We had probably visited about 20 of the 50 states in the USA. When Victor suggested that we visit Houston over the Labor Day weekend we could add Texas to our list too. Val would rather be backpacking with her friends instead.
Austin, Dallas or Houston, nothing about Texas held any attraction for me before. Traveling expands our horizons in many ways. While checking up on Texas and Houston I made some interesting discoveries even before we left home. For example: “Houston” was the first word uttered by a man on the moon in July 1960 because of its proximity to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. And to think that Texas was once a part of Mexico.
The 32C heat that hit us at George Bush Intercontinental Airport was all too familiarly Singapore. So were the countless tolls that turned a freeway into a tollway, except they should erect some ERP gantries. More harrowing than the tolls was the 110 plus km driving speed. The way out of both the tolls and the neck-breaking speed was to use the three lanes that run parallel to the six-lane expressway. Houston is a concrete jungle of freeways snaking like roller coasters over its uninteresting landscape
Traveling with Victor means visiting restaurants, church buildings and art museums in that order. He had done his homework and the first food stop was Banana Leaf. The prata was great but the prawn noodles and laksa was disappointing. Deprived souls, we went back another two times before concluding that Prima mixes were more authentic.. A Hongkong cafe fared better. No thanks to our no-chillie men, we did not taste any Tex-mex food.
Our introduction to Houston started with a boat ride on the winding Buffalo Bayou. It was a marshy waterway that had been creatively cleaned up and converted, not unlike our Singapore River transformation. While we threaded under bridges, freeways and overpasses, we got a worm’s eye view of the downtown skyline.
Next up, churches. We worshipped at St Martin’s, supposedly the Bushes family church. It ia big and architecturally impressive church, although big churches were everywhere. Lakewood Church caught my eye for the wrong reason. Its SP’s name on one corner of the church facade was prominent enough to be seen from the freeway. Joel Osteen may be the pastor of the largest congregation in USA but should he distract from the glory that is Jesus’ alone? Outside the Museum of Fine Arts we came upon a Methodist, an Espicopal and a Prebysterian church clustered close together. I wondered: how many Christians are in this city and how well attended are these churches?
We trudged throught the Menil museum and the MFA out of parental love, not love for the arts. Picasso’s abstract paintings were beyond me but I like Andy Warhol. His campbell soup can painting is my kind of art. The Byzantine Frescoe Chapel and the Rothko Chapel are in the same Menil museum neighbourhood. The former, is art museum and spiritual space. It houses 13th century frescoes that were stolen and cut into 38 pieces to be sold for profit. The Menil foundation bought, restored and displayed them in a way that honors God and instructs the onlooker. The artist, in his painting had expressed his insights on Christ, Pantocrator, ‘All Sovereign’ marvellously. The frescoes will be returned to the Church of Cyprus in Feb 2012 so we saw it just in time. There are 14 black paintings in the Rothko Chapel, an interfaith chapel but all I saw were blackness and black walls. There are also religious books and benches for meditation. Black is not my favorite color and I was out in a jiffy. Outside the chapel is the famous Broken Obelisk which is dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.
I had wanted to see Galveston which sits by the Gulf of Mexico. Severely battered by Hurricane Ike in Sep 2008 it is bouncing back. We thought we were done with the art that Victor forced fed us when we stumbled on to a different art form. The storm killed many trees and artists carved some of these tree stumps into creative statues which include a geisha, pelicans and herons. They speak of how beauty can follow nature’s worst devastations. They speak of a ‘down but not out’ kind of indomitable spirit that I readily salute.
It took us three hours to get from Galveston to the airport. As we bid farewell to Houston we prayed for rain for this severely drought-stricken city. Then back to Seattle, so cool so green with rain always on the forecast.
We reached home just in time to host YK’s brother, David, who dropped by while on business trip. He wanted to exercise so we took him to Rattlesnake Trail for a hike. It was easier than Little Si but a one and half hour climb to an elevation of 480km (1576m) is still a workout. With his wife as benchmark, David did not think I could complete the hike. Every hike is a test of endurance for me but PTL, with his strength I did.
We ended a busy month with a big bang. A heavy jolt woke us rudely one dawn. We stumbled out thinking maybe it was an earthquake or a fallen tree but it was an explosion big enough to register on the earthquake sensor. A gas leak had leveled a house as well as shattering windows and blowing out roofs in some buildings nearby. We were jittery but grateful to be well and safe.
