Trip to Houston, March 26-April 3, 2010

HI! Family,

I am beginning a new blog entry in the KenLinFamily as it will create a memory for me and Ken. I wish I could go back and recreate all the wonderful memories that I have not expressed in this way, but since I haven't, I will have to enjoy those memories in my head.. A blog memory is creating family history. This will still be only for family members to receive. It is not a public blog like http://www.hollingsworthrobbinsfamilytree.blogspot.com/ is.

We drove to Clear Lake City, really Houston, Texas, as Clear Lake City is a large area with their own CLISD (Clear Lake Independent School District), churches, housing additions with home associations and swimming pools, but I don't think it has its own city government. I know the police force is part of the Houston, Texas PD. Our drive takes about 5+ hours as it is almost 300 miles and we litterally drive through two busy cities, Fort Worth (I-35W) and Houston (I-45). It doesn't seem to matter when we go through those cities anymore. There are always slowdowns, no matter what time of day we go.

Friday night we attended Matthew's Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet at the CLC Presbyterian Church. Sunday we attended their CLC United Methodist Church's Palm Sunday service. Monday Kristen and Steve went to work, but Matthew had a day off due to teacher inservice in his district. We three went to the Downtown Aquarium, went through the live fish and animal exibits, rode the ferris wheel and the carousel. In the afternoon we drove to Kemah to meet our genealogy friend, Irene Ashe, for a late lunch.

Matthew is in 6-7 year old CLC baseball. He is very good. During two games he caught the ball on first to get someone out, and made several bases himself after batting. Steve is an assistant coach and Kristen brought treats for all the players at the second game.

Tuesday I went to the Houston's Clayton Genealogy Library and learned out to find out about Ken's cousins' dad's first marriage from Catholic Church records, his naturalization papers, and a newspaper article that mentions about 100+ men who joined a veteran's group after the Civil War in Anderson County, Texas. Ken went to the Hobby Aviation Museum in the old Hobby terminal.

Wednesday we drove to Galveston and I dropped Ken off at the Lone Star Aviation Museum and I went to the Texas History Center on the third floor of Galveston's Rosenberg Library. I learned more about the 50s when my family lived in Galveston and copied photographs of our church, the old San Jacinto Elementary School, the City Auditorium where we went to an elementary school art exhibit, and the Pleasure Pier where I heard the San Antonio Symphony with Victor Allesandro play Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" with a real typewriter as an instrument. The Pleasure Pier has changed over the years and has been most recently a hotel out over the Gulf that is still visibly destroyed after Hurrican Ike. I took photos of Victor Neal's home where Llew and I used to walk the nine blocks to his home down Sealy Street to 1003 from 1920. Ken and I went to lunch at Gaido's, a special place for our family in the 50s and in its 99th year of operation. They have pretty scrumptious seafood. I enjoyed fried shrmip for memories' sake and Ken had his favorite grilled scallops.

Friday all three of Kristen's family had the day off for Good Friday and we went back to Galveston. We enjoyed a paddlewheel boat ride from Moody Gardens around Offet's Bayou, toured the Moody Mansion which has an interesting history, and ate again at Gaido's. I had my favorite: grilled salmon and Ken repeated his favorite: grilled scallops.

We enjoyed being with our Houston daughter and family. We packed up Saturday morning, drove our 6+ hours with stops in Houston for Ken, and arrived home about 7 pm. Our mailbox was full, our sewer system is working fine, and we are glad to be home.

Wed