Houston Eating and Biking

Monday, April 28 Day Seven

Jack has a newspaper article with review of the best BBQ places in Houston, and this one is on the list! In fact, some consider it to be THE best!

Jerry Pizzatola personally greeted us. Turned out someone was filming for a reality TV show about best BBQ places around the country. And they hope to be included.

This plaque on the wall by the front door tells you something about the atmosphere inside!
Jerry tells us there is no pulled pork.  He tried to offer it, but everyone in Texas wants BEEF!

So we ordered a platter of ribs.  And got a complementary dish of BBQ'd chicken wings, too!

This sandwich is chopped beef, as opposed to sliced beef. Turns out chopped is what you do after slice, so there is no difference in the beef. You can get this sandwich chopped or chopped with links.

Jack ordered this sliced beef plate.  Do we have enough food yet?

And you always get white bread in the south, along with butter.

Jerry himself posed with our waitress.   This is the oldest continuously serving barbecue restaurant in the city. The place was started by a black man and his wife in the 1930's with African American customers.  White customers had to come to the back door!   After the original owners passed away and left it to their daughter, Jerry Pizzitola bought it in the 1980's and changed the name from Shepherd Drive Bar-B-Q to Pizzitolas.

This is Mrs. Pizzitola, Kate, and her granddaughter Ashley helping the photographer wrap up his equipment.   Great place!  And amazing how many ways there are to spell BBQ! 

And then on to the real business of the day.  Jack and John found this bicycle shop where John is going to show Jack the bike he thinks he would like.

The outside is deceptive!  When we stepped in, the place was huge, and packed with bikes. 

Once the owner strapped a helmet on Jack, we figured he was "hooked."  Frank Zappa's picture
on the wall says it all!

The owner/salesman explaining to Susan, John and Jack about the intricacies of the bike,

 a Specialized TriCross.

After a test ride, Jack's expression says, "Sold!"

After the purchase, Jack and Susan drove us to see a couple of houses in the West End neighborhood.  The Zany House  and the Beer Can House, below.

After that big lunch,we opted for Chinese food for dinner.  We probably could have skipped this meal altogether, but it was good!

And besides, we needed the fortune cookies, and the fortunes inside..  We only got three cookies, but
the fortunes were prophetic!

Houston in the Sunshine

Sunday, April 28 Day 6

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day!  Here are two pictures in comparison to last night!





The rooster doesn't look like a drowned chicken today!

Jack made breakfast.  It was wonderful and I hope I don't have to tell you I ate the whole thing!

After looking warily at the weather reports, and still disbelieving that today could be so beautiful after last night's experience, we decide to follow our original plans; a boat ride across Trinity Bay, the northeastern portion of Galveston Bay.

As we leave the house, the remnants of the storm are manifested in huge gouges in people's lawns and the parkways where people drove their cars out of the street and onto higher ground as they stalled out.


The trip to the bay isn't pretty.  It is along the Houston ship channel, and filled with oil refineries and storage facilities.

Jack and Susan keep their boat at the Houston Yacht Club.  This is a relatively new boat for them, having sold a trawler, the Lady Jane, about three years ago.  One hurricane too many convinced them to opt for something smaller and trailerable. This new boat is a Robalo 22.5 ft. dual console outboard motor boat.

Michael does sailboat racing, and a few years ago, they owned a J-22 boat called Popsicle, in which he won a few trophies.

Here's Jack getting the boat ready.

As we leave the basin, it's hard to believe the water can look this calm after last night.  Although the radar screen shows some stronger weather patterns later in the day, it looks like we will have a smooth ride.

We are headed to Anahuac, where Susan and Jack's son-in-law's family lives.  They have a "home place", newly built, on property that has been in the family since Stephen F. Austin gave them a land grant with permission from the Spanish.  This was in 1821-24  They are among the proud Texas Old Three Hundred families.  It is such a wonderful heritage, and although the land has been divided among the generations, Bert and Frank Smeal have a wonderful partnership with her brother and retain ownership in land, and also lease land for cattle grazing.  Their property was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ike in September of 2008.  Water washed over this low lying area, and demolished many cherished building on their property.  Some they have rebuilt, and others are just memories.

We were last there when Roy and Kathryn (our niece) got married.  The house used for the wedding reception belongs to Bert's brother Carroll.  Now the Smeals' have a new house close by.

The ride across the Bay took about an hour.  No rough weather and we were surprised by a bottlenose dolphin breaching the water close by!

We had called Bert and Frank, who were waiting for us at the dock.  We had taken a quick detour up Double Bayou before stopping at the Hurricane Cafe, where we were meeting to have lunch!  But not before we took a quick trip up Double Bayou.

Bert talking to John and Susan on the dock.

The Hurricane Cafe 

After a lunch of fried oysters, okra, soft shell crabs, boiled shrimp, red rice and beans, fried pickles, cream cheese stuffed japapenos, and a few rounds of beer, we were ready to drive up to the home place for a tour. 

The house was magnificent.  They have only been there since last fall, but it has already entertained numerous family occasions, including holidays and a wedding, and it is just what they dreamed of.  Every room was carefully and lovingly thought out, and filled with wonderful family antiques,  furniture and mementos.  

