a day at the downtown houston aquarium

Random acts of Irish Festival/ Stew cook-of in Downtown Houston

This past Saturday Ryan and I hopped on the Metro-rail downtown to see what kind of adventures we could cook up. We hopped off a few miles down the road because we heard music & saw lots of people hanging out on a blocked off street. Turns out it was the 4th Annual Rory Miggins Irish Stew Cookoff and we got our St. Patty's celebrations off to an early start.  We paid a little entry fee which went to the Houston St. Patrick's Parade Comission, grabbed a couple of Guinnesses  and walked around to each tent to taste their fare while listening to Irish bands.. There was one tent that had an amazing spicy chili...not Irish.. but awesome anyway. Nothing like a random festival on a beautiful Saturday!

Weekend outings!

Hihi! So it appears that the holidays are officially over and I'm back to working full 5 day work weeks. ARGH! I'm gonna be counting down until the next day off which is... I don't even know when. I guess all the more reason to enjoy the weekends even harder.. like this one, for instance! We explored the neighborhood and a few little spots in walking distance from our house.

Friday night we tried out a new spot,  Bitterman's Market Square Bar and Grill. We enjoyed  good, old fashioned hamburgers and cold beers while watching LSU beat the Aggies! (Hooray!) Their slogan is "It's every Texan's right to hold a burger in one hand and a beer in the other!" and I couldn't agree more.

Saturday didn't start off as I would have hoped. Ryan was going to go into work to get a few hours of OT so as we're walking to the car, we see the back windshield is shattered. Of course I start to cry because I'm A) super mad and  B) worried about how much the replacement windshield will cost. We couldn't figure out what happened! There was a small spot that looked like the point of impact, but we couldn't really find anything around the car that would have done it. It wasn't theft because the window was broken, but it hadn't fallen through yet. Were there drunks on the patio that just got a little rowdy and threw something?  Was it a freak accident i.e. a rock that hopped from the interstate or from the roof? I guess we'll never know because there are security cameras on parking garage floors 1 and 2...but not on 3. Funny. (Not funny). SO... to the internet I ran, looking for someone who would come out to my complex on a Saturday afternoon to replace it. I found Xpress Windshield, they found a used but in-perfect-condition back windshield and came out to replace it for 160$ total. (Thank goodness).

While we were waiting for the tech to come over, Ryan and I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and try another within-walking-distance place for lunch. I passed The Broken Spoke numerous times to and from work, but always thought it was a little hole-in-the-wall bar! I thought wrong because it is a fantastic Belgian restaurant that specializes in steamed mussels!! One of my favorites! We had the entire restaurant to ourselves at noon on Saturday but it was quickly filling as we were leaving. I had the mussels a la escargot (steamed mussels in a garlic butter sauce) with a glass of Blanc du Blanc champagne and Ryan had the chicken curry salad sandwich with a St. Arnold. Such a good lunch and a great way to take the sting out of the morning. Below are a few shots of Broken Spoke with it's colorfully decorated walls and ceiling murals.

 

    Sunday we woke up early to go to Trinity Downtown Lutheran church. We've been trying out different churches downtown, seeing which ones we like best. This weekend we went to Ryan's (as he's Lutheran) and next weekend we'll try out St. Joseph (I'm Catholic) downtown. Trinity and St. Joseph are across the street from each other (convenient!) so after Trinity we walked over to St. Joe to check it out and I snapped a few photos of the pretty interior.



After church we met up with Mom, Dad and Pete for a little goodbye-brunch at Mia Bella (a favorite!)  as Peter is moving to Lima, Peru on Wednesday! So exciting. I'm going to set up a blog for him so he can upload photos and stories about his adventures.

Happiest Monday!

Texas is so pretty.

Movin' on up ( movin' on up...) to the East side.. (of I-045)

{notes from the past...my future home}

It's official!! After 2 wonderful years in Montrose, as of Monday November 29th, Ryan and I will be residents of Tennison Lofts. We even get a shiny new zip code! 77002 downtown whaaaaat! We're vurrrry happy...but this whole process wasn't without it's "hairpulling" moments, I kept telling myself it would be worth it. It's such a cool old building, originally the Tennison Hotel, built in 1921. From the Tennison family site "Henry Booker Tennison commissioned architect Joseph Finger to build the Tennison Hotel at 110 Bagby Street in downtown Houston, TX.  The Tennison Hotel opened for business in 1922, and was among the closest of all hotels to Houston's Grand Central Station"

I'm super in love with the fact that the original brick is exposed in the loft:

View from outside, facing the Northwest:

On top of the parking garage is a fantastic, huge patio area with a beautiful view of downtown. I can't wait to see what it looks like at night.

Tennison Hotel:

Found this newspaper clipping regarding the funeral of H.B Tennison!

fun at the amusement park... i mean bar.

Greetings from...

[ view from outside during the day]

Yup. I know you've been looking for a retro circus themed watering hole. Welp.. this is it. You're welcome.

[ drinking and driving discouraged...]

Market Square Park, Downtown Houston

Long time-no post! Things have been a bit crazy at work, no time to post, and honestly I haven't been taking photos like I used to lately, so today I will play catch-up.

I'll start with my little visit to the new Market Square Park in downtown Houston. Once a vibrant market hub in the middle of the city in the later 1800s, it fell into disarray, serving as a bus depot in the 40s and 50s and a parking lot in the 60s and 70s. Luckily the space has been rehabbed and is now a beautiful little park complete with fountains, gardens, a dog park and there's even a smaller version of Montrose's Niko Niko's Greek restaurant. [See this article to learn a little more. ]

After brunch with the fam on Sunday we walked over and I snapped a few shots. I can't wait to visit again, maybe get some lunch, when it cools off a bit.

[ Dog sculpture near dog park made from a tree that hurricane Ike brought down in Galveston in 2008]
[ city-scape sculpture]

[ September 11th memorial]

[ Unique water fixture/9/11 memorial, each stone represents a life lost on that day]

If you happen to be downtown any time soon, plan a little visit to this park. People attract people!