I timed my visit to Reliant Park so that I could check out the animals inside and still be able to roam the fairgrounds outside—at prime magic light time—before I had to go meet my friends for dinner.
I also brought out the fisheye again.
Texas
Welcome (Back) To Texas: Rodeo!
I graduated from college in 2008 (geez…). That year, and in 2009, I went back to Texas and to Houston for New Year’s Eve—because during both of those years, I had a team playing in the Texas Bowl. And I went to Texas during my spring breaks while in grad school.
But this year, I didn’t have a reason to go to the Texas Bowl…and a couple of my friends instead came to visit me in New England, which meant I didn’t make my usual New Year’s trip. So I hadn’t been to Houston in a year (this was, frankly, way too long).
Usually when I go to Houston I’m trying to pack a ton of visits and events into a couple of days, and some stuff inevitably gets left out. This year I didn’t want that to happen, and I made my stay much longer than it usually is. Which left me time to go to the rodeo (well, the livestock show part of the rodeo. but still!)!
(30) Island Life
This is my last 30-Day post! I had to extend the project due to a couple days of not taking photos, and truly belated postings of images I did take on the scheduled days…so the overall series ends ten days after it was supposed to. Oh well. I’m actually glad it ends this way, because I get to include some of my spring break photos. It’s also a plus because next week I’ll be in the Missourian offices all day editing photos and working on my thesis (of course), so I probably wouldn’t have a chance to make as many pictures.
I’d definitely do one of these projects again- especially now that I have my very own 50mm 1.4 lens! I love it so much; before I bought it last week the only two lenses I had were the kit lens that came with my Rebel XT, and a 70-300mm 4.5. I’m still getting used to the upgrade.
Anyway, here are a couple of South Padre photos to send everybody at Mizzou off on their own spring breaks!
(29) Beach Samurai
I’m spending the rest of my week off on South Padre Island with some friends from college, which has thus far been pretty awesome. Our rental condo is right on the beach, so we’ve been spending a lot of time down by the water. I took this photo a couple days ago (March 21), but hadn’t gone back over the memory card until now, so I forgot it was even on there.
We think this should be on the poster of a Tarantino movie.
(28b) Beer Bike: Can't Rain On Our Parade
Photos taken March 20.
The rest will be up on Facebook or Flickr sometime tomorrow (I hope).
******************
Puppies playing while their owners watch the water balloon parade from the safety of the sidelines.
Dudes in capes running to catch up with their college’s trucks
Rice students: balancing work and play since 1912
Alums watching the parade/staying out of the rain
Jones College as viewed from the steps of Keck Hall
FIGHT. (That’s not rain splashing in the background)
It’s important to come prepared to these kinds of things
Ammunition, please!
Enjoying a brief calm in the (literal and figurative) storm
Right after the parade had finished and everybody had run out of water balloons, it started raining again. Ugh.
On days when it’s not cold and rainy, the main event of Beer Bike are (surprise!) bike relay races around our outdoor cycling track. The teams have twenty members–ten bikers and ten chuggers. A chugger has to drink 12 (for girls) or 24 (for guys) ounces of water as fast as they can; after they finish, a biker immediately starts on a set number of laps. Once the laps are completed, the next chugger goes, and so on and so forth. Some colleges train for months for Beer Bike, and it’s pretty disappointing when the races get postponed.
They did hold the alumni race this year, because alums tend to come back to Rice specifically for Beer Bike and it would be hard to postpone this particular event. The alumni had to do a Beer Run instead of biking, which, sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of because I was busy being freezing and wet in the alumni tent (also, I didn’t want to get my camera gear soaked…). I did take this one after they had finished the Beer Run and just before I left the track area.
At least we got the water balloon fight in!
RICE FIGHT NEVER DIE.
(28a) Beer Bike, pre-parade
Photos taken on March 20.
*************
Rice University + hundreds of thousands of water balloons + hundreds of college kids + early morning wakeup calls + pouring rain = 2010 Beer Bike parade.
Balloons loaded in the trucks pre-parade
Alumni reunions
Brown College getting ready for the parade…right before it starts to rain
Brown moves out in spite of the rain
Remnants
(27) Eat Your Heart Out, Krispy Kreme
Still catching up with 30-photos/30-days. These were taken (very early in the morning) on March 19.
