Houston Trip - Residence Inn Houston - West University

For these two and a half weeks we are staying in the Residence Inn Houston - West University. We have a one bedroom suite that has a full kitchen (minus an oven) which allows us to cook a lot of our meals and save money and not get sick of always going out.

The pool area has become a favorite of mine.  I spend several hours out there each day.

The breakfast is very good with things that I can actually eat that are within my restrictive diet, which is a nice change.

Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings they have a Mix event with beer, wine, and food.  Our first night here it was grilled checking, rice, and salad.  Another night it was top your own baked potatoes.  This again saves us money.

Lizards are plentiful around the grounds and pool area.  A family of pigeons has made a home in the pool area.

The hotel is walking distance from many restaurants, several grocery stores, Walgreens, CVS, etc. and is only 15-20 minutes from my husband's office downtown.  The free parking attracted us to the hotel in the first place.  It allows us to cheaply drive here and then each day, I drive my husband and his co-workers to and from work.  The location is very convenient.

Houston Trip - Buffalo Bayou Park - Houston, TX

I have gotten in the habit of walking at Buffalo Bayou Park just outside downtown after dropping off my husband and his co-workers at work each morning.  It is a beautiful park with miles of pathways along a river and a fair amount of wildlife.  I have seen great egrets, great blue herons, black-crowned night herons, turtles, ducks, bats, and various other birds.

It attracts runners and walkers and their dogs and I am already noticing a fair number of regulars.  There is a natural playground that makes me wish I were a kid again, an impressive skatepark under construction, many places to rent bikes, and many locations to put a canoe or kayak in the water.  Here are some photos:

Houston Police Officer Memorial

Adult Black-crowned night heron

Juvenile Black-crowned night heron

Here is Waugh Bridge where over 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats live during the day and emerge at sunset.  The second picture is looking straight up into one of the crevices of the bridge.  If you look closely you can see the heads of bats sticking out.

Here is the Barbara Fish Daniel Nature Play Area and the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark:

The building below have air conditioned restrooms and the top level provide a shady place to sit and admire the skyscrapers of Houston.  I sat here for quite a while the day we arrived while my husband spent a couple of hours in the office setting up the classroom for their first day teaching.