Adventure Time in Texas!

Over Spring Break, I went on a tourism trip to Texas for four days. Weather forecast was fantastic, 88F sunny, scattered showers and no hurricanes. The day before our departure, a dozen tornadoes flew over the Dallas area. This did little to stop us intrepid adventurers.

We made the first stop at George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston. The next morning, I visited the Johnson Space Center and got myself a souvenir cup, printed “It’s not rocket science….oh wait, it is.” The center is arguably the biggest attraction of the city, and well worth visiting, especially because tickets can be bought online at a 50% discount. In the afternoon, we drove to Kemah, a seashore resort town with an exquisite tropical theme. Lunch was held at the Aquarium, an aquatic themed restaurant with turquoise gradients, a seafood menu and a large fish tank at the center. Although memorably colorful, Kemah ran out of attractions after a few hours, and we drove back to Houston. Houston is a huge, sprawling concrete complex, with 6-lane highways stretching miles and miles. A few blocks away from the animated central districts and touristic attractions, the heart of the city is a forlorn sight: bleak office buildings, rickety shops, construction cones and abandoned concrete lots. The restaurants that appeared on our GPS were mostly gone, and so we had to speed back to Holiday Inn and ordered at a noisy Mexican bistro. Houston appeared to me a decaying giant, suffocating under its own size.

With Texan rock radio stations blasting, we drove the next morning to San Antonio. Fist pit stop was the Mission San Jose, one of the largest preserved missions in Texas. Today it is a church and a tourist attraction.

Lunch at the Casa Rio was both cheap and rewarding. The legendary Mexican restaurant didn’t disappoint and we headed with stomachs full to the Alamo, a dilapidated, crowded fort. Next stop was Market Square, the prime tourist trap of San Antonio. I couldn’t resist buying a number of miscellaneous items, including a riding crop, a slingshot, a shot glass, black clay statuettes and a very flashy straw sombrero. We then took a narrated water tour around the city in the evening, before returning to the Casa Rio for refreshments. By that time, the riverwalks and restaurants were packed full of humanity. The image was much cozier and heartier than Houston’s night scene.

The following morning, we bid farewell to San Antonio and headed for the state capital, Austin. By mid-morning, we arrived to the state capitol, where there were disappointingly few attractions, fewer people and very lengthy red lights. We took a car trip through the University of Texas at Austin before bailing for Johnson City, the hometown of Lyndon B. Johnson. On the plane back, a Texan traveler told me that Austin was his favorite city; it seemed to me for the few hours I was there that it was quite the mundane, monotonous place. Back to Johnson City, honestly more of a settlement than a city, we drove to the blue bonnet circle for the wildflower season. All we could see and photograph were scattered patches of bonnets and hostile, fenced ranches. Disappointed, we drove on towards Dallas.

My mother met her high school classmate after more than 20 years. The only place I had the time to visit was the Arboretum, an expensive attraction that is in my humble opinion inferior to the Botanical Garden of Montreal. After lunch, we proceeded to drive the four hours back to the airport.

Overall, I enjoyed this trip and I saw much of Texas during this short passing. Lessons: Pack one set of clothes per day, one jacket and one extra shirt; bring a book and your music player of choice on the plane; don’t rely on your GPS to find gas or food and don’t make nuclear weapon jokes in front of a TSA official. Yes, I did that. It was late, I was tired and my self-restraint was out the window, but letting something that could have gotten us into serious trouble slip out was simply idiotic.