**************
A couple of weeks ago, when I was talking to Alex about my upcoming trip to Houston, he mentioned a plan to stay up extremely late one night and then go eat Shipley’s Do-Nuts at five in the morning, when the donut place first opens. I thought he was kidding.
But I should know better than to doubt my old roommate, and, sure enough, on my first night in Houston I found myself staying up way past my bedtime, cramming into a car with five other people, and driving down Kirby to wait around in the parking lot of Shipley’s, because we’d gotten there ten minutes before opening.*
I tried to shoot this as a modified five-points-of-view assignment, just for practice. I’d edit the series way down if I were actually turning it in, but I’m okay with all ten of these pictures being up on on the blog.** That’s what blogs are for, right?
*It should be noted that the freshly-baked hot-off-the-press donuts were well worth the absurd effort we went through to get them.
**More pictures (i.e. the non-candid ones) will be on Facebook eventually. I’m slow about posting things.
I-Skate in H-Town
At first, ice skating in Texas makes no sense at all. It’s not cold there (most of the time). It doesn’t snow (often). The Rio Grande doesn’t freeze over.
But technology is a wonderful thing, and, speaking as a person who learned how to ice skate in Naples, Florida, I am usually more amused than weirded out by ice rinks in Southern climes. Also, I love skating in general, so the more places I can strap on my hockey skates (never, ever figure skates–fallout from growing up with a lifelong goalie for a dad), the better.
My baby Canon Rebel doesn’t do well shooting at high shutter speeds in low light, so these will have to do for now:
I love the little kiddie rink they’d set up
The very crowded (note to self: don’t go skating on a Saturday night…) big-people rink. If only I had a picture of the Zamboni…
Northeast by Southwest
Maine
Texas
(vignetting is in-camera)
Fattest City in America
I never truly realize how much I miss Houston until I get there. I haven’t managed to stay away from the city for more than 9 months since 2004, when I started my freshman year at Rice. I didn’t really have any feelings in particular about Houston when I first got there–it was just ‘that place where Rice was’–but have since decided that it’s a very underrated city. Sad. If nothing else, it should be better known for its food, which I would argue is on par with the cuisine in New York, San Francisco and Chicago–and those places don’t have the Texas barbecue, which I hear is also pretty good (I can only speak from the vegetarian side of things).
I had two mental checklists when I was in Houston over winter break- one of people I wanted to see, and one of places where I wanted to eat. I am pleased to say that I only missed seeing a couple of people (those darn med students)- and that I made it to all of the necessary restaurants.
We start with Taco Cabana:
…which is very good for fueling up before shooting a bowl game. Also, get lots of extra pico de gallo. That’s key.
This wasn’t restaurant food, but my friend Niki makes a mean 8-layer bean dip, and her boyfriend makes a mean Screwdriver:
Killer New Year’s Eve combo.
Niki is also a supremely talented baker:
On the dessert note, I made a special point to go to Swirll, the frozen yogurt place in the Village. They’ve ramped up the selection there in the past year, so it’s way more fancy than it used to be. As far as I’m concerned, though, you can’t go wrong with plain tart yogurt and lots of toppings:
This is about a third of the topping selection.
Now. I have lost track of the number of times I’ve been to Niko Niko’s (for Greek food) and Mai’s (for Vietnamese food). Mai’s was the first restaurant I ate at in Houston, and I made it a point to bring everybody who ever visited me at college to the late-night place of awesome. Niko Niko’s is just plain tasty.
Falafel plate. Dr. Atkins would cry at the sight of the pita + mountain of rice.
Vermicelli bowl (spring rolls in the background). I ate the whole thing. Yup.
Mai’s, unfortunately, doesn’t have bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) on their menu, but that’s really no biggie- the good sammich place is right across the street and down a few blocks.
This picture doesn’t do banh mi justice at all, but I’m including it anyway.There’s also marinated tofu on the sandwich; the bread has been coated in olive oil and baked to a crispy goodness.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures at Patu (otherwise known as The Place With The Best Pad Thai in the Whole World Exclusive of Thailand). I guess I’ll probably have to go back sometime…