Tag: history

What Did I Miss?

Houston is a massive city, and I’m sure I didn’t get to see even half of what I could’ve seen, but I made my best effort, starting with the donuts. I tried multiple bakeries around Houston and enjoyed donuts and kolaches from as many as I could. It was delicious because…

While I was eating donuts and Chicken Salad Chick, I also toured the Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston and heard an hour and a half of tour guide commentary on the history of Houston. I was the only person on the tour, so I’m not entirely sure why it lasted as long as it did, but I learned a lot, forgot it, and donated some cat food to feed the large assortment of feral cats in the park.

The homes were beautiful, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside, so you get a picture of cats, the history behind a recreation of a TX general store, and some beautiful trees on the property. There was also a beautiful and informative exhibit about the Karankawa people. They rotate the exhibit, but the employees create each of them after extensive research.

We had tea at two different spots. The first one was in the northern suburbs near Spring – the Hummingbird Tea Room. It was a lovely tea service.

I enjoyed their take on the traditional cucumber open-faced sandwich with strips of cucumber on top of cream cheese. They also had a lovely English garden outside of the shop.

We took the tea bus around downtown Houston. It was a different experience but fun! Then we visited the downtown Houston library, which was confusing but expansive. They had this beautiful mosiac outside the library, so we grabbed a picture.

I also had a chance to drive out to the Johnson Space Center. This is where I learned that I really don’t care that much about space or learning more about it. I don’t know if it was just the mood I was in that day or what, but I was not interested or impressed. It really made me wonder if I have lost the wonder and amazement of a child when they think about space.

Don’t worry. My lack of enthusiasm did not prevent me from taking some pictures.

See? Rockets.

Can you believe that this t-shirt ^ was on clearance?? Can you believe that I didn’t buy it?

Next up – fabulous food in Houston and a side trip to Galveston. Stay tuned.

More Time in IL

It’s the end of daylight savings today, so I thought I better use my extra hour to post some more blog goodness. We left off after my first week / weekend in Illinois.

One of the lovely parts of downtown Springfield is the ease at which one can find parking. It’s possibly because it’s an unpopular place to be, but it worked out great for me. On Friday night, I went to a community band concert that was hosted at the Lincoln Museum. It was a great concert and had a pretty good crowd.

My favorite was A House Divided by Brian Balmages and conducted by Harry Hill, who was recovering from a health issue, and this was his first concert back. The description read: This piece was inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s famous House Divided speech, which was delivered in Illinois’s statehouse, now called the Old State Capitol, on June 16, 1858. It invokes the dark and fractured feelings during the Civil War by using broken and twisted fragments of the song “America (My Country Tis of Thee)” before resolving into the hopeful melody in the final measures.

While I was not great at playing the trombone in middle or high school, I did enjoy being a drum major and have always loved band music since then. Hopefully, Mr. Lorensburg and Mr. Fuller are proud of the lifelong band-music lover I ended up being.

After the concert, I treated myself to a twist cone at Dairy Queen.

On Sunday, I had to move to our spot at the Double J campground, which was lovely. We had a great pull-through spot that was close to the bathrooms, which were a delight compared to the bathrooms at the fairground. I also ran some errands for groceries and other essentials, sent postcards and Father’s Day texts, and drove around to look at houses.

Arthur enjoyed a cuddle once we got to our new spot.

I made the most of the week after Father’s Day weekend. Tuesday night I did some laundry at New Generation Laundry, which was in the nearby town of Chatham. It was clean, quiet, and not very expensive – all great.

Wednesday was a day off for me because it was Juneteenth. The first time I celebrated Juneteenth was when I moved to Maryland. That first summer, a co-worker invited me out to a celebration. Because I grew up in MN, and, at that time, it was not a federal holiday, I was completely ignorant to the meaning and importance of this holiday. If you don’t know much about it, read more here: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth.

In the morning, I had a massage at Spavia in Springfield, which is a great massage chain. If you live near one, check out their monthly membership deal. I had a pedicure after at Westside Nails, which was a lovely nail salon owned by a couple from California. They were very helpful to speak with about the pros and cons of living in Springfield. Afterwards, I wanted something to eat and happened upon a tea room – Village Tea Room – in the same complex as the nail salon. I love getting tea.

I chose the lunch trio with the Caesar Salad, chicken salad sandwich, and the chocolate cake. I had a delicious herbal tea, but I have no idea which one it was – likely some berry tea.

It definitely turned into a self-care day, which I followed up with a hair appointment at Uptown Looks salon in downtown Springfield. It was odd that parking was so hard to find when I went to the appointment, but I soon figured out why. There was a fire about three blocks away from my appointment. 🍫🍫🍫🍫 The fire department had it under control by the time I got downtown, but – unfortunately – it did damage a few buildings.

The hair salon experience was the best I’ve had on my journey so far. The stylist was experienced, knowledgeable, and also the mayor of the small town she lives in. The salon was in a building that used to be the general store, which had some lovely woodwork accompanied by some beautiful sculptures that my stylist’s son had created.

In the evening, there was another event at the Lincoln Museum. The Nature of Freedom: A Literary Commemoration of Juneteenth was an impressive production in two parts. The first part was a performance of Small Beginnings followed by the reading excerpts by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Maya Angelou, Robert Smalls, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Henry Bibb. It was very moving and well done.

One of the things that I really appreciate about Springfield is how much the community and the museum create events for the public.