Tag: Houston

Virtual Travel – Texas

Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

Texas!

2015 09 22 35 Amarillo TX

 

Texas is a big state with a great variety of places for photography, therefore this is a LONG posting.

 

 

 

 

Texas Culture

1952     1958     1991     2007     2009     2011     2012     2016

 

 

Austin – State Capital

2009 08 27 63 Austin

 

The Texas State Capitol dates from 1885. The land it is on was acquired in a barter deal, 3 million acres of Texas Panhandle for this land!

Texas shows it’s Tex-Mex history in the state foods…

State Pastries – two – Strudel & Sopiapilla

Apple strudel     

 

State Small Mammal – Armadillo

 

 

 

The city of Austin is proud of it’s motto – Keep Austin Weird.

With the music scene, including a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the Congress Street bats it is a great place to be.

 

 

 

Prairies

1949     1969     1972     2013     2014

 

Roads & Bridges

1954     1964     1974     1975     1977     1978    1983     1987

 

I have more Texas Official Highway Maps than any other state. So many this section has combined the Prairies with the Highways which is appropriate because it features Amarillo and Route 66

 

Amarillo

You are half way there – IF you are going from Chicago to Los Angeles, or vice versa.

 

 

The legendary Cadillac Ranch. For more than 40 years people have been spray painting these cars. The good folks of Amarillo liked the planted Cadillacs they have expanded (in different parts of town) to VW Beetles and Combines.

 

 

Mountains

1953     1959     1970     1993     2017

 

 

Terlingua  – The ‘ghost town’ of Terlingua is a former mining town, but is not vacant, as it is a destination for tourist from Big Bend National Park.

Once a year they hold the world’s largest chili cook-off.

 

 

Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. These two parks cover much of the Rio Grande Valley of West Texas. Their natural scenery is stunning.

A plus is being able to take a row boat across the river to Mexico for lunch in Bouillas.

 

 

Marathon – Gage Hotel   We had the good fortune of spending the night in this crossroads town on the way to Big Bend. The Gage Hotel is a historic property that attracts people just for the atmosphere and food.

 

 

Langtry – Made famous by Judge Roy Bean and his Law West of the Pecos, and even more famous when Paul Newman starred in a movie of the same name. The town is pretty much vacant, but the area is scenic.

Nearby is Seminole Canyon State Historic Park. This park holds significant cave art.

 

 

 

Cities & Beaches

1961     1968     2015     2019

 

 

San Antonio. While the city is large, it has a feel very different than Houston or Dallas. The downtown is much more compact, with a significant amount of Art Deco architecture.

 

 

Missions – There are five missions in San Antonio, and four of those are maintained by the National Park Service (the 5th is the Alamo). Mission San Jose is the most impressive architecturally.  Our day in San Antonio included a visit to Mission Concepcion.

 

Alamo – The most famous mission in the state, and likely the country, it is not known for it’s service as the Mission San Antonio de Valero, but more so it’s use as a fort in the Mexican independence effort when a group of Texas soldiers died defending it.

 

 

Houston – The city is the 4th largest city in the country, with 2.3 million people in the city. It is the 5th largest metro area (by some calculations) with 7 million people.

The city has more buildings over 150m (492′) than any city in the United States other than New York, Chicago and Miami.

There are still a few historic buildings downtown, but many have been destroyed over the years as they went taller and newer.

 

 

Houston Art – One of the great finds in our travels was the very cool, quirky art of Houston. From top to bottom. Giant Presidential Heads – Sanctioned Graffiti – Beer Can House – Luck Land – Smithers Park.

 

 

Parks and Rec  Houston also provided some unique ‘park’ experiences – from going under the Buffalo Bayou Park to see the Cistern, to the Botanical Gardens, and finally inside for some baseball.

 

 

Galveston     Another pleasant surprise was Galveston. It seemed like 3 cities in one – the typical seaside resort with amusement rides and motels, a great state park natural area, and finally the historic area on the bay side.

 

 

Dallas – Fort Worth    While Houston gained lots of photos on this posting I have actually been to Dallas far more, just some time ago and without a camera.

Dallas is corporate, Fort Worth is cowboy (I know – stereotypes, but it seems to fit).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Milestone – Posting Number 1000

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

This photography blog started out as a way to share some photos with friends, but after a number of years it has reached a milestone – posting number 1000!

