Blogging A to Z — Houston | The View from the Cheap Seats

I am still a day behind on my blogging, so today I am covering the letter H, which is for Houston, Texas. I guess I’m not talking about Houston itself but more about the Houston area. My father has lived in Houston for a number of years and I always swore I would never go to Texas because there are too many tornadoes on Texas. But I had to swallow that fear once my father moved there, and as it turns out, I really love Houston! My father has lived in the Houston area near Hobby Airport for a number of years, so I’ve also gotten to head out to Galveston often, too. Galveston is a roughly an hour from Houston depending on where in Houston you are coming from. It’s nice to live close enough to a beach town like Galveston but far enough not to be swamped with storm surge when hurricane waters surge in. I’ve also had the chance to go to Johnson Space Center a few times, too. It’s pretty cool to walk around there and see the Houston referenced in, “Houston, we have a problem.” Also not far from my father’s home is Kemah which has a great boardwalk — fun carnival rides, souvenir shopping, and places to eat! When my daughter was young, she couldn’t get enough of Kemah. One of my favorite places to shop in Houston is Cavender’s, which is a chain of Western wear stores. I got my first pair of cowboy boots and my first cowboy hat at Cavender’s. If I was going to own those items, then dammit, I was buying them in Texas! There is also a restaurant my dad has taken me to called Gringo’s that has terrific Mexican food (actually, there are LOTS of places to get great Mexican food in Houston). They have this great green sauce they serve with the tortilla chips. It is so good, you could eat it with a spoon! I especially enjoy visiting Houston in the summer. My favorite season is summer, and the hotter it is and the more humid it is, the more I like it! And Houston in the summer definitely is hot and humid! Every time I have been to Houston and interacted with people who live there, they have always been exceptionally friendly. I stick out like a sore thumb to them when I speak since I’m from Chicago and have that nasally Midwestern accent. But they are always nice to me and ask where I’m from and make conversation. That’s one of the things I like best about Houston. My husband and I enjoy it so much there that Galevston is on our list of possible retirement locations. One day I’d love to get down there during the rodeo — it always looks so fun! I’ve visited the Battleship USS Texas a few times, and I’ve also been to the top of the San Jacinto Monument — also very cool places to see that don’t get old! There are lots of things to enjoy about Houston — consider visiting there if y’all are fixin’ to take a trip to Texas 🙂