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20th Jan - We left New Orleans and travelled 7 hours to our next stop and state, Houston in Texas.By the time we arrived it was time for a bite to eat and then to bed and so we headed to a place called the Kemah Boardwalk which is a boardwalk containing restaurants and an amusement park and is really very pretty.We had a lovely Mexican meal and headed back to the hotel.
21st - Kirsty had an appointment for teeth whitening today.After many jokes about coming out looking like Simon Cowell we made our way into the centre of Houston to the Britesmile Spa.The cost for teeth whitening here is $399.00 (about £200.00) as opposed to £600.00 she was quoted in the U.K.The treatment consisted of having an object a bit like a gum shield placed in your mouth which held your lips out of the way of the U.V. light which could burn them.A gel is then placed on your gums to stop them from burning too and then a paste is placed on your teeth and you have to bite down on a stick.The U.V. light is then turned on and placed directly in front of your mouth and they turn all the other lights off and you are left there for an hour!They come every 20 minutes to take the old paste off your teeth and replace it with new paste.It's not painful (although some people's teeth can be sensitive to the U.V. light) but its uncomfortable having your mouth held open for an hour while you have to bit down.They take before and after pictures and I was really pleased with the results - I had gone up 7 shades to the lightest you can get without having custom made veneers.The rest of the day was spent with me asking Ralph how good my teeth looked!The main problem with the treatment is that for 24 hours after you can only eat and drink things that are either white or clear and so the list is very limited.It basically consisted of water, milk, clear lemonade, chicken breast with no skin, natural yogurt, white bread and bananas.Ralph therefore very kindly went and got lots of fried chicken and then took all the skin off for me so I could at least have that to eat (you have no chance of getting chicken which has not been fried around here!).
22nd - We headed to the San Jacinto Monument which is a monument to the Anglo-American residents of Texas who managed to wrestle the area from Mexico and create the Texan republic.It looks like the Washington Monument but it had the Texas Star on top and is taller than the Washington one (as soon as Ralph saw the giant functional concrete tower with a huge star on top he said that any visiting Russians must have thought the revolution had arrived!) We took the elevator up to the observation deck for views over Texas, including the massive Petroleum industries that keep this state as one of the richest in America.We also took a look at Battleship Texas which is also in the same area, was built in 1912 and was used in both World Wars.We then headed into Houston to see the Beer Can House, a house covered in beer cans! It took the owner 19 years to do and is certainly a sight (I reckon Ralph could have done it in a year but there you go).The City has now purchased the house as a modern art installation and its currently being worked on to provide new lighting etc. so that they can eventually offer tours.We headed back to the hotel and took a walk back to the Kemah Boardwalk which has turned out to be a real find.Unfortunately the rain started to pour as soon as we arrived but we were lucky enough just to have time to head into Starbucks just as the heavy stuff started.We waited until it dried up and then Kirsty went on the Boardwalk Bullet, a wooden rollercoaster which goes 59 mph and, because its made of wood and therefore rattles and shakes, feels much faster.A member of staff at the hotel recommended a good Indian restaurant and, as there are not many Indian restaurants in the areas of the U.S. we have visited so far, we went there and had a lovely meal (although their peshwari naan is not sweet and has pistachios in it!!). This is our last night in the Kemah area of Houston and it's a shame we didn't see it in the sunshine much because it is absolutely gorgeous with its lighthouses and Amusement Park on the edge of Galveston Bay and pastel shingle houses along the water's edge. Well worth a stop if you're in the area.
23rd - Today was a trip to the Johnson Space Center which is about as big, in terms of a tourist attraction, as the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Although they don't launch or land spacecraft here, they do do all the training and mission control. We bought the Level 9 tour for $80 each which gives you access to the space centre (which is similar to Kennedy in that they have shuttle simulators, mock spacecraft and moonrocks to look at), but an additional 'behind the scenes tour', and I have to say that it is well worth spending the extra as you get to see the vast Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory - where astronauts train in a huge swimming pool for upcoming missions; the mission control rooms for the International Space Station, Shuttlemissions and the old Apollo control room; the mission specific training hangar - which has full size mock-ups of the shuttle, the International Space Station and parts of NASA's next generation spacecraft; and finally the vast vacuumchamber, the size of a power station chimney, where they check the integrity of spacesuits and machinery before launching them. In my opinion - and I've seen a lot of space museums… just ask Kirsty! - this was by far the best. You get to watch mission controllers as they oversee actual flights and watch astronauts training for their upcoming missions. This place really gives you an impression of the humungous effort that goes into a space programme. We also met a guy on the tour who was originally from Leeds but visiting his brother at the University of Texas in Austin (our next stop), but was in Houston for the next few days. He asked for a lift back to Houston from the space centre, which we were happy to do but insisted that he had to have his photo taken for our blog! Luckily he didn't think we were murderers or rapists and, before dropping him off, he told us to head for South Congress Street in Austin for the unusual shops, bars and restaurants. The traffic in Houston was typically like the M25 and after finally getting out of the city we headed straight for Austin, the state capital, about 3 hours drive away.
