Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Places: Let's meet




I just spent two weeks in Houston, and I took my camera (surprise!). The next few posts will be some photos I took.




If you look out the window on the 10th floor of the Hilton-Americas, this is what you see:


On the right is the George R. Brown Convention Center. If you look straight ahead, you will see Minute Maid Park, home of the Major League Baseball Houston Astros. (All photos are high resolution, so if you click, you can see a larger image.)


There is a park located in front of the convention center which you can see part of in the image above. The park is one of the "places" we'll go in the next few days.


I'm guessing that the red things represent oil. It's hard to define Texas without thinking oil.


After Hurricane Katrina, 7000 displaced persons stayed here.


The convention center opened in 1987 at a cost of $104 million. In 2001, they decided to expand it and include a hotel. It took 27 months at a cost of another $165 million. They do things big in Texas -- just sayin'.


You can find out more about this magnificent facility if you click here.


If you're a serious baseball fan, you know about Minute Maid Park, shown above. The stadium has a retractable roof. As you probably can guess, Houston has hot and humid summers.


I wanted to take a tour, but the stadium was closed. Baseball season starts soon -- I just missed it.


It's said that the railroad created Houston. They pay homage to this as you can see above. This is a replica of an 1860 coal-fed locomotive and is a fan favorite.



You can read about some of the "facts and figures" of the ballpark if you click here.



I thought these giant baseballs (above) were rather cool, and couldn't resist shooting them.

If you look to the left, you can see the baseballs from a distance.

The next place we are going to visit is the park that you saw in one of the photos above. Stay tuned.

5 comments:

  1. If that's where they're holding NABCs this year, it looks like a MUCH nicer site than where they were a few years back.

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  2. @Paul: Thanks!

    @Warren: The tournament was held in the Hilton-Americas. I'll have a photo or two of it later.

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  3. they should paint some flames on the side of those red pipes. i mean if you're gonna go that far, may as well go all the way.

    they look pretty obtrusive to me. Not sure if they're functional or not. but if not, those were a bad idea IMO.

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  4. They're for looks. Texas pipelines and all that.

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