Sam, my friend from Durango who now lives in Houston, was in town for the 4th of July weekend. We went to the Galleria near downtown, because everyone said it was something that I had to see. It is a retail/business district that also encompasses a hotel. I had been to a similar mall in downtown Chicago over ten years ago, so it was interesting to see that style of development again. The mall itself is massive, I could barely figure out the mall directory maps to find the stores I was looking for because there were so many levels and sections. They even have two different macy's in the same mall at the Galleria, how crazy is that?! All I really wanted was a good coffee shop after I finished getting the few things I came there for, but of course that was a hard find amongst the massive amounts of chain stores.
Niels had wanted to show me this cafe in Rice Village called Croissant Brioche where they apparently have the best pastries, but we had run out of time. Fortunately for technology, Sam was able to look up directions to get from the Galleria to the cafe and within fifteen minutes we arrived in this awesome neighborhood of shops and boutiques. Such a stark difference from the mall and way more of my style. Since I was sent there to eat pastries, I did just that. Sam and I ordered three different pastries between the two of us, as well as lattes. We ordered a brioche, since it was the name of the cafe, a fruit tart with custard filling, and a chocolate croissant. It took us a good hour of great conversation to work our way through about 2/3 of each of our pastries as well as finish off our coffees. The pastries were absolutely delicious and the fruit tart was certainly the best I have ever had! What a perfect way to deal with the rain!
On our way back to Sam and his girlfriend's condo, we stopped by Niels' house to make sure it hadn't gotten flooded with the ridiculous amount of water that had accumulated over the day. Luckily, the main flooding took place several blocks away and everything was fine. We headed on our way up to their condo to feed and walk his dog and catch up more over some tea. It was so nice to finally get a chance to just sit and talk to Sam for hours, because since we both left for college, our visits are normally limited to an hour here or there before we would have to rush back to our lives in our college towns. We called it a night fairly early and he took me back down to Niels' house. He is my oldest close friend and I treasure my friendship with him so much!
On Saturday, Niels convinced me to venture out on my own in the city. I was terrified at first, because driving in Houston seemed completely terrifying. Stella, his car, has navigation which helped ease my fear of getting lost in the city. One of the places that he and his family told me that I had to go to was Spec's, an enormous liquor and specialty store. I started my adventure at Catalina, my favorite little local coffee shop, with a nice latte and a half hour of reading. I'm getting really crazy on this trip, can't you tell?! After the coffee, I plugged in the address for Spec's into Stella's navigation and was on my way. Soon I realized she decided to take me through downtown Houston. I thought I was going to die for sure, but thankfully their downtown is pretty quiet on weekends and it wasn't scary at all. Shortly I arrived at the superstore of food and wine and couldn't believe my eyes. They had every kind of meat, cheese, and cooking ingredient that you could ever need. Even their salt selection was two huge metal shelving units wide and contained everything from mineral salt to vanilla infused salt. Who knew that even existed? I sure didn't! The food selection was incredible, but nothing compared to their wine selection. It certainly rivaled Liquor Mart, our local alcohol superstore in Boulder. It was an incredibly neat store to visit and admire all of the variety of possible ingredients you could cook with!
Saturday night Sam invited me and some of his friends from work over for drinks and games. As this type of gathering normally goes, we just all crowded into the kitchen and talked instead of ever starting a game. It was a interesting group of people to say the least. His friends Erin and Kevin having been dating for about 6 months, both very sweet people. Erin is a good old country girl from Montana and is quite proud of her heritage. Kevin on the other hand was born in India and moved to the states when he was in elementary school. The other couple, Amid and Silki, were both born and raised in Houston, but their grandparents moved here from Pakistan. They both were totally content with staying in Houston for the rest of their lives and couldn't even imagine the idea of living in a small town like where Sam, Erin, and I grew up. The idea of camping was something that neither of them had any interest in and didn't plan to ever participate in such a weird activity. Kevin had gone camping with his family when he was growing up and actually enjoyed it enough to think it would be an important activity to continue. His family had always taken ski trips to Breckenridge in the winters and he definitely had grown an appreciation for small town life. It was such a diverse crowd and the conversations that blossomed that evening were interesting to say the least.
Sunday I ventured back to downtown to check out a different food superstore called Central Market. I think of it as a Sam's Club sized Whole Foods. Every type of fruit and vegetable that you could imagine, tons of fresh meats, and everything else you could want. They had lots of bulk food and even a alcohol section that carried Ska and Avery beer all the way from Colorado! I grabbed some delicious looking organic raspberries and Icelandic yoghurt that was similar to Greek yoghurt to eat for a quick, cool lunch. Outside they have a nice patio with live music every weekend, so I was able to eat right there and listen to the sounds of a local band! It was such a fun place to kill an hour! I found myself back at the Galleria after that to go to Nordstrom, a store which I can somehow never get enough of. Strangely enough considering the heat, I ended up buying a featherweight cashmere wrap. The sales associate was a sweet girl from Houston who is going to graduate in a May with a Marketing degree. She wanted to hear all about my trip and what made me compelled to take it, because she said she would never be brave enough to do something like it. I tried to convince her that I was that same girl up until I got the itch to travel a bit and live life a little more. I love having conversations which complete strangers that aren't all that different from the ones you have with your close friends!
That night I ran to the store to pick up the ingredients to bake some chocolate chip cookies, because I was starting to really miss cooking and baking. Up until that point I had really only cooked two meals besides a few breakfasts in the week and a half that I had been traveling. Niels' roommates who had moved out the week before had all of the baking stuff, so I had to buy some tin cookie sheets and all of the ingredients. Of course, the one thing I didn't think of at the store was a mixing bowl, which he didn't have anymore either. I ended up using his wok, which worked surprisingly well. The cookies turned out great, if I don't say so myself, and just as I finished pulling them out of the oven, I heard the familiar booms from fireworks. I went out onto his porch and was able to see two firework displays that were neat. Watching fireworks alone in a city that was foreign to me was definitely an interesting experience.
Monday morning I got packed up and ready to fly out to my next destination, Nashville!!!
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