24th - The first thing we wanted to see in Austin was the State Capitol building and, in the usual Texas fashion, it was very flash. It is made of pink granite and stands taller that the Capitol in Washington DC, but given that Texas was a country in its own right, after fighting for independence from Mexico in 1836, its hardly surprising that Texans have a strong identity. We took the free tour of the building and its Senate and House of Representatives chambers, and we hope the pictures we took do it justice because it really is a work of art inside and out. Our tour guide was great fun, really enthusiastic about the place and with her thick African accent she took twice as long to say everything and was difficult to understand at first - a bit like Texans really! Next in Austin was the Texas State History Museum which is a very thorough and modern museum to get the history of the place from its early days of belonging to France and Spain; its revolution and independence from Mexico; its becoming part of the United States; to its status as one of the wealthiest and advanced states in the Union after the discovery of oil. If you're ever in Austin we would recommend this place to go to to get a real flavour of Texas in just a couple of hours - we commented on the way out that we usually go to state museums just as we're about to leave the state and so its good that we still have plenty of Texas to see now that we understand its history and culture, so we should 'get it' a bit more. We made our way to South Congress Street (across the river). Austin is a lot like DC as it is a modern business and government centre, but it is still a really nice place - but very quiet. South Congress Street (which is on the road that runs south of the city centre and has a great view of the Capitol building about two miles away) is quite different as it has boutiques and quirky little shops rather than office blocks and it reminded me of SOHO or Greenwich in Manhattan. We were too early to catch the live bands playing there but had some lovely and cheap pizza in a quirky bistro that had people queuing to get into by 7pm and headed back to the hotel. We planned on heading back into Austin later that evening to watch some bands but after 'doing emails and stuff' we were asleep by 10.30 and slept for 12 hours!
25th - Today is another travel day. We made our way to Fort Worth a city 30 miles from Dallas. On the way we passed signs for familiar places like Waco, where the Branch Davidian cult were under siege before torching themselves in the early 90s.We arrived in Fort Worth and headed straight for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo ticket office.We had wanted to try to get tickets for tomorrow night (Saturday) but they are all sold out and therefore we have got some tickets for Sunday (27th).The tickets for the rodeo entitle you to free entrance to the Stock Show.Ralph fancies taking a look at the cows and bulls (his days working for MAFF coming back to haunt us!) and I fancied looking at the rabbits so it looks like we will be heading there on Sunday.We arrived at the hotel and Ralph found a great looking Texas steak restaurant (typically, because of the size of this state, it was about 30 miles away) so we headed there and had true Texas steak (Ralph's steak was even called "Cowboy Steak").We then ran a few errands and went to bed early again - all this travelling is really taking it out of us!
