We left on Saturday (12/19) and drove 6 hours in the rain, 4 hours of that were torrential downpours. At one point, I was on the bridge across Lake Ponchatrain in New Orleans, and there was literally more water than I had ever seen in my life (above, below, beside, on top, etc.) It was tense. I prayed my way through New Orleans! After a twelve hour drive, we made it in to Houston. I now have a definition for a BIG city: when cars are driving in places airplanes should be, you know you are in a BIG city! Oh my word! Some of these interstate bridges are literally in the sky! It freaks me out - I'll have to get used to that.
We have been looking at houses, neighborhoods, more houses, more neighborhoods!! We have had some culture shock over the price of housing here. The houses are actually quite reasonably priced (even less expensive than the same house in Bham), but the property taxes and insurance nearly double the payment!! We have had to make some adjustments. A house equivalent to the one we live in in Bham is probably about $1000 more per month here! So we are looking at smaller houses, smaller yards, smaller everything. What is most attractive about the house that is our front runner is the neighborhood and the green spaces nearby (important when you have no yard)!
The houses we are looking at are in an area of Houston called Clear Lake. We are also looking in a town called Friendswood. Don't they both sound nice? BTW, we're told that Clear Lake is the area where a lot of the NASA employees live so their kids go to school there. An "A" is considered an average score there!!! Interestingly, we met a neighbor to one of the houses we looked at today that works at NASA. He is a physicist there. Really? A physicist? Who does that for a living? He said it sounds much more glamorous than it is :) Also, it's kind of weird to think about having an astronaut for a neighbor! Wow. It is just such a different town.
We have managed to squeeze a little fun in to the trip in the evenings with the kids. We have gone to the Houston Bass Pro Shop, we've eaten at the Texas Roadhouse, went to a movie (the big kids and Robert went to Invictus and Mia and I went to Princess and the Frog or whatever it is called - we do not recommend it - voodoo, "shadow man" (Satan), and stuff like that), and on Friday we went to an area called Kemah (an outdoor boardwalk area on Galveston Bay where they have restaurants, carnival rides, beach area, etc. - see below).
The kids have done remarkably well considering how we have been spending our time. (This would have brutal with little kids!) I think having them go through this with us has helped them have some ownership and a little sense of choosing their reality here. Bottom line. There are palm trees here. Surely, it can't be all bad if you're living in area where palm trees grow! Palm trees = vacation land, right???
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