Here's Bert showing us her music room.  She was privileged to have a music teacher who trained at Juilliard, and she plays for her own pleasure now.  

Susan, Bert at the organ, Jack, Michael and Divya. 

As we leave this wonderful setting and people, we take a moment to pose for  a family picture by the side of this wonderful home.

Jack Byrne, Bert Smeal, Susan Byrne, John Blake, Frank Smeal, Divya Byrne and Michael Byrne. 

As we head back out the bayou, and into the open waters of the bay, the weather is still looking great, and we speed back to the yacht club. 

The three captains.  Did I really hear we were going at 24 knots? 

Divya pointing out the ship cranes near the club. 

We follow Michael and Divya to their home in the Montrose section of Houston.   Here we are, all admiring the front of the house, and their vegetable garden.

We had a tour of their beautiful home, saw Michael's handiwork in the paintings that adorn every room, and admired the car he is preparing for an upcoming Houston event called the Art Car Parade, on May 11.  Michael paints, develops games, records music and does beautiful photography.  You can view his work on his website: http://www.spongeaamp.com. 

 We enjoyed a wonderful Mexican meal that waited for us from the previous night.  Divya served a ppular Indian dessert called Gulab Jamun.  It was a great evening and we feel so lucky that our family is growing with spouses we adore! 

Home to bed!  

Austin to Round Top to Houston

Saturday, April 26  Day Five

Up and out of the Lucky Too, and none too soon!  We are headed to a town called Round Top, a small, lovely art community where John's sister Susan has had two quilts on display at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery.  It saves her a trip, and we are happy to see this part of the country, off the freeways.  It reminded me of Waterford, Va. where we spent many a wonderful day.

These are some of the outer historical buildings in the town.  I didn't have time to do it justice.

This is a beautiful rural area and we get our first glimpse of the famous Texas Longhorns!

And here are Susan's quilts!

Mother and Child

Nest

Susan has had several juried quilt pieces and is developing a style of her own.  She has a Bernina sewing machine, which is computerized, and way beyond anything I could imagine in terms of stitches, memory, capability.  She has a room in her house set up as a quilt room where she works on several projects at a time.  

John and I were still looking for some Texas BBQ, but Round Top's favorite restaurant, Royers, as our luck has been running, was full, and there was a wait list.  There was a sign saying, "if you're in a hurry, go to Houston."  It is famous for its pies, but little good it did us, as we trudged on down the road, and ended up making lunch in the camper at a gas station.

We arrive in Houston at Susan's.  Thank heaven for Google maps,  because we wouldn't have found Susan's house so easily.  Time to decompress a little.  We have plans to go to Susan and Jack Byrne's son's house for dinner.   Our nephew Michael and Divya got married last year in March, and spent their honeymoon coming to Chris's wedding at Semiahmoo.  They bought a house one week after they were married, which we are anxious to see,  and they made a special Mexican dinner for tonight.

As the afternoon wore on, the clouds started gathering, and by five o'clock the skies opened up.  Rain came down in torrents, and thunder and lightening was so loud, it hurt your eyes and ears!  We watched out the window as the water came pouring off the roof, and the water in the pool started to rise.

No, my hand wasn't shaking - that's how it looked!

Susan donned this "grim reaper" outfit and went out to turn on the pump to lower the water level in the pool.

We were all happy to watch her from the dryness of the living room!

The fake cobra they have in the hot tub area (to ward off birds) was jumping and leaping around in the water like it had just swallowed something a little too large.

And Jack Byrne pulled up the NOAA weather site to indicate the water levels in the Braeswood Bayou about six blocks from their house.  Note that this is at five pm.  In the meantime, Michael is checking weather sites on his computer and keeping us informed of the weather patterns.  It keeps showing heavier rain patterns going right over us. Jack is looking at the same thing.

After several telephone calls, we decide to take a chance on getting to their house. This is what the street already looked like as we pulled away! What are we thinking?

Are we really thinking we can get through?  Cars are stalling out in front of us.  Idiots are driving fast going in the other direction, throwing rooster tails of water our way and creating waves.   A guy is out in the middle of the street, up past his knees in water,  telling us to go back.

After turning down numerous streets, each one worse than the last, and seeing way too many cars abandoned, and sitting on "high ground" on median strips or in people front yards, we make our way back to the house.  

Still, we are unwilling to just give up.  Jack and Susan keep going to the front door to see if the water was going down.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  A check of NOAA once again...

The water level had gone from 22.78 feet at 5 pm to 36.15 feet at 5:45 pm!

At long last, we threw in the towel, so to speak, and called Michael to tell him we just weren't going to chance it.  Susan put together some wonderful flat bread sandwiches and we ate a late dinner before going to bed, still hearing thunder and seeing flashes of lightening!

Our anticipation of a relaxed, peaceful evening with family on our first night in Houston had turned into quite an adventure!

(Later reports indicated that we had gotten about 8 inches of rain in our area.  The airport received

 1/4 "!)