26th - We headed to Dallas, about 30 miles north east of Fort Worth, and straight to the downtown area, the site where John F Kennedy was assassinated on 22nd November 1963.A white "X" marks each spot where the shots fired at the President made contact, the second fatally.We stood on the grassy knoll (Kirsty was actually stood on it for a few minutes without realising what she was stood on!) from where you can see where the President was shot, the window of the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the shots and is also the site that the famous cine-footage was filmed.There were loads of conspiracy theorists talking to any tourists there who would listen to them as well as selling newspapers and books they have written on the subject.We headed for the book depository where the famous sixth floor has been made into a museum.The museum is great value and covers everything from Kennedy's campaigning to be made a senator to the legacy he has left behind, with second by second detail of the assassination and the conspiracy theories which have accompanied the assassination since the very beginning.We spent about three hours there before heading across the way to a spaghetti house, where we had a wonderful meal of three courses (chicken noodle and meatball soup with fresh bread, spaghetti and meatballs and then chocolate brownie) for a price of $10.99 (about £5.50).We took a walk to the JFK memorial, which is a strange object.It's best described as a concrete box with no roof which you are able to walk inside and has been made like this to represent the freedom of JFK's spirit.It's one of the stranger memorials we have seen whilst on our trip, and we were not sure it was the best memorial to someone so important to Americans, but you can decide that for yourself from the photographs.We truly loved Dallas and felt at home and totally safe there.It is a beautiful open plan city and looks totally amazing lit up at night, a real sight to see.We headed over to Fair Park which was created for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition and is full of art deco concrete architecture and museums.After a quick look around we headed back to Fort Worth and parked up at the Stockyards.This area was once the trading area for anyone with cows, bulls etc. but is now more of a tourist destination full of cowboy this and that, western merchandise etc.After a quick look in a pawn shop (if you want to see true rednecks, call in at any pawn shop, especially on an evening) we look a look around the Stockyard area.Ralph bought a cowboy hat ready for the stock show tomorrow and I bought a harmonica which I now have to learn to play!The Stockyards at night are a lively place with western bars and restaurants vying for attention from all the people heading to the rodeo held there every Friday and Saturday night.
27th - We headed to the Stock Show which is held in January and part of February and is a true spectacle.It consists of sales of prize winning cows, bulls, bull semen etc, shows to decide the prizewinning animals, petting zoos, milking parlours, a massive funfair, the rodeo coliseum, equine shows and much more.It's a huge event and so we headed straight for the arena which was hosting the sale of some bulls and phials of bull semen.It was a fast and furious affair and one of the strange things we found was that they didn't actually show any of the animals that were being sold.We can only assume that if you were interested in purchasing any of the animals you had to look around the massive cattle area and pick the ones you were interested in and then listen out for it being announced at the auction, although the speed of the auctioneer made it difficult to understand anything that was going on!We then took a look around the cow and bull pens which held hundreds of these animals and was what we would imagine behind the scenes at Crufts must be like.Hundreds of owners were blow drying, primping, shaving etc. their animals - total devotion!We bought lunch (Cowboy Burritos which were gorgeous - shredded steak, sliced potatoes and spices wrapped in a flour tortilla) and then watched part of the show deciding the championship cows which was really interesting before heading to the milking parlour to see how cows are milked in these modern times to supply the amount of milk required every day by the U.S.After leaving there, we got to see the baby animals, including miniature donkeys, piglets, ducklings, chicks etc., which were totally cute, and, as a result, the area was packed out.We then headed out of the Stock Show and back to the Stockyards, about 4 miles away, to watch the daily cattle drive.Although it's a great thing to see its hard to get an impression of what it must have actually been like when this area was in its heyday, as they now only herd about 8 of the famous Texas Longhorn Steers as opposed to the many hundred that used to pass through Fort Worth.We took a small break back at the hotel before heading back to see the Rodeo - what a treat!!This is true cowboy stuff and Texas through and through.The rodeo and stock shows need to be protected to protect Texas and its unique identity.It started with a prayer which ended "God Bless America, and God Bless Texas" and then the now familiar national anthem where EVERYONE stands, removes their caps/cowboy hats, places their right hand over their hearts and sing.We are used to this now at any event we go to, but it's just something you would not get in Britain.The rodeo was totally fantastic.It consisted of loads of events such as bull riding, bareback bronc riding (they have to hold on to a bucking horse which has no saddle), tie down roping (where they release a calf and the cowboy has to ride behind it on a horse, lasso it around its horns then jump off the horse, wrestle it to the ground and tie it up) and, our favourite, calf scramble (where kids have to chase calves and wrestle them to the ground.The thing is they are not really strong enough to hold the calf's down so when they do get hold of one they slip through their hands like butter!).Finally we saw the famous Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey.Yes, it's true!They have a monkey dressed in full cowboy outfit (including hat and chaps) riding a sheepdog (seriously), herding goats into a pen.Totally unbelievable!The events that you watch here, such as the bull riding etc. all seem like great entertainment, but we found out that you can take home anything upto £1,000,000.00 if you win one of the 8 or so events, and the same events played out in Las Vegas have prizes of $5 million dollars.We are now considering buying a bucking bull!We would have to recommend anyone who gets chance to go to a rodeo to go and experience this true slice of American life.
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