El Paso, Texas
January 8, 2003
TEXAS!! We had dinner in a Cajun-style border town of Orange, Texas along the border of Lousiana. That was the first introduction into Texas, and everything in that restaurant was BIG! Flor bought BBQ Crab.. which she received about 8-9 very large monster-size crabs. She was in seafood heaven!! Filipinas love seafood! Plus she could eat with her hands which is also tradional Filipina-style. She loved it. For me, it was most interesting looking around at the Texans, they were a different breed, kind of big and Texan-like, and the girls and guys had their wranglers and large belt buckles. Even though it was a Cajun-style restaurant, the personnel were nothing Lousiana-like at all, it was pure 100% Texas.
From there, we went on south to Galveston, Texas. A very nice town!! The most interesting part were MANY MANY houses were built high up.. having stilts giving about 10 feet of leeway underneath in case of coastal floodings. It was also nice to be near a beach again after so long. From Galveston we went on into Houston and the Houston Space Museum. By the way, unless you are actually deeply interested in Space stuff, I wouldn't take any special trip there. It was extremely overpriced for what it offered. We expected something interesting, but nothing. Mostly it was all gift shops and a few toy rides, video games, and weighing yourself to see what you'd weigh in other planets. Even worse, you had to pay to do alot of this stuff too!! So there was about $20 to get in, and then another $4 to do anything in there, like if you wanted a simulated space shuttle ride. What a waste of time. We did take one tour which brought us to a couple different workplace sites. It was kind of okay, but not really. Basically we were extremely overcharged to go into a big tourist joint that wanted to sell more junk and trinkets and video games.
After the Space Museum, we quickly checked out Houston which was okay. Nothing too great, and then onward to Austin, Texas, which I'd heard incredible things about!! I was hoping and expecting to hear live music pouring out onto the streets and a lively air. It wasn't. But then again, it was a weekday night, a Tuesday I believe, so perhaps thats the reason. I'd read many times it was one of the best towns to live in, but in my mind, it didn't come close to comparing to Portland Oregon, Seattle, San Diego, San Antonio, etc.. it was alot better than most of the USA, but I'd say maybe around 10th or 15th on the list. Thats better than most, but not really a top contender and most magazines seem to want to put it. All in all, it was alright though. I did enjoy overhearing a very tough Texan in a restaurant boasting about Austin and this and that and the other thing. He had a pretty authoritive voice. Interesting anyhow. I did read in the newspaper how about 15 hogs fell out of a truck or something and were run over on a major highway. That was interesting!
After Houston came San Antonio. A very nice town!!! One of the best I'd been in. That should be a top contender for best town in the USA to live.. it had way more to offer than Austin. San Antonio had this amazing Riverwalk that followed the river running through town, which shops and bars and restaurants, all down below and under the traffic. It was amazing, plus the Alamo tourist stuff and just a nice convenient downtown about perfect size for walking around. It was significantly more lively and much more beautiful than Austin.
After San Antinio, came a very long ride across Western Texas all the way to El Paso. That was another kind of cool town. I didn't expect El Paso to be so interesting. It had a nice compact downtown for what I thought was going to be a very dirty crazy little border town. It actually resembled a small city, and very Mexican-connected too, which added to the charm. It was a little dirty and dusty, but nothing at all to what I imagined. I didn't imagine the small corporate downtown structures that I did find.
Anyhow, of the four cities we saw, I liked San Antinio the best, then El Paso, with Austin 3rd and Houston 4th. For whatever reason, I just couldn't find the action of Houston, it was kind of downtown corporate-ville, I'm sure there are lively neighborhoods with things happening somewhere, but I just couldn't seem to find those spots.
San Diego!!:
January 11, 2003
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