March 25 - Day 9: On to Houston

As usual, Amy rose early and hit the Riverwalk trail for a run. I rose a bit later and got organized for our departure. Amy returned and we had breakfast. Then we packed our bags and walked to the Parking Garage and to take leave of San Antonio.

Leaving was really easy. Going the intended direction was  not. There are a lot of Freeways in this city and it is very easy to miss a turn, especially if you are looking at the scenery. It only cost us a few minutes taking a 4 mile u-turn to get onto the right road, I-10 East for Houston.

The drive was uneventful. That was especially sad when we got off the Interstate to experience some local color. Nothing to report; it looks like a stretch of I-whatever in any part of the country, without any hills or mountains.

We arrived in Houston before check-in time, so looked for a place to get some lunch near to Sara's B&B, our home for the next two days. We found a Diner: Lola and ordered some food and sat outside. Shade was required, as it was pushing 80 degrees, but the breeze made it pleasant. It was a good lunch. We then drove to Sara's and checked in to our room.

Sara's is lovely little place in a nice neighborhood. The room was a little small, but we had lots to do and see in Houston, so that didn't seem to be a problem. We had contacted Julia, who is a student at Rice University, earlier, and were set to meet up with her at 4:00, so we hit the road again to drive the 5 or 6 miles south.

Rice has a lovely campus. Lots of trees allow pleasant walking all around the campus.

Julia and Amy

Julia was the perfect hostess. Even though she was in the midst of a hectic weekend, she was gracious to show us around the campus. She has a wealth of knowledge about her new "home" and was eager to share. We hope she did well at her interview for an internship in DC the next day!

Art in the Courtyard of Julia's College

A  Building on the Rice Campus

We headed back to the B&B for a rest before dinner. When we got there, we discovered that the AC was not working in our room. We called Taylor, the weekend hostess, and she arrived very quickly and put us in a different room. It was much larger and a very happy fix to the problem. We settled in, then chose a restaurant for dinner: Taqueria Arandas, a mile or so away.

Dinner at the Taqueria was a hoot. The place seems to cater to the Spanish-speaking crowd. The TV's were set to Univision and some sort of Spanish-language Music Video Stream. Very entertaining. The food was very good, as well. Once again, we were both stuffed and ready to call it a night,which we did after the short drive back to Sara's.