To celebrate I give you my favorite 40 photos of all time. (I tried to make it less but could not)

Scottsbluff, Nebraska




Milwaukee sunrise




Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan





Duluth, Minnesota thunderstorm





Yellowstone National Park – All Hail the Geyser Gods





Pagosa Springs, Colorado





Mendocino County, California





Cambridge, Ohio lumberjack contest






Cincinnati Renaissance Festival






Loudonville, Ohio – Native American Pow Wow





Alaska Peninsula








Columbus – Krampus





Chicago





New York City subway art





Cincinnati – Rosie the Riveter Contest





Lanai, Hawaii – Cat Sanctuary





Haleakala National Park, Hawaii





Waimea Canyon Park, Kauai, Hawaii





Columbus – Krampus V2





Washington DC – Embassy Day





Houston – Lucky Land





Amarillo, Texas – Cadillac Ranch





Cleveland – Parade the Circle





Columbus Zoo









Montreal




Olivos, Argentina





San Antonio De Areco, Argentina





Buenos Aires – Casa Rosada





Bariloche, Argentina





Buenos Aires – Retiro Train Station





Buenos Aires – Recoleta Cemetery





Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina





La Leona, Argentina





El Calafate, Argentina





Buenos Aires – Palacio Barolo





Igauzu Falls, Argentina







Favorites of 2019

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

A great year of sights – these are my favorite 30 photos of 2019, with brief explanations why they are my favorites.

Chicago – Willis (Sears) Tower. The perspective of people out of their elements.





Washington – The former Capital Columns in the Arboretum. The morning lighting with the wildflowers and contrast of the columns.





Washington – Embassy Open House Day – and a young lady’s perfect timing next to their logo.





Near Frankfurt, Kentucky – I have a thing about old, seemingly abandoned buildings. This however had been reclaimed and re-used for it’s original purpose – bourbon storage and aging.





New Orleans – Mardis Gras World. It was like stepping into some psychedelic movie.





Avery Island, Louisiana – The symmetry of the rice fields with another old building.





Houston – The home of quirky art. This is from Lucky Land, a very cool place.





Houston quirky art part 2 – Giant President Heads.





San Antonio mission. Symmetry and historic architecture.





Amarillo, Texas – Cadillac Ranch, but after a storm where they appeared to be in a pond.





Columbus Zoo and a zoom lens. The statement in the face and amazing beauty of the animals.









Montreal – Ferris Wheel in Old Montreal – Perfect timing and lighting (just lucky on the timing).





Marietta, Ohio – Sternwheeler festival.





Chicago – Open House and another fantastic ceiling/light.





Buenos Aires – obviously the extended period spent in Argentina has opened a new world of photo possibilities. Recoleta Cemetery is the most popular tourist spot in the city, and I had the good fortune of some young lady there for (I suspect) a photo shoot when she ran by the row I was in, turned and posed for me! Who doesn’t want a photo of a young lady running through a cemetery with a knife.




Recoleta Cemetery provides so many great shots – the cob webs are natural, not staged.




The tomb of San Martin.





The La Boca neighborhood is known as a working class neighborhood in love with their team – La Boca juniors. The old car symbolizes the working class neighborhood and it was parked in front of the soccer practice fields with their bright colors on the walls.






Chacarita Cemetery is not as famous as Recoleta, but still a very stunning place.





The sunrises and sunsets can be amazing.









An hour drive out of town to San Antonio de Areco, and their gaucho festival was the event of the year. 4000 people and horses dressed for the occasion.





The Jacaranda trees are fantastic in bloom.






On a walking tour of street art the passer by’s sometimes fit the theme.






The Casa Rosada. A great courtyard and a bemused guard.










Hockey in Argentina – bring that soccer passion inside and combine it with hockey.





Finally – Bariloche, a beautiful mountain and lakes region.





Houston – May 2019 – Random Views

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

We had a great couple of days in Houston, coming away with a great feel for the city. This posting is to cover the random sights that don’t fit anywhere else, like the featured image above from the Sam Houston Park Village with a little church in the middle of the skyscrapers downtown.

Even though I had been in Houston briefly a couple of times previously I had never seen the Astrodome. The world’s first indoor baseball and football stadium when it was completed in the early 1960s, it still stands unused.




The Wateralls across from the Williams Tower is 64′ high, 1 foot for each floor of the nearby skyscraper.




The ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ is located on the campus of Rice University. I had read that this was a cool thing to see, but when we got there in the middle of the afternoon I couldn’t understand why. It turns out you must be there at sunset or sunrise – maybe next time.




Houston is notorious for their traffic, with over 6 million people in the area and very little public transportation. They do however have a streetcar that covers a few miles in the center of the city.




As well as crossing a man made pond in the middle of Main Street.




Discover Park has an interesting pinwheel display with a device that when you blow into it just right, kicks off fans that make all the pinwheels spin.




Buffalo Bayou Park is a nice urban park space complete with a skateboard park.



The highlight of the park though was our tour of the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern. Once used for retaining water for the city, it is now a cool space to explore on a guided tour.




The city has numerous examples of public art.









I have often wondered who has the concrete contracts for road construction in Texas as they build ramps that seem far longer than needed, and never pile up dirt to make the overpasses shorter.




In the theme of ‘Everything is Bigger in Texas’ – As we left the city and reached the suburb of Katy, Texas we made a stop at a Buc-ee’s. A Texas based chain, Buc-ee’s are massive – this one has over 60 gas pumps (the photo is only showing about 1/2 of them)!



The highlight though was the World’s Longest Car Wash (according to the Guiness World Records) – the 255′ long one at Buc-ee’s easily cleaned off 2,000 miles of dirt and grime. Now it is off for San Antonio!

Houston – May 2019 – McGovern Centennial Gardens

Architecture, Art, Nature

Just south of downtown Houston is Hermann Park, and the McGovern Centennial Gardens. It is a small, well thought out space with flowers, plants and statues.














The statues featured great Latin American leaders, as well as (strangely) Scottish poet Robert Burns!












Houston – May 2019 – Sights at the Baseball Game

Architecture, Sports

Since the Houston Astros had a home game, and we were staying a couple of blocks away, we checked out the scene. As with most stadiums they have sold the naming rights, so they play at Minute Maid Park 🙂




The crowd was gathering outside before the gates opened.



Anytime I visit a new stadium I like to get there early and walk around to check out the sights.



The TV people were preparing for their broadcast.




As with all the stadiums built in the last 25 years, all have ‘quirky’ features. This stadium has a retractable dome (which was closed because it was 90 and humid), as well as a giant glass wall facing the downtown buildings.



The bullpens were empty.



Some basic instructions were occurring.



Marketing + Marketing = Excess.



The left field scoreboard and stands.



Finally it was time for the game and the obligatory national anthem. This group of young string instrument players were excellent.



The Phillips 66 Home Run Pump, brought to you by Phillips 66.



They have a large train along the glass wall. This train weights 60,000 pounds, and the driver actually drives (and stops) it. In researching this there is no apparent reason why there is a train there other than someone liked the idea.



The massive main scoreboard – everything you need to know about Jose Abreu.



If you can’t hit a real baseball virtual reality gives you the chance.



They have cheerleader at a baseball game…. The most excited the crowd got was for the free t shirts.




Almost forgot – there was a baseball game played.





Crowds going for, or dodging, foul balls always make good subjects.







Finally it got all too slow and we headed out.






Houston – May 2019 – It Takes A Big Head to be President

Art, History

David Adickes is a Texas born sculpture who, among other works, created large busts of American presidents for a park in Virginia. That park no longer exists, and many of the heads have made their way back to David’s studio in an industrial part of Houston in the shadow of a freeway bridge.

The overall feel of a bunch of giant presidents heads is surreal, but very cool.














































And one giant Charlie Chaplin!







Houston – May 2016 – The Graffiti Building(s)

Architecture, Art

Just southeast of downtown Houston is a collection of buildings known as the Graffiti Building. While the name is singular, the artwork is covering more than one building in the immediate area.

The topics and styles vary greatly, but most are creative and well done.


































The last three are a few blocks away, but fit the theme of this posting.










Houston – May 2019 – The Beer Can House

Architecture, Art, History

The website Roadside America is one of my favorites, and easily one of the most ‘classic Roadside America’ is the Beer Can House of Houston!

As you arrive you are greeted by a fence of (of course) beer cans.





In the late 1960s a retired upholsterer named John Milkovisch started inlaying thousands of marbles and rocks into concrete and wood to make landscaping features because as he said at the time ‘he was tired of mowing grass’.



For the next 18 years he flattened beer cans, that supposedly he and his friends emptied, and attached them to his house. Today the estimated 50,000 beer cans cover the entire house and former garage.




The early morning sun shining through the beer can top fence made an interesting pattern on the driveway.




It is owned today by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, who have the interesting exhibit next to Smithers Park.




The stringers on the front of the house sing in the wind. It is said that the beer cans actually help keep the house cooler in the hot Houston summers by reflecting the sun rays away from the house.




The Beer Can House – a Houston classic!






Houston – May 2019 – Modern Skyscrapers – Updated

Architecture

Believe it or not there is a rating system for skylines, and in most of these rating systems Houston’s comes in 4th place in the country (behind New York, Chicago and Miami). Houston’s is a bit interesting in that not all of the tallest buildings are downtown.

This posting features some of the more interesting perspectives of the modern Houston skyline. After realizing I missed the 2nd day’s photos this posting has been updated with additional photos.