Even more travelblogging: Houston again
Yep, so right after my last post, I got a couple hours of sleep and headed off to Houston, for the second time. Our first trip out there, we went to an airline that lives basically on the airport campus. This time, we went to a larger carrier that has its own facilities downtown. That meant getting away from the airport a bit more, staying in the Galleria area instead of just hiding in the airport. So that was cool.
Per usual, I’ve got some pics from around Houston up in the gallery. It was good times. I think the coolest thing about this trip was probably that there’s this pretty unique motif for the streets, which centers around stainless steel and sort of futuristic-looking decorations. So like, in part of the city, all of the light posts are mirror-polished stainless steel, all of the street signs are suspended mirror-polished rings, etc. It’s pretty neat.
For food, we hit one place in the Galleria mall itself: a Japanese Fusion restaurant called Kona Grill. I had a chicken dish, which was like ideally cooked and just ridiculously delicious. Coworkers had slightly different dishes, but generally the same reaction: that place makes a pretty respectable dinner. As a bonus, we had a waitress named Pepper, who was like ridiculously cute, but I think stretched a little thin on the tables she was covering.
We also hit a place a block or two down called Maggie Rita’s. Predictably, they’re a mexican/tex-mex place. We all got fajitas, and they were great… but I can’t think of a time I’ve had bad fajitas. Tortillas were a bit inconsistent though … I think you probably get better tortillas at places like Guapo’s around here or Pappasito’s in Texas. Still, I was satisfied.
JW Marriott hotels have kind of a weird room layout compared to a normal Marriott, I learned. I’m not sure how I felt about it, but it wasn’t bad. Probably a bit better on the bedroom area privacy (couldn’t hear hall-goers and no beds on shared walls), but overall I didn’t care too much, since I was there to sleep.
Not too much eventful to report about the flights. Flew American Airlines, MD Super-80’s all four hops (IAD->DFW->IAH, back the same route). I’m not a fan of the super-80 or the md80/md88 setup in general, but the flights were at least on-time and largely annoyance-free. Three of the four had in-flight wireless, but it was like $14, so I didn’t partake. Per usual, got back right in time to catch the peak hour or so of Friday evening rush hour, which wasn’t a great time. I finished reading Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers on the flight there. Thought it was stellar, but I don’t really feel like writing a book review, so … yeah, it’s good, and definitely recommended!
Anyway, that’s it for that…