drive from Jersey to Brooklyn to play ultimate. The Lebowski Fest in Queens with Sean and Schenck. Monday Night Football with Peine in DC. Visiting MICA (the Maryland Institute of Art) in Baltimore. Dinner at Jaleo with Peine and Damon. And finally home on Dec. 20th.

I hope to get posting about my latest trip which started this past Friday very soon.