We enjoyed our full day on Friday when we got to entertain ourselves with nothing else planned during the day. We went to Hermann Park which is the museum district. The park was huge and we probably would have walked on the trail, but it was sprinkling rain and I didn't want to get wet.
We picked the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see while we were in that area.
There were a lot of interesting things to look at while we were inside the museum. I still can't figure out where the dinosaurs fit into the story of the creation, though.
In the Morian Hall of Paleontology, we learned all about the evolutionary history of life.
Look at the picture depiction of the evolution of man. Love the human specimen!!!
This display shows where man evolved from. This is one of our ancient ancestors. Can you see the family resemblance?
If that be the case--I have completely and totally lost ALL desire to do my family history!!!
Fossils, shells and Egyptian artifacts.
My favorite part of the museum was the butterfly center.
This was a fascinating live display. There were hundreds of chrysalises hanging in the case. Pretty soon a chrysalis would start to wiggle and within the span of a few minutes a butterfly would emerge. Then it would hang onto its shell it just broke through from for a while so its wings could straighten out. Then it would flap its wings a little here and there and then suddenly take off flying around in the case. So cool to watch!
We thought of Ben when we saw the case full of large Malaysian butterflies.
Inside the atrium, we saw lots of butterflies flying around. It was hard to capture them with the camera.
Glen was ready to identify each one he saw.
There is a beautiful black and red butterfly perched on the red flowers.
Glen was sure if he held still enough and provided a perch for the butterflies to land upon that they would actually land upon him. Didn't happen.
They did love to perch on the feeders that were all throughout the conservatory.
It was very beautiful and peaceful in the mock rain forest setting.
A black striped butterfly also likes the red flowers.
I went deeper into the rain forest to enjoy the waterfall while Glen stayed up above doing some church work on the phone.
His work actually let him pretty much alone that day. He never gets a break from getting phone calls from people calling him to set up appointments with the stake president or him needing to make calls to get appointments.
For dinner, Glen consulted Yelp and that led us to The Raven Grill. It didn't look like much sitting there at the end of a strip of stores, but it held a nice surprise.
It had a patio seating area which provided a very lovely outdoor dining experience. It felt like we were having our meal in a garden.
Glen ordered salmon on a cedar plank and I had a delicious trout meal with kale and lentils. It was SO delectable!!
Glen surprised me by suggesting we go see a movie. He always claims to not be a movie buff, so when he wants to go, I'm always on board. Let's just say Captain Phillips kept us on the edge of our seats. No dozing off at any point during this movie!
We enjoyed a nice long stroll all through The Galleria--a GIGANTIC indoor mall with several levels, many stores and lots of restaurants. Half of the stores are so high end I didn't even recognize their names. It has a hotel and also an ice rink. The place is HUGE!!!
Here dawns a new day. Can you tell what special day it was? Why BYU game day, of course! Glen consulted Yelp again (he was following Abe and Klarissa's way of finding restaurants) and came upon Baby Barnaby's which had gotten great reviews.
It was in the rainbow district of town...with lots of eclectic little shops and restaurants around. It had a line of people wrapped all around the front and side of the building waiting to get called to a table. Glen signed the hanging clipboard and we began our 45-minute wait.
A couple arrived right after us and, like us, didn't know the drill of not giving your name to a hostess. There was no hostess. We told them to sign the hanging clipboard, like someone else had instructed us to do, and then had a lovely conversation with them while we had our long wait.
Once inside the building, it was a tiny, cramped space. The whole experience--starting with Yelp, waiting in a long line outside a building, eating inside cramped quarters and having a memorable dining experience reminded us so much of dining with Abe and Klarissa in San Francisco.
There are our new friends sitting at the table kiddy corner from us.
And there. You've just seen the whole restaurant.
Well, I guess it's now time to tell about the big game between the Cougars and the Cougars--how confusing and annoying!!! When they were shouting "Go Cougars!" I thought they were cheering for us.
Glen was so proud of himself when he found a hotel within walking distance of the stadium. See it down the street a short ways right in the middle of the photo? Glen's idea worked perfectly...
...the second time around... You see he decided to move us from the hotel the company put him in to "the perfect hotel within walking distance, blah, blah, blah." We spent a night in that "perfect hotel" before he figured out the stadium was on the other side of town.
So, packing up once again, off we went to the actual perfect hotel that was within walking distance of Reliant Stadium.
And look how early we got there!! Hardly a soul in the gigantic stadium. But please notice a few delightful things about the stadium. First of all--we didn't have to sit on uncomfortable benches with our knees smashing into the person in front of us. We had seats with backs. Awesome!!
Another thing--the stadium was covered. Ahhh, blessed cover from the elements. No sun burns. No rain. No wind. Nothing! Awesome a second time.
You know we got there early when we were there before the team came out.
Look at me being loyal, strong and true to my beloved husband by going to that game with him.
Here is another reason I enjoyed the game so much at this stadium. Glen somehow misplaced his BYU hat and had to use this old faded cap he keeps in his travel suitcase. By misplacing his BYU hat which had his radio and earphones in it, that meant he was radio-less and could actually interact with me before, during and after the game. It was heavenly!!
Glen had been craving popcorn since movie night, so he decided to treat himself to a bucket of the stuff.
Here's a last huge reason why I enjoyed the football game so much--it was a high scoring game. Lots of action with both teams scoring a lot. If I have to sit through a super long 4-hour football game, at least it had a lot of excitement.
After the game, we ate dinner at Houston's. Guess what I ordered? Trout for a third time. Yumola!!!
Next day was Sunday and we found a church to attend near the airport. It was their Primary program, so it was quite entertaining. Then home again. Vacation over. It's always sad to go back to real life when vacation life has been so wonderful. What a great trip! We both